Kāshṭhā
Kāshṭhā, “a measure of time”
Kalā has other meanings too: see all meanings of Kalā.
Grammar: feminine noun: a measure of time.
Meaning: a small measure of time, made of nimeshas (blinks of the eye); thirty kāshṭhās make a kalā.
In the scriptures: Vyāsa, explaining to the munis the measures of time before he tells of the naimittika pralaya, says that the blink of a man’s eyelid, the nimesha, is the root measure of all. Fifteen nimeshas (the text adds in brackets “eighteen”) are called a kāshṭhā. Thirty kāshṭhās make a kalā, and fifteen kalās a nāḍikā; two nāḍikās are a muhūrta, and thirty muhūrtas one day and night (Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 232).
Brahmā tells Nārada of the first yajña, which he performed in the karma-bhūmi at the word of the unembodied Voice. The seasons were its offerings and the Vedas its seven paridhis, and Kalā, Kāshṭhā and Nimesha are remembered as the samidh, the vessel and the kuśa; Kāla, without beginning or end, took the form of the yūpa (Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 91).
Related terms: Nimesha · Kalā · Nāḍikā · Muhūrta · Kāla
Sources
- Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 232; Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 91