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APRIL, 1895.]
THE ANTIQUITY OF VEDIC CIVILIZATION.
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uttard yana and dakahind yana actually denote nothing but the periods during which the sun proceeds either northwards or southwards. The passages quoted by Prof. Tilak from the Upanishads couple the uttarayana with the light half of the month, the dakshinayana with its dark half, for the obvious reason that, as in the light half the light of the moon increases until it reaches a maximum, and decreases in the dark half until a minimum is arrived at, so in the uttarayana the sun daily rises higher, gains in heat and might, and finally attains his highest place and heat, while in the dakshinayana the opposite process is passed through. The identification of the uttarayana and dakshindyana with the devayána and pitriyana of the Samhitás has nothing to rest on. Nor can the passage of the Sata patha Bráhmana, which allots to the gods the seasons Spring, Summer and Rains, and to the fathers the three remaining seasons, and after that says that the sun is among the gods when he turns to the north, and among the fathers when he turns to the south, be used to prove the identity of the tittaráyana with the period from vernal equinox to autumnal equinox; and of the dakshiņáyana with the remaining part of the year. For in the first place the spring of the Prihmanas begins, as we have seen, not with the vernal eqninox, but at the point lying midway between winter solstice and equinox. And in the second place an explanation, which might possibly be applied to the term uttarayana, viz, that it denotes the time when the sun is moving in the northern region, not towards the north, really becomes altogether impossible when we have to do with expressions, like 'udag á varttale,' which clearly refer to the sun as 'turning' or 'returning northwards. The sun .turns' or returns' only at the solstice, not at the equinoxes. The two clauses of the Satapatha passage do not fully agree, because they really refer to two different ways of subdividing the year. The ayanas are reckoned from the solstices; the seasons from the point lying midway between winter solstice and vernal equinox. If, therefore, the intention was to assign to the gods as well as to the fathers three entire seasons — without cutting op two seasons into halves - the allotment of a small part of the dakshinayana to the gods and a small part of the uttarayana to the fathers could not be avoided.
As thus there is no trace of a year reckoned from the equinox in the Brahmana period, there hardly seems a good reason for connecting the position of Krittikås at the head of the old lists of the nalcshatras with the verval equinox. According to the system of the Bráhmanas - which, as we have seen, is reflected in the Jyotisha Védanga - the vernal equinox falls at 10° of Bharani, i. e., close to Kțittikas, and the latter constellation might, therefore, even then have been viewed as roughly marking the equinox. But, as the latter point or day is manifestly of no importance in the order of the year recognised in the Bráhmanas, I, for my part, am unwilling to accept this interpretation of the position of Ksittikas. It, is, of course, not impossible that the old lists of the nakshatras may really come down from the time when Krittikas marked the place of the vernal equinox, not only approximately, but accurately, i, e., about 2300 B.C. Only we must clearly realize that, in that case, astronomical views must be supposed to have prevailed at that time, which greatly differed from those of the Brahmana-period; i, e., that people then must have looked on the vernal equinox as really marking the beginning of the year. That this was so is not impossible ; but it has to be kept in view that it is an hypothesis not directly countenanced by anything in Vedic literature. And, as may be repeated here, the fact, that the leading asterism of later times, viz., Asvini, owed its position to its connexion with the equinox, proves, in no way, that the ancient position of Krittikas was due to an analogons cause.
We thus arrive at the final conclusion that none of the astronomical data which so far have been traced in Vedic literature in any way compel, or even. warrant us, to go back higher than the time when, as the Jyotisha Vedanga explicitly states, the wintersolstice took place in Sravishthas. To the decision of the question at what exact period that coincidence occurred I have not for the present anything to add. The difficulties besetting this problem have, on different occasions, been fully and convincingly stated by the late Prof. Whitney, who arrived at the conclusion that, if all sources of possible error are taken into joint
