The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c6.6.4

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.