History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c82.757
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c82.757
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v6.c82.757.1
Now some other literary evidence about the dates of which there are likely to be doubts and disputes would be set out. In the Vaikhānasa-smārta-sūtra (I 4) and Baudhāyanadharmasūtra (II. 5. 23) *tarpana* (satiation with water) is offered to the Sun, the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn and to Rāhu and Ketu and the former mentions Budhavāra (Wednesday) in II 12. It has to be conceded that other sūtras such as Āśv gr III. 4. 1-5, the Kauṣītaki gr (IV. 9-10), the Hir. gr. II. 19-20, Bhāradvāja gr. III. 9-11 contain no tarpana to the weekdays or their deities. The Ātharvaṇa-Vedāṅga Jyotiṣa has a section on weekdays (of eight verses) and points out what should be done on each of the seven weekdays from Sunday to Saturday (two of which are quoted below by way of sample¹⁰⁷³). The Gāthāsaptaśatī of Hāla (a *prākṛt* anthology) mentions Tuesday and Viṣṭi (III. 61). The Yājñavalkya-smṛti (I. 296) enumerates the planets in the modern weekday order from Sunday to Saturday and adds Rāhu and Ketu as *grahas* and provides for a sacrifice to nine grahas (I 295-308). The Nāradapurāṇa (I. 51. 80) also does the same. The Matsya (chap. 93. 7 ff) provides for a more elaborate sacrifice to planets. The Viṣṇudharmasūtra (78 1-7) refers to śrāddhas performed on the seven weekdays from Sunday to Saturday and the benefits derived from such performance (vide H of Dh vol IV. p 373-374 for details). The Purāṇas contain numerous references to the weekdays.
v6.c82.757.2
The Nāradīya provides that Monday¹⁰⁷⁴, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are auspicious for all rites and actions, while the other weekdays yield the desired result only in cruel or violent actions. The Matsya provides that all weekdays except Sunday and Tuesday are auspicious (253. 7). The Kūrmapurāṇa (Uttarārdha 20. 16-17) provides that śrāddhas on weekdays from Sunday to Saturday respectively yield the benefits of health, happiness (or prosperity), success, all desires, desired learning, wealth and long life. The Viṣṇudharmottara (I. 142. 30-32) has similar provisions. The Brahmapurāṇa (118. 30) recommends touching an aśvattha tree on Saturday. The Vāmana (14. 49-50) forbids certain actions on weekdays (such as an oil bath on Sunday or Tuesday). The Matsya specifically refers to Sunday (in chap. 55. 4, 65. 5, 70. 46), to Monday (in 57. 4), to Tuesday (in 72. 27, 193. 8). Though the chronology of all the above works is somewhat uncertain, yet it cannot be gainsaid that at least in the first two centuries of the Christian era planets had become objects of worship and the weekdays had been named and their order as it exists today had been settled. The Mahābhārata, in spite of its vast extent and copious descriptions of Dharmaśāstra matters, is entirely silent about the names of weekdays.
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The cumulative effect of all the evidence adduced above is to render it extremely probable, if not certain, that the worship of the planets and knowledge of the weekdays presided over by them was known to the Indians at least between 100 B. C. to 100 A. D. One further circumstance is that the names of weekdays in India are purely Sanskrit and there is hardly any reference to a weekday in Sanskrit works under any Greek or other non-Indian name, while in the case of the signs of the zodiac frequent use is made of such foreign words as *kriyā* or *leya*. Fotheringham (in explanations in Nautical Almanac for 1935 at p. 769) states that the mean temporal hour with the length that it had at equinoxes is first found in Hipparchus (140 B. C.), that Ptolemy in the Tables in the Almagest reckoned the day from mean noon of Alexandria and divided the day into sixty equal parts each of which was divided sexagesimally and that Ptolemy in his manual Tables divides the whole day into equinoctial hours reckoned from noon in Alexandria and subdivided these sexagesimally. This shows that two systems of dividing the day into 60 parts and also into 24 parts were accepted by Ptolemy himself (who wrote only about 150 A D ). Therefore, Indians could very well have used very early the 60 divisions system for finding out the order of the weekdays instead of 24 divisions system. The Indians did not calculate their day from noon or night but from the morning.
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The Aśvamedhika-parva¹⁰⁷⁵ expressly says that the day comes first and then night.