History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c82.631.3

v6.c82.631.3

We know that the Vedāṅgajyotiṣa⁹⁸⁸ added two months in five years. The people of those ancient times had to solve the problem of adjusting the reckoning of the months by the moon and the years by the sun. People wanted to know in advance when the Full Moon or New Moon on which many ancient festivals were celebrated may be expected, when to expect monsoon or winter, when to prepare ground for sowing and when to sow. Sacrifices had to be in spring and other seasons, as also on New Moon and Full Moon. The lunar year of 354 days was less by about 11 days than the solar year. Therefore, the seasons would shift back if the lunar year-alone were observed. Hence intercalary months were introduced by several nations. The Greeks had the 'Octaeteris' (eight years cycle), that contained 99 months of which three were intercalary, viz. in the 3rd, 5th and 8th years Then was introduced the Metonic cycle of 19 years in which occurred seven intercalary months (19 × 12 plus 7 = 235). Olmstead (in American Journal of Semitic Languages, vol. 55 for 1938) says at p. 116 that the cycle of intercalation in Babylon was of eight years and that it was followed by the Greeks Fotherigham (in Journal of Hellenistic studies, vol 39 p 179) says that intercalation in Babylon was irregular till 528 B. C. and in Greece it was unsystematic in the 5th and 4th centuries B. C. Vide also C. R. C. Report pp. 175-176.