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How the weekdays are named

The ancients noted that during the period from a sunrise to the next sunrise there is a cyclic change in the quality of the cosmic energies, and the sequence which it follows is related to the seven graha of Bharatiya Jyotish.


This is recorded in Surya Siddhanta, which is perhaps the oldest book on Astronomy. Surya Siddhanta declares the sequence of the graha in the zodiac in the following shlokas:


ब्रह्माण्ड मध्य परिधि र्व्योमकक्ष्याऽभिधीयते।तन्मध्ये भ्रमणं भानां तदधोऽधः क्रमादथः॥३०

मन्दामरेज्यभूपुत्रसूर्यशुक्रेन्दुजेन्दवः।परिभ्रमन्त्यधोऽधःस्थाः सिद्धविद्याधरा घना॥३१


The Circumference of the middle of the Brahmanda is called Vyomakaksha. All the stars go around within this circumference. Below the stars are the Graha orbiting in the following sequence: Shani, Brihaspati, Mangal, Surya, Shukra, Budh and Chandrama, and below them are the Siddhas, Vidyadharas, and Cloud.


This sequence is bound to leave one very perplexed and confused, because physical sequence of the graha from Earth is different and is Shani – Brihaspati – Surya – Budh – Mangal – Shukra – Chandra



But is Surya Siddhant wrong? Absolutely not.


The sequence as mentioned in the Surya Siddhant is not based upon the distance, but on the time taken by the Graha to do one orbit of the Earth.




The change in the quality of the cosmic energies lasts for a fixed period, and changes 24 times from sunrise to sunrise. Each fixed period is called a Hora.


In Bharatiya Jyotish the graha whose Hora is running at the time of the sunrise is assigned the lordship of the day and in the honour of the graha the day is named after it. The sequence of the Hora for each weekday is tabulated below in which is clear that the 25th Hora becomes the 1st Hora of the next day and the next day is named after it.




This is how the days are named in Surya Siddhanta.

 

©Arun Vyas. This article may not be reproduced in any form without the permission of the author. Arun Vyas may be contacted at arun@arunvyas.com / arunvyas.com/contact



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”Indian sacred architecture of whatever date, style, or dedication goes back to something timelessly ancient and now outside India almost wholly lost, something which belongs to the past, and yet it goes forward too, though this the rationalistic mind will not easily admit, to something which will return upon us and is already beginning to return, something which belongs to the future.”

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