Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s20.189

v1.c3.s20.189

(4) Another chronological argument has been derived from the fact that there is a considerable amount of evidence for Phālguna having been regarded as the beginning of the year, since the full moon in Phalguni is often described as the ‘mouth (mukham) of the year.’¹³⁹ Jacobi¹⁴⁰ considers that this was due to the fact that the year was reckoned from the winter solstice, which would coincide with the month of Phālguna about B.C. 4000. Oldenberg¹⁴¹ and Thibaut,¹⁴² on the other hand, maintain that the choice of Phālguna as the ‘mouth’ of the year was due to its being the first month of spring. This view is favoured by the fact that there is distinct evidence¹⁴³ of the correspondence of Phālguna and the beginning of spring: as we have seen above in the Kauṣītaki Brāhmaṇa, the new moon in Māgha is placed at the winter solstice,¹⁴⁴ which puts the full moon of Phalgunī at a month and a half after the winter solstice, or in the first week of February, a date not in itself improbable for about B.C. 800, and corresponding with the February 7 of the *veris initium* in the Roman Calendar. This fact accords with the only natural division of the year into three periods of four months, as the rainy season lasts from June 7-10 to October 7-10, and it is certain that the second set of four months dates from the beginning of the rains (see Cāturmāsya). Tilak,¹⁴⁵ on the other hand, holds that the winter solstice coincided with Māghī full moon at the time of the Taittirīya Saṃhitā (B.C. 2350), and had coincided with Phālgunī and Caitrī in early periods—viz., B.C. 4000-2500, and B.C. 6000-4000.