The concept of Time in Indian Mythology

[suchandra 1]

Looks like that "month" and "year" is a vedic measurement.

 

The concept of Time in Indian Mythology

 

posted 11 June 2008

http://www.indusladies.com/forums/articles-and-middles-indian-writers/28676-the-concept-time-indian-mythology.html

 

The smallest unit of time is a kaashta, which is 18 times the amount

of time it takes to blink an eyelid. 10 kaashtas make a kshanam and

12 kshanams constitute a muhoortam. 60 of these muhoortams constitute

a day. 30 days constitute a month and 3 months make up a ritu. 12

months of course constitute a human year.

 

We now move on from the human plane to the world of the departed

souls - the pitrus. Here, a human month equals the length of a day.

The brighter half of a Lunar month constitutes the pitru's daytime

and the darker half their night.

 

In the realm of the Devas or the Gods, a human year constitutes a

single day. The brighter half of the year Uttarayanam makes up the

day time hours of the Devas while the darker half Dakshinayanam

makes up the nighttime hours.

 

An epoch or a yuga is the next higher level of measurement. 1200 Deva

years constitute the Kaliyuga or the present epoch that we are

believed to be living in; 2400 deva years make up the Dwapara yuga

that preceded kali yuga; 3600 years made up the Treta yuga and 4800

the Krita yuga respectively. Thus, the length of the Kaliyuga is

1200*360 i.e. 432,000 human years. A cycle of 4 yugas is referred to

as the catur yugas. A cycle of catur yugas lasts for 12,000 deva

years or 12,000* 360 i.e. 4,320,000 human years.

 

How do these time measurements correlate with the process of

creation?

 

Bhrahma in Indian mythology is referred to as the creator. A

thousand catur yugas are said to make up the daylight hours of a

single day of Bhrahma's life. Another thousand make up the nighttime

of a single day of Bhrahma. Thus, a single day in Bhrahma's life

spans 2000 * 4,320,000 ie. 8,640,000,000 human years. 360 such days,

each lasting 8.6 billion years constitute a year in Bhrahma's life,

which lasts for a 100 Bhrahma years. At the end of one Bhrahma's

life, another starts. This cycle goes on and on.

 

A Bhrahma's life is also known as a Para. Each half param is

referred to as a parardham. It is believed that we are currently

living in the 2nd half of the life of the present Bhrahma.

 

It is to be noted that in the performance of Vedic rituals, the

frame of time in which the ritual is being performed is specified

both in macro and in micro terms, the term 'dviteeya paraardhe' (the

second half of Bhrahma's term) is stated.

 

The reference point here is the moment of commencement of creation

of the Universe by Bhrahma. When we say 'dviteeya paraardhe', which

Bhrahma are we referring to? How many Bhrahmas have preceded the

current one? This specification is non-existant in Vedic mantras.

Since the whole process is cyclical, with one Bhrahma commencing when

another completes, and with this process repeating forever, there may

not be any significance in stating the position of Bhrahma.

 

In a cyclical concept of time every starting point will have to be

an ending point. If time is postulated as being linear and

unidirectional there will have to be an absolute starting point for

time. This cyclical nature of time as believed in Indian Mythology

refers to time as 'anaadi' or that without a beginning.

 

Yet another measure of time is Kalpa. The puranas are named after

kalpas; thus we have the matsya kalpa, koorma kalpa, lakshmi kalpa,

sweta varaaha kalpa, shiva kalpa, bhrahma kalpa, vishnu kalpa and so

on. Each Bhrahma's term lasts for a period of 7 kalpas. The current

period in time is said to belong to the sweta varaaha kalpam, which

is in the second half of the life of Bhrahma.

 

A kalpam or an epoch is made up of 14 manvantaras and each

manvantara spans 71 caturyugas. The fourteen manvantaras are

respectively wayambhuva, sawosisha, audhama, thaamasa, raivatha,

sakshusha, vaivasvata, savarni, daaksha savarni, bhramha savarni,

dharma savarni, rudra savarni, rouchya and bowdhya. The present

kaliyuga is the 28th in the present Vaivaswata

manvantara.

 

Sankalpam: Thus, vedic mantras pin point the time of performance of

a ritual - by narrowing down from dwiteeya paraardhe (in the 2nd

half of the term of Bhrahma), Sweta varaaha kalpe (in the kalpa

sweta varaaha), Vaivasvata manvantare (in the 7th manvantaram) ,

Kaliyuge (in the kali epoch) - through the finer details such as the

name of the current year, month etc.

[Amlesh 1]

The rotation of the Sudarshan Chakra...