The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c7.52

c7.52

A similar passage also occurs in the Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā (13-25) and Mahīdhara while commenting on it expressly states that the dual there has the meaning of the singular number.* The "last named seasons (dual)" therefore simply means "the last season." It must be here mentioned that according to the passage in the Tāṇḍya Brāhmaṇa, which Shabara appears to quote, the first objection is thus stated :—"not delighted with water they go to avabhṛtha [i. e., the final bath]." This is but an amplification of the objection on the ground of the "last season" and Khaṇḍadeva expressly says that water is then undelightful "on account of cold." The Tāṇḍya Brāhmaṇa does not omit the objection of the "last season;" but simply expands and illustrates the same by referring to the natural dislike for a cold bath in that season. We may, therefore, regard this objection more as explaining the first than as an additional one. We now come to the third objection, viz., those that commence the sacrifice on the Ekāṣṭakā day sacrifice to the reversed period of the year. 'Reversed', vyasta in the original, is said by Shabara to indicate the change of ayana caused by the turning away of the sun from the winter solstice,† and Sāyaṇa seems to understand it in the same way. Thus although those that commence the satra on the 8th day of the dark half of Māgha may be supposed to do so practically at the beginning of the year, the husband of the Ekāṣṭakā, yet the procedure is triply objectionable, inasmuch as they sacrifice in the cold season, in the last of seasons (when water is undelightful) and when the year is reversed or upset by the turning away of the sun from the winter solstice.