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SEPTEMBER, 1894.) JACOBI'S AGE OF THE VEDA AND TILAK'S ORION.
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Bolstice fell in Phálguna, the vernal equinox in Jyaishtha, the summer solstice in Praushthapada and the autumnal equinox in Mârgaśirsha, it would be a perfectly rational proceeding to begin counting with any one of them. And it is conceivable that different schools of priests or of astronomers might decide for starting each with a different one of these four months, and might select respectively Hima, Vasanta, Varsha or Sarad years. With the Ksittika-series the beginnings are not as easily intelligible. For with that, Phalguna and Praushthapada are the second months of each Ayana, and Margasirsba lies one month behind the autumnal equinox. A good reason for the selection of the second months as initial points of reckoning seems difficult to imagine.
Secondly, as both Prof. Jacobi and Prof. Tilak point out, with the winter solstice in Parva Bhadrapada the first Nakshatra after the autumnal equinox is Mula or Mala, and if one begins to count from this, as must be done with a Margasirsha year, the last will be Jyêshtha. The etymological meaning of Müla, "root," would agree with its being taken as the first constellation of the Sarad-year, and so would that of its older name Vichitau "the separators." In like manner the name Jyêshthå,“ the oldest," would be suitable for the last Nakshatra of the year. With any other arrangement the names remain inexplicable.
Thirdly, several rules connected with sacred matters indicate that in ancient times the month of Praushthapada or Bhadrapada was that in which the summer solstice fell.
(1) The importance of one set of sach rules, those regarding the date of the Upakarana, or opening of the annual term of study, has struck both Prof. Jacobi and Prof. Tilak. The chief time for stady was in ancient India the rainy season. For during the Monsoon out-door life necessarily ceases, and people are forced to seek their occupation in the narrowest circle, their houses or their villages. Consequently the Gșihya and Dharma Sutras state not rarely that the solemn opening of the annual term happens "on the appearance of the herbs," i. e., in the first days of the Monsoon, when after the first heavy fall of rain the new vegetation springs up as if by magic. The Monsoon bursts all over the Uttarai patha, and in a large portion of the Dakshiņâpaths, exactly, or almost exactly, at the summer solstice. It is only on the Malabar coast and in the Kargatik that the beginning of the rains falls a month earlier and a break comes just about the summer solstice, while the eastern coast of the Deklan, which is under the influence of the East Monsoon, shews altogether different meteorological conditions.
Under the circumstances stated the " appearance of the herbs” mentioned by the Sátras, must fall in a month, corresponding in part with our month of June. Actually the sacred treatises, referred to, as well as the metrical Snusitis name three different months. All of them with ono exception state that the full moon of 'Sravana, or its Hasta-day, is most suitable for the Upå karaņa, and the modern substitute for the latter, the so-called Sravani, or annun! renewal of the sacred string, is still performed in Sråvam. According to the luni-solar reckoning the month of Srâvaşa corresponds at present to our July-August, and according to the Times of India Calenılar the Rik-Sravant fell in 1888 on August 20, that of the Yajurvedins on August 21,9 between 2500-1500, when the vernal equinox lay at or near Krittiki and the Nakshintra of Maghà stood at the summer solstice, the month of Sravana, of course, including the day when the sun turns towards south and the beginning of the rainy season. It is during this period, or (provided that the Hindus kept the Ksittiki-series even after it had become astronomically incorrect) possibly somewhat later, that the rule, fixing the Upikarann in Srivaņa, must have been settled.
In addition to the month of Srâvann, five Grihya and Dharma Sátras, as well as the Janne smriti, name the month of Bhadrapada or Praushthapada as an optional term for the Upakaran.
• See Mr. H. F. Blandford's "Rainfall of India," Iulian Meteorological Memoira, Vol. III., and especially his Summary on the summer rains, p. 117ff.
" See the Table annexed to this paper.
• The latter day was the full moon day of Srivan. The data is an extraordinarily late one, because there was an intercalation of Chaitra.
