Indian Antiquary Vol 24

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

Page 99

APRIL, 1895.)
THE ANTIQUITY OF VEDIC CIVILIZATION.
95
when, with the general reform of astronomy, the equinoxes came to be taken into consideration, and Kârttika was found to coincide with the autumnal equinox. Professor Jacobi's remark, that there is no likelihood of the year ever having began with the last season, is not, I think, of much force. The general later use of the Karttika year shews that a beginning of the year with the time when the rains are over was popular within wide circles ; and to those who divided their year into three four monthly seasons only, and at the same time preferred Chaitri as the commencement of the warm time, there was no choice but to begin their postpluvial season with Margasirsha. In general it may be said that the time after the rains, when the sky clears itself from clouds, the atmosphere from vapour, and an invigorating coolness begins to prevail, is a by no means inappropriate beginning for the Indian year. - Compare also what Prof. Weber says (p. 333) as to the Northern Buddhists generally beginning their year with the winter-season.
I next turn to the other arguments adduced by Prof. Jacobi to strengthen or introduce those conclusions of his which we have so far considered. His first paper begins with an attempt to shew that we meet in the Veda with traces of Phalguni once baving been recognised as marking the summer solstice (with which would agree the conclusion discussed above of the winter solstice coinciding with Phalgani-fullmoon). He at first adduces the passage Rigtéda Samh. VIL 103, 9, in order to prove in general that the Sasikitás already mention a beginning of the year with the rainy season, the commencement of which coincides with the summer solstice. That the year later, as Prof. Jacobi points out, called varsha or abda - should have sometimes been viewed as beginning with the rainy season is à priori by no means unlikely: there is, in fact, no reason why any of the three great seasons should not, from certain points of view, have been looked upon as the first, and the beginning of the rains is certainly the most striking of the seasonal phenomena of the Indian year, That the passage Bi. Sasih. VII. 103, 9, however, cannot be used for proving that the twelfth month of the year occurs about the time of the beginning of the rains has been already remarked - and in my opinion with fall justice - by Prof. A. Weber (Vedische Beiträge, 1894, page 38), and Prof. E. Windish (Z. D. M. G. Vol. 48, page 356); for 'dvádaíasya' in that verse certainly means the year (sampat sara) - mentioned immediately afterwards - which consists of twelve months.
Professor Jocobi next explains the well known passage in the Surya-shkta (R. 8. X. 85, 13) as directly teaching that the summer solstice once took place in Phalgani. Against this conclusion also Prof. A. Weber has already entered a protest (Ved. Beit. p. 33): not, however, on the grounds on which I disagree with Prof. Jacobi. 1, for my part, have no doubt that aghasu hanyante gádo'rjunyoh pary uhyale' means the cows are killed (when the moon is) in Maghas; the marriage procession goes round (when the moon is) in Phalgani,' i. e., the preparatory ceremonies take place in the last month of the old year, in Mågha, about the time of the winter solstice; the wedding itself takes place when the moon is fall in Phalgani, i, e., at the beginning of the new year (the Phålgani-fullmoon, as explained above, marking the beginning of spring). Wherever, in the Brahmanas and Sátras, something is simply said to take place in a certain nakshatra, the time meant is when the moon is either fall in, or else simply in conjunction with, that nakshatra.
Professor Jacobi next refers to the different dates given in the Gríkya-sútras for the beginning of the study of the Vála. This is generally connected with the beginning of the rainy season. Now, one Grihya-sitra specifies, as the appropriate date, the foll-moon of Srâvaņa, and another - with which moreover & statement in the Ramayana agrees - the fall-moon of Bhadrapada. These two determinations Prof. Jacobi supposes to have been made at the times when the summer solstice, which marks the beginning of the rainy season, coincided with full moon in Sravana and Bhadrapada, respectively, i. e., about 2,000 and 4,000 B. C. Tbe latter determination would thus belong to the same period when the summer solstice was
• An interpretation virtually identical with the one given above has already been proposed by Prof. Mas Müller, Preface to Vol IV. of the Rigueta Santhit4, p. lxvü.