The Weekdays & its Sequence

The Weekdays as we know it today follows a particular sequence and we have come to live with it. However, have you ever wondered if there is any logic behind this particular sequence? Why should Monday follow Sunday, or why should Saturday come before a Sunday?

Weekdays, although at first glance seemingly have different names in different languages, are actually all named as per the Sun & the Moon and the five planets, viz. Mercury uptil Saturn (excluding of course Earth). Sunday (or Ravi-Vaar) is named after the Sun, Monday (or Soma-Vaar), named after the Moon, Tuesday (or Mangal-Vaar), after Mars and so on. But why this particular sequence? The sequence stems from the Time Metrics as laid out in our Vedic scriptures.

WeekdayWeekday (in Hindi)Ruling Planet
SundayरविवारSun
MondayसोमवारMoon
TuesdayमंगलवारMars
WednesdayबुधवारMercury
ThursdayगुरुवारJupiter
Fridayशुक्रवारVenus
SaturdayशनिवारSaturn

In the Indian system of Time Measurement, each day starts with the Sun Rise and ends towards the Sun rise of the next day. Each day is divided into 24 Horas (a Hora is taken from the root, Aho-Raatra, meaning Day & Night) and roughly translates to about an Hour. In fact the English hour, seems to have its origins from the Hora and seems to have been derived from the Hora. Excepting Rahu & Ketu, each Hora is sequentially ruled by one of the 7 grahas (Sun, Moon and the 5 planets as mentioned above). Thus each of the 24 Horas is ruled by one of the Grahas and in a sequential manner. The sequence is decided in the order of the increasing speed of the planet with respect to Earth, ie. from the slowest planet to the fastest.

Ruling PlanetAverage Speed to cross a Zodiac Sign
Saturn2.5 Years
Jupiter1 Year
Mars2 Months
Sun1 Month
Venus~20 Days
Mercury~7 Days
Moon2¼ Days

Thus each of the Horas are ruled sequentially, starting with the slowest, viz. Saturn, then Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury and finally the Moon, which is the fastest of them all. The sequence cyclically repeats again from Saturn. Thus all the 24 Horas are sequentially ruled in the above order.

The ruling planet of the Hora at the start of each day (ie. At Sun rise), becomes also the ruler of the Day. The Vaara or the Day is thus named after this ruling planet. Following this logic, if suppose at Sun-rise, the Hora is ruled by the Sun, the Weekday becomes Sunday. The next Hora on that day, is then ruled by Venus, followed by Mercury, Moon and then the sequence again follows from Saturn and so on. The hora at the start of the next day would again follow the same sequence as above beginning from the end of the hora of the previous day.

Following the above logic therefore, each Weekday will have the following Horas sequence:

Horas / Weekdayरविवारसोमवारमंगलवारबुधवारगुरुवारशुक्रवारशनिवार
Hora Ruler At SunriseSunMoonMarsMercuryJupiterVenusSaturn
2VenusSaturnSunMoonMarsMercuryJupiter
3MercuryJupiterVenusSaturnSunMoonMars
4MoonMarsMercuryJupiterVenusSaturnSun
5SaturnSunMoonMarsMercuryJupiterVenus
6JupiterVenusSaturnSunMoonMarsMercury
7MarsMercuryJupiterVenusSaturnSunMoon
8SunMoonMarsMercuryJupiterVenusSaturn
9VenusSaturnSunMoonMarsMercuryJupiter
10MercuryJupiterVenusSaturnSunMoonMars
11MoonMarsMercuryJupiterVenusSaturnSun
12SaturnSunMoonMarsMercuryJupiterVenus
13JupiterVenusSaturnSunMoonMarsMercury
14MarsMercuryJupiterVenusSaturnSunMoon
15SunMoonMarsMercuryJupiterVenusSaturn
16VenusSaturnSunMoonMarsMercuryJupiter
17MercuryJupiterVenusSaturnSunMoonMars
18MoonMarsMercuryJupiterVenusSaturnSun
19SaturnSunMoonMarsMercuryJupiterVenus
20JupiterVenusSaturnSunMoonMarsMercury
21MarsMercuryJupiterVenusSaturnSunMoon
22SunMoonMarsMercuryJupiterVenusSaturn
23VenusSaturnSunMoonMarsMercuryJupiter
24MercuryJupiterVenusSaturnSunMoonMars