Outlines of Jainism

Author(s): J L Jaini, F W Thomas
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Page 61

METAPHYSICS: IV. THE SIX SUBSTANCES
15
Time (15-18) That which is the cause or circumstance of the modification of soul and other draryas is time : it is immaterial, and is the necessary element in our dealings with other draryas. It is without taste, colour, smell, or touch. It has only its own attributes, and the peculiar attribute of helping the modification of the other substances. Like the souls and matter, it is innumerable.
The two divisions of time into avasarpiņī and utsarpiņī eras, and the six ages of each, have been noticed above in the Introduction. In practice time is divided as follows:
samaya is the unit of time; its measure is the time taken by a unit of matter in going from one unit of space to the next unit of space with slow motion.
nimisha, time taken in raising the eyelid. It consists of innumerable samayas.
kāshthū = 15 nimishas. kalā= 20 kashthūs. nāli or ghatī= 20 kalās and a little over. muhūrta = 2 ghatīs. ahorūtra (day and night)= 30 mulārtas. māsa (month) = 30 days. ritu= 2 months. ayana = 6 months or 3 ritus. samvatsara (year)= 2 ayanas (16). V. THE FIVE ASTIKĀYAS (MAGNITUDES) (19-32)
Jaina philosophy really starts with a perfect division of the universe into living and non-living existences,