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120
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[MAY, 1912.
स्तदेव स्थानं यत्संवत्सरे. व्यहार्थे त्रिकद्रुकान्. चतुरहाय व्रतचतुर्थान्. पंचाहार्थे अभिप्लवपंचाहं. षडहार्थेऽभिप्लवसंप्लवते. एतेन न्यायेन एष एकोत्तरकल्पः क्रमते, आ चत्वारिंशद्रात्रात्. उपचीयमानेष्व. हम्मु, रोहेणोपचयः प्रवर्तते. एतं रात्रिसत्रन्याय इत्याचक्षते.
“Then the Sattras :- Among them the period of 12 days is the first unit of a session). In that period are observed all the functions of sessional sacrifices. There are two distinguishing features of it : between the two Alirltra days, one at the commencement and the other at the close, comes the period of ten days. When the purpose of the sessional sacrifice is served only by & one day's rite, the sacrificer should perform it in the form of the Mahavrala day, for it is seen to serve the purpose of a single day : that place which such a single day has in the body of the year is its true place. When he has to observe two days, he should celebrate such days as are known by the names gå and ayus ; the very place which the two days have in the body of the year is their true place. When he has to observe three days, he should celebrate the three days known as Trikadrukas (1 j yatis, 2 gô, 3 dyus). For four days, he has to observe four Mahd vrata days. For five days, he should observe the first five days of the six Abhiplava days. For six days, there come the six dbliplava days. In accordance with this principle, the period of sacrificial session progresses by the acidition of single days up to forty nights. When the namber of days is on the increase, the increased number of days is observed in the same ascending order. This they call the principle of sessional nights (ratri-8attra-nyaya)."
It is highly necessary that we should take into full consideration all that has been stated in the above passage. We know that a sacrificer proceeding to perform a sessional sacrifice may hold it either for twelve days or on a single day. Now we are told that, when he wants to finish it in one day, he should treat the day as the Mahdorala day, which is the eleventh among the twelve days. By saying that the very place which it has in the body of the year is its true place, the author of the sûtra seems to imply that, when a single day is celebrated, it should be counted as the last bat one day of the year. Since this day is also one of the days which constitute Rátrisattra or an Atiratrasattra, 'a session of excessive nights,' it is also called Atirdtra like the twelfth day. For purposes of ritual convenience, the eleventh day seems to have been selected and termed the twelfth day. Next we are told of the ceremonial forms in which two days, three days, and so on, are to be celebrated. That these days, from two to forty and from forty and upwards, are not the days of the ordinary year, but are successive twelfth days treated as the eleventh or the last but one day of the cyclic year, is clear from the sessional name of Ratrisattra or Atirátrasattra, 'session of excessive nights', which those days go to form. Also from what the author of the Nidana-Sûtra says in another place, we can clearly understand that the days constituting the Ratrisatira are not the consecutive days of an ordinary year, but are such eleventh or twelfth days of the cyclic year as were once identical with new or fall-moon days. In discussing the various forms of sacrifices and recitations to be performed in the sacrificial session of 33 days, the author of the NidanaSûtra distinctly says that the days constituting a sacrificial session represent several fall or new-moons, and indicate the lapse of several years. In order to understand the meaning of the passage, it is necessary that we should know the different plans of arranging the 38 days with their technical names for sacrificial purposes. According to the Kțishņa-Yajurvēda, thọ period of 33 days is split up into an Adrátra day, followed by three groups of five days each and the central day followed by fifteen days. But the author of the Nidana-Sutra makes the Viśvajit day or the central day to occupy the 26th place in the series as shown in the adjoin ing tablo. On this central day, the priests have to recite all the six prishtha-støtras and
