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SEPTEMBER, 1894.] JACOBI'S AGE OF THE VEDA AND TILAK'S ORION.
"From Margasirsha until Ashâḍha the great sages undertake journeys in each month; to stop in one place is not suitable for them."
Hence the season of rest lasts from Southern Âshâḍha badi or Northern Śravana badi to the middle of Kârttika,12 and in the Times of India Calendar for 1838, the Chaumasa of the Śravaks is entered under Ashâḍha-Śrâvana badi 1, corresponding with July 23.12 Nevertheless, there is the Pajjusan or Paryushana, which begins, as the Kalpasútra states, one month and twenty days after the commencement of the Monsoon, on Bhadrapada sudi 5. And the Pajjusan, now frequently called a festival, is the trae Varshâvâsa of the Jaina monks. It expressly receives this name13 and, like the Vassa of the Bauddhas, it is the season for preaching and devotional practices. It is obvious that here two different beginnings of the monsoonretreat or Vassa have been fitted into one system. The later one dates from the time, when, in accordance with Mrigasiras-series of Nakshatras, Bhadrapada was the month of the summer soistice and of the rains. The earlier one agrees with the arrangement of the months according to the Aávini-series. And it is not astonishing that the Jainas should have preserved a custom, based on this very ancient scheme of the year. Their traditional chronology places the death of their first historical prophet Parsva in the first half of the eighth century B. C., and, as will be shewn below, it is according to the newest discoveries highly probable that their sect really sprang up about that time. It is farther not improbable, that in the eighth century B: C. the rules of the Brahmanical Bhikshu Sutras may have prescribed the begininng of the Varsha in Bhadrapada, just as a number of Grihya and Dharma Sutras, even in later times, place the Upakarana in the same month. If that was so, the Jaina teachers naturally would copy the practice from their predecessors.
3. A third significant rule, which is mentioned by Prof. Tilak alone, enjoins the performance of the holiest Srâddha in Bhadrapada.14 The half of the year, during which the sun travels towards the south, is the Pitriyâna, the period sacred to the Manes. It is a matter, of course, that the Manes must be connected with the beginning of this period. And we actually find that they are named as the tutelary deities of the Magha Nakshatra, which according to the Krittika-series stands at the summer solstice. Moreover, several Dharma Sutras contain a verse, which the Manes are said to address to their living descendants, and which prays that they may offer Srâddhas "in the rainy season and under the constellation Maghâ,"15 For the same reason the performance of a Sraddha is necessary on the full moon day of Śravana. If nevertheless we find that the holiest Bråddha falls in. Bhadrapada and the whole dark half of this month is pre-eminently sacred to the Manes, the inference that this is due to the former position of that month at the beginning of the Pitriyâna, appears not unwarranted.
These arguments, it seems to me, are the strongest, which the two scholars have brought forward in order to shew that the Vedic Phalguna, Pranshthapada and Margasirsha years began respectively with the winter and summer solstices and the autumnal equinox. Professor Jacobi
13 From the Kalpasitra, para. 123 (8. B. R., Vol. II. p. 264), it would appear that its author likewise knew this period of the VarsbAvisa. For he says that Vardhamana died in Karttika, the fourth month of the rainy season which he passed in the office of the royal clerks at PAVA,
13 Professor Jacobi has been good enough to furnish me for this paper with some passages, which are very clear on this point. In the Paryushandkalpa Niryukti, the second gåthå enumerates the several synonyms for prjjosavand (Pajjusan), and the seventh is vasdvdsa, in which Jinaprabha's Pañjika remarks, 4er efa aufretary : In the beginning of his commentary the same author gives the following explanation on the word paryushana, अथ पर्युषणेति क शब्दार्थः । उच्यते । परि सामस्त्येन सषन्ति परिवसन्ति वा साधवः कृताभिग्रहा अस्यामिति पर्युOT: Other utterances to the same effect are found in the Samhdehavishaushadhi on the Samachart section of the Kalpasútra, and have been printed by Prof. Jacobi in the notes to his edition.
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14 Orion, pp. 91, 216. Professor Tilak has not quoted any authorities, probably because the great sanctity of the Mahalaya Braddha is known to every Hindu. If authorities are required they may be found, e. g., in Hemådri's Pariilshakanda, Part III. pp. 195 ff., and in Mans, III. 350, as well as in the parallel passages, quoted in the Synopsis to my, Translation.
18 Vasishtha, XI. 40, and the parallel passage in the note to my Translation.
