The Arctic Home in the Vedas c11.23

c11.23

This passage, in its first part, repeats the story given in the previous Anuvâka of the Samhitâ and the Aitareya Brâhmaṇa with slight variations. But the latter part contains two important statements: firstly that whether we complete the sacrifice within ten months or twelve months, the religious merit or fruit obtained is the same in either case, for both are said to prosper equally; and secondly, this is said to be the case because it is the ‘path,’ or Sâyaṇa explains “an immemorial custom.” The Samhitâ is, in fact, silent as to the reason why an annual Sattra, which ought to and as a matter of fact does now last for twelve months, could be completed in ten months; and this reticence is very remarkable, considering how the Samhitâ sometimes indulges in speculations about the origin of sacrificial rites. Any how we have two facts clearly established, (1) that at the time of the Taittirîya Samhitâ the Gavâm-ayanam, the type of all annual Sattras, could be completed in ten months; and (2) that no reason was known at the time, as to why a Sattra of twelve months could be thus finished in ten, except that it was ‘an immemorial custom.’ The Tâṇḍya Brâhmaṇa, IV, 1, has a similar discussion about Gavâm-ayanam, and clearly recognises its two-fold character so far as its duration is concerned. Sâyaṇa and Bhaṭṭa-Bhâskara, in their commentaries on the Taittirîya Samhitâ, cannot, therefore, be said to have invented any new theory of their own as regards the double duration of this annual Sattra. We shall discuss later on what is denoted by “cows” in the above passages. At present we are concerned with the duration of the Sattra; and if we compare the above matter-of-fact statements in the Samhitâ about the double duration of the annual Sattra with the legend of the Dashagvas sacrificing for ten months, the conclusion, that in ancient times the ancestors of the Vedic Aryas completed their annual sacrificial session in ten months, becomes irresistible. This duration of the Sattra must have been changed and all such Sattras made to last for twelve months, when the Vedic people came to live in regions where such an annual session was impossible. But conservatism in such matters is so strong that the old practice must have outlived the change in the calendar, and it *had* to be recognised as an alternative period of duration for this Sattra in the Samhitâs. The Taittirîya Samhitâ had thus to record the alternative period, stating that it is an ancient practice, and I think it settles the question, so far as the duration of these Sattras in ancient times is concerned. Whatever reasons we may assign for it, it is beyond all doubt that the oldest annual Sattras lasted only for ten months.