The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c6.54.3

c6.54.3

He admits that the celestial beings on Meru at the North Pole behold the sun (during all the six months) when he is in the northern hemisphere (vii. 9) and these six months may therefore be properly called their day.* But the word *uttarâyaṇa* was then used to denote the period of six months from the winter to the summer solstice; and Bhâskarâchârya was unable to understand how such an Uttarâyaṇa could be called the day of the Devas by the writers of the astronomical Sanhitâs. If the sun is visible to the Gods at Meru from the vernal equinox to the summer solstice, its passage back to the autumnal equinox lies through the same latitudes and in that passage, *i. e.*, during three months after the summer solstice, the sun must, says Bhâskarâchârya, be visible to the Gods. But according to the Sanhitâ-writers the day of the Devas ended with the Uttarâyaṇa, that is, as Bhâskara understood the word, at the summer solstice. How is this conflict to be reconciled?