Kāla-mādhava

Kāla-mādhava
AuthorMadhavacharya
Original titleकाल-माधव
Languagesa
Subjectphilosophy of time
Publication datec. 1336
Publication placeVijayanagara Empire

Kāla-mādhava is a c. 1336 CE Sanskrit-language treatise written by Madhavacharya alias Vidyaranya, in the Vijayanagara Empire of present-day India. The text aims to help the readers determine appropriate times for Hindu religious observances. It is also known as Kāla-nirṇaya ("determination or fixing of times") or Kāla-mādhavīya.

Content

Madhava states that he composed Kāla-mādhava after writing a commentary on the dharma-śāstra text Parāśara-smṛti. According to him, the text aims to determine the time of performance of the dharma (duties) expounded in the Parāśara-smṛti. The text refers to several earlier writers and works, including Kala-darsha, Bhoja's work on the Shaiva agama, Muhurta-vidhana-sara, Vaṭeśvara-siddhānta, Vasishtha Ramayana, Siddhānta Shiromani, and Hemadri's Vrata-khanda and Dana-khanda.

The treatise includes a 129-verse introductory synopsis Kāla-nirnaya-kārikā. It contains five chapters (prakaranas):

  1. Upodghata: discussion on time (kāla) and its nature
  2. Vatsara: discussion on the periods of time:
    • year, including lengths of the year according to various calendars
    • solstices (āyāna)
    • seasons
    • months, including intercalary months and acts allowed/prohibited in these months
    • fortnights (paksha)
  3. Pratipat: tithi (lunar day), duration of a tithi, types of tithis, rules for performances of religious rites and observances on the first tithi, muhūrta
  4. Dvitiyaditithi: rules for the rest of the tithis (second to fifteenth), performance of vratas for each tithi,
  5. Prakirnaka (miscellaneous): nakshatras for various acts, yoga (angular relationship between the Sun and the Moon), karana (half of a tithi), sankranti, eclipses

Editions

Commentaries

Raghunandana (16th century) frequently quotes Kāla-mādhava.

References

  1. ↑ James Madaio 2021, p. 355: "As I demonstrate later in the article, the Mādhava who authored ... Kālanirṇaya (or Kālamādhava), ... is also the author of the Jīvanmuktiviveka (JMV), a work ascribed to Vidyāraṇya."
  2. ↑ P. V. Kane 1975, p. 1262.
  3. ↑ Monier Monier-Williams (ed.). "kālanirṇaya कालनिर्णय". Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary. Retrieved 2026-09-21.
  4. 1 2 P. V. Kane 1975, p. 780.
  5. ↑ James Madaio 2021, p. 358.
  6. ↑ P. V. Kane 1975, pp. 780–781.
  7. ↑ James Madaio 2021, p. 350.
  8. ↑ P. V. Kane 1975, p. xli,905.
  9. ↑ Kashi Gomez (2023). "Sanskrit and the labour of gender in early modern South India". Modern Asian Studies. 57 (1): 167–194. doi:10.1017/S0026749X21000640. Lakṣmīdevī Pāyaguṇḍa composed a commentary on Mādhava Ācārya's Kālamādhava. In it, she refers to an event in 1792/1793.
  10. ↑ David Pingree, ed. (1976). Census of the Exact Sciences in Sanskrit Series A. Vol. 3. American Philosophical Society. p. 17.
  11. ↑ P. V. Kane 1975, p. 784.

Bibliography