The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c7.54

c7.54

To get over this threefold objection an alternative is next proposed. The Phalguni full-moon day was known to be the first day of the year. If you commence your sacrifice on that day, you avoid the three objections previously noted and still secure your object of sacrificing at the beginning or the mouth of the year. But even this course is not faultless; because if you commence on the Phalguni full-moon the middle or the central day of the *satra* falls in the rainy season, which again is not a desirable time. The first twelve days of a *satra* are taken up in the consecration and twelve more in *upasads* after which the regular *satra* sacrifices commence. So the middle day of the *satra* falls after six months and twenty-four days from the Phalguni full-moon, that is, on the ninth of the bright half of the month of Âshvina* Now if we suppose the winter solstice or the beginning of the cold season to fall on the Mâgha full-moon, the summer solstice, or the end of the summer and the beginning of the rainy season, would fall a little after the full-moon in Shrâvana. The months of Bhâdrapada and Âshvina therefore represented the rainy season in those days, and the occurrence of the Viṣhuvân in Âshvina or the rainy season was not believed to be auspicious. As the next alternative it is, therefore, suggested that the consecration should take place on the Chitrâ full-moon, and this course is said to be open to no objection whatsoever.