24 JULY 2019 THE ASTROLOGICAL eMAGAZINE
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commentary on the same. Retranslates it as “The
same to-day, the same tomorrow, the irreprochable
dawns precede the distant course of Varuna by
thirty yojanas and each in succession revolves in its
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darkness, who according to the Scholiast, revolves
jdaily round Mount Meru, the centre of the earth,
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dawn being always thirty yojanas in advance of his
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of the east- Sayana adds, that the period called dawn,
is reckoned from the disappearance of the stars to
the appearance of the Sun and is measured as to the
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ghatika at its lowest valuation of half a muhurta or 24
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allotted to the dawn, which is evidently erroneous.
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travels at the rate of about 84 yojanas, in one ghatika
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is in time less than half a ghatika before the. Sun,
a more correct estimate than the 22 ghatikas of the
commentator.”Was Sayatta wrong? Is he ignorant of the duration of
the twilight? Has he made irresponsible statements
of his own? No. Mr. Wilson could not follow the
interpretation of Sayana. Whenever Veda indulges
in a guhya statement, Sayana makes an attempt to
keep it up, but all the same tries to help the reader
as much as possible. ln the vedic mantra there is
an ‘Arshaprayoga’ to keep a secret. Trimsatam a
peculiar usage. ‘Trimsat’ means thirty and ‘Trisatam’
means three hundred. The word used by the Rishi is
neither ‘Trimsat’ nor ‘Trisatam’ but ‘Trimasatam’.
According to Yaska we must take the meaning of
the word ‘Trimastam’ which gives correct value
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bhashya (commentary) that it is the interval betweenthe moment when the stars begin to dim and moment
just preceding the sun-rise. (Yata Nakshatrani Na
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the stars begin to dim at night (Sa Chaikavimsati
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take the correct value of ghati and para we arrive at
the real sense. The day is divided into twelve Rasis
and each Rasi into four parts called ghatis and each,
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is 24 ghati. It is stated by Sayana on the authority
of the Veda itself that the stars begin to dim i.e., the
twilight starts at 21 ghatis and 21 paras. This is done
by Sayana on the authority of R. V., 1-12:14 wherein
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hi - statement it follows that the duration of twilight
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minutes of time. Thus is the duration of twilight
on the equator at the equinox according to Rig-
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duration of twilight increase a the declination of the
Sun increases at that place on ayana (solstitial) day.
That on the ayana-day, the day maximum declination
of the sun the duration of twilight for the equatorial
observer gets lengthened. According to modern
mathematical processes, the duration of twilight at
any part of the equator on any day of the year is given
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sec D), where T is the duration of twilight in hours
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above that the vedic constant of twilight as stated in
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stated by westerners).From the vedic constant if we
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