Vikramaditya Vedic Clock Installed at Kashi Vishwanath Dham

The 'Vikramaditya Vedic Clock' has been installed in the temple courtyard of Shri Kashi Vishwanath Dham located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. After Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh, now accurate time calculation, auspicious timings and planetary positions can be seen in Kashi as per the Indian Panchang.

The 'Vikramaditya Vedic Clock' at Kashi Vishwanath Dham, which is a unique specimen weighing 700 kg, has been gifted by the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Mohan Yadav. This unique clock represents India’s ancient time calculation system, which divides the day into 30 'muhurta' and displays local mean time, 'tithi', 'nakshatra' and much more.

This clock was formally presented during a ceremony held in the presence of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had unveiled the world’s first Vedic clock on 1 March, 2024 at the 85-foot-high tower built at Jantar Mantar in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh. This clock calculates time based on one sunrise to the next sunrise.

Vikramaditya Vedic Clock : displaying time based on 'Vedic Panchang'

Developed by the 'Maharaja Vikramaditya Research Institute' located in Ujjain, this clock is not just a device to tell time, but a digital revival of India’s ancient scientific knowledge.

The 'Vikramaditya Vedic Clock' is designed to display time based on the traditional 'Vedic Panchang' instead of the standard 24-hour Gregorian system.

This clock completely changes the traditional way of telling time - the day does not start at midnight, but begins at sunrise and ends with the next sunrise. It divides the day into 30 'muhurta', each of which is approximately 48 minutes long. The clock starts at 0:00 at sunrise, and sunset usually occurs around the 15th muhurta.

It also displays Local Mean Time (LMT), which is calculated based on the position of the sun, making it more accurate for a specific place.

This clock also displays key elements of the 'Panchang' such as 'tithi' (lunar day) and 'nakshatra' (constellation). It also provides information about festivals, eclipses, lunar phases and astrological calculations. For reference, it also displays Indian Standard Time (IST) and Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) simultaneously.

The aim of this initiative is to revive the ancient Indian system of 'Kaal Ganana' (time calculation) derived from Vedic texts, and to integrate it with modern digital technology. The software of the Vikramaditya Vedic Clock is highly advanced, its mobile app contains Panchang data of the last 7,000 years, which is a treasure for researchers and astrology enthusiasts. Moreover, to achieve global reach, it supports more than 189 languages.

Vedic Period

The Vedic period (1500–600 BCE) was the second major urban civilization of India after the Indus Valley Civilization, information about which is obtained from the Vedas (Rigveda, Samaveda, Yajurveda, Atharvaveda).

Established by the Aryans, this period was mainly rural, which includes the Rigvedic period of 1500–1000 BCE (pastoral dominant) and the Later Vedic period of 1000–600 BCE (agriculture dominant). The Rigvedic Aryans were in the Sapta-Sindhu (Punjab and Saraswati) region, while by the Later Vedic period they had expanded to the Ganga-Yamuna Doab.

Major Vedic Literature

Vedas: Rigveda, Samaveda, Yajurveda, Atharvaveda.

Brahmana texts: Explanation of the Vedas.

Aranyaka: Philosophical contemplation.

Upanishads: Philosophical knowledge of Atman-Brahman.