Verse 1.24 [Creation of Time]

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:

कालं कालविभक्तीश्च नक्षत्राणि ग्रहांस्तथा ।
सरितः सागरान् शैलान् समानि विषमानि च ॥ २४ ॥

kālaṃ kālavibhaktīśca nakṣatrāṇi grahāṃstathā |
saritaḥ sāgarān śailān samāni viṣamāni ca || 24 ||

[He created] also Time, the Divisions of Time, the Lunar Mansions, the Planets, the Rivers, the Oceans, the Mountains and the tracts of land, plain and rugged.—(24)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

The author mentions Time, because it belongs to the same category (of ‘action’) as Duty. It is only according to Vaiśesikas that Time is a substance; according to others it is a form of action; it consists in the extension of the motions of the Sun and other planets, and is liable to return.

‘Divisious of Time’—such divisions as into ‘month,’ ‘season,’ ‘half-year,’ ‘year’ and so forth.

‘Lunar Mansions’—such as Kṛttikā (Pleiades), Rohiṇī (Aldebaran) and the rest.

‘Planets’—Sun and the rest.

‘Rivers’—streams.

‘Oceans’—seas—and ‘Mountains.’

‘Even tracts of land’—such tracts of land as are of one uniform form, devoid of ditches and holes.—‘Rugged tracts of land’—such as are high and low.—(24)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

Medhātithi (p. 19, 1. 21)—It is interesting to note that even so late as Medhātithi’s time, the Lunar Mansions were counted from Kṛttikā onwards, and not from Aśvinī as in the more recent astronomical systems. (See Thibaut on ‘Indian Astronomy’ in Indian Thought Vol. I.)

This verse is quoted in the Gadādharapaddhati — Kālasāra, p. 5, as describing the creation of time and its divisions;—also in the Kālamādhava (p. 45) as describing the creation of time by God; it reads ‘vibhaktim’ for ‘vibhaktiḥ.’