Time!
Indian Stretchable Time is a common phrase with us Indians, we are constantly late be it meetings, weddings, get-togethers! We are not time conscious , this is something we are told time and again!
I was wondering about this as I was yet again late for another meeting with a friend. Is this trait historical, where did we inherit it collectively from? Coincidentally at this instant, my phone rang and a friend mentioned something about rahu kalam and a marriage muhurtam during the course of the call.
And that's when it hit me, our fore-fathers were so much more time conscious than we ever will be. For a country, where clocks and watches are not common or did not originate from, it is just amazing what our tradition has.
How else can we explain the importance of the time and our obsession with it be it a wedding muhurtham or tarpanam, rahu kalam, yama gandam etc.
I have come to realize that time is inherently central to the Indian tradition. This is apparent when we see how many things revolve around the time from sunrise or sunset, moon's transit. And the day of the week, the month, the year, the season everything including the equinoxes and solstices have been taken into account and used to calculate the best(auspicious) and worst(inauspicious) times. If time was not so central, it would not have mattered much and there would not have the incentive to get it right. If people had not been so time obsessive, how do we explain the Panchangam or Almanac? And how much Panchangam was used extensively say until a couple of decades ago and is still used?
Rituals are a central part of Hindu tradition and just about everything, everyday revolves around some prayer or activity to be done on a particular day during a particular time period. Indian tradition probably has more festivals than any other tradition. There are many instances that we still practice - muhurthams for anything auspicious from house warming, wedding, poonal etc, and the inauspicious times rahu kalam, yama gandam, chandrashthamam etc.
Alas, we have lost the importance of time along the way. Along with other disciplines, this is yet another to bite the dust!
I was wondering about this as I was yet again late for another meeting with a friend. Is this trait historical, where did we inherit it collectively from? Coincidentally at this instant, my phone rang and a friend mentioned something about rahu kalam and a marriage muhurtam during the course of the call.
And that's when it hit me, our fore-fathers were so much more time conscious than we ever will be. For a country, where clocks and watches are not common or did not originate from, it is just amazing what our tradition has.
How else can we explain the importance of the time and our obsession with it be it a wedding muhurtham or tarpanam, rahu kalam, yama gandam etc.
I have come to realize that time is inherently central to the Indian tradition. This is apparent when we see how many things revolve around the time from sunrise or sunset, moon's transit. And the day of the week, the month, the year, the season everything including the equinoxes and solstices have been taken into account and used to calculate the best(auspicious) and worst(inauspicious) times. If time was not so central, it would not have mattered much and there would not have the incentive to get it right. If people had not been so time obsessive, how do we explain the Panchangam or Almanac? And how much Panchangam was used extensively say until a couple of decades ago and is still used?
Rituals are a central part of Hindu tradition and just about everything, everyday revolves around some prayer or activity to be done on a particular day during a particular time period. Indian tradition probably has more festivals than any other tradition. There are many instances that we still practice - muhurthams for anything auspicious from house warming, wedding, poonal etc, and the inauspicious times rahu kalam, yama gandam, chandrashthamam etc.
Alas, we have lost the importance of time along the way. Along with other disciplines, this is yet another to bite the dust!