Bīrūnī, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad, Alberuni's India (v. 1)

(London :  Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.,  1910.)

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CHAPTER XXXIV.                         335

conditions of his soul, which originate either from desire
or fear, according to the conditions of his body, depend¬
ing upon the emptiness or fulness of his stomach, and
according to various accidents disturbing the kind of
humor which is considered the most desirable."

It is all the same whether we determine the prdnct
according to this rule (one nychthemeron = 21,600
prdna), or if we divide each ghati into 360 parts
(60 X 360 = 21,600), or each degree of the sphere into
sixty parts (360 X 60 = 21,600).

As far as this all Hindus agree with each other in vin&di.
the matter, though they use different terms. So, for
instance, Brahmagupta calls the cashaka or seconds
vindcti, likewise Aryabhata of Kusumapura. Besides
the latter calls the minutes nddii. Both, however, did
not use particles of time smaller than the prdna, which
correspond to the minutes of the sphere (60 X 360).
For Pulisa says : " The minutes of the sphere, which are
21,600, resemble the normal breaths of man at the time
of the equinoxes, and when man is in perfect health.
During one breathing of man the sphere revolves as far
as one minute."

Other people insert between minute and second a Kshana.
third measure, called kshana, which is equal to one-
fourth of a minute (or fifteen seconds). Each kshana
is divided into fifteen kald, each of which is equal to
one-sixtieth of a minute, and this is the cashaka, only
called by another name.

Among the lower orders of these fractions of time Nimesha,

-                           -                                 .                   -                         .             lava, truth

there occur three names which are always mentioned
in the same sequence. The largest is the nimesha, i.e.
the time during which the eye, in the normal state of
things, is open between two consecutive looks. The
lava is the mean, and the truti the smallest part of
time, the latter word meaning the cracking of the fore¬
finger against the inside of the thumb, which is with
them a gesture expressive of astonishment or admira-
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