How the days are named?

[anilkc]

How are the days of the week named ?
Why is somwar, mangalwar,...,raviwar so named? And which is the 1st day of the week and why?

[sanjeevmalik]

The first day of the week is "Ravivar". Ravi stands for Sun.

Every new day starts with a new morning with Sun rays the first to break the darkness. Hence the week's first day is Sunday (ravivar).

I am not sure about "Somvar", "Mangalvar", ..., "Sanivar", but I think it has some thing to do with the different grahs.

[bab_shinoo]

Then why is tht day a holiday ...dont you think the first day should be ful of energy n ppl should work ...rather than staying at home n doing nothing ...



Sanjeev Malik (Jun 15, 2004 01:45 p.m.):
The first day of the week is "Ravivar". Ravi stands for Sun.

Every new day starts with a new morning with Sun rays the first to break the darkness. Hence the week's first day is Sunday (ravivar).

I am not sure about "Somvar", "Mangalvar", ..., "Sanivar", but I think it has some thing to do with the different grahs.

[sanjeevmalik]

Phele jamane mein roj kam hota tha... Kathi-badi mein kya "ravivar" or kya "somwar"...


Babita (Jun 15, 2004 01:53 p.m.):
Then why is tht day a holiday ...dont you think the first day should be ful of energy n ppl should work ...rather than staying at home n doing nothing ...



Sanjeev Malik (Jun 15, 2004 01:45 p.m.):
The first day of the week is "Ravivar". Ravi stands for Sun.

Every new day starts with a new morning with Sun rays the first to break the darkness. Hence the week's first day is Sunday (ravivar).

I am not sure about "Somvar", "Mangalvar", ..., "Sanivar", but I think it has some thing to do with the different grahs.

[anilkc]

U r right sanjiv, the system of weekly work days and holidays and the 9-5 office time was introduced by the britishers. Indian traders worked everyday and anytime. The only closing (if u can call it that) was for festivals.

If u go by the christian thought that world was built in 7 days...i am not sure if they put on the light bulb 1st (sun) and then constructed the earth or gods worked in dark (they can see in dark) and put the light bulb on the last day ???

[anilkc]

Babita,
Sunday may be holiday for many, but its also a holy day. Sunday is the day christians go to church. The day is reserved for god and its a good way to start a week with prayers and thanks to god. But what has sun god to do with Jesus..i dont know. Maybe sun was the most important god and the name carried over though they changed the god.

but here we are talking abt indian names of the day, how these names originated?

[sanjeevmalik]

SUNDAY .... Sun's-day. The first day of the week, named for the Sun ..... Sun's-day

MONDAY .... Moon's-day. The second day of the week, named for the Moon..... Moon's-day

TUESDAY .... Mars's-day From the Roman warrior god Mars. Our culture adopted the Anglo-Saxon word for the warrior god of the Teutonic mythology Tiu or Tiw..... Tiw's-day.

WEDNESDAY .... Mercury's-day From the Roman god of peace and prosperity. Our culture adopted the Teutonic god Wotan..... Wotan's-day

THURSDAY .... Jupiter's-day From the Roman god of lightning, thunder and the husband of Juno. Our culture adopted the Scandinavian god Thor, known as the thunder-god ..... Thor's-day

FRIDAY .... Venus'-day Roman goddess of the spring seasons, Greek goddess of love. Our culture adopted the name Frigg, the Scandianavian goddess of Love ..... Frigg's-day.

SATURDAY .... Saturn's-day From the planet of the same name. A Roman god of planting and harvest..... Saturn's-day.

[anilkc]

so the indian names are a british import...when was this adopted? did indian calender have weekly day names before that?

[sanjeevmalik]

Sunday is called Ravivar is ruled by the Sun (Ravi)
Monday is called Somvar is ruled by the Moon (Soma)
Tuesday is called Mangalvar is ruled by Mars (Mangal)
Wednesday is called Budhvar is ruled by Mercury (Budh)
Thursday is called Guruvar is ruled by Jupiter (Bruhaspati or Guru)
Friday is called Shukravar is ruled by Venus (Shukra)
Saturday is Shanivar called is ruled by Saturn (Shani)

[rkumar]

anil chaudhary (Jun 15, 2004 03:06 p.m.):
so the indian names are a british import...when was this adopted? did indian calender have weekly day names before that?

Indians names for the week days vary from place to place;

Sunday=ravivar=Etwar
Monday=Somwar
Tuesday=Mangalvar
Wednesday=Budhwar
Thurday=Veervar= Brahspativar=Jummerat=Bepatvar
Friday=Shukravar=Jumma
Saturday=Shanivar=bar
I don't know abou all Jats but in my area, sunday is called Etvar.

I don;t think Indian names for thye days are taken from Romans. Indians knew astronoy much before Romans or anyone else. Calculations of planet paths by Indians are very accurate even now. Indians knew of polar star much before any one. Contribution of Europeans started much late.

Rajendra

[anilkc]

good info.
May be they took it from us and modified the backgrnd story.

[birbal]

Although some Chinese and some Hindus claim their respective calendars to be in use over 5000 years, the oldest calendar in continuous use is the Vikram Samvat (2061 now).

I remember an interesting story related to this topic. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto started his undergraduate education at the University of Southern California (USC) before Indian independence. In one class, a professor of British origin made a derogatory remark about India being primitive. Bhutto was so enraged that in front of the whole class he told the professor that when your ancestors were living like monkeys Indians had a flourishing civilization and they had the knowledge of the planetory motions to the extent that they had developed a calendar accurate till eternity ( as you know the Christian Calendar required correction of few days in middle age, Gregorian to Julian). Bhutto had to leave USC and move to Berkeley to complete his degree.

[anilkc]

etwar may be corrupted from aditwar..where adit or aditya means sun.

[birbal]

Etwar or itwar and Jumma etc are non-Indian in origin and brought in use by Muslims. Urdu is a mix of so many languages and dialects that I do not know which Islamic language these words came from.

[lrburdak]

Sanjeev ji,
You have shared very useful informations. Can any body provide links between Jats and Thursday. It is named after THOR the god of Scandinavians. Scandinavians have links with JAt history. It is named after SCANDNAM, a jat rishi.THORI is one of JAT gotra.
It is a matter of research.

[sanjeevmalik]

Dear Birbal Singh ji,

Very interesting incident to know.

Thanks.


Dr. Birbal Singh (Jun 15, 2004 03:50 p.m.):
Although some Chinese and some Hindus claim their respective calendars to be in use over 5000 years, the oldest calendar in continuous use is the Vikram Samvat (2061 now).

I remember an interesting story related to this topic. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto started his undergraduate education at the University of Southern California (USC) before Indian independence. In one class, a professor of British origin made a derogatory remark about India being primitive. Bhutto was so enraged that in front of the whole class he told the professor that when your ancestors were living like monkeys Indians had a flourishing civilization and they had the knowledge of the planetory motions to the extent that they had developed a calendar accurate till eternity ( as you know the Christian Calendar required correction of few days in middle age, Gregorian to Julian). Bhutto had to leave USC and move to Berkeley to complete his degree.