The Arctic Home in the Vedas c12.48.4

c12.48.4

Thus, even now, we say, “Kârttike, shukla-pakshe, trayodashyâm,” meaning “in the month of Kârttika, in the bright half, on the thirteenth (tithi or day).” The feminine ordinal numerals, like chaturthî, ekâdashî, trayodashî, are always used, without any noun, to denote the tithi or the day of the month, or the fortnight, as the case may be. Thus in the Taittirîya Brâhmaṇa (I, 1, 9, 10), we have the expression “yadi samvatsare na âdadhyât dvâdashyâm purastât âdadhyât,” meaning that “if the sacrificial fire is not consecrated at the end of the year (samvatsare), it should be consecrated on the twelfth (dvâdashyâm) afterwards.” Here dvâdashyâm is a feminine ordinal in the locative case used by itself, and means “on the twelfth tithi or day” after the end of the year mentioned in the preceding sentence.