________________
IV, 7, 24.
OF MILINDA THE KING.
113
in reserve1, the dust is quiet, the pollen wanders gently through the air, the sky is free from clouds, and very gently do the breezes blow. Since all these have ceased to act the rays of the sun become clear, and freed from every obstruction the sun's heat glows and burns. This, O king, is the reason why the heat of the sun is more fierce in winter than in summer.
'So it is when set free from the obstacles besetting it that the sun burns fiercely, which it cannot do when the rains and so on are present with it.'
['Very good, Nagasena! That is so, and I accept it as you say "."]
[Here ends the dilemma of the seasons3.]
Here ends the Seventh Chapter1.
1 Mahâ-megho upatthito hoti, which is very ambiguous. The Simhalese (p. 389) has mahâ meghaya patan-gannâ-lada
wanneya.
• Inserted from Hfnafi-kumburê.
There is great uncertainty at present as to the views held, first in the Pitakas and later in the Commentaries, regarding the calculation of time and the division of years into months and seasons. Our author here seems to regard the year as divided into two seasons only, Hemanta and Gimha. But Hemanta is usually supposed to last only from the 1st November (that is the middle of Kattika) to the beginning of March (that is the middle of Phagguni), Gimhâna for the next four months (March 1stJune 30th), and Vassâna the remaining four (July-October)—the year being thus divided into three equal cold, hot, and rainy seasons. At Mahâvagga VIII, 24, 3 there is a division of the year into unequal dry and wet seasons (utu and vassâna), and at Gâtaka I, 86 it is said that vasanta-samayo begins when hemanta ends at the full moon of Phagguni. As our author places the characteristic events of the rainy season in the hot season, he cannot have had the division into three seasons in his mind. ''Of the excellent Saddharmâdâsa' says the Simhalese.
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