Thanks, Mak.

The ideal year of 360 days was carried over into the Puranic system of kalpas, also known as days of Brahmā. A year of Brahmā lasts for 360 of his days (along with their 360 nights). The duration of a kalpa in human years is based on this year of 360 days. So is the 100-years duration of Brahmā's life, which, in turn, continues with the Vedic (already present in the R̥gveda) notion of 100 years as the ideal human lifetime.

Luis
_____

On 3/18/2016 5:48 PM, Bill Mak wrote:
As far as the number 360 and the months are concerned, it should be noted that there is the idea of sāvanamāsa or "civil month", which is an ideal month consisted of exactly 30 days. Hence, 12 civil months would make up an ideal year of 360 days. This notion is suggested in most older jyotiṣa texts, from Vedaṅgajyotiṣa to Yavanajātaka though not necessarily spelt out explicitly and is not known to be applied in any known calendar in India. Hence, among the uniquely Indian four types of months, one finds beside saura (solar, c. 30.5 days), cāndra (synodic, c. 29.5 days), nākṣatra (sidereal, c. 27.3 days), but also sāvana (30 days). Kumārajīva (4th century) in his description of the Indian (Vedic) months gave the values of these four months which are identical to VJ. YJ 79.11 gives definition of sāvanamāsa (triṃśaddināḥ sāvanamāsa) and the lord of the year system in YJ 79.54 suggests also a year consisted of 360 days.

Bill Mak 

-- 
Bill M. Mak, PhD
Associate Professor

Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University
Yoshidahonmachi, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, Japan 606-8501
〒606-8501 京都市左京区吉田本町
京都大学人文科学研究所

email: mak@zinbun.kyoto-u.ac.jp
Tel:+81-75-753-6961
Fax:+81-75-753-6903

copies of my publications may be found at:
http://www.billmak.com

On 2016/03/19, at 6:54, Jean-Michel Delire wrote:

I agree about the very common division of the year into 360 days (and nights), plus 5 additive days (sometimes called epagomenoi). It also existed in Ancient Egypt. On the other hand, the 12 months are not the 28 days months, which are sideral months (the moon passes through all the constellations/naksatras in about 27,5 days), but the synodic months during which the moon goes from one relative position to the sun - by instance a full moon - to the next similar position, through last quarter, new moon and first quarter. The synodic duration, of 29,5 days approximately, is much closer to 30 days. This was already known by the Vedanga Jyotisa, although the duration of the year is 366 days in that case.

Jean Michel Delire, University of Brussels


That's true Dominik, but we must consider that any tradition that counts
the days in a year ends up with 360 days, a good divisible number, plus
5. It happens in Mesoamerican calendars, where those "extra" days are
considered negative or empty. They are called /nemontemi/ in Nahuatl.

So a symbolical year of 360 plus days doesn't automatically mean that
its origin is Mesopotamian. 360 can easily be divided by 12 to give 12
months, and this can be correlated with the 27/28 days in a lunar
cycle/month. It is not a perfect fit, which is why most calendars end up
being soli-lunar, with either extra months or days. But 360 is a good
symbolical number in a decimal system in addition to its importance as a
sexagesimal one.

Luis
_____

On 3/18/2016 12:17 PM, Dominik Wujastyk wrote:
The reference to 360 spokes is a sexagesimal number expressed in
decimal.  This certainly points to the mathematical traditions of
Mesopotamia.

--
Professor Dominik Wujastyk* <http://ualberta.Academia.edu/DominikWujastyk>
Singhmar Chair in Classical Indian Society and Polity
Department of History and Classics
<http://historyandclassics.ualberta.ca/>
University of Alberta, Canada

On 18 March 2016 at 08:52, George Thompson <gthomgt@gmail.com
<mailto:gthomgt@gmail.com>> wrote:

   Hello all,

   Madhav's passage is RV 1.164.11.  By chance, I've been looking at
   this hymn today.

   George Thompson

   On Fri, Mar 18, 2016 at 9:04 AM, Madhav Deshpande
   <mmdesh@umich.edu <mailto:mmdesh@umich.edu>> wrote:

       The idea of a rotating wheel of time goes all the way back to
       the Rigveda: dv?da??ra? na hi taj jar?ya vavarti cakram pari
       dy?m ?tasya (don't have the textual ref at hand).  The idea of
       the spokes of the wheel going up and down is referred to in
       Sanskrit lit in many places with expressions like
       cakra-nemi-krama and cakr?rapa?kti.

       Madhav Deshpande

       On Fri, Mar 18, 2016 at 8:42 AM, Artur Karp <karp@uw.edu.pl
       <mailto:karp@uw.edu.pl>> wrote:

           Dear List,

           Mahabharata I, 29. 2-5 and Sumangalavilasini
           (Buddhaghosa's commentary to Mahaparinibbana-sutta)  VI,
           26  contain images of a revolving wheel (with 360?
           spokes), guarded by figures with swords in hands, and by
           two serpents. Vi?vakarma/Vissakamma is mentioned as the
           wheel's constructor.

           Is that - or similar - image present somewhere else in the
           ancient Indian literature?

           Thanks in advance for your comments -

           Artur Karp

           South Asian Studies Deptt (emeritus), University of
           Warsaw, Poland

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