Lesson 03: Division of TIME...

Now-a-days we follow English calendars... The basis for this Calendar is purely depends on the transition of Sun...

Sun moves roughly 1 degree per a day and thus completing 360 degrees of the Zodiac in 365.25 days... So here period of one day means the time between one Sunrise to the next Sunrise... Like that, Month means the time interval taken by the Sun to complete a sign... ie 30 Solar days... And so on...

Our Rishis were interested in so called ''Thithies''... which are based on the angle made by the Sun and the Moon...

How did they recognize the importance of this angle ?
Well, the main observation was over the waves on the sea...!
We know that during Full Moon day ripples on rivers or in huge lakes or ocean waves are much stronger and bigger and quiet opposite when Moon is absent in the sky...

What do you mean by Full Moon phase...? That means Sun is quiet opposite to the Moon and hence Moon is in full glow with opposite light received by the Sun... the angle between Sun and Moon will be 180 degrees during this phase and Saints named this phase as ''Poornima''...

When Sun and Moon are in the same degree, which means 'angle' between them is 0 degrees, and hence Sun is behind the Moon, so Moon will appear darker... Saints called this phase of the Moon as ''Amavaasya''... We have now two parts of this cycle, one from Amavaaysa to Poornima and again from Poornima to Amavaasya... As during first part, Glow of the Moon is growing continuously, rishies called it as 'Shukla Paksha' and the next part as 'Krishna Paksha'...
One Amavaasya to the next immediate Amavaasya was called as a Lunar Month or a 'Maasa'...

These Amavaasyas form in every Month... Period between the Amavaasya formed in a sign to the Amavaasya formed in the same sign again, was called as Lunar Year or 'Samvatsara'...

Contd...