Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v2.c4.s9.26

v2.c4.s9.26

Zimmer¹⁶ also finds an attempt at intercalation in the famous 12 days in which the Ṛbhus are said to have slept in the house of Agohya.¹⁷ He thinks that they represent twelve days added at the winter solstice to equate the lunar year of 354 days and the solar year of 366 days; and from the reverence paid in German antiquity to the ‘12 nights,’ he infers that this mode of intercalation is Indo-Germanic.¹⁸ There can be little doubt that this view is wrong, and that the 12 days are merely the ‘reflexion of the year’ (saṃvatsarasya pratimā)¹⁹ in the sense that they represent the twelve months, and have no relation to chronology at all.