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Samayā

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The Ashoka Chakra has a spoke for each of 24 hours in a day.

Samaya (Sanskrit: समय, romanizedSamayā, lit.'Time')[1] or Samayam (Sanskrit: समयम्, romanizedSamayaṃ)[2] is a Sanskrit term referring to the "appointed or proper time, [the] right moment for doing anything."[3] In Indian languages, samayam, or samay in Indo-Aryan languages, is a unit of time.

Meaning

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In contemporary usage, samayam means time in Dravidian languages such as Kannada, Malayalam, and Tamil,[4] and samay in Indo-Aryan languages such as Bengali, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati.

Jainism

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Meaning

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Samaya represents the most infinitesimal part of time that cannot be divided further.[5] The blink of an eye, or about a quarter of a second, has innumerable samaya in it. For all practical purposes a second happens to be the finest measurement of time. Jainism, however, recognizes a very small measurement of time known as samaya, which is an infinitely small part of a second.

Measurements

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The following are measures of time as adopted by Jainism:

  • indivisible time = 1 samaya
  • innumerable samaya = 1 avalika
  • 16,777,216 avalika = 1 muhurta
  • 30 muhurtas = 1 day and night
  • 15 days and nights = 1 paksha (fortnight)
  • 2 pakshas = 1 month
  • 12 months = 1 year
  • innumerable years = 1 palyopam
  • 10 million million palyopams = 1 sāgaropam
  • 10 million million sāgaropams = l utsarpiṇī or 1 avasarpiṇī
  • 1 utsarpiṇī + avasarpiṇī = 1 kālchakra (one time cycle)

Example

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When an Arihant reaches the stage of moksha (liberation), the soul travels to the Siddhashila (highest realm in universe) in one samaya.

Hinduism

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Samayam is the basic unit of time in Hindu mythology. It is stated to be an epithet of Shiva in the Agni Purana.[6]

Other uses

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The samayachakra is the great chariot wheel of time which turns relentlessly forward.

Samayam is a term used in Indian classical music to loosely categorize ragas into times of day. Each raga has a specific period of the day (praharam) when it is performed.

In Gandharva-Veda the day is divided into three-hour-long intervals: 4–7 a.m., 7–10 a.m., etc. The time concept in Gandharva-Veda is more strictly adhered to than it would be, for example, in Carnatic music.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ www.wisdomlib.org (2014-08-03). "Samaya, Samayā, Samāya, Shamaya: 30 definitions". www.wisdomlib.org. Retrieved 2023-01-05.
  2. ^ Bodhi (2017-09-26). The Suttanipata: An Ancient Collection of the Buddha's Discourses Together with Its Commentaries. Simon and Schuster. p. 1531. ISBN 978-1-61429-454-2.
  3. ^ Monier-Williams, Sir Monier; Leumann, Ernst; Cappeller, Carl (1999). A Sanskrit-English Dictionary: Etymological and Philologically Arranged with Special Reference to Cognate Indo-European Languages. Asian Educational Services. p. 1164. ISBN 978-81-206-0369-1.
  4. ^ Andronov, Mikhail Sergeevich (2003). A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Languages. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 258. ISBN 978-3-447-04455-4.
  5. ^ Jain, Vijay K. (2018). Ācārya Kundakunda's Pravacanasāra – Essence of the Doctrine आचार्य कुन्दकुन्द विरचित "प्रवचनसार". Vikalp Printers. p. 180. ISBN 978-81-932726-1-9.
  6. ^ Books, Kausiki (2021-07-12). Agni Purana 1 : English Translation only. Kausiki Books. p. 460.