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History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c38.s3: Time

History of Technology in India, Vol. I: From Antiquity to c. 1200 A.D. v1.c38.s3

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English

Time

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The ancients realized on the basis of a clearly agreed experience that there is a unique serial order of events (i.e. one dimensional). This was the foundation of a trustworthy system for the dating of events by the use of calendars, dynasties the primitive sundial and water clock. This notion of time is somewhat different from what it is to theoretical Physics or it is to thermodynamics or to evolutionary sciences such as biology. The early notion of time is mostly connected with the natural phenomenon of day and night. The concept of past, present and future has added an additional difficulty of another dimension into it. I am always in my ‘present’ and can experience no other parts of time which is ‘past’ or ‘future’. Only the ‘present’ is real and has the character of a knife-edge which separates non-existant past from a non-existant future. We will first compile sources on the natural phenomenon of time and then analyse its attribute and impact from different perspectives.

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Primary Sources : The Ṛgveda (2.28.8) mentions three ordinary divisions of time, namely, present, past and future. Time is identified with the Sun and the Viṣṇu and is also divided into divisions like muhūrtas, days, half months, months, seasons, solstices, year, yuga, kalpa, mahākalpa and so on. The whole forms a circle which like a wheel is constantly moving. The word muhūrta appears in the Ṛgveda. The muhūrta as part of a day first appears in the Brāhmaṇas. The Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa (3.10.1. 1-3, 10..9.7) gives the name of each muhūrta. The Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa (12.3.2.5) gives further subdivision of year into muhūrtas as follows: 1 year = 10800 muhūrtas;

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1 muhūrta = 15 kṣipras;1 kṣipra = 15 etarhis;1 etarhi = 15 idānis 1 idānis = 15 prāṇas (breathings) etc.

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The Vedāṅga Jyotiṣa gives the smaller units of day the muhūrta, vaidika, kāla, ādaka, kuḍava and pala. The time of these units was measured by water clocks. The units are: 1 day = 30 muhūrtas, 1 muhūrta = 2 nāḍis, 1 nāḍikā = 10 kalās.

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Sphujidhvaja in his Yavanajātaka (3rd century A.D.) has taken 1 nāḍikā = 10 kalās to avoid fraction or followed Suśruta (Shukla, 1989, p.213).

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The Jainas and Buddhists used large numbers for measurments of space and time. The Lalitavistāra usèd as big as 1053. The Jaina used the number 10140 (asaṃkhya), measurement of time as pūrvī where one pūrvī = 756 x 10¹¹ years and one śirṣa-prahelikā = (84 x 10⁵)²⁸ pūrvīs. The introductions of such large numbers led to the conception of infinity which is not very precise from practical point of view.

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The Atharva Jyotiṣa gives the subdivision of day i.e. ahorātra (day and night together) as muhūrta, truṭi, kalā, lava, former being 30 times of the latter.

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Kauṭilya gives (Shamasastry, 1956, p.118-119), 1 day (day & night) = 30 muhūrtas, 1 muhūrta = 2 nālikā, 1 nālikā = 40 kalās, 1 kalā = 30 kāṣṭhās, 1 kāṣṭhā = 5 nimeṣa, 1 nimeṣa = 2 lavas and 1 lava = 2 truṭis. From days and nights, Kauṭilya goes upto month, ṛtu (season), ayana (solstices), samvatsara (year), and yuga. Udayana’s Kiraṇāvalī and Śrīdhara’s Nyayakandalī give: 1 day (24 hours) = 30 muhūrtas, 1 muhūrta = 30 kāṣṭhās, 1 kāṣṭhā = 18 nimeṣas, 1 nimeṣa = 2 lavas, 1 lava = 2 kṣanas. This makes 1 kṣana = 2/45 seconds, if 1 day is taken as 24 hours, which was possibly determined from diurnal rotation of the earth.

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Āryabhaṭa I (b.496 A.D.) gives:

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1 year = 12 months, 1 month = 30 days, 1 day = 60 nāḍis or nāḍikās), 1 nāḍi = 60 viṇāḍis, 1 sidereal viṇāḍi = 60 long syllables or 6 prāṇas (respirations) (Āryabhaṭīya Tr. Shukla, 1976, p.86). The Sūryasiddhānta (i.11) gives the same table.

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In the Smṛtis as also in the Sūryasiddhānta, the time division are 1 kalpa = 14 manus, 1 manu = 71 yugas and 1 yuga = 4320000 years. A small period preceding and following each Manu called twilight has also been conceived to make one kalpa equivalent to 1000 yugas. A portion is earmarked for the creation of the world, so that world-order starts, plants occupy the same place. Āryabhaṭa I (p. 496 A.D.) does not believe in the theory of creation and annihilation of the world. For him, the time is a continous process, without begining and end (anādi and ananta). The begining of yuga and kalpa, according to him, having nothing to do with terrestrial occurance, they are accordingly based on astronomical phenomena. Āryabhaṭa I rejected the highly artificial time division with the following : 1 kalpa = 14 manus; 1 manu = 72 yugas; 1 yuga = 4320000 years. One yuga was again divided into 4 small yugas viz. kṛta (17,28000 years). Tretā (12,96000 years) Dvāpara (8,64000 years), and Kali (4,32000 years). So the Sūryasiddhānta and Āryabhata I believe that the current Kaliyuga began on Friday 18, 3102 B.C.

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The Gaṇitasārasamgraha (i. 32-35) of Mahāvīra gives a time division of year as ayana, ṛtu, māsa, pakṣa, dina, the same value as others. Further down he gives:

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1 dina = 30 muhūrtas; 1 muhūrta = 2 ghaṭis; 1 ghaṭi = 38 lavas; 1 lava = 7 stokas, 1 stoka = 7 ucchvāsas; 1 ucchvāsa = saṅkhyāta avali; 1 avali = asaṃkhyāta samaya.

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The Vaṭesvarasiddhānta (i. 8-9) gives same for kalpa, yuga, year, month and day. From day to truṭi, the months are as follows: 1 day = 60 ghaṭikās (24 hours); 1 ghaṭikā = 60 palas (24 minutes); 1 sidered pala (vinadi, vighaṭikā or casaka) = 6 asus, 1 asu (respiration) = 2¹/₂ kāṣṭhas = 4 seconds; 1 kāṣṭhā = 4 long syllabus; 1 long syllabus = 4¹/₂ nimeṣas (twinkling of an eye);

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1 nimeṣa = 100 lavas; 1 lava = 100 truṭis. Similar divisions are also found in the Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta (i. 5-6) of Brahmagupta, Siddhāntaśekhara of Śrīpati (i.11-15; i.3, see also Makkibhaṭṭa’s commentary).

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Bhāskara II (1150 A.D.) notes, 1 day (24 hours) = 30 kṣaṇas; 1 kṣaṇa = 2 ghaṭikās (48 minutes); 1 ghaṭikā = 30 kalās (24 minutes); 1 kalā = 30 kāṣṭhās (48 seconds); 1 kāṣṭhā = 18 nimeṣas, 1 nimesa = 30 tatparas, 1 tatpara = 100 truṭis, 1 truṭi (lotus pricking time) = 1/33,750 of a second. Bhāskara II while computing the instantaneous motion of planets compared its successive positions and considered its motion as constant during the interval which cannot be greater than a truṭi of time, though it may be infinitely less.

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