Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v2.c4.s9.13

v2.c4.s9.13

Zimmer,⁴ indeed, considers that the evidence required is afforded by the lists of the years, which are sometimes enumerated as five: Saṃvatsara, Parivatsara, Idāvatsara, Idvatsara, and Vatsara;⁵ or Saṃvatsara, Parivatsara, Idāvatsara, Iduvatsara, Vatsara;⁶ or Idāvatsara, Iduvatsara, Idvatsara, Vatsara;⁷ or Saṃvatsara, Parivatsara, Idāvatsara, Anuvatsara, Udvatsara;⁸ or Saṃvatsara, Parivatsara, Idāvatsara, Anuvatsara, Idvatsara.⁹ But it must be noted not merely that the names vary considerably, but that four only are mentioned in some places,¹⁰ in others¹¹ three, in others¹² two, and in yet others¹³ six. Moreover, in none of these enumerations is there any reference to the names being connected with a system of intercalation. It is most probable that here we have no more that a mere series of priestly variations of Vatsara, based on the older and more genuine Saṃvatsara and Parivatsara as variants of the simple Vatsara, ‘year.’ The key to the invention of the series is probably to be found in passages like that of the Pañcaviṃśa Brāhmaṇa,¹⁴ where the several Cāturmāsya (‘four-monthly’) sacrifices are equated with the different years.¹⁵ Particularly unjustifiable is the attempt of Zimmer to see in the two-year series a series of two years of 354 days each, with an intercalary month in the second; for the year of 354 days, as such, is not known to have existed before the Sūtra period.