---
type: Concept
bundle: jyotisha-kala
bundle_version: 0.12.0
id: kala-jyotisha
title: Kāla (Jyotiṣa)
iast: Kāla
devanagari: काल
description: 'Time as the measurable in Jyotiṣa: the graded ladder of units from truṭi and nimeṣa through ghaṭikā and muhūrta to ayana and saṃvatsara, with the mūrta/amūrta distinction; NOT the cosmic yuga-time of cosmology-creation v0.7, NOT abstract absolute time, NOT destroyer rhetoric.'
school_scope: 'Two registers of kāla live in this corpus. cosmology-creation v0.7 treats cosmic time: the yuga ladder, kalpa, manvantara, time as the frame of manifestation. This file treats Jyotiṣa’s instrumental time: graded measurable units serving calendrics and computation. Same word, different register; cross-linked and school-scoped per the anumāna precedent, never merged.'
darshana:
- Jyotiṣa
text_source: Sūrya Siddhānta 1.10-11
tags:
- kala
- time-units
- calendrics
- jyotisha
- ganita
not:
- term: 'cosmic yuga-time'
  why: 'cosmology-creation v0.7 treats kāla as the cosmic frame: yuga, mahāyuga, kalpa, manvantara. Jyotiṣa kāla is instrumental: time a water-clock and gnomon can hold, existing so that a ritual, a calendar, or an eclipse computation lands on the mark. Merging the registers flattens a deliberate two-register architecture.'
  instead: 'Render Jyotiṣa kāla as measured time with its unit ladder, name the v0.7 register separately, and keep the Sanskrit term.'
- term: 'abstract absolute time'
  why: 'The siddhānta units are defined operationally, by instruments and celestial motions, and split into mūrta (embodied, measurable) and amūrta (too fine to measure). This is a metrology, not a metaphysics of time’s nature.'
- term: 'destroyer rhetoric'
  why: 'The Gītā’s kālo’smi and the kāla of doom belong to theology and epic. Quoting them to gloss a treatise’s unit table replaces arithmetic with atmosphere.'
related:
- /concepts/ghatika.md
- /concepts/muhurta.md
- /concepts/ayana.md
- /concepts/samvatsara.md
timestamp: '2026-07-09'
okf_version: '0.2'
license: CC BY-SA 4.0
---

# Kāla -- काल

**Not:** cosmic yuga-time, abstract absolute time, destroyer rhetoric

## What It Actually Means

Jyotiṣa treats time as a measurable and builds a graded ladder of units: truṭi and nimeṣa at the fine end, kāṣṭhā and kalā, the ghaṭikā (24 minutes), the muhūrta (48 minutes), the ahorātra (day-night), pakṣa, māsa, ṛtu, ayana, saṃvatsara. Sūrya Siddhānta opens by distinguishing mūrta time, embodied and measurable, from amūrta time too fine for instruments. This is the same word treated in cosmology-creation v0.7 in a different register: there kāla frames the cosmos in yugas and kalpas; here it is what the water-clock holds. The bundle takes the instrumental register throughout.

## The Unit Ladder

The practical rungs: 60 vipalas = 1 pala; 60 palas = 1 ghaṭikā (24 min); 2 ghaṭikās = 1 muhūrta (48 min); 30 muhūrtas (60 ghaṭikās) = 1 ahorātra; 15 ahorātras = 1 pakṣa; 2 pakṣas = 1 māsa; 2 māsas = 1 ṛtu; 3 ṛtus = 1 ayana; 2 ayanas = 1 saṃvatsara. Finer sub-second units (truṭi, nimeṣa, kāṣṭhā, kalā) vary somewhat by text; the sexagesimal middle of the ladder is stable across the siddhāntas.

## Audience Metaphor

A carpenter’s tape measure versus a geologist’s epochs. The v0.7 kāla is the epochs: vast, cosmic, framing everything. Jyotiṣa kāla is the tape: graduated, instrumental, checked against a sinking water-bowl, and existing so that the work starts on the mark.

## Citations

1. Sūrya Siddhānta 1.10-11 on mūrta and amūrta time and the unit ladder -- see [references/surya-siddhanta.md](../references/surya-siddhanta.md)
2. Siddhānta Śiromaṇi on time divisions in the gaṇita tradition -- see [references/siddhanta-shiromani.md](../references/siddhanta-shiromani.md)
