Antarmuhūrta
Anything longer than one samaya and shorter than one muhūrta. The most heavily used span in the whole doctrine.
It is a range, not a fixed quantity, and the vagueness is deliberate. Its shortest form is a samaya more than one samaya; its longest is a samaya less than a muhūrta. Everything between counts.
Almost every important interior event is timed in antarmuhūrta rather than in anything precise. Kevalajñāna arises within one. The states of the guṇasthāna, the ladder of spiritual progress, are held for one. A soul between two bodies completes its passage in one. Even the shortest human life is reckoned at an antarmuhūrta.
The tradition uses it the way a careful writer uses "a short while": exact about the bounds, silent about the middle, because the middle varies with the case.
माप और संख्याएँ
| Shortest | 2 samaya |
|---|---|
| Longest | one samaya less than a muhūrta |
| Muhūrta | 48 minutes |
| Used for | kevalajñāna, guṇasthāna, transmigration |
| A fixed quantity? | no — a range |