Samayā

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For other uses, see Samaya (disambiguation).
The Ashoka Chakra has a spoke for each of 24 hours in a day.

Samaya (Sanskrit: समय, romanized: Samayā, lit. 'Time')[1] or Samayam (Sanskrit: समयम्, romanized: Samayaṃ)[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.

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.

Uses

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

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

Jainism

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See also: Jain units of time

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.

A samaya is the amount of time it takes for the soul of an arihant to travel to the Siddhashila (highest realm in the universe) after reaching the stage of moksha (liberation).

Hinduism

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Samayam is stated to be an epithet of Shiva in the Agni Purana.[6]

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.