Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s20.42

v1.c3.s20.42

The meaning of the number is easily explained when it is remembered that a periodic month occupies something between 27 and 28 days, more nearly the former number. Such a month is in fact recognized in the Lāṭyāyana³⁰ and Nidāna Sūtras³¹ as consisting of 27 days, 12 months making a year of 324 days, a Nakṣatra year, or with an intercalary month, a year of 351 days. The Nidāna Sūtra³² makes an attempt to introduce the Nakṣatra reckoning into the civil or solar (sāvana) year of 360 days, for it holds that the sun spends 13⅓ days in each Nakṣatra (13⅓ × 27 = 360). But the month of 27 or 28 days plays no part in the chronological calculations of the Veda.³³