Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s1.199

v1.c3.s1.199

Ārtava.—This expression denotes a portion of the year consisting of more seasons than one. But it does not bear the exact sense of ‘half-year,’ as suggested by Zimmer.¹ This is shown by the fact that it occurs regularly in the plural, not in the dual. In the Atharvaveda it occurs between seasons and years (*hāyana*),² but also in the combinations, ‘seasons, Ārtavas, months, years’;³ ‘half-months, months, Ārtavas, seasons’;⁴ ‘seasons, Ārtavas, months, half-months, days and nights, day’;⁵ and in the Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā ‘months, seasons, Ārtavas, the year,’⁶ or simply with the seasons.⁷