The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c6.13

Language: English

c6.13.1

We have now to examine the principal parts of the year, alias the sacrifice. The *sâvana* or the civil day appears to have been, as its etymology shows,† selected in such cases as the natural unit of time. 30 such days made a month and 12 such months or 360 *sâvana* days made a year.‡ Comparative Philology, however, shews that the names for the month and the moon coincide, with occasional small differences of suffix,* in most of the Indo-European languages, and we may therefore conclude that in the primitive Aryan times the month was determined by the moon. Now a month of thirty civil or sâvana days cannot correspond with a lunar synodical month, and the Brahmavâdins had therefore to omit a day in some of the sâvana months to secure the concurrence of the civil and the lunar months.† The year of 360 sâvana days was thus practically reduced to a lunar year of 354 civil days or 360 tithis. But a further correction was necessary to adjust the lunar with the solar reckoning of time. The zodiac was not yet divided into twelve equal parts, and the solar month, as we now understand it, was unknown. The commencement of the cycle of seasons was, therefore, the only means to correct the calendar, and the ancient Aryas appeared to have early hit upon the device of the intercalary days or month for that purpose.

c6.13.2

There are many passages in the Taittirîya and Vâjasaneyi Sanhitâs and also one in the Rigveda‡ wherein the intercalary month is mentioned, and though opinions may differ as to when and how it was inserted, we may, for the purpose of our present inquiry, regard it as undisputed that in the old Vedic days means were devised and adopted to secure the correspondence of the lunar with the solar year. The occurrence of the twelve hallowed nights amongst the Teutons points to the same conclusion. They were in fact the supplementary days (366-354 = 12) required to balance the lunar with the solar year,—a period when the Ribhus, or the genii of the seasons, slackened their course and enjoyed the hospitality of the sun after toiling for a whole year (Rig. i. 33. 7.),* and when Prajâpati, the God of sacrifices, after finishing the old year's sacrifice, prepared himself for the new year's work (Atharva Veda iv. 11. 11.). The sacrificial literature of India still preserves the memory of these days by ordaining that a person wishing to perform a yearly sacrifice should devote 12 days (dvâdashâha) before its commencement to the preparatory rites. These facts, in my opinion, conclusively establish that the primitive Aryans had solved the problem involved in balancing the solar with the lunar year.

c6.13.3

There may be some doubt as to whether the concurrence of the two years was at first secured by intercalating twelve days at the end of every lunar year, or whether the days were allowed to accumulate until an intercalary month could be inserted. The former appears to have been the older method, especially as it has been utilised and retained in the performance of yearly sacrifices; but whichsoever may be the older method, one thing is certain, that primitive Aryas had contrived means for adjusting the lunar with the solar year. Prof. Weber and Dr. Schrader† appear to doubt the conclusion on the sole ground that we cannot suppose the primitive Aryans to have so far advanced in civilization as to correctly comprehend such problems. This means that we must refuse to draw legitimate inferences from plain facts when such inferences conflict with our preconceived notions about the primitive Aryan civilization. I am not disposed to follow this method, nor do I think that people, who knew and worked in metals, made clothing of wool, constructed boats, built houses and chariots, performed sacrifices, and had made some advance in agriculture,[*] were incapable of ascertaining the solar and the lunar year. They could not have determined it correct to a fraction of a second as modern astronomers have done; but a rough practical estimate was, certainly, not beyond their powers of comprehension. Dr.

c6.13.4

Schrader has himself observed that the conception of the year in the primeval period was formed by combining the conceptions of the seasons[†] If so, it would not be difficult, even for these primitive Aryans, to perceive that the period of twelve full moons fell short of their seasonal year by twelve days. Dr. Schrader again forgets the fact that it is more convenient, and hence easier and more natural, to make the year begin with a particular season or a fixed position of the sun in the heavens, than to have an ever-varying measure of time like the lunar year. Lewis, in his Historical Survey of the Astronomy of the Ancients, quotes Geminus to shew that "the system pursued by the ancient Greeks was to determine their months by the moon and their years by the sun,"[‡] and this appears to me to have been the system in force in the Indo-Germanic, or at any rate in the primitive Vedic period. There is no other conclusion that we can fairly draw from the facts and passages noted above.