Indian Antiquary Vol 41

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 84

80
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[APRIL, 1919.
29 days and a year of 348 days, we are told by Lityayana himseli that they were observing 17 Dikshd-days or days of initiation, before they commenced their sacrifice on the New Year's Day. Also, the so-called Gavâin-Ayana year is not, as I have pointed ont in chụpier IIT of my Velic Era, true year, but an imaginary year, nade np of all those twenty-first days in a cycle of four så vana years which liad been so far counted as often as they occurred. Hence it cannot be the sarana year in the middle of which nine of twelve days were inserted. It follows, therefore, that it is the synodic lanar year of 354 days to which the addition of 12 daye must bave been made, in order to adjust it with the sidereal solar year of 366 days. As regards the year to which the addition of 21 days was made, it appears to be a cycle of three sivana years each of 360 days, followed by a year of 860 + 21 = 881 days, with the result that four savana years, each of 300 days, with the addition of 21 days, were rendere l equal to four Julian solar years each of 865/ days. That the Vedic poets had been observing such a cycle of years with 21 intercalary days is almost expressly stated in the following paysage of the Nidana-Sutra, X, 1:
garen fraferaren era. Teata eraft f fet. Partala TOTE 4 FITको इति. पंचाहकुलमुत्तम. प्रथमे विषमयुक्ताः पंचाहाःत पंचाहानेर करवाणि एवं पक्षसोस्समाधिरिति.
“On the day imrned intely before the twenty-first day, they eit at their sacrificial session. On the following day they put the last day (s.e., the 21st day) in its entirety. The period of 21 days and that of 12 days are varieties of adjusting the years). The last [i.e., the 21st day 1 is based upon the period of five days; the original periods of five days are accompanied by an odd portion of a day). Lo! I thall observe only five days; by my doing so the parts of the year are undisturbed."
Ia another place the Nidana-Satra, VIII, 11, says that the odd portion of day accompany. ing the five days is neither more nor less than a quarter of a day. The passage in which this idea is implied rons as follows: F *4 tr . cara atrager:
F i x fa. carieT a. अथापि कथमहीनाहोराबेरुपायोऽभविष्यदिति अथापि कृत्स्नतायै वै नून मिह रात्रिः क्रियेत. कृत्स्नोऽयं षडह इति. पथाप्येष चतुर्थों भागोराः प्रत्यर्द्धितामत्यक्रनिष्यदिति. कर्तव्येति गौतमः आदिष्टा कल्पेन भवति. अथाप्येषा पहीनसंस्था बद्राभिः तामवसानभूतां पष्ठ महरागच्छति.
How is the night observed as part of the sacrifice performed during the Seasonal Six days? Sauchivrikshi says that it need not be observed, for the reason that its origin is such. Also, it is inferred rather than prescribed in the Kalpa texts. How then are the Ahina days 40 to commingle with the night? Verily it is merely on account of its completion that the night has to be observed here, for the period of six days has become complete. Also it is the ove-fourth part of the night that has grown into a whole day). Gaatama says that it is to be observed and that it is prescribed in the Kalpa texts. The night forms part of the sacrificial days which constitute the Alina period; the sixth day arrives at the close of the night."
Froin these passages it is clear that the Vedic poets were quite aware the fact of a solar year being greater than the sârane year by five days and a quarter. This they seem to have found out by closely observing the Auctuations in the seasons, wbich they must have necessarily experienced so long as they had used a year of only 354 or 860 daye. It is this inevitable change of the seasons ia the lunar and the sâvana sears that is implied in the term Ritu-shadała, nes ning the six days capable of keeping the seasons in their proper places in the year. It should also be noted how the sixth dny of the Seasonal Six days is termeil an abnormal growth of a quarter of day in the
* An Ahtos sacrifo. oxlando as far as 11 days, and sessional aorifices from the 12th day onwards Nidhaa, 12, 6; on the 11th day the night falla: Nidha, iz, 8.