[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Reference works](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference) › [Vedic Index of Names and Subjects](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912) › v1.c3.s14.122 # Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s14.122 Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s14.122 - **Language:** English ### [v1.c3.s14.122](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s14.122) Jacobi considers that the commencement of the year with the full moon in the asterism Phalgunī, which is supported by other evidence,¹⁰ indicates that the year at one time began with the winter solstice with the moon in Phalgunī, corresponding to the summer solstice when the sun was in Phalgunī. These astronomical conditions, he believes, existed in the time of the Rigveda,¹¹ and prevailed in the fourth millennium B.C. The alternative dates would then indicate periods when the winter solstice coincided with the Caitrī or the Vaiśākhī full moon. But Oldenberg¹² and Thibaut¹³ seem clearly right in holding that the coincidence of Phālgunī with the beginning of spring,¹⁴ which is certain, is fatal to this view, and that there is no difficulty in regarding this date as consistent with the date of the winter solstice in the new moon of Māgha, which is given by the Kauṣītaki Brāhmaṇa,¹⁵ and which forms the basis of the calculations of the Jyotiṣa.¹⁶ The full moon in Phālguna would be placed about one month and a half after the winter solstice, or, say, in the first week of February, which date, according to Thibaut, may reasonably be deemed to mark the beginning of a new season in India about 800 B.C. At the same time it must be remembered that the date was necessarily artificial, inasmuch as the year was divided into three seasons, each of four months, and the Indian year does not in fact consist of three equal seasons. The variations of the other datings would then not be unnatural if any school wished to defer its spring festival, the Vaiśvadeva, to the time when spring had really manifested itself. See also Saṃvatsara. - [Previous: v1.c3.s14.121](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s14.121) - [Next: v1.c3.s14.123](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s14.123) - [Up: v1.c3.s14](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s14) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s14.122](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s14.122) · Pramāṇa