The day is divided for ordinary purposes of measuring time into
eight pahars or watches, four of the day and four of the night;
and into sixty gharis or periods of twenty-four minutes each. The
pahars, however, are not of equal length. At the equinox the first
and fourth pahar of the day and night each contain eight gharis,
and the two middle ones seven gharis. In summer the first and fourth
pahars of the day contain nine gharis each, and the two middle ones
eight each, while the first and fourth pahars of the night contain
seven and the two middle ones six each. Thus in summer the four day
pahars contain 13 hours 36 minutes and the night ones 10 hours 24
minutes. And in winter the exact opposite is the case, the night
pahars being lengthened and the day ones shortened in precisely
the same manner. No more unsatisfactory measure of time could well
be devised. The termination of the second watch or do pahar always
corresponds with midday and midnight respectively.
The apparatus with which the hours were measured and announced
consisted of a shallow metal pan, named from its office, gharial,
and suspended so as to be easily struck with a wooden mallet by the
ghariali. He measured the passing of a ghari by an empty thin brass
cup or katori, perforated at the bottom, and placed on the surface
of a large vessel filled with water, where nothing could disturb it;
the water came through the small hole in the bottom of the cup and
filled it, causing it to sink in the period of one ghari. At the
expiration of each ghari the gharial struck its number from one to
nine with a mallet on a brass plate, and at the end of each pahar
he struck a gujar or eight strokes to announce the fact, followed
by one to four hollow-sounding strokes to indicate the number of
the pahar. This custom is still preserved in the method by which the
police-guards of the public offices announce the hours on a gong and
subsequently strike four, eight and twelve strokes to proclaim these
hours of the day and night by our clock. Only rich men could afford
to maintain a gharial, as four persons were required to attend to it
during the day and four at night. [225]