A Spirituo-Scientific Synthesis
Summing up of time scales of Hindu Cosmology
The ancient Hindi time scales recorded very early were part of a very ancient text of at least 2 million years old. The text is named ‘Surya Siddhanta.’ The present version of the book available is still 2500 years old, making it the oldest book on astronomy on Earth. Though mythological texts consider the contents of the book as the knowledge given by the Sun god to a demon (asura) called Maya, it becomes illogical to accept that a non-living celestial object like the Sun could deliver knowledge to an entity on Earth. Surya has to be a very bright knowledgeable, divine sage of the early members of creation.
Besides depicting time scales, the book also has the first descriptions of the Earth being round and gravity being the factor for the falling of objects on Earth.
The following are a few excerpts taken verbatim from the Surya Siddhanta.
Few excerpts from Surya Siddhanta
- The average length of the tropical year is 365.2421756 days, which is only 1.4 seconds shorter than the modern value of 365.2421904 days!
- The average length of the sidereal year, the actual length of the Earth’s revolution around the Sun, is 365.2563627 days, virtually the same as the modern value of 365.25636305 days. This remained the most accurate estimate for the length of the sidereal year anywhere in the world for over a thousand years!
- Not content to limit measurements to Earth, the Surya Siddhanta also states the motion and diameters of the planets! For instance, the estimate for the diameter of Mercury is 3,008 miles, an error of less than 1% from the currently accepted diameter of 3,032 miles. It also estimates the diameter of Saturn as 73,882 miles, which again has an error of less than 1% from the currently accepted diameter of 74,580.
- Aside from inventing the decimal system, zero and standard notation (giving the ancient Indians the ability to calculate trillions when the rest of the world struggled with 120), the Surya Siddhanta also contains the roots of Trigonometry.
- It uses sine (jya), cosine (kojya or “perpendicular sine”) and inverse sine (otkram jya) for the first time!
- “Objects fall on earth due to a force of attraction by the earth. therefore, the earth, the planets, constellations, the moon and the sun are held in orbit due to this attraction“. (this was also discussed in Prashnopanishad)
It was not until the late 17th century in 1687 that Isaac Newton rediscovered the Law of Gravity. - The Surya Siddhanta also goes into a detailed discussion about time cycles and that time flows differently in different circumstances, the roots of relativity. Here we have a perfect example of Indian philosophy’s belief that Science and religion are not mutually exclusive. Unlike, Abrahamic religions, one does not have to dig and try all ways to force scientific truth from scriptures. By contrast, it is stated in cold hard numbers by the Sun God ( Surya sage).
- This work shows that spirituality is all about the search for Truth (Satya) and that Science is as valid a path to God as living in a monastery. It is the search for one’s own personal truth that will lead one ultimately to God.
The astronomical time cycles contained in the text were remarkably accurate at the time.
- That which begins with respirations (prana) is called real…. Six respirations (pranas) make a vinadi; sixty of these make a nadi.
- And sixty nadis make a sidereal day and night.
- Thirty of these sidereal days are composed of a month; a civil (Savana) month consists of many sunrises.
- A lunar month of as many lunar days (tithi); a solar (saura) month is determined by the entrance of the Sun into a sign of the zodiac; twelve months make a year. This is called a day of the gods. (Day at the North Pole).
- The day and night of the gods and of the demons are mutually opposed to one another. Six times sixty of them are a year of the gods, and likewise of the demons. (Day and Night being six months each at the South Pole)
- Twelve thousands of these divine years are denominated a chaturyuga; of ten thousand times four hundred and thirty-two solar years.
- Is composed of that chaturyuga, with its dawn and twilight. The difference of the Krita Yuga and the other yugas, as measured by the difference in the number of the feet of Virtue in each, is as follows:
- The tenth part of a chaturyuga, multiplied successively by four, three, two, and one gives the length of the Krita and the other yugas: the sixth part of each belongs to its dawn and twilight.
- One and seventy chaturyugas make a manu; at its end is a twilight which has the number of years of a Krita Yuga and which is a deluge. c. In a Kalpa is reckoned fourteen manus with their respective twilights; at the commencement of the Kalpa is a fifteenth dawn, having the length of a Krita yuga.
- The Kalpa, thus composed of a thousand chaturyugas and which brings about the destruction of all that exists, is a day of Brahma (Creator God); his night is of the same length.
- His extreme age is a hundred, according to this valuation of a day and a night. Half of his life is past; of the remainder, this is the first Kalpa.
- And of this Kalpa, six manus are past, with their respective twilights; and of the Manu son of Vivasvant, twenty-seven chaturyugas are past;
- Of the present, the twenty-eighth, chaturyuga, this Krita yuga is past.
Planetary Diameters in Surya Siddhanta
Surya Siddhanta also estimates the diameters of the planets. The estimate for the diameter of Mercury is 3,008 miles, an error of less than 1% from the currently accepted diameter of 3,032 miles.
It also estimates the diameter of Saturn as 73,882 miles, which again has an error of less than 1% from the currently accepted diameter of 74,580.
Its estimate for the diameter of Mars is 3,772 miles, which has an error within 11% of the currently accepted diameter of 4,218 miles.
It also estimated the diameter of Venus as 4,011 miles and Jupiter as 41,624 miles, which are roughly half the currently accepted values, 7,523 miles and 88,748 miles, respectively.
Micro-level timings of Hindu astronomy
Paramanu = 2/151875th second.
Anu = 2 Paramanus.
Trasarenu = 6 Anus.
Truti = 3 Trasarenus. (The time taken to tear apart the softest petals of a lotus)
Vedha (Lub) or a Tatpara (a speck) = 100 Trutis.
Lava = 3 Vedhas
Nimesha (the twinkling of an eye) = 3 Lavas
Kshanas (moment) = 3 Nimeshas.
Kastha = 5 Kshanas.
Laghu = 15 Kasthas.
Nadika = 15 Laghus.
Muhurta = 2 Nadikas.
Prahara (one quarter of a day or night) = 6 or 7 Nadikas.
Yamas = Four (six-hour) periods of a day.
Ahoratra = 30 Muhurtas (a day and night) or 60 Nadis.
Paksha = a fortnight = 15 days. (bright and dark alternately)
Masa = 30 days.
Ritu = 2 months.
Ayana = 6 months. (southerly and northerly by turn, following the course of the Sun)
Varsha = 365 days. (year)
The Earthly year is variously known as Samvatsara, Parivatsara, Idavatsara, Anuvatsara and Vatsara, calculated based on the Sun’s, Jupiter’s and moon’s revolutions.
A variant of calculation
Krati = 34,000th of a second
The time taken to tear apart the softest petals of a lotus is called ‘Truti‘
1 Lub = 100 Trutis
1 Nimesha = 30 Lub = 88.889 milliseconds.
1 Guru Akshar = 27 Nimesha.
1 Prana = 45 Nimesha or 10 Guru Akshar = 4 Seconds.
1 Vinadi = 60 Prana = 24 seconds.
1 Nadi = 6 Vinadis = 24 minutes.
1 Ghatika or Dand = 6 Pran Vighatika. ( ~half-hour)
1 Khsana/Muhurta = 2 Ghatika. (~hour)
60 Ghati or 60 Nadis = 1 Day and Night = Ahoratra
60 Khsana/Muhurta (60 hours) = 1 Ahoratra
That means, in a day and night, there are 17,49,60,000,00 Trutis.
Thus, according to Western Science, there are 86,400 seconds in a day and night, whereas in Indian Science, a day and night consist of 17,49,60,000,00 Trutis.
Another Variant of a division of time
1 Day or 24 hours = 60 Ghatis or 60 Nadis.
1 Ghati = 60 Vighati. (also called Pala or Kala)
1 Vighati = 60 Lipta. (also called Vipala or Vikala)
1 Lipta = 60 Vilipta.
1 Vilipta = 60 Para.
1 Para = 60 Tatpara.
As a lot of charts made in the olden days mention the birth time in Ghatis and Vighatis, the following is the conversion to remember:
5 Ghatis = 2 hours
5 Vighati = 2 minutes
Another system of time at the micro level is
1 Paras = 60 Tatparas.
1 Vilipta = 60 Paras.
1 Lipta = 60 Vilipta.
1 Ghatika (Dand) = 60 Lipta.
60 Ghatika = 1 Day & Night.
Therefore, it is clear that there are 46,65,60,000,00 (46.6560 billion) Tatparas in a day and night.
Clearly, the ancient Vedic time scale is quite a commendable achievement considering the absence of any, forget about sophisticated scientific gadgets or capabilities, but even simple devices. They had envisaged such an elaborate micro to macro timescale merely by their high intuitive and observational faculties.
