The Social and Military Position of the Ruling Caste in Ancient India, as Represented by the Sanskrit Epic c2.s6.67

c2.s6.67

three years. The latter seems to be the earlier form, for which later the ‘periods’ are substituted. Compare G. xviii. 20 (*trīn kumāryṛtūn*) with Vās. xvii. 67-68 (*trīṇi varṣāṇi*); and the confusion in çloka-writers, M. ix. 4, 90-92; Vishnu, xxiv. 40, and in the *ṛtu* substituted in the verse of Vasistha (loc. cit. 70) after the prose *varṣāṇi*. Compare also B. iv. 1. 11-14). In the Epic, a month is the formal equivalent of a year (iii. 35. 32), and I have thought perhaps this *varṣa* is responsible for such informal confusion and formal substitution. ‘The rains’ might be interpreted as years or months (rainy season); *varṣe-varṣe* = each rain or each year. The ‘four rains’ means the months. It may be remarked in connection with the following discussion that ‘in the bad age to come’ girls will choose their own husbands and bear children at the age of five or six; boys becoming also mature at seven or eight: iii. 190. 36 and 49.