[INDOLOGY] Sunrise in the West & twelve dandas

[Lubomir Ondracka]

That confuses me too. You are right, normally a day (and its counting) should start with the sunrise. But then the 12th daṇḍa would be around 11 am and the sentence "And people, thinking the night is over, started their home chores" would not make good sense.

It is more simple to understand it as: "And people, thinking the night is over, [although the Sun rose up in the west,] started their home chores" So it rose up in usual time, but at unusual place. And since daṇḍa is definitely 48 minutes, to start with the first daṇḍa at midnight fits well. But it is just my construction, I have no evidence for it.

It would be useful to see the original text.

Lubomir


On Tue, 3 May 2016 13:34:50 -0400
Harry Spier <hspier.muktabodha at gmail.com> wrote:

> >
> >
> >
> > > > Prof. Barbara Grabowska of the South Asian Studies Deptt (University of
> > > > Warsaw) asks me to ask you about the meaning of the phrase "*twelve
> > > > dandas*".
> > > >
> > > > The phrase appears in the Rupram Cakravarti's Dharmamangal (XVII c.).
> > The
> > > > text says that if the sunrise will take place in the west, the God
> > Dharma
> > > > will start to be revered and receive sacrifices on this Earth. The
> > hero of
> > > > the Mangal prays for the sunrise to take place in the west at the
> > twelfth
> > > > danda. And people, thinking that the night is over, started their home
> > > > chores.
> >
> 
> What confuses me about this quote is the phrase "And people, thinking the
> night is over, started their home chores".
> 
> Doesn't the medieval  solar day go from sunrise to sunrise not from
> midnight to midnight ( or is the Bengali calendaric system  different) so
> the 12th daNDa would be from 4 hours 24 minutes after sunrise to 4 hours 48
> minutes after sunrise. I.e.very  late morning not early morning.
> 
> Harry Spier