Also notice that, seven day week is a Hindu concept, starting from Sunday(Adivara) and ending on the seventh day Saturday(Shanivara).
Hindu concept of seven day week is much older and has other associated astronomical issues. In Judaism, seven day week is taken for granted without any introspection on it. There is no development of ideas or background on the issue, which indicates that this concept was borrowed, ready-made, from another culture(most probably Hindus).
Judaism is not the only culture to do so. Other cultures have also done this. All of them have seven day week. But none of these cultures are old. And none of them have any associated astronomy with it to decide why it should be seven days and which day corresponds to which planet(or deity).
In Hinduism, seven day week is associated with lot of astronomy. Even the modern-day 'Hour' is derived from 'Hora' of Hinduism.
Also, the sanskrit word for a week is Saptah.
Saptah->Haptah(Persian)->Haftah->Afta(Urdu)
In sanskrit, Sapta means seven.
It is possible that Shabat(Sabbath) is a corruption of some derivative of Sapta.
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Bhaskaracharya's Law of Gravity
Did you know that the famous Hindu astronomer, Bhaskaracharya in his Surya Siddhanta wrote:
"Objects fall on the earth due to a force of attraction by the earth. Therefore, the earth, planets, constellations, moon and sun are held in orbit due to this attraction."
It was not until 1687, 1200 years later did Issac Newton "rediscover" the Law of Gravity.
In Surya Siddhanta, dated 400-500 AD, the ancient Hindu astronomer Bhaskaracharya states,
"Objects fall on the earth due to a force of attraction by the earth. Therefore, the earth, planets, constellations, moon, and sun are held in orbit due to this force."
Approximately 1200 years later (1687 AD), Sir Isaac Newton rediscovered this phenomenon and called it the Law of Gravity.
Link
The sanskrit word 'graha' is generally translated as 'planets', in astronomical context. This is a mistake, IMHO. The actual meaning of 'graha' is 'grasping'. So, in astronomical context, the word 'graha' should mean 'a body that exerts attractive force on earth'.
9 Grahas are listed by Indians:
1) Sun (Ravi/Aditya)
2) Moon (Soma/Chandra)
3) Mars (Mangal)
4) Mercury (Budha)
5) Jupiter (Guru/Brihaspati)
6) Venus (Shukra)
7) Saturn (Shani)
8 ) Rahu
9) Ketu
Rahu and Ketu are called chaya(shadow) graha(bodies exerting attractive force on earth). They are merely shadow bodies and therefore, the actual grahas are only 7. These 7 grahas are used to denote the 7 weekdays.
1) Sun (Ravi/Aditya) - Sunday (In Indian astrology, Sun is considered the King of the grahas).
2) Moon (Soma/Chandra) - Moonday or Monday ( In Indian astrology, Moon is considered a minister or a weak king of the grahas. Moon is called Soma. 'Soma' also means elixir. Essentially, Moon is considered the reason for the formation of medicinal
3) Mars (Mangal) - Tuesday (in Latin, it is called dies of Mars i.e. day of Mars. Mars is a god of war according to the romans. The etymology of Tuesday comes from 'Tiw's day' Tiw is a god of war just like Mars. In fact, one could say that Tiw is another avatar of Mars. But, why is Mars associated with wars? In Indian astrology/jyothishya, there is a dosha called Mangala. People with this dosha are called Mangliks. If an unmarried person has a mangala dosha, then he/she should marry a person with the same dosha. The idea is that a person with mangala dosha(Mars affliction) will be aggressive and passionate. It is better if such a person marries another aggressive and passionate person. So, in Indian astrology, Mars symbolizes aggression and passion, not necessarily war. In Japanese, Tuesday is called fire day because Mars is called fire star.)
4) Mercury (Budha) - Wednesday (in Latin, it is called dies of Mercury i.e. day of Mercury. The etymology of Wednesday comes from Woden's day. Woden is interpreted as the germanic mercury god.)
5) Jupiter (Guru/Brihaspati) - Thursday (in Latin, it is Jupiter's day. The etymology of Thursday is 'Thor's day'. Thor is a germanic god who weilds a mighty hammer.)
6) Venus (Shukra) - Friday (in Latin, it is dies of veneris i.e. a day of Venus. The etymology of Friday is 'Frigg's day'. The germanic goddess Frigg is associated with the roman goddess Venus)
7) Saturn (Shani) - Saturnday or Saturday
The 7 weekdays(starting with Sunday and ending with Saturday) is, thus, an Indian invention(or discovery), which was copied by others. They even wove theology around it(sabbaths
).
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LORDS OF THE HOURS AND DAYS
16. The (above-mentioned) seven planets beginning with Saturn, which are arranged in the order of increasing velocity, are the lords of the successive hours. The planets occurring fourth in the order of increasing velocity are the lords of the successive days, which are reckoned from sunrise (at Lanka).3
That is to say, the lords of the twenty-four hours (the hours being reckoned 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, and Mars, respectively;
and the lords of the seven days are :
Saturn, Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus, respectively.
The lord of a day is the lord of the first hour of that day, the day being measured from sunrise at Lanka.
It is to be noted that the lords of the hours and the days are to be reckoned from sunrise at Lanka (and not from sunrise at the local place). Since Aryabhata I mentions, in the above rule, sunrise without specifying that it refers to Lanka, Brahmagupta finds occasion to criticise him.
Writes he :
"The statement of Aryabhafa, v/z., 'Reckoned from sunrise, the planets occurring fourth (in the order of increasing velocity) are the lords of the successive days' is not true, because he has himself declared sunset at Siddhapura when it is sunrise at Lanka."1
On this criticism, Brahmagupta's commentator Prthndaka comments :
"This is a phantom of a defect, for, in the Dasagitika, Aryabhafa has (already) said—'from sunrise at Lanka'.1'
As regards the first day of the week cycle, it is perhaps implied in the above rule that it was Saturday. Vajesvara (A.D. 904) is the only Hindu mathematician who supposed that the world-order commenced on Saturday. He has criticised Brahmagupta for starting the Kalpd
on Sunday :
"The lords of the hours, days, months and years have been stated by Brahma to succeed one another in the order of increasing velocity beginning with Saturn and not with the Sun. Even
the order of the planets are not known to him."*
As far as I understand, no other culture gives any reason for why a particular planet is associated with a particular day of the week. Only the Indian jyothish (Hora-shaasthra) gives the reason. Not some folk-lore reason, rather an astronomical one. So, that should clinch the argument that weekdays is an Indian invention which was borrowed/copied by the others.
What is the reason for particular planet being associated with a particular day of the week?
Firstly, one needs to understand that a day is divided into 24 horas. A 'hora' is a time-division. Most probably, 'hour' is derived from 'hora'. Each hora is associated with a graha.
There are nava-grahas according to Hindhus(Indians). It is a common mistake to equate graha with planet. But, graha does not mean planet.
The sanskrit word 'graha' is generally translated as 'planets', in astronomical context. This is a mistake, IMHO. The actual meaning of 'graha' is 'grasping'. So, in astronomical context, the word 'graha' should mean 'a body that exerts attractive force on earth'.
9 Grahas are listed by Indians:
1) Sun (Ravi/Aditya)
2) Moon (Soma/Chandra)
3) Mars (Mangal)
4) Mercury (Budha)
5) Jupiter (Guru/Brihaspati)
6) Venus (Shukra)
7) Saturn (Shani)
8 ) Rahu
9) Ketu
Rahu and Ketu are called chaya(shadow) graha(bodies exerting attractive force on earth). They are merely shadow bodies and therefore, the actual grahas are only 7. These 7 grahas are used to denote the 7 weekdays.
Rahu and Ketu are solar and lunar nodes. The fact that they are called 'chaya'(Shadow) also indicates that Indians understood the eclipse in the same way as the modern understanding is. Infact, one could say that the modern understanding is derived from the Indian understanding. When the indian knowledge of mathematics, astronomy and medicine spread to europe and middle east, the modern sciences in their present form were created.
So, the 7 grahas are the 7 astronomical bodies that exert pull on the earth and earthlings. Therefore, other astronomical bodies that do no exert this pull or exert a insignificant pull are ignored, IMHO. Thats the reason for ignoring Neptune, Uranus and Pluto.
These 7 grahas are associated with 24 horas. The day of the week is decided based on the hora in which the sun rises on the day. According to Hindhus(Indians), the day starts with sun rise and continues till the next sun rise. Between the two sun rises, there are 24 horas. When a sun rises in the hora associated with jupiter, it is called jupiter's day i.e. Guruvaaram. Thats the methodology.
Aryabhatta mentions Shani(Saturn) first. I think he does that because Shani(Saturn) is the slowest graha i.e. it takes the longest time in a revolution around the sun. Infact, the word 'shani' seems to be related to 'shanaihi' which means 'slowly'. Starting from Shani, he says that the other planets are faster. I don't think he meant Saturn-day (Shanivaaram) to be the first day of the week.
Because, Sunday is specifically known as 'Aadhi-vaaram' i.e. first-day and in almost all jyothishya treatises, sunday is treated as the first day of the week whenever the weekdays are mentioned. Bhaskara says that Sunday is the first. Aryabhatta does not explicitly say which day is the first day of the week.
In Judaism, 'God' is supposed to have worked for 6 days and then rested on the 7th day. That means, that their week also starts from the Sunday and ends on Saturnday(which they consider to be a holiday).
In X-ism, Sunday was chosen as sabbath because of the pagan association of the Sun God(Mithra) with Sunday.
In Malsi, Friday was chosen just to get sabbath before jews and X-ists.
I searched for a reference for a weekdays in Ramayana and MB, but I have not been successful. Maybe I missed and others can verify. But, there definitely seems to be references to weekdays in Puranas. Infact, I had created an excel sheet on Nava-grahas for my understanding sometime back based on Puranas and Jyothisya. I am linking a screenshot to it.
Link
Sunday is supposed to be a very holy day according to the Hindhuism. All days are holy and are associated with different Gods and Goddesses, but Sunday seems to have a special significance. Infact, it seems that Meat and Sex are supposed to be shunned on Sunday.
There is a hithopadhesha story involving a jackal, deer and crow. The story briefly goes like this:
There was once a deer in a forest. It was well-fed and healthy. It had a friend, crow. Once upon a time, a jackal saw the deer and wanted to eat it. But, the deer was quite strong and healthy, so the jackal could not hunt it. So, it tried subterfuge. Jackal went to deer and offered friendship. Deer accepted it and took it to crow. Crow and jackal used to be neighbours along with friends. The crow was not happy with deer's decision to befriend the jackal(who was an unknown stranger with unknown motivations and history). But, jackal made sentimental and rhetorical protests against the crow's suspicions and convinced them of his honesty. Then, both of them accepted the jackal as friend.
One day, when the crow went to some other place on some business, jackal spoke to deer,"dear friend, there is a wonderful field of crop just outside the jungle. You can feast in it..." The deer was initially afraid that the farmer of the field would attack it, but soon it was lured by the jackal. Jackal promised to keep guard while the deer ate in the field. So, they went and feasted on the field of crops. This became a routine. The farmer of the crop was fed up with this and put a net to catch the deer. One day, when the crow was not in town, jackal and deer again went to the field. But, this time, the deer got caught in the net. Immediately, it started crying for help from the jackal.
Deer said,"Oh friend, quickly cut open this net. I am trapped, if the farmer comes, he'll kill me."
But the wily jackal said,"I am so sorry my friend. I would have definitely released you, but the net seems to be made of animal fibre. Today is Sunday and I don't eat meat today. So, I can't cut that net today. I'll release you tomorrow morning. Till then, I'll wait here..."
And then the jackal waited for the farmer to come and kill the deer, so that he could feast on it. But, the crow came back to forest and learnt the truth and immediately came to the help of the deer.
But, the farmer was already coming to kill the deer. So, crow devised a plan. It instructed somethings to deer. And the deer followed the instructions. The deer lied down on the ground and acted like dead. It pulled in all the air and tried to look bloated. Meanwhile, crow pretended to peck on the deer's eyes. Seeing that scene, farmer thought the deer was dead. So, he casually opened the net. Immediately the deer scooted from the place. Farmer threw the stick on the deer, but it missed the deer and hit the jackal which died on the spot.
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Link to pdf of aryabhattiya translation in English
. Somebody please help out?
