The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c7.71

c7.71

For though we might hold that the Vedic observers were not provided with means to fix imaginary points in the heavens and to refer to these points the motions of the heavenly bodies as astronomers do at present, yet it does not imply that they were unaware of the approximate distances between the various asterisms selected by them. In other words, they might be supposed to have roughly known the distances between the stars, though for obvious reasons they could not but refer the motions of the heavenly bodies only to the fixed stars. Thus understood, Bentley's conjecture about the primary meaning of Vishâkhâ does not necessarily imply that the equinoctial colure bisected the divisional Vishâkhâs in those days; and when the conjecture itself does not thus support his theory about the position of the colure, I do not think we shall be justified in accepting it, especially when it is shown that it is also objectionable on other grounds. I am, therefore, disposed to fix the date of the Taittirîya Sanhitâ at 2350 B. C., and not 1426 B. C. as Bentley has done.