Weekdays

[Radhakrishna Warrier]

रविवार     Sunday           Sun 

सोमवार    Monday         Moon 

मंगलवार   Tuesday          Mars 

बुधवार     Wednesday     Mercury 

गुरूवार    Thursday        Jupiter 

शुक्रवार    Friday           Venus 

शनिवार     Saturday       Saturn 

 

​In most languages of the world, the above relationship between the names of the weekdays and the heavenly bodies holds good.  In English, this is obvious in the case of Sunday, Monday and Saturday.  The names Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday derive from the names of Nordic gods / goddess identified as equivalent to Latin gods / goddess representing the same heavenly bodies.

How did this happen?  Do all these different languages derive the words for the weekdays from the same source?  If the source is same, what is that source?

Is it possible to say during what period the names of the weekdays entered Sanskrit or Prakrit? Do the Vedas mention the names of the weekdays?  Do Upanishads mention the names of the weekdays? Do any of the edicts of ancient rulers mention the weekdays?

Regards,

Radhakrishna Warrier

[Kushagra Aniket]

Dear Warrier Ji,

Professor Subhash Kak has an article on it:

https://medium.com/@subhashkak/names-of-the-days-of-the-week-520acffe9b6d

It seems that the similarities are primarily between Sanskrit, Latin, and Germanic traditions. Other Indo-European traditions, such as Greek, differ in the nomenclature.

I do not know the first instance of the mention of the weekdays but by the time, the standard texts of Jyotisha were written, this naming convention was well-established. Strength due to weekday (वारबल) is included in calculation of planetary strength (षड्बल).

Best,

Kushagra 

Kushagra Aniket

Cornell University'15

ka...@cornell.edu

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[उ॒ज्ज्व॒लः]

न केनापि॒ भौति॑केनाव॒धिना॒ संव॑दति॒ सप्ता॑हः। अह्नः॑ शु॒द्धः सप्त॑गुणो॒ हि सः। न कापि॒ तस्य॒ भौति॑की परिभा॒षा भ॑वति, वत्स॒रस्य॒ मास॒स्याह्न॑श्च॒ यथा॒ भव॑न्ति। तथापि॑ सप्ताहानुरू॒पक्रि॑यै॒र् नृभि॑र्लो॒के त॑द्वारानुसा॒री प्र॑भा॒वः क्रि॑यते। यथा॑ महानग॒रेषु॑ सप्ताहा॒न्ते भूय॑सा॒ वर्ष॑ति दे॒वः। बेङ्गळूरुमुम्बैनग॒रयो॑र् अदर्शं यत्राव॑सम्।

The week does not correspond to any physical duration. It is just an exact seven-fold of a day. It has no physical definition (like that of a year or a lunar month or a day). Still, because of men carrying out their activities in accordance with the week, the effect is accordingly created. For example, it rains a little more on weekends in big cities (I have observed this in Bengaluru and Mumbai, where I have lived).

[Rahul Vedi]

Dear Warrier mahodaya

Aryabhatta has given an explanation for the sequencing of the week day's names.
Surya Siddhanta also provides two shlokas on how to determine the lord of the weekday, month and year.

This was posted by Sudarshan Bharadwaj & Nilesh Nilkanth Oak on their WordPress page.

Aryabhatiya

To date, the best explanation for this particular ordering of the weekdays and their association with various grahas comes from a verse in the Aryabhatiya, composed by the Indian mathematician and astronomer Aryabhatta (Aryabhatiya, KalaKriya Pada, Verse, 16):

सप्तैते होरेशा: शनैश्चराद्या यथाक्रमं शीघ्रा:|
शीघ्रक्रमाच्च्तुर्था भवन्ति सूर्योदयाद् दिनपा: ||

The (above mentioned – mentioned in previous verse) seven Grahas beginning with Saturn, which are arranged in the order of increasing velocity, are the lords of the successive hours. The Grahas occurring fourth in the order of increasing velocity are the lords of the successive days, which are reckoned from Sunrise (in Lanka).

(Sanskrit word ‘Graha’ is generally translated as ‘planets’ in astronomical context. This is a mistake. The meaning of ‘graha’ is ‘one that grasps’. Thus, in the astronomical context, the word ‘graha’ means an astral object that grasps another astral object (e.g. ‘Graha’ approach-ing a nakshatra – a visual delusion, of course). It also means an astral body that exerts attractive force on the earth.)
What we have above is a ‘mnemonic device’. The original form or explanation can be understood or explained in few different ways.

The lords of the twentyfour hours (with hours being measured from sunrise at Lanka) are: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, respectively, and the lords of the seven days are: Saturn, Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, respectively.

The lord of the day is the lord of the first hour of that day, the day being measured from sunrise.


Surya Siddhanta

Surya Siddhanta has similar explanation (Bhugoladhyaya -78)

मन्दादध: क्रमेण स्युश्चतुर्था दिवसाधिप:
होरेशा सूर्यतनयादधोध: क्रमशस्तथा

Starting from the Saturn downward, the fourth graha is called the lord of the day. The graha starting from the Saturn successively downwards are the lords of the hour.

My copies of the Surya Siddhanta (Pt Madhava Prasad Purohit and a translation by Burgess/Ganguli) has a slightly different shloka number.

मदान्धःक्रमेण स्युश्चतुर्था दिवसाधिपाः  ।
वर्षाधिपतयस्तद्वत्तृतीयाश्च प्रकीर्तिताः  ॥  ७९  ॥
ऊर्ध्वक्रमेण शशिनो मासानामधिपाः स्मृताः  ।
होरेशाः सूर्यतनयादधोऽधः क्रमशस्तथा ॥ ८० ॥


Starting from the Saturn downward, the fourth graha is called the lord of the day. The graha starting from the Saturn successively downwards are the lords of the hour.
Downward sequencing from Saturn, third graha is lord of the year. Counting upwards from Moon is the lord of the month.

bhavadiiya

Vedi Rahul

On Wed, Aug 19, 2020 at 2:00 PM उ॒ज्ज्व॒लः <ujjwal....@gmail.com> wrote:

न केनापि॒ भौति॑केनाव॒धिना॒ संव॑दति॒ सप्ता॑हः। अह्नः॑ शु॒द्धः सप्त॑गुणो॒ हि सः। न कापि॒ तस्य॒ भौति॑की परिभा॒षा भ॑वति, वत्स॒रस्य॒ मास॒स्याह्न॑श्च॒ यथा॒ भव॑न्ति। तथापि॑ सप्ताहानुरू॒पक्रि॑यै॒र् नृभि॑र्लो॒के त॑द्वारानुसा॒री प्र॑भा॒वः क्रि॑यते। यथा॑ महानग॒रेषु॑ सप्ताहा॒न्ते भूय॑सा॒ वर्ष॑ति दे॒वः। बेङ्गळूरुमुम्बैनग॒रयो॑र् अदर्शं यत्राव॑सम्।

The week does not correspond to any physical duration. It is just an exact seven-fold of a day. It has no physical definition (like that of a year or a lunar month or a day). Still, because of men carrying out their activities in accordance with the week, the effect is accordingly created. For example, it rains a little more on weekends in big cities (I have observed this in Bengaluru and Mumbai, where I have lived).

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[Nagaraj Paturi]

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Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA.

Director,  Inter-Gurukula-University Centre , Indic Academy

BoS, MIT School of Vedic Sciences, Pune, Maharashtra

BoS, Chinmaya Vishwavidyapeeth, Veliyanad, Kerala

BoS Veda Vijnana Gurukula, Bengaluru.

Member, Advisory Council, Veda Vijnana Shodha Samsthanam, Bengaluru

Former Senior Professor of Cultural Studies, 

FLAME School of Communication and FLAME School of  Liberal Education, 

Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA.

 

 

 

[Nilesh Oak]

This is correct. And appears to be the reason why it was not followed with rigor in ancient India, in spite of its creation/invention in ancient India.

Warm regards,
Nilesh Oak