Pahar (

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

পহর,

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

/ Nepali: पहर, Punjabi: ਪਹਾੜ,

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

: ), which is more commonly pronounced peher () is a traditional

unit of time A unit of time is any particular time interval, used as a standard way of measuring or expressing duration. The base unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), and by extension most of the Western world, is the second, defined as ...

used in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

, and

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

. One ''pahar'' nominally equals three

hour An hour (symbol: h; also abbreviated hr) is a unit of time historically reckoned as of a day and defined contemporarily as exactly 3,600 seconds ( SI). There are 60 minutes in an hour, and 24 hours in a day. The hour was initially establis ...

s, and there are eight ''pahars'' in a day. In India, the measure is primarily used in

North India North India is a geographical region, loosely defined as a cultural region comprising the northern part of India (or historically, the Indian subcontinent) wherein Indo-Aryans (speaking Indo-Aryan languages) form the prominent majority populati ...

and by

-speaking communities throughout the

Deccan The Deccan is a plateau extending over an area of and occupies the majority of the Indian peninsula. It stretches from the Satpura and Vindhya Ranges in the north to the northern fringes of Tamil Nadu in the south. It is bound by the mount ...

Southern India South India, also known as Southern India or Peninsular India, is the southern part of the Deccan Peninsula in India encompassing the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana as well as the union territories of ...

Etymology

is derived from Sanskrit word which is an ancient unit of time in India. The word has the same root as the Hindustani word (meaning "to stand guard") and (literally "guard/watchman"). It literally means a "watch" (i.e. period of guard-duty).

Timing

Traditionally, night and day were each allocated four ''pahars'', or "watches." The first ' of the day (or ') was timed to begin at sunrise, and the first ''pahar'' of the night (') was timed to begin at sunset. This meant that in the winter the daytime ''pahars'' were shorter than the nighttime ''pahars,'' and the opposite was true in summer. The ''pahars'' were exactly equal on the

equinoxes A solar equinox is a moment in time when the Sun appears directly above the equator, rather than to its north or south. On the day of the equinox, the Sun appears to rise directly east and set directly west. This occurs twice each year, arou ...

. Thus, the length of the traditional ' varied from about 2.5 hours to 3.5 hours in the

Indo-Gangetic plains The Indo-Gangetic Plain, also known as the Northern Plain or North Indian River Plain, is a fertile plain spanning across the northern and north-eastern part of the Indian subcontinent. It encompasses northern and eastern India, eastern Pakist ...

. Each ''pahar'' of a 24-hour day-night cycle has a specific name and number. The first ''pahar'' of the day, known as (), corresponds to the early morning and sunrise. The second ''pahar'' is called ' (). However, in the common speech of North India, Pakistan and Nepal, ( or ) has now come to be known as the generic term for afternoon or the time after midday, since it begins after completing the ''do-pahars''. The third ''pahar'' is called () and has generically come to mean evening, though the term is less commonly used than ''shaam''.

Literature

The poet-saint

Kabir Kabir ( 15th century) was a well-known Indian devotional mystic poet and sant. His writings influenced Hinduism's Bhakti movement, and his verses are found in Sikhism's scripture Guru Granth Sahib, the Satguru Granth Sahib of Saint Gar ...

mentions ''pahar'' in one of his dohas: ouwent to work for five ''pahar''s, slept for the remaining three ''pahar''s. How will you attain salvation without chanting the names of

Lord Hari Hari () is among the primary epithets of the Hindu preserver deity Vishnu, meaning 'the one who takes away' (sins). It refers to the one who removes darkness and illusion, the one who removes all obstacles to spiritual progress. The name Ha ...

for at least one ''pahar''?

References

{{reflist Culture of India Culture of Pakistan Units of time