Chronological Systems of Gujarat

Author(s): Bharati K Shelat
Publisher: Pranav Shelat

Page 18

I. INTRODUCTION
(i) Evolution of chronology in ancient India
It is known from references in the Vedic literature that Indian chronology in its primary stage has been in existence since more than 2,000 years before the Christian Era. The earliest traces of Indian chronology belong to the Vedic period. A method of distributing time into various periods such as days, fortnights, months and years, was adopted for the purposes of civil life. People had primary knowledge about days, lunar months and luni-solar years from the very beginning of the Vedic age and these divisions of time are intimately connected with the affairs of the people.
From the period of Ṛgveda people were knowing convenient parts of time - days, months and years. The months were lunar but the years were luni-solar1. Twelve lunar months, coincided into a solar year containing 365 days, formed a luni-solar year. At one place in Ṛgveda an intercalary month is mentioned2. From this it follows that an intercalary month was added to preserve the correspondence between a whole solar year and the twelve lunations. From the mention of the word väsara in Ṛksamhita3, it is certain that the term was used in the general sense of a day. A day was divided into five parts like Pratar, Sangava, Madh
1. Shivanath Zarakhandi, Bhāratīya Jyotiṣa (BJ), pp. 40, 43 2. Vedamāso dhṛtavrato dvādasa prajavataḥ vedā ya upajāyate, Rk Sa., 1,25,8
3. Rk Sa., 8,6,30