The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c6.6

Language: English

c6.6.1

But the complications here referred to are evidently the growth of later times. The four ways of reckoning time, the Sâvana, the Chândra, the Nakshatra and the Saura, are not all referred to in the early works, and even in later days all these measures of time do not appear to have been fully and systematically utilised. There is, as I have said before, no early work extant on Vedic calendar, except the small tract on Jyotisha, and our information about the oldest calendar must, therefore, be gathered either from stray references in the Vedic works or from the early traditions or practices recorded in the old sacrificial literature of India. There are several sacrificial hymns in the Rigveda, which show that the sacrificial ceremonies must then have been considerably developed; and as no sacrificial system could be developed without the knowledge of months, seasons, and the year, it will not be too much to presume that in Vedic times there must have existed a calendar to regulate the sacrifices. It is difficult to determine the exact nature of this calender, but a study of the sacrificial literature would show that the phases of the moon, the changes in the seasons, and the southern and northern courses of the sun were the principal land-marks in the measurement of time in these early days. What is still more interesting, however, is that the leading features in the early sacrifices are the same as those in the year. The late Dr.

c6.6.2

Haug, in his introduction to the Aitareya Brâhmaṇa, has observed that "the satras, which lasted for one year, were nothing but an imitation of the sun's yearly course. They were divided into two distinct parts, each consisting of six months of 30 days each. In the midst of both was the *Viṣhûvân*, *i. e.*, the equator or the central day, cutting the whole *satra* into two halves.'* This clearly shows that the ancient *Ṛiṣhis* prepared their calendar mainly for sacrificial purposes, and the performance of various sacrifices facilitated, in its turn, the keeping up of the calendar. Offerings were made every morning and evening, on every new and full moon, and at the commencement of every season and *ayana*.† When this course of sacrifices was thus completed, it was naturally found that the year also had run its course, and the sacrifice and the year, therefore, seem to have early become synonymous terms. There are many passages in the *Brâhmaṇas* and *Saṃhitâs*, where *Saṃvatsara* and *Yajña* are declared to be convertible terms,‡ and no other theory has yet been suggested on which this may be accounted for. I am therefore inclined to believe that the Vedic *Ṛiṣhis* kept up their calendar by performing the corresponding round of sacrifices on the sacred fire that constantly burnt in their houses, like the fire of the Parsi priest in modern times.

c6.6.3

The numerous sacrificial details, which we find so fully described in the *Brâhmaṇas*, might be later innovations, But the main idea of the yearly sacrifice appears to be an old one. The etymology of the word *ritvij* (*ritu* + *yaj* = season sacrificer) shows that even in the oldest days there existed a certain correspondence between the sacrifices and the seasons, and what is true of the seasons is true of the year which according to one derivation of *samvatsara* (*vas* = to dwell) is nothing but a period where seasons dwell, or a cycle of seasons.* The priests were not only the sacrificers of the community, but were also its time-keepers,† and these two functions they appear to have blended into one by assigning the commencement of the several sacrifices to the leading days of the year, on the natural ground that if the sacrifices were to be performed they must be performed on the principal days of the year.‡ Some scholars have suggested that the yearly *satras* might have been subsequently invented by the priests. But the hypothesis derives little support from the oldest records and traditions of all the sections of the Aryan race. Without a yearly *satra* regularly kept up a Vedic Ṛiṣhi could hardly have been able to ascertain and measure the course of time in the way he did.

c6.6.4

When better contrivances were subsequently discovered the sacrifice might naturally become divested of their time-keeping function and the differentiation so caused might have ultimately led to an independent development of both the sacrifices and the calendar. It is to this stage that we must assign the introduction of the numerous details of the yearly sacrifice mentioned in later works; and thus understood, the idea of a sacrifice extending over the whole year, may be safely supposed to have originated in the oldest days of the history of the Aryan race.* In fact, it may be regarded as coeval with, if not antecedent to, the very beginning of the calendar itself.