History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c82.761.1

v6.c82.761.1

It is possible to advance several theories about the origin of the seven day week in India. The five planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) were especially regarded by the ancient Babylonians as the powers controlling the destinies of men and therefore five leading Babylonian divinities were identified with the above five planets In course of transmission Babylonian names of divinities assumed Roman forms i. e Ishtar, goddess of love, became Venus, the great god Marduk became Jupiter and so on (vide note 748 above) The five planets together with the Sun and the Moon made a group of seven heavenly bodies In Chaldean temple worship which spread to Syria, it became the custom to sing the praises of each god on a particular day. The name of the god worshipped on a particular day was transferred to the day itself. The days which were sacred to the Sun and the Moon were called Sunday and Monday. Some Norse words like Wednesday (Woden's day) and Thursday (Thor's day) were introduced in England But weekdays in Europe are ultimately derived from the Babylonian gods. It has already been shown (pp 598-600 above) that India and Babylonia had close commercial and other contacts from very ancient times. Vide the recent work on 'Hittites' by O. R.