The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c6.6.3

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.