The 7 day week is not really based on western calendar. Firstly, lets look at how classic JyothishShastra of the Vedas answers to these questions:
Why do we have only 7 days in a week?
Why can't we have 8 or 9?
What is
an hour?
Why do we have only 24 hours in a day?
Why can't we have 30 or
40 units and call it an hour?
Ancient Indians were so well
versed that they often used 4 to 5 different units of time. If you ask
your Indian grand mother, she might have told you that during her days,
people measured time in a weird unit called ghati/ghadiya (1 ghati = 24
minutes).
1 day is the time lapsed between two sunrises. Sandhi
in sanskrit means knot or junction and hence the junction points are
named as pratah sandhya and sayam sandhya which divide the standard day
into two halves i.e from sunrise to sunset and sunset to the next
sunrise. Since there are 12 zodiac constellations, each constellation is
assigned a part of the half a day unit and hence 12 parts in half a day
each, together 12+12 = 24 units. This is the conceptOfHora.
(Yes, hora is the standard hour. English unit of time and Sanskrit unit
of time named similarly. Strange coincidence, don't you think so?) Just
as there are constellations associated with each hora, each graha is
assigned rulership of individial hora. The order of the planetary
rulership of horas is as follows.
1) Surya (Sun) followed by 2)
Shukra (Venus) followed by 3) Budh (Mercury) followed by 4) Soma (Moon)
followed by 5) Shani (Saturn) followed by 6) Guru (Jupiter) followed by
7) Mangal (Mars).
In JyothishShastra, the rising sign at the
time of sunrise is noted down and is considered very important to make
any astronomical/astrological calculations regarding a chart, esp. to
find out the janma lagna, it is is very essential. So, the rising sign
is very important. Likewise, the planetary rulership of the hora during
the time of sunrise is noted down. The planet that rules the hora at the
time of sun rise is assigned the rulership of the whole day. And hence,
The day Ravi-var (or Sun-day) is named after Ravi/Sun who is assigned
lordship of the day because he rules the hora at the time of sunrise of
that day. Now, following Sun, the next hour after sunrise is ruled by
Shukra followed by the rest. In the above mentioned order of rulership
of horas, calculate the next ruling planet that comes after 24 horas,
i.e
1st hour by Ravi,
2nd hour by Shukra,
3rd hour by Budh,
4th
hour by Soma,
5th hour by Shani,
6th hour by Guru,
7th hour by Mangal,
8th hour by Ravi,
9th hour by Shukra,
10th hour by Budh,
11th hour by
Soma,
12th hour by Shani,
13th hour by Guru,
14thth hour by Mangal,
15th hour by Ravi,
16th hour by Shukra,
17th hour by Budh,
18th hour by
Soma,
19th hour by Shani,
20th hour by Guru,
21st hour by Mangal,
22nd hour by Ravi,
23rd hour by Shukra,
24th hour by Budh
25th hour by Soma
As you see it turns out that Soma is the ruler of the next day's sun rise. And hence, the next day Soma-var (or Mon-day) is named after Chandra/Moon who is
assigned lordship of the day because he rules the hora at the time of
that day's sunrise. In the same order,
Mangal-var (Tuesday) for
Mangal/Mars being the hora ruler at sunrise, Budh-var (Wednesday) for
Budha/Mercury being the hora ruler at sunrise, Guru-var (Thursday) for
Deva Guru Brihaspathi/Jupiter being the hora ruler at sunrise,
Shukra-var (Friday) for Shukra/Venus being the hora ruler at sunrise,
Shani-var (Satur-day) for Shani/Saturn being the hora ruler at sunrise,
Now after Saturday, the cycle reverts to 1) with Surya being the ruler
of the hora at the time of next day's sunrise. This is the reason why
there are only 7 days in a week based on these calculations of hora and
their planetary rulership as mentioned in the vedic texts.
One
may be a Christian, Muslim, Sikh or Jew, knowingly or unknowingly they
follow the methods of the ancient Indian rishis. This is the reason why
Hindu dharma is called Sanatana dharma (i.e eternal and expansive in its
very nature). It is funny how the whole world believes that the 7 day
week is a western concept!
Thanks to Mr.Vivek Tripathi
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