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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[MAY, 1912.
lunar year. It is clear, therefore, that the statement made at the close of the TaittiriyaBrahmaņa, that 250 times 21 days denoted 1000 years for the Visvasșiks, is not a theoretical formala, but a result arrived at by regular counting made by successive generations of priests. Scholars may doubt the conclusion at which I have arrived in my Vedic Era, that the Vedic poets kept an era and counted 1840 years in it. But there is, at any rate, no reason to doubt that the Vedic poets had their own era and counted 1000 years in terms of 250 intercalary units of 21 days each. It remains to find out the terminus a quo of these 1,000 years and settle the chronology of the Vedie period.
OUTLINES OF THE HISTORY OF ALAMKARA LITERATURE.
BY P. V. KANE, M.A., LL.B.; BOMBAY. Section 1.-The Development of the Alam ka rasa stra. POETRY is as old as the human race. The oldest literary monuments possessed by mankind are poetical. Figures of speech are of rare occurrence in the most ancient writings; still even in the oldest of them, the simple figures of speech, such as simile and metaphor, are now and then met with. Without these two figures no language can far advance. As Carlyle has profoundly remarked, metaphor has exercised a vast influence in moulding the growth of languages.
The simple figures of speech are met with even in the Vedic literature. This verse contains the figure Atisayokti. But between this rare and rather unconscious employment of figures of speech and their elaborate definitions and classifications in later days, a vast period of time must have supervened. When a large mass of poetical material had grown up, speculation was naturally turned in the direction of laying down the canons of poetry and defining the ornaments of it. We shall briefly indicate the existence of secular poetical material before the Christian era and in the centuries that immediately followed it.
13 he MaitrAyantya--Samhita, however, refers to the existence of two more astronomical schools of a different kind. The Samhita oalls them Rituyajis and Chaturmieyay Ajis. The passage in which they are referred to runs as follows:
एकैकया वा आहुत्या बादश द्वादश रात्रीरयुवत. ता यावतीस्संख्याने तावतीस्संवत्सरस्थ रावयः, संवत्सर. मेव भ्रातण्याावते. वैश्वदेवेन चतुरो मासान युवत. वरुणप्रघासैः परांइचतुरः साकर्मधेः परांश्चनुरस्ताव भ्रात च्यायुवत. फतुयाजी वा अन्यश्चातुमास्ययाज्यन्यो यो वसंतोऽभूत्पावृडभूधरभूदिति यजते स मनुबाजी भय यस्त्रयोदशमासं संपात्यात त्रयोदशमासमभियजते स चातुर्मास्ययाजी. जून त्रीनिष्ट्वा चतुर्थमुत्सृजेत कज बी परा इष्टवा तृतीयमुत्सृजेत. ये वै त्रयस्संवत्सरास्तेषां षट्त्रिंशत्पूर्णमासा यो बी तयोश्चतुर्विशतिस्तोऽम पट्त्रिंशत्याध तानस्यां चतुर्विशत्यामुपसंपादयति एष वाव स त्रयोदशो मासस्तमे वैतत्संपादयति तमभियजते.
Maitrayaniya-Sarhita 1, 10, 8. With each oblation, he suppresses twelvo and twelve nights. They (the oblations) are as many, when eounted, as there are nights in the year. He suppresses the yoar from the enemy. With Vaiévadeves sacrifice he suppresses four (interoalary months); with Varuņapraghasa the next four: and with Sakamedha the next fonr. These are what he suppresses from the onomy. He who saorifices for the seasons is & sacrificer of one kind, while he who sacrifices for & set of four months is sacrifloer of another kind. He who knows that what was the spring became the rains (which in tuto became) the autumn (and so on), and who accordingly Baaritood for them, this saorifloer is one who is called to be a suorifioer for the reasons. He who knins the thirteenth month and sacrificer for the thirteenth month is one who is said to be sacrifioer for the four months. Having Sacrificed during three ordinary (Rija) [months), he should omit the fourth. Thon having sacrificed during (the next) two ordinary (month), bo should omit the third. As to the three years there are, in them there are thirty-six full moons, as to the two, in them there are twnty-four. As to those days ) which except (an intercalary month) in the thirty-six full-moons, ho takes them to these latter twenty-four months. This is verily the thirteenth month, He gaine it and sacrifices for it.
1 Abhrateva purhsa eti Fraiicht gartarug-wa sanaye dhanandm Jayeva patya wfatt smas4 Ushd hasreva ni rinfts apsal 11. Rig. I. 124. 7. This verde containe four similes. Dvd stparna sayud sakhaya samanan urikshatis parishasvajate | Tayoranyah pippalarh svadvattyanafnann-anyo abhichakasiti Rig. I. 164. 20. This contains the Aguro Rapaka. Chatvari sringa trayo asya pada due firshe sapta hastaso asya | Tridh& baddho wrishabho roraviti Maho dovo marty and vives all Rig. IV. 58. 3. This verso contains the figure Atibayokti.
