Ancient Indian (Vedic) Time System

I am amused when I get to read the very micro and macro metrics of time in Vedic System, all in use thousands of years ago.  It has the whole spectrum of measurement units to measure from atoms to space.

Further amazing fact is that the Vedic Time System relates Time & Space.  How wonderful is it.

Lets dive into these interesting Time & Space metrics...

Smallest Unit of Time

Vedic astronomy give a very detailed division of the Time upto the lowest sub division level of prana (respiration), a time lapse of four seconds. The lowest sub divisionsprāņa is the same part of the day as the minute is of the circle, so that a respiration of time is equivalent to a minute of apparent revolution of the heavenly bodies above the earth.

1 paramanu		60,750th of a second
1 truţi	=		29.6296 microseconds
1 tatpara	=		2.96296 milliseconds
1 nimesha	=		88.889 milliseconds
45 nimesha	=	1 prāņa	4 seconds
6 prāņa	=	1 vinādī	24 seconds
60 vinādīs	=	1 nadī	24 minutes
60 nādīs	=	1 ahorātra

Vedic Division of Day

The Vedic division of the day is somewhat different. According to this, Kala (Time) is born out of Sun. The counting starts from nimesha (twinkling of an eye). 

100 truti (atoms)	= 1 tatpara (speck)
30 tatpara (specks)	= 1 nimesha (twinkling)
18 nimesha (twinklings)	= 1 kashtha (bit)
30 kashtha (bits)	= 1 kala (~minute)
30 kala (minutes)	= 1 ghatika (~half-hour)
2 ghatika (half hour)	= 1 kshana/muhūrta (~hour)
30 kshana/muhūrta (hour)	= 1 ahorātra (~day).

Truti is referred to as a quarter of the time of falling of an eye lid.

Seven Days of Week

Deleting the leading letter ‘a’ and the trailing ‘tra’ from ‘ahorātra’, one is left with the word horā, and from this horā, another system of measuring time, the ‘Horā System’, introduced in this country by the celebrated Hindu astronomer Varāha Mihira, by dividing a day and night into 24 horās. Many believe that from this Horā System the entire world has adopted the present practice of dividing a day and night into 24 hours and moreover, from Sanskrit horā, English hour, Latin hora and Greek ora (ωρα) have been derived. It is interesting to note here that, one can derive the names of the seven days of a week from this Horā System as well. One has to assume a lord for each horā of the day and Ravivāra is to be accepted as the first day of the week, but counting is to be made in the reverse or descending order and the fourth place gives the name of the following day.

surya	sunday
soma	monday
mangala	tuesday
budha	wednesday
guru	thursday
shukra	friday
shani	saturday
rahu & ketu	eclipse

Samvatsara - The Year Cycles

Samvatsara is a Sanskrit term for "year". In Hindu tradition, there are 60 Samvatsaras, each of which has a name. Once all 60 samvatsaras are over, the cycle starts over again. The sixty Samvatsaras are divided into 3 groups of 20 Samvatsaras each. The first 20 from Prabhava to Vyaya are attributed to Brahma. The next 20 from Sarvajit to Parabhava to Vishnu & the last 20 to Shiva.

1. Prabhava	13. Pramāthin	25. Khara	37. Shobhana	49. Rākshasa
2. Vibhava	14. Vikrama	26. Nandana	38. Krodhin	50. Anala
3. Shukla	15. Vrisha	27. Vijaya	39. Vishvāvasu	51. Pingala
4. Pramoda	16. Chitrabhānu	28. Jaya	40. Parābhava	52. Kālayukti
5. Prajāpati	17. Svabhānu	29. Manmatha	41. Plavanga	53. Siddhārthin
6. Āngirasa	18. Tārana	30. Durmukha	42. Kīlaka	54. Raudra
7. Shrīmukha	19. Pārthiva	31. Hemalambin	43. Saumya	55. Durmati
8. Bhāva	20. Vyaya	32. Vilambin	44. Sādhārana	56. Dundubhi
9. Yuvan	21. Sarvajit	33. Vikārin	45. Virodhikrit	57. Rudhirodgārin
10. Dhātri	22. Sarvadhārin	34. Shārvari	46. Paritāpin	58. Raktāksha
11. Īshvara	23. Virodhin	35. Plava	47. Pramādin	59. Krodhana
12. Bahudhānya	24. Vikrita	36. Shubhakrit	48. Ānanda	60. Kshaya

Yuga

The units of time larger than a year are called yugas. The word yuga has been derived from yoga and yoga from samyoga, or conjunction of heavenly bodies. So one finds the origin of every unit of yuga to a specific conjunction of the heavenly bodies in the sky. In Indian astronomy, starting from a mere 5 year yuga to a vast Mahāyuga of 4,320,000 years are in vogue. Every 5 year, a conjunction of the sun and the moon occurs at the asterism Dhanişthā in the zodiacal sign Makara (Capricorn). The sun enters Makara, in the month of Māgha. Hence the conjunction recurs every 5 year on the new-moon day in the month of Māgha and that is the basis of counting a 5 year yuga.

Mahayuga (Chaturyuga) - The Yuga Cycles

Beyond this level there are 4 epochs or yugas, namely, Krita Yuga, Treta Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga and Kali Yuga. All these four yugas together is called a chatur yuga, which means "four epochs"or also termed maha yuga that means "great epochs". Together a chatur yuga constitutes 4,320,000 human years and the lengths of each chatur yuga follow a ratio of (4:3:2:1:).

yuga	human years	ratio
krita(satya)-yuga	1,728,000 years	4
treta-yuga	1,296,000 years	3
dvapara-yuga	864,000 years	2
kali-yuga	432,000 years	1

1 chatur yuga (mahayuga)	4,320,000 human years

The ages see a gradual decline of dharma, wisdom, knowledge, intellectual capability, life span and emotional and physical strength.

Krita Yuga		Treta Yuga	Dvapara Yuga	Kali Yuga
other name	Golden Age or Satya Yuga (age of Truth)	Silver Age	Bronze Age	Iron Age
human years	1,728,000	1,296,000	864,000	432,000
climate	virtue reigns supreme	three quarters virtue and one quarter sin	one half virtue and one half sin	one quarter virtue and three quarters sin
human stature	21 cubits	14 cubits		3.5 cubits
human lifespan	lakh of years and death occurs only when willed.	lifespan is 10,000 years.	lifespan is 1,000 years.	lifespan is 100 or 120 years.

Time of Devas - The Cosmic Years

1 day of the Devas	1 human year
1 month of the Devas	30 days of the Devas
1 year of the Devas (1 divine year)	12 months of the Devas

The lifespan of the Devas is 100 years of the Devas (= 36,000 human years).

Kalpa - A Cosmic Day of Brahma

In this cyclic process of time, 1000 chaturyuga or mahayuga period is called a Kalpa, and period of time is equal to a daytime for the Brahma, the creator of the universe. A thousand and a thousand (i.e. two thousand) chaturyuga-s are said to be one day and night of Brahmā (the creator).

1 kalpa	1000 chatur yuga (mahayuga)
1 day and 1 night of Brahmā	2 kalpas

At the beginning of creation begins the day of creation. At the end of that goes back all of the creation of the Absolute. This is a Kalpa a cosmic cycle of becoming and either of creation and destruction.

Manvantara

A cosmic days includes 14 Period or Manvantaras to 306 720 000 solar years. The next day, a cosmic unity is a Manvantara, there are fourteen pieces. A Manu mastered such a period. We live in the 7th Manvantara. Manvantara the first 6 have gone, 7 more will come. In particular, their names are:

01. Svaayambhuva — son of the self-born (here began the creation)
02. Svaarochisha — son of the Self Shining
03. Uttama — Son of the Most High
04. Taamasa — Son of Darkness
05. Raivata — son of wealth
06. Chaakshusha — son of the vision (this was the Quirlung instead of the milk ocean)
07. Vaivasvata — Vaivasvata is the son of the Sun God. <—- We currently live here.

08. Arka Saavarni (or Savarnika) — stands with the Sun God in relationship
09. Daksha-Saavarni — son of the rituals
10. Brahma-Saavarni — son of Brahma
11. Dharma-Saavarni — Son of the Eternal Law
12. Rudra-Saavarni — son of the Destroyer
13. Deva-Saavarni — Son of the Shining
14. Indra-Saavarni — son of the mighty Indra

71 cycles of chatur yuga is called a manvantara. At the end of each manvantara period, there comes a partial devastation period, which is equivalant to the duration of krita yuga. This means after every manvantara period, the world is partially destroyed and recreated.

1 manvantara	71 cycles of chatur yuga

Mahakalpa - Brahma's Lifespan

Brahma (the creator) lives for 100 years of 360 such days and at the end, he is said to dissolve, along with his entire Creation, into the Paramatman (Eternal Soul). The scriptures put Brahma's age at 100 years in his unique time scale.

Brahma's life span is equal to 311,040,000,000,000 human years. This period in named as maha kalpa. A universe lasts only for one maha kalpa period. At the end of it the universe is completely destroyed together with the creator Brahma and a new universe would be created with a new Brahma. This cycle goes on endlessly. The Vedic universe passes through repetitive cycles of creation and destruction. During the annihilation of the universe, energy is conserved, to manifest again in the next creation.

1 maha kalpa	100 years of Brahma (311,040,000,000,000 human years)

Present date in Time

How old is the universe on this day of Brahma?

The current Kali Yuga began after the Surya Siddhanta at midnight on a change of 17 at 18 February in the year 3102 BC in the proleptic Julian calendar. Since the beginning of the Kalpa until the year 2005 AD passed:

• 6 complete Manvantaras: 6 x 710
• 7-Manvantara twilight before a Manvantara each: 7 x 4
• 27 complete Mahayugas of the current 7th Manvantara: 27 x 10
• 3 Elapsed Yugas the current 28th Mahayuga: (4 + 3 + 2) x l
• 5107 solar years in the current Kali Yuga