The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c12.34

c12.34

But the question, which was dropped at this time after punishing Prajâpati, was again taken up when the equinox had receded to the Kṛittikâs. The seasons had fallen back by one full month and the priests altered the year-beginning from the Phalgunî to the Maghâ full-moon, while the list of the Nakshatras was made to commence from the Kṛittikâs, instead of from Agrahâyaṇa. There is nothing surprising in the fact that the change should have been quietly introduced when we see that Varâhamihira did the same in the fifth century after Christ when the Ashvinî system was introduced.* The calendar was mainly used for the sacrificial purposes, and when the priests actually observed that the sun was in the Kṛittikâs, and not in Mṛigashiras, when day and night were equal, they altered the commencement of the year to the Kṛittikâs, especially as it was more convenient to do so at this time when the cycle of seasons had receded by one full month. The priests knew that the year commenced a month earlier in older days, but like Varâhamihira they must have appealed more to the actual facts, as they saw them, and introduced the change without attempting to discover its real cause.