Vedic Time, Part 1

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Dharmapada

 

The list provider won't let the whole file come through at once because of

space limitations, so I have broken it up into two parts. This is a chapter

from the book of P. N. Oaks, Our World Vedic Heritage.

 

 

 

THE WORLD KEEPS VEDIC TIME

 

 

 

The uniform worldwide tradition of time-measurement and the Sanskrit

terminology associated with it, is yet another emphatic proof of the

prevalence of a uniform, unitary Vedic culture throughout the world from

time immemorial.

 

The Hindu alias Vedic almanac is the ancientmost because it adheres to the

Srushti-Samvat i.e. the time computation from the creation of the cosmos.

Nothing can be more ancient.

 

The Sankalpa

What is more, anybody undertaking any Vedic ritual at any time in any part

of the world has to recall and repeat the entire computation of the aeons,

eras, years and days that have passed from the moment of the creation to the

day of the ritual. Thus a continual, up-to-date, day-to-day computation

uttered through billions of mouths down the ages, day-in and day-out, all

over the world, has ensured an unerring tally of eternal time. A quick

review of the cosmic time-tally is part of the Sankalpa uttered at Vedic

rituals.

 

There is also another genealogical counterpart included in the Sankalpa. The

person undertaking the ritual has to loudly proclaim the names of his

father, grandfather and great grandfather, the name of his family, the name

of the patron sage of his ancestors, the town or

 

 

 

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The Nile partly retains its ancient Sanskrit name 'Neel Saraswati' alias

Neel Ganga'. Later the name was abbreviated to 'heel' which came to be

spelled as Nile'.

 

The river Seine in Paris, was Sindhu, a famous Sanskrit name. The French

mannerism of dropping the last consonant made them pronounce it merely as

Seine.

The Thames in England is a corruption of the Sanskrit name Tamasa.

 

Bosphorus

The Bosphorus region derives its name from Bhasmai

sura, a tyrannical Daitya ruler mentioned in Hindu legends.

 

A close analysis of the ancient Sur-Asur rivalry and war of attrition

recorded in ancient Sanskrit scriptures will be found useful, as illustrated

above, in explaining numerous topographical terms throughout the world. This

is yet one more proof of the ancient worldwide sway of Vedic culture.

 

Research along these lines could lead to a reconstruction of the entire

ancient Sanskrit atlas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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village in which he is performing the ritual and the region and continent in

which that place is located in the context of global geography. Can anything

be more perfect, more thorough, more frequent, more universal and more

publicized than this T The Vedic Sankalpa is a combined

historical-cum-geographical proclamation-cumrecapitulation enjoined on

anyone undertaking any and every ritual almost everyday throughout the year

and throughout his life. It summarizes in a short and quick review every

individual's own focus standi in the context of the time-space continuum. To

ignore such a masterly, open, public book-keeping system which has come down

to us to an unbroken trail from the time of the Vedas (i e. from the time of

creation) through the Kruta, Treta and Dwapar down to the present Kali Yug,

and speculating that humanity must have evolved from monkeys or that the

world was created, in 4004. B.C. or that the Vedas are rustic ballads

composed between 1500 and 700 B.C. is unhistorical, to say the least.

People retaining the Vedic tradition are currently identified as Hindus. And

since Vedic tradition has been a world-heritage every human being is, in a

way, a Hindu, in modern parlance.

It is that Vedic tradition which has been keeping a continuous tally of the

time-dimension of the cosmosnamely of the time that has elapsed and the

period that lies ahead before the next cataclysmic end of worldly life.

.. Of the current Kali era 5080 years have passed away. Even of that stretch

of time present-day scholars know a bare, dented outline of history only of

the last about 2000 years. Of the balance 3080 years of anterior history

they know next to nothing.

It was during that remote antiquity that the world had a unitary

administration of Kshatriyas trained to govern the world under the Vedic

socio-political system.

 

 

 

It was during that long stretch of universal administration that a uniform

time calculation system and terminology was introduced. The world still l

sticks to it and

yet very few seem to be aware of it.

 

The word Time itself is a corruption of the Sanskrit word Samay ; that was

pronounced as .Tamay' and later as .Time'.

Take the word 'calendar itself. That is the Sanskrit word 'Kalantar'

(WTu -.ff;C) which signifies a chart detailing the divisions of time (namely

the day, week, month and year):

Likewise the word clock is Sanskrit 'Kala-Ka' (q;Tv-w) i.e. a

recorder-cum-indicator of time:

Let us now start from the split-second to find out how the entire

time-computation around the world is alt of the Vedic tradition.

The 60-second, 60-minute calculation is Vedic mathematics because according

to the Vedic computation 60 vipalas make one 'pala' and 60 'palas' make one

'ghati' (i.e. 24 minutes).

The term 'hour' is a malpronunciation of the Sanskrit word (eM) 'hora`

(which is made up of 2j ghatis).

The word 'day` is the corrupt form of the Sanskrit word 'din' (f"),

All the days of the week too follow the order laid down by Vedic tradition

wherein each day is named after the members of our solar system in a

specified order. For instance Sunday (the day named after the Sun) follows

Saturday (the day of Saturn). Monday (which is Moonday) follows Sunday and

so on.

The whole world couldn't have followed this system without the slightest

egoistic or chauvinistic murmur from

 

 

 

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anywhere, had it not been subject to a common Vedic administration.

After the week comes the month. The division of

the year into 12 parts (each of which is known as a month, corresponding to

the twelve zodiacal signs) is devised by the Vedic system and is

unquestioningly followed all over the world.

It is sometimes believed and argued that the year consisted of 10 months in

some parts of the world. That belief is based on a misunderstanding. The

Vedic year began with the vernal equinox in March and consisted of 12

months. Later Christianity made December 31 as the last day of the year.

That made people believe that the year which began with March and ended with

December comprised of just ten months. Those who have been believing that

there has been such a 10-month computation have not ascertained whether each

month then consisted of 361 days, to account for all the 365 days of the

year.

The names September, October, November and December are the Sanskrit words

(~f) Saptamber,

Ashtamber, (;RatwT) Navamber and (T) Dashambar

where (OaR) 'ambar' is the Sanskrit term for the Zodiac while the numbers

(eg) 'sapta', (am) 'ashta', (ma) nava' and (W) 'dasha' signify the 7th, 8th,

9th and 10th months respectively.

If the remaining eight months are not easily identifiable as Sanskrit that

is because history always leaves ruins in its wake for various reasons. It

is like an old man whose teeth have wide gaps. The two rows of well-set

teeth of his childhood do not remain intact as age advances. But the

remaining teeth and the dented gums do lead to the conclusion that once the

man did have a full set of teeth.

The same may be said of the months. From the four months still clearly

identifiable as Sanskrit it can be safely

 

 

 

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deduced that the remaining eight months too had Sanskrit names.

 

 

 

 

 

Among the others a few more can still be identified as Sanskrit on a closer

look. The name Januarius is the original name, of which January is an

abbreviation. Here it may be recalled that in Latin the name of God Ganesh

came to be spelled as Janus. That God used to be worshipped in Rome on

January 9. And since Lord Ganesh is traditionally offered worship at the

opening of every ritual or the commencement of any period or task, the

Romans ordained that the month of the festival of Lord Ganesh be reckoned as

the first. Consequently they amended the traditional start of the year and

reckoned it as beginning from January 1.

 

 

So even the January beginning of the year is rooted in the Vedic tradition

of Ganesh worship. Even the name Januarius misbelieved to be Latin is the

Sanskrit term 'Gana -raya-sash' (wmift) signifying Lord Ganesh.

 

The name of the succeeding month February was spelled by the Romans as

Februarius. That is a malpronunciation of the Sanskrit word Pravaresh. From

the Sanskrit word 'Pitar' changing to father' in European pronunciation we

know that European 'f' replaces Sanskrit .p'. Consequently Februarius was

Pravaresh. Pravar in Sanskrit signifies a sage. So the term Pravaresh alias

Februarius signified God as the Lord of the sages.

 

The term March is from 'Marichi one of the

skrit names of the Sun. Since that month marks the

inning of longer days alias a kind of waxing of the

plight hours it was named after the Sun. Another expla-

'on is that March signified a start i.e. marching orders.

Since in ancient practice the beginning of the year