hariḥ oṁ
~~~~~~
namasté
Originally Posted by
yajvan
There is more to this story when we talk of the division of time. The nārada saṃhitā informs us of the following:
brāhmaṃ daivaṃ ca mānuṣaṃ pitryā sauraṃ ca sāvanam |
cāndramārkṣaṃ gurormānamiti mānani vai nava |'dhyāya 3|1||
So, we have these 9 divisions of time ( saṃvat or śaka or kāla)¹.
- brahmā saṃvat
- daiva saṃvat
- manuṣa saṃvat
- pitrya saṃvat
- saura saṃvat
- sāvana saṃvat
- cāndra saṃvat
- ārkṣaṃ saṃvat
- guru-māna saṃvat
Let's look at the two highlighted, saura & sāvana which are a function of the sun.saura saṃvat - comes from sūrya or sūra; from the sun.
sāvana saṃvat - corresponding to the solar time (day , month , year)
saura saṃvat
1 saura day = the time sūrya ( the sun) takes to move/traverse one degree (1º of the zodiac (rāśicakra).
- 30 saura days = 1 saura month
- 12 saura months = 1 saura year.
Hence we can easily deduce then that 1 saura year = 360 saura days = 360º or a perfect circle. The implcation is very interesting. It does not matter how many hours there are in a day, as we are measuring degrees. As the earth grows older it slows down¹, so a day may take 25 hours to complete this 1º or rotation. Yet this 1º remains consistent.
sāvana saṃvat
sāvana is the duration of a full day from one sunrise to the next. This seems quite useful and practical from my point of view. Note then in this system we do not start a new day at 12 mid-night, that is common in todays world. Many jyotiṣh calculations are very much concerned with the birth of a new day, which begins with the rise of the sun.
Let's say today is July 9th. We come into the evening hours and we pass 12 midnight and a person is born at 3 AM in the morning.
In this situation the birth day is still considered July 9th, as a new sunrise has not taken place and remains the 9th of July. This is how most jyotiṣa-s calculate one's birth.
The great jyotiṣa Varāha-mihira ācārya says when the upper limb of the sun is in view on the horizon, this is sunrise. Some others consider the central portion of the sun on the horizon. Why would one care? The difference is roughly 1 min 15 sec.
That change influences the position of the lagna and higher level varga charts ( 1/30th division, 1/60th division) and changes the positions of the graha's in these vargas ( or divisional charts).
Now there is some very interesting details on how the ancients came to define a sāvana day and a sāvana year. I am still studying this information and will share what I know.
The time of a sāvana day is based upon the time taken to voice guruvākṣara which means a long ( guru - long by nature or position ) syllable (akṣara), sometimes called dīrga - held for a long time and applied to vowels.
- 10 guruvākṣara = 1 prāṇa ( or breath)
- this period is 1/6th of a vināḍikā ( equaling 24 seconds)
= 4 seconds ( 1/6 x 24 seconds = 4 seconds)
- 6 prāṇa = 1 vināḍikā or 24 seconds
- 60 vināḍikā = 1 nāḍī = a measure of time = 1/2 muhūrta ( 1/2 x 48 minutes = 24 minutes) (1 muhūrta = 1/30th part of a day)
- 60 nāḍī = 1 sāvana day or 60 x 24 minutes = 1,440 minutes = 24 hours
- 30 sāvana days = 1 sāvana month
- 12 sāvana months = 1 sāvana saṃvata
Let's see if our numbers match to what the wise say a person breathes during the day. They say we breathe 21,600 a day.
One breath or prāṇa = 4 seconds. There are 1,440 minutes in a day x 60 seconds = 86,400 seconds in 1 day. 86,400 seconds divided by 4 seconds per breath = 21,600 breaths per day.
There are 21,600 haṁsa-s ( or breaths ) in a day and night || 11... haṁsa upaniṣad
praṇām
words
- saṃvat is a contraction of saṃvatsara, meaning a year ; some may use śaka ( its 3rd derivative) also meaning year;
others too may use kāla ( 2nd derivative)rooted (√) in 'kal' 'to calculate or enumerate ' i.e. a fixed or right point of time , a space of time , time (in general) - earth slows down - the oceans create title drag; the sun's change of mass slows the earths rotation by ~ 1.24 ms/year; gravitational radiation adds just a small amount = to the decay in the orbit of about 1×10−15 meters per day or roughly the diameter of a proton.
- Types of years one may see today ( just a few)
- julian - 365.25 days
- sidereal - 365.256363004 mean solar days
- tropical - 365.24219 days
- anomalistic - 365.259636 days
- sources: portions and parts from sūrya-siddhānta , Sanjay Rath teachings, Chandrashekhr Sharma writings.
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, personal jyotish library and studies.
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