Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s6.62

v1.c3.s6.62

The growth of the division of the seasons from three to five is rightly explained by Zimmer¹² as indicating the advance of the Vedic Indians towards the east. It is not Rigvedic, but dominates the later Saṃhitās. Traces of an earlier division of the year into winter and summer do not appear clearly in the Rigveda, where the appropriate words himā and samā are merely general appellations of the year, and where śarad¹³ is commoner than either as a designation of the year, because it denotes the harvest, a time of overwhelming importance to a young agricultural people. The division of the year in one passage of the Atharvaveda¹⁴ into two periods of six months is merely formal, and in no way an indication of old tradition.