Pahar

Pahar (Bengali পহর,

The word pahar/peher has the same root as the Hindustani word pehra (meaning "to stand guard") and pehredar (literally "guard/watchman").^[2] It literally means a "watch" (i.e. period of guard-duty).

Timing

Traditionally, night and day were each allocated four pahars, or "watches." The first pahar of the day (or din pahar) was timed to begin at sunrise, and the first pahar of the night (raat pahar) was timed to begin at sunset.^[2]

This meant that in the winter the daytime pahars were shorter than the nighttime pahars, and the opposite was true in summer. The pahars were exactly equal on the

Each pahar of a 24-hour day-night cycle has a specific name and number.[2] The first pahar of the day, known as pehla pahar (Hindustani: pehla, lit. 'first'), corresponds to the early morning and sunrise.^[4]

The second pahar is called do-pahar (Hindustani: do, lit. 'second'). However, in the common speech of North India, Pakistan and Nepal, dopahar (दोपहर or دوپہر) has now come to be known as the generic term for afternoon or the time after midday, since it begins after completing the do-pahars.^[3][5]

The third pahar is called seh pahar (Persian: seh, lit. 'three') and has generically come to mean evening, though the term is less commonly used than shaam.^[6]

Literature

The poet-saint Kabir mentions pahar in one of his dohas:

[You] went to work for five pahars, slept for the remaining three pahars. How will you attain salvation without chanting the names of

References