Pahar (Bengaliপহর,Hindi/Nepali: पहर,Punjabi: ਪਹਾੜ,Urdu:پہر), which is more commonly pronouncedpeher (/pɛhɛr/) is a traditionalunit of time used inIndia,Pakistan, andBangladesh. Onepahar nominally equals threehours, and there are eightpahars in a day.[1] In India, the measure is primarily used inNorth India and byHindi-speaking communities throughout theDeccan inSouthern India.[2]
Pahar/pehar/peher is derived from Sanskrit wordprahar which is an ancient unit of time in India.
The wordpahar/peher has the same root as theHindustani wordpehra (meaning "to stand guard") andpehredar (literally "guard/watchman").[2] It literally means a "watch" (i.e. period of guard-duty).
Traditionally, night and day were each allocated fourpahars, or "watches." The firstpahar of the day (ordin pahar) was timed to begin at sunrise, and the firstpahar of the night (raat pahar) was timed to begin at sunset.[2]
This meant that in the winter the daytimepahars were shorter than the nighttimepahars, and the opposite was true in summer. Thepahars were exactly equal on theequinoxes.[3] Thus, the length of the traditionalpahar varied from about 2.5 hours to 3.5 hours in theIndo-Gangetic plains.[2]
Eachpahar of a 24-hour day-night cycle has a specific name and number.[2] The firstpahar of the day, known aspehla pahar (Hindustani:pehla,lit. 'first'), corresponds to the early morning and sunrise.[4]
The secondpahar is calleddo-pahar (Hindustani:do,lit. 'second'). However, in the common speech of North India, Pakistan and Nepal,dopahar (दोपहर orدوپہر) has now come to be known as the generic term for afternoon or the time after midday, since it begins after completing thedo-pahars.[3][5]
The thirdpahar is calledseh pahar (Persian:seh,lit. 'three') and has generically come to mean evening, though the term is less commonly used thanshaam.[6]
The poet-saintKabir mentionspahar in one of his dohas:
पाँच पहर धंधे गया, तीन पहर गया सोय ।
एक पहर हरि नाम बिन, मुक्ति कैसे होय ॥
[You] went to work for fivepahars, slept for the remaining threepahars. How will you attain salvation without chanting the names ofLord Hari for at least onepahar?
... pahar (period of three hours) ...
... pahars, or watches, of which the second terminated at noon; hence, do-pahar-din, mid-day ... do-pahar-rat, midnight ... in the north of India, the pahar must have varied from three and a-half hours about the summer solstice, to two and a-half in winter, the pahars of the night varying inversely ...
... they vary in length at different times of the year, but at the equinox the pahars of the day and night are equal, each being three hours long. In traditional Hindu society(as in of time when Sanatan Dharma was only major religion in Indian Subcontinent), each prahar was associated with certain task or Karma, which were to be finished in that prahar only. Each varna had specified karma in which at least one prahar(mostly first or last day prahar) was dedicated to sadhna(God worship). Dopahar means midday; pahar din raha=3 PM; pahar rat gai=9 PM; pahar din charha=9 AM ...
... पहला पहर = प्रातःकाल ...
... midday dopahar दोपहर् ...
... kal seh pahar ko : yesterday evening ...