Yāma (Watch of the Night)
Yāma, “a watch, one fourth of the night or day”
Grammar: masculine noun, from the root yam (to hold, to restrain): a watch, a set part of the night or the day. It is not Yama, the devatā of dharma and death.
Meaning: a yāma (Telugu jāmu), a watch: one of the four parts into which the night, and likewise the day, is divided.
In the scriptures: the Agni Purāṇa uses the yāma to tell when a dream bears its fruit, and to fix a time in the rules of health.
When a dream bears fruit. In the chapter on dreams which Pushkara teaches Paraśurāma, after the auspicious and inauspicious dreams, he tells when their fruit comes. A dream seen in the first yāma of the night bears fruit within a year; in the second yāma, within six months; in the third yāma, within three months; in the fourth yāma, within fifteen days; and at aruṇodaya, the dawn, within ten days. If auspicious and inauspicious dreams both come in one night, the fruit of the later one is to be declared; therefore after seeing an auspicious dream it is not good to sleep again (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 229).
The yāmas of the day. In the Āyurveda that Dhanvantari teaches Suśruta, the day has four parts (yāmas), and one should not exercise when half of the first yāma has passed (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 281).
Related terms: Svapna · Aruṇodaya · Muhūrta · Ghaṭikā · Vyāyāma
Sources
- Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 229, 281