The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c7.26

c7.26

There are many passages in the Taittirīya Saṃhitā, the Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa and other works where the Kṛittikās occupy the first place in the list of the Nakṣhatras.² In the Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa (i. 1, 2, 1) it is distinctly stated “ one should consecrate the (sacred) fire in the Krittikâs ; ......the Krittikâs are the mouth of the Nakshatras.”* This shows that the first place given to the Krittikâs in the list of the Nakshatras is not accidental and that we must at least suppose that the Krittikâs were the “ mouth of the Nakshatras,” in the same way as Vasanta or spring was the “ mouth of the seasons”† or the Phâlguni full moon the “ mouth of the year.”‡ The phrase is the same in all places and naturally enough it must be similarly interpreted. But granting that the Krittikâs were the mouth of the Nakshatras in the sense that their list always commenced with them, it may be asked what position we are to assign to the Krittikâs in the course of the year. There were, as I have previously shown, two beginnings of the year, the winter solstice and the vernal equinox ; which of these two corresponded with the Krittikâs ? Or, are they to be supposed to have coincided with a point altogether different from these two ? A little consideration will show that it is not difficult to answer these questions satisfactorily. The present distance between the Krittikâs and the summer solstice is more then 30°, and if they ever coincided with the summer solstice it must have been long ago in the present cycle of the precession of the equinoxes. We cannot therefore interpret the above passage so as to place the summer solstice in the Krittikâs, unless we are prepared to take back the composition of the Taittiriya Sanhitâ to about 22,000 B. C, and further suppose that all evidence of the intermediate astronomical observations is entirely lost, and the same thing may be said against placing the Krittikās in the autumnal equinox.* Both the suggestions in my opinion are too extravagant to deserve any consideration. Nor can we assign the beginning of the Nakshatras to any random point in the ecliptic. There thus remain two possible explanations : viz., that the Krittikās coincided either with the winter solstice, or with the vernal equinox. Now, considering the fact that the vernal equinox is placed in the last quarter of Bharani in the Vedānga Jyotisha it is more natural to presume that the vernal equinox coincided with the Krittikās at the time when the Taittirīya Sanhitā was compiled. But we need not depend upon probabilities like these, when there are other passages in the Taittirīya Sanhitā and Brāhmaṇa which serve to clearly define the position of the Krittikās in those days.