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

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

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(   364   )
 

CHAPTEE  XL.

ON THE SAMDHI, THE INTEEVAL BETWEEN TWO PEEIODS
OF TIME, FOEMING THE CONNECTING LINK BETWEEN
THEM,
 

Page 184.
Explanation
of the two
samdhis.
 

Story of
King Hiran-
yakasipu
and his son
Prahlada.
 

The original samdhi is the interval between day and
night, i.e. morning-dawn, called samdhi udaya, i.e. the
saihdhi of the rising, and evening dawn, called sam¬
dhi astamana, i.e. the sctmdhi of the setting. The
Hindus require them for a religious reason, for the
Brahmans wash themselves during them, and also at
noon in the midst between them for dinner, whence an
uninitiated person might infer that there is still a third
sariidhi. However, none who knows the subject pro¬
perly will count more than two samdhis.

The Puranas relate the following story of King Hiran-
yakasipu, of the class of the Daitya :—

By practising devotion for a long period, he had
earned the claim that any prayer of his should be
granted. He asked for eternal life, but only long life
was granted to him, for eternity is a quality of the
Creator alone. Not having obtained the realisation
of this wish, he desired that his death should not be
effected by the hand of a human being, angel, or demon,
and that it should not take place on earth nor in heaven,
neither in the night nor in the day. By such clauses
he meant to avoid death, which is unavoidable by man.
His wish was granted to him.

This wish reminds one of the wish of the devil that
he should be allowed to live till the day of resurrection,
  Page 364