Indian Antiquary Vol 24

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 97

APRIL, 1895.)
THE ANTIQUITY OF VEDIC CIVILIZATION.
93
the ekásht aká and the fourth day before full moon.' The ekáshyaká the commentators declare to be the eighth day of the dark half of Mâgha, s. e., the eighth day after full moon in Maghâs, the months being counted as beginning with the light half. Professor Jacobi thinks that this term was advocated by those who wished to perform all introductory rites before the Phålgunifullmoon day, so that the real sacrifice could begin on the latter, the true beginning of the new year. But, as he himself points out, the introductory rites require twenty-four days, while the time from the eighth of the dark half of Mâgha up to Phalguni-fullmoon comprises twenty-two days only. Moreover, the designation of the ekáshľaká as the wife of the year' in different places and the fact of certain special rites being connected with it, seem to indicate that the ekashtaká had quite an independent importance of its own: was, in fact, specially connected with the beginning of the new, or end of the old, year. If the year is viewed as beginning with Phalguni-fullmoon, the light half of Phalguna, although really preceding the new year, might yet be viewed to belong to the new year, just because it is the light waxing half of the month, and in that case the ekáshtaká, as marking the last quarter of the last waning half of the old year might not inappropriately be viewed as representing the end of the old year. It might, in fact, be viewed so also, if the months are reckoned from full moon to full moon, in which case the whole of Phâlguna, i. e., the month preceding Phalguni-fullmoon, would belong to the old year. Another possibility may also be mentioned. If, as said just now, the months are connted from full moon to full moon, the dark half of Mâgha is not that half which follows Mâghi-fullmoon, but rather that which follows Paushi-fullmoon, and in that case the eighth day of the dark halt of Migha would precede the solstice coinciding - as in the Kaushitaki Bráhmana and the Jyotisha Vediaga - with the new moon preceding Maghi-fullmoon. The ekishtaka would then be the last quarter preceding the winter solstice, and as such represent the end of that form of the year, which is reckoned from winter solstice to winter solstice. In that case the beginning of the gavám-nyana with the ekáshtaká, according to the Taittiriya Sanhita and the Tándya, would be analogous to the beginning on the amavasya of Taisha or Magha, i. e., in both cases wo should have to do with a beginning connected in some way with the winter solstice. — As to this latter explanation I, however, must remark that it is contradicted by those Sútra texts, which define the ekáshļaká, not merely as the eighth of the dark half of Mágha, but more definitely as the eighth day after Maghi-fullmoon.
Howsoever this may be, in either case the objections raised in the Taitt. Smil. and the Tándya against the ekáshtaka-term are quite intelligible. The ekâshţaki falls within the last season of the year, whether that last season be the one preceding the Phalguni-fullmoon, or the one preceding the winter solstice; hence the 'antanámúnúv șita' of the texts. In each case we have to do with the cold season, which is ártia, distressed or injured. And if the rather indefinite terms "vyasta' and 'vichchkina' should, as the commentators say, refer to the turn of the year connected with the winter solstice, this also wonld agree with the above explanations, because the ekáshļaká falls within Magha, which is the month of the winter solstice.
The last term mentioned in the Tuitt, and Tándya has, as Prof. Tilak points out, become the subject of a Mimárisá discussion, since the texts do not indicate directly which full moon is the one, four days before which the diksha has to begin. The point is of no great importance for us here, as in the case of either possible decision the term does not greatly differ from one of the three others. If we, with the Mímám sakas, decide for the Maghi-fullmoon, we have a beginning of the year in the same month as the ekushtaká (or at any rate separated from the latter by twelve days only); if, on the other hand, wo decide for Chaitri-fullmoon, the term nearly coincides with the third term. I, however, must say that the Mimaris& view appears to me in this case quite untenable. For the soundness of Mimárisá decisions in general I have the greatest respect, and it, moreover, is highly probable that in many cases the Mimánzei verdict must not be judged on its own merits only, but also as representing an old tradition; the minsaka knew beforehand what the outcome of his argumentation was to be. But,