Vedic system of time keeping

Source: – Joseph T Noony / Twitter.

Once upon a time, long before the British, we had our own Vedic system of time keeping. We had 30 muhurtas in a day. Life was quicker paced, organized and more efficient. Each muhurta had a name too. #missingVedicTimes pic.twitter.com/43RumjoDKS

— Joseph T Noony (@JoeAgneya) October 27, 2017

How did the Vedic people measure the muhurta? How was it standardized across the Vedic civilization to prevent regional asynchrony?
By the use of Clepsydras(water clocks) until Vedic mathematics and astronomy was rigorous enough to arrive at horological constants independently.

— Joseph T Noony (@JoeAgneya) June 10, 2018

The oldest explicit instruction for measuring the muhurta is found in the 𝘝𝘦𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘢 𝘑𝘺𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘢 of Lagadha, the 1st treatise of astronomy. It is datable quite dependably to~1400BCE by references in verses 6 &7 (1340-1370 BCE using various siddhantas for back calculation)

— Joseph T Noony (@JoeAgneya) June 10, 2018

Lagadha, the Vedic astronomer defines the Muhurta as:
"A vessel which holds 50 palas of water is the measure adhaka. Four times this is the drona. This lessened by three kudavas(3/16 adhaka) is the volume equivalent of the length of one nadika of time"
-Vedanga Jyotisha 24

— Joseph T Noony (@JoeAgneya) June 10, 2018

"Two nadikas make one muhurta. Thirty times a muhurta is one day which equals 603 Kalas"
– Yajur Vedanga Jyotisha verse 38

— Joseph T Noony (@JoeAgneya) June 10, 2018

Vedic divisions of time are much older; the muhurta, drona etc already appear in a highly developed form in the Brahmana literature.
By the time of the 𝘈𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢, Acharya Kautilya was already trying to empirically arrive at an accurate measure of muhurta.

— Joseph T Noony (@JoeAgneya) June 10, 2018

"The 𝙣𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙖 is the time taken for 1 𝙖𝙙𝙝𝙖𝙠𝙖(1.87L of water) to flow out of a pot with a hole of the same diameter as a wire 4 𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙪𝙡𝙖𝙨 long and made of 4 𝙢𝙖𝙨𝙝𝙖𝙨 of gold. A muhurta is 2 nalikas"
-Arthashastra II.20.29-34

The hole is approximately 0.6 mm.

— Joseph T Noony (@JoeAgneya) June 10, 2018

"The 𝙣𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙖 is the time taken for 1 𝙖𝙙𝙝𝙖𝙠𝙖(1.87L of water) to flow out of a pot with a hole of the same diameter as a wire 4 𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙪𝙡𝙖𝙨 long and made of 4 𝙢𝙖𝙨𝙝𝙖𝙨 of gold. A muhurta is 2 nalikas"
-Arthashastra II.20.29-34

The hole is approximately 0.6 mm.

— Joseph T Noony (@JoeAgneya) June 10, 2018

Back in the day, there were sun dials. Learned Indians could tell time even without dials or clocks. They would observe the shadow cast by the sun and, knowing the direction,could tell muhurta. Below is a sun clock at Sivayoginathar temple(600 AD);markings renovated by British pic.twitter.com/OBRONSVGW0

— Joseph T Noony (@JoeAgneya) October 27, 2017