This is the translation of my post in telugu with link
While going through some blogs, I have seen that the origin of "hour" is a sanskrit word "hora". This inspired me to write something about the calendar and Indian Astrology, though I don't know perfectly. Mathematics, "0".etc are not the only gifts to World from India, but also astrology and time measurement. I have seen related information in some telugu magazines such as Bhakti and Rishi Peetham. At first, I am going to write about the word "calendar". In a wikipedia essay, it was written that "Calendar" is a word having origin as "kalendae"..a latin word. I have read discussion about this topic in the magazine stated above. The origin of "Calendar" is a Sanskrit word "Kalam Dhara", i.e., one which wears time. So, one can define Calendar as a piece of paper which wears time.
This is a essay in a telugu daily AndhraBhoomi..from which I am translating some portion
Before, the English Gregorian calendar, which we are using currently, i.e., before 1739 A.D., foreigners celebrated March 25th as New year. Later, they changed it to January 1st. March 25th is very close to our "Ugadi" (in AP), "Gudi Padava" (in Maharastra.). As March was their first month, seventh month was september, this word is close to our sanskrit word "sapta (7)". October was eighth month, which is closer to our "astha (8)", November was ninth month, which is closer to our "nava (9)".. Decemeber was tenth month, which is closer to our "dasa (10)". August was once called as "Sextilis"...which is also close to our "shasta (6)".. If, we go on discussing this we finally come to a conclusion that Indians taught the world about how to measure the time.
One more proof for stating March was the first month once, is the day adjustments to February month. As, February was the last month in a year, the adjustment takes place in that month only i.e., we have 28 days in a year, and 29 days for leap year. Leap year, misses for every 100 year and won't miss for every 400 years. i.e, 1900, 2100,2200,2300 are not leap years. But 2000, 2400 are leap years.
Now, let us come to "hora". Vedic astroligists can explain better about this topic. But, as of now I am going to discuss something which I know. We know that visible planets are 9. sun, moon, mars, venus, mercury, jupiter, saturn, rahu, ketu. Even though, earth revolves about sun, Vedic astrologers consider sun as planet. Because, sun revolves about earth relatively due to earth rotation. Rahu and Ketu are shadow planets which are shadows of earth and moon; won't have materialistic structure hence omitted. So, we are left with 7 planets now. Vedic Astrologers believe that there is a "hora" cycle. in which each of the 7 planets show their influence on earth for a time period of "hora (i.e. hour)". Starting from sun..the order is like this sun, venus,mercury,moon, saturn, jupiter, mars.. This order repeats later. For a day we have 24 "hora"s...
A day will be dedicated to a planet, which is having its "hora" at the time of sunrise. So, on sunday we will have "Sun hora", at the time of sunrise. similarly its time for moon on monday so on. Following list is the week names in Gregorian and Indian and respective planets...
Gregorin name Indian Name "Hora" at sunrise belongs to
Sunday Ravivar Sun
Monday Somvar Moon
Tuesday Mangalvar Mars
Wednesday Budhavar Mercury
Thursday Guruvar/Brihaspativar Jupiter
Friday Sukravar Venus
Saturday Sanivar Saturn
Details about these "days"..and their Latin origins are available in their respective wikipedia essays. I heard that Vedic Astrologers take Ujjain as the standard for calculations in India. Interested people can do research on thess facts. By the way, I would like to say about my home town Kakinada. Longitude of 82 1/2, Indian Standard Time. passes very close to Kakinada. Hence, time of Kakinada is the standard time for entire India.
The concept of 24 hours for day is also belongs to Indians, which is related to "hora" discussed above. In India, "day" begins with the sunrise and ends with next sunrise i.e, A day changes at the time of sunrise only. Not at 12'O clock midnight, as maximum people believe now a days..
I would like to add one more point to this discussion. According to Indian Puranas, Yavanas (ancient greeks) belongs to India only. They left vedic studies and went to those areas and occupied Italy also. There, they constructed "Ramanagaram"..and were called as "Ramakas"... I read some where that "Ramanagaram" is "Rome" and "Ramakas" are "Romans". (So, Sonia Gandhi also belongs to India..!). Max Muller, denied this reference, by giving some silly reasons such as names are matching, etc.. I am not having much knowledge in this. This might be relation between Latin and Sanskrit..
