equal love and care. This is particularly
true in contemporary times, and given
the trend toward smaller families, the
birth of a daughter is cause for just as
much rejoicing as the birth of a son. See
also arranged marriage.
Day, Structure of
In some sense, most divisions of time
are arbitrary, which is a feature that
appears in several different dimensions
of the traditional Indian divisions of the
day. The twenty-four hours of the solar
day can be divided using several differ-
ent measures of time, some of which do
not exactly correspond with one another,
and these differing times can also be
subject to judgments about their sym-
bolic values. In one system, the day is
divided into eight equal periods (pra-
hars) of three hours each. These eight
periods mark the general progress dur-
ing the day and night, with the first of
these prahars ending at sunrise. Shorter
units of time are reckoned in periods of
about twenty-four minutes called
ghatikas, of which there are sixty in
every twenty-four hours. The ghatika
supposedly takes its name from the clay
pots (ghata) that were used to make
water-clocks; these pots measured time
by the amount of water that dripped
through a small hole. Two ghatikas make
a muhurta, of which there are thirty
during each twenty-four hours. The
reckonings of the day in prahars and
ghatikas thus do not exactly correspond
to one another, since each prahar has
7.5 ghatikas. Based on this, it would
seem that the former marks the more
general divisions of each day and the
latter more specific time periods.
The other way in which the times of
day can be viewed is with regard to their
symbolic value. The most auspicious
time of day is the “Time of Brahma”
(Brahma muhurta), the period immedi-
ately before sunrise. This is reckoned the
best time of the entire day for worship,
meditation, or any type of religious
practice. Although this is named a
muhurta, and thus should be limited to
forty-eight minutes, the Brahma muhurta
is often thought to encompass the entire
three hours in the day’s first prahar.
Hence, it is not unusual for devout
religious people to arise around 3 A.M.,
to take advantage of this period. In con-
trast, the immediately preceding prahar
(roughly midnight to 3 A.M.) is the most
inauspicious in the day, a time when
spirits and demonsare loose. Sleep is
the most appropriate activity for this
time; other activities are appropriate
only when absolutely necessary. The
only time religious practices are done
during this time is when they are part of
an all-night ceremony (jagaran), or a
continuous reading (akhand path) of a
religious text. In following the most
inauspicious and chaotic period with
the most auspicious, the cycle of the day
(as well as the year) mirrors that of the
cosmos, whose gradual and continuing
degeneration are suddenly replaced
with complete renewal and regeneration.
See also Cosmologyand Cosmic Time.Dayabhaga
(“division of inheritance”) Pivotal legal
text, written by the Bengali scholar
Jimutavahana(early twelfth century).
As its name would indicate, the
Dayabhagawas concerned with matters
of inheritance, partition, and the divi-
sion of property, and it eventually
became the primary legal code for the
entire Bengal cultural region. The inher-
itance pattern in the Dayabhagastresses
succession, which is very different from
the predominant Hindu pattern of sur-
vivorship. Survivorship vests all surviv-
ing males in the male line with equal
shares of the family property, but gives
no inheritance to women. Under this
arrangement, the death of a male heir
automatically increases the share of all
the other surviving males, whereas their
share decreases when another male is
born. Under the succession model in the
Dayabhaga, sonsdo not become share-
holders of the family property at birth,
but upon the death of their father. If a
son happens to die before his father, theDay, Structure of