The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c7.22

c7.22

The first year of the cycle commenced with the winter solstice* when the sun and the moon were together at the beginning of Dhanishthâ and the Uttarâyana also began at the same time. There is very little else in the Vedânga Jyotisha that may help us in our present inquiry except the fact that the enumeration of the deities presiding over the various Nakshatras begins with Agni, the presiding deity of the Krittikâs†. From these data astronomers have calculated that the solstitial colure occupied the position above mentioned between 1269 B. C. to 1181 B. C., according as we take the mean rate of the precession of the equinoxes 50" or 48"·6 a year.‡