The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c12.3

c12.3

Astronomically the matter is as simple as it could be. All our measurements of time are directly based upon the changes in the positions of heavenly bodies. But there is no measurement of time, at present determined, which is longer than the period during which the equinoxes complete their revolution in the ecliptic. It is, therefore, the best measurement of time for determining the periods of antiquity, only if we have reliable records about the position of heavenly bodies in early days. Fortunately, such records of the time, when the Hellenic, the Iranian and the Indian Aryans lived together, have been preserved for us in the Rigveda, and with the help of the Greek and Parsi traditions we can now decipher these records inscribed on the specially cultivated memory of the Indian Aryans. Commencing with the passages in the Taittirîya Sanhitâ and the Brâhmaṇas, which declare that the Phalgunî full-moon was once the new-year's night, we found that Mṛigashiras was designated by a name which, if rightly interpreted, showed that the vernal equinox coincided with that asterism in old times. This was, so to speak, a sort of corroborative evidence of the truth of the statement in the Taittirîya Sanhitâ. A reference to the figure will show at a glance that if the sun be at the winter solstice on the Phalguni full moon day, the moon to be full must be diametrically opposite to the sun and also near Phalguni. Uttarâ Phalguni will thus be at the summer solstice and the vernal equinox will coincide with Mrigashiras. With the solstice in Mâgha, the equinox will be in the Krittikâs ; while when the Uttarâyaṇa begins in Pauṣha the equinox is in Ashvinî. Ashvinî and Pauṣha, Krittikâs and Mâgha, and Mrigashiras and Phâlguna are thus the correlative pairs of successive year-beginnings depending entirely upon the precession of the equinoxes ; and the facts, statements, texts and legends discussed in the previous chapters supply us with reliable evidence, direct and indirect, of the existence of all these year-beginnings in the various periods of Aryan civilization. It has been further shown that not only the traditions, but also the primitive calendar of the Parsis bears out the conclusions we have deduced from the Vedic works.