The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c5.10

c5.10

The Vedas, the Brâhmaṇas and the Sûtras contain numerous allusions and references to astronomical facts, and it was believed that we might be able to ascertain from them the age of the oldest literary relic of the Aryan race. But somehow or other the attempts of scholars to fix the age of the Vedas by what may be called the astronomical method, have not yet met with the expected success. Unfortunately for us, all the Sanskrit astronomical words that we now possess, except perhaps the Vedânga Jyotisha, belong to the later period of Sanskrit literature, when the Greek influence is perceptible in all its mathematical works. The different methods of astronomical calculations given in these works, the various eras that were established in India after Shâlivâhana or Vikrama, the introduction of the Bârhaspatya cycle, and the adoption of the Greek division of the Zodiac, make it extremely difficult to correctly interpret the astronomical references in the later works; while the confusion, caused by the supposed absence of any definite statement as to the character of the year and the cycle mentioned in the Vedic works, renders it a hard task to deduce a consistent theory out of the various but stray references to astronomical facts in the Vedic literature Take for instance the question of the commencement of the year in the Vedic calendar. There are grounds to hold that the ancient Aryas commenced their year either with spring or with autumn, at the equinoxes or at the solstices;* while the later astronomical works and systems furnish us with facts which go to prove that the year, in the different parts of India, commenced with almost all the different months of the year—Kârtika, Mârgashîrsha, † Âshâdha, Chaitra and Bhâdrapada. The discussion as to the number of the Nakshatras and different opinions as to their origin have further complicated the problem; while doubts have been raised as to the capacity of the Brâhmans in 1200 B. C. to make observations of solstitial points with astronomical accuracy.‡ I shall have to examine hereafter how far some of these objections are tenable. For the present it is sufficient to state that in consequence of such doubts and objections, definite observations or allusions to astronomical events in the earliest works have been looked upon with suspicion by a good many Oriental scholars, while some have even condemned the astronomical method as inaccurate and conjectural.[*] It is, however, admitted that "if the astronomical date on which conclusions as to the age of the Veda have been built implied all that they were represented to imply, the earliest periods of Vedic poetry will have to be rearranged."[†]