The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c8.41.3

c8.41.3

For, unless the Hindu astronomer had grounds—to him conclusive and otherwise inexplicable—for holding that the vernal equinox fell 27° on *each* side of Revati, he would not have proposed the libration of the equinoxes. So far as I know no such grounds have been yet discovered by modern scholars, and if the explanation given above accounts for the theory in all its details, I see no reason why it should not be accepted as a probable explanation. Perhaps, it may be asked, what grounds I have to suppose that the astronomers combined the two statements declaring that Mâgha and Mârgashîrsha were both, each in its turn, the first months of the year, and so obtained the theory of the libration of the equinoxes, This is, however, not the place to go fully into this discussion ; for all that I am bound to prove, as far as the present inquiry is concerned, is that if we accept the theory that the Mârgashîrsha full moon was ever the new-year's night, it leads us to an absurd conclusion, and this is evident from the above whether it does or does not give the real explanation of the libration theory. I may, however, remark that when we actually find Amarasinha first stating (i. 4. 13) that " seasons comprise two months each beginning with Mâgha, and three such seasons make an *ayana*," and then in the very next verse enumerating the months commencing with Mârgashîrsha ;