Names of the Days of the Week

Subhash Kak

INTRODUCTION
The planetary association of the days of the seven-day week is an interesting
question to which there is no clear answer. Zerubavel1 suggests that the astrological
week (with the present day names) arose in Alexandria during second century BCE
from where it went to Rome a century later but doesn’t provide any conclusive
evidence of the origins. He describes its use in Rome dismissing the idea that it
could have arisen either in Babylonia or in the Jewish world. Emperor Constantine
adopted the seven-day week for official use in 321 CE, making the Day of the Sun
(dies Solis) a legal holiday. That the planetary names spread in the West in early
centuries is suggested by the title of a lost essay by Plutarch (46-119) in which he
wonders why the day names don’t follow the order of the planets.
Latin names for the days of the week are quite like Sanskrit names. Starting
with Sunday they are named after the Sun (Ravi or Āditya रिव or आिद�), the Moon
(Soma or Candra, सोम or च�), Mars (Maṅgala or Bhauma or Kuja, म�ल or भौम
or कुज), Mercury (Budha बुध), Jupiter (Bṛhaspati or Guru, बृह�ित or गु�), Venus
(Śukra, शु क्र), and Saturn (Śani, शिन). In short, the order of the planets for the day
names is:

Sun — Moon — Mars — Mercury — Jupiter — Venus — Saturn

This is not the same as their order in the solar system, so how was the order
of the planets chosen? And why are these names the same across many cultures but
not in all? For example, in Greek, Arabic, Hebrew and Slavic languages they are
ordered as Day One, Day Two, and so on.
Scholars have not investigated India as an alternative source of the
innovation for the history of Indian astronomy has been based on the wrong premise
that its foundations are to be seen in Mesopotamia. One evidence adduced for this
belief is that the division of the circle into 360 parts as well as of the year into 12
 Subhash Kak

parts came to India from Mesopotamia, which is false for both these are already
described in the much earlier Ṛgveda.2 In recent decades, a more elaborate theory
related to the Greek origin of a text called Yavanajātaka was advanced, but this has
been refuted.3 Given there is no clarity about the origins of the week in Egypt or
Mesopotamia, we explore the alternative hypothesis of its possible origin in India.

GERMANIC AND PERSIAN NAMES

In languages such as Germanic and Persian, the names of deities do not appear at
first sight to correspond to the planets in the list.
In Germanic languages, Tuesday through Friday are named after the deities
Týr, Odin, Thor, and Freya, from where we get Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
and Friday.
In Old Norse sources, Týr is described as the son of Odin, who is Mercury
(Budha in astrology is Viṣṇu). In other words, Mars (Skanda, ��, general of the
devas) is viewed as son of Viṣṇu, rather than of Śiva (this variant story may be seen
in the context of Skanda Upaniṣad, which tells us that Viṣṇu and Śiva are identical).
Thor in Germanic mythology is a hammer-wielding god associated with
thunder, lightning, storms, oak trees, strength, the protection of mankind, and also
hallowing and fertility. The Romans saw Thor as the German analog of Jupiter, and
his hammer was viewed as similar to the club of Hercules. The hammer of Thor is
also similar to the plough (hala) used as a weapon by Balarāma.
The Indo-European linguist Émile Benveniste saw Freya or Frigg as cognate
with Priya, a daughter of Dakṣa, and thus a generic name of the Goddess.4
In Persian, the names of the days (ruz) starting Sunday are Mehr ruz, Māh
ruz, Bahrām ruz, Tir ruz, Hormazd ruz, Nāhid ruz, and Keyvān ruz. A little bit of
analysis shows that they are not really different from the Indian scheme. Mehr is
Mitra, another name for Sun; Māh is Māsa which is Moon, Bahrām is derived from
the earlier Verethragna that corresponds to the Sanskrit Vṛtrahana which means
Mars (slayer of Vṛtra who was originally Indra but in later stories was identified
with Skanda).
Tīr तीर, arrow, hearkens to the archer Arash’s arrow that covers part of the
globe which story is a retelling of the three steps of Viṣṇu. Some scholars see Arash,
the archer Ǝrəxša (Yasht 8.6), as similar to Rudra, but I think in the identification
with Mercury, the story of Viṣṇu holds more weight.
Hormazd is Ahura Mazda, the prophet-teacher of the Persians, fulfilling the
role of Guru, Nāhid is from the goddess Anāhitā associated with water, fertility,

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 Names of the Days of the Week

wisdom, warfare, and eventually the planet Venus, and Keyvān is Saturn. Some see
Keyvān borrowed from Mesopotamia but that is not necessary since it means the
greatest poet-sacrificer (kavi) for it was known that this planet was furthest from
Earth.
Thus the evidence suggests that the names of the days were originally after
deities, but after the triumphs of Christianity and Islam, certain cultures were
compelled to abandon the system that to the new rulers smacked of idolatry.
The Slavic nations were victims of the Northern Crusades and they were
violently separated from their old tradition.5 In contrast, the Germanic nations,
which were Christianized more slowly, held on to the names of their deities
although they also lost the deeper connection. The growth of Christianity in
Southern Europe was even more gradual and the earlier names held on.

GREEK NAMES FOR THE DAYS

It is most interesting that the Greek names for the days follow the numerical system
and are different from the Indian names: Κυριακή (Kyriakí), Δευτέρα (Deftéra),
Τρίτη (Tríti), Τετάρτη (Tetárti),Πέμπτη (Pémpti), Παρασκευή (Paraskeví ), and
Σάββατο (Sávato). Thus Sabbath (Savato) is the seventh day.
There is a theory that the names for the days of the week came from Greek
astrology and spread across Eurasia in the first or second century CE. But this
theory is clearly wrong for it cannot explain how Rome and India across the borders
of the Greek world on opposite sides have the same system, different from the
Greeks.
We know that the Indians had much to say about the planets in the third
millennium BCE6, long before the Greeks or the Babylonians7, and the sparsely
populated Śaka corridor8 served as a passage for cultural diffusion from India to the
Slavic world and beyond. India and Rome also had much sea trade during the
imperial period and that could have served as an additional conduit for the diffusion
of ideas.9

ORDER OF THE PLANET NAMES

The Moon, Mercury, and Venus are the inner planets, whereas Mars, Jupiter, and
Saturn are the outer ones. The sidereal periods (referenced to the distant stars) are
proportional to the distance from the Sun and the closer a planet is to the Sun the
faster it moves. The planet names for weekdays alternate between the outer and the

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 Subhash Kak

inner planets. The order of the planets starting with the Sun which takes place of
Earth and after the Moon going out to Saturn and then down is:

Sun — Venus — Mercury — Moon — Saturn — Jupiter — Mars

In this scheme, the two referents are the Sun with which we begin the order
of the inner planets and Saturn with which we begin the order of the outer planets.
According to the Padma Purāṇa, Saturn is the son of the Sun, which appears to
support this assignation. (Additionally, in the Sūrya Siddhānta, Mars is born to
Earth, and Mercury to Moon hence also called Saumya.)
An interesting astrological theory regarding the order chosen is described in
the Sūrya Siddhānta.10 The first hour of the first day of the week was ascribed to
the Sun in the series related to distance from the Earth.

Saturn — Jupiter — Mars — Sun— Venus — Mercury — Moon

The hours were thus marked to Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter,
Mars. The eighth hour of the first day was ascribed again to the Sun, and also the
fifteenth and twenty second; the twenty fifth hour (the first hour of the next day) is
the Moon, a shift to the right of three, which mathematically is the equation 24 n
modulo 7, where n is the day count where the start is n = 0. Following this cycle
for every hour and every day in the week, the first hours of the following days after
Sunday will be ascribed to Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter and Venus, which are the
familiar names of the days.
This system also assigns the planets to months and years.

* Hours Days Months Years

1 Sun Sun Sun Sun
2 Venus Moon Mars Mercury
3 Mercury Mars Jupiter Saturn
4 Moon Mercury Saturn Mars
5 Saturn Jupiter Moon Venus
6 Jupiter Venus Mercury Moon
7 Mars Saturn Venus Jupiter
From the Sūrya Siddhānta

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 Names of the Days of the Week

It is not surprising that modular mathematics was at the basis of the

astronomy of altar ritual of the second millennium BCE.11

FURTHER EVIDENCE FROM INDIA

The Pañcaviṃśa-Brāhmaṇa (PB),12 which is clearly prior to Babylonian
astronomical texts, speaks of division of the year into many six-day periods
(ṣaḍaha), but often such six-day periods are paired with single-day counts as in 33-
day rite of PB 24.2, the addition of svarasāman day in 49-day rites of PB 24.11 and
PB 24.12. In PB 24.20, in the sattra of one year also we see many 6-day periods
paired with svarasāman days. There are also counts by 5-days indicating that
whereas the 6-day soma-rite was the most commonly described in this Brāhmaṇa,
counting by 5 and 7 was also done.
Furthermore, the number seven is associated with the Sun (whose motion
orders time) in the earliest texts, as in its seven steeds and seven rays; seven sages
(स�िष� ) are also associated with time. The number seven is associated with the
earth, the body (seven dhātu), the seven steps at a marriage, the seven regions of
the earth, the seven constituent parts of a kingdom, the seven stories of the palace,
the seven tongues of fire, and seven musical notes.
Given the centrality of seven in the Indian imagination, and lack of evidence
related to its origins elsewhere, it is likely that the division of the week into seven
days occurred in India.

CONCLUSIONS
The emergence of the seven-day week with astrological names could have been a
result of innovation arising out of interaction between India and the West. This
interaction was not only via land for we know of the intense trade by ship between
Rome and South India.13 It is around this period that we see evidence for the use of
the seven-day week in Rome, but since our evidence is only circumstantial, it does
not rule out Alexandria as the source.
If one accepts the hypothesis of the origins of the names of the days of the
week in India, one can then explain the commonality of the names in India and
Rome despite the use of different naming in Greece.

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 Subhash Kak

NOTES

1. Zerubavel (1989)
2. Kak (2003); see also Achar (2016) for the Vedic origins of the nakṣatras.
3. See Mak (2016) and Mak (2019) that shows that the singular drive to discover sources of
Indian astronomy in Mesopotamia has been marred by serious errors and fabrications.
4. Benveniste (1969)
5. Kak (2020), Kak (2021)
6. Kak (1996)
7. Kak (2016)
8. Kak (2021)
9. Kak (2015); Young (2001)
10. Burgess (1860)
11. Kak (1995); It is intriguing that the use of 30 muhūrtas, instead of 24 hours, with 9 grahas
(planets) also gives the same assignment for the day names. The mathematics will be 30 n
modulo 9 and with 27 accounted for in three rounds, the next day first muhūrta will be
mapped to the fourth in the list, which is Moon.
12. Caland (1931)
13. Young (2001)

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