Page 122 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

ORION AND HIS BELT 107
the stag and the hunter had therefore something to do with it.
Prof. Kuhn's explanation does not clear up this point satisfacto-
rily, nor dors it give any reason why the festivals were celebrated
-only during the twelve days preceding the new year. As regards
the decay of the sun's power it must have been observable during
the whole season and does not therefore in any way account for
the selection of 12 particular days. As for the dvadashdha of the
Indians, it is the period during which a person consecrates
.himself for a yearly scacrifice and so must naturally percede the
·commencement of the new year when the annual sacrifice com-
mences and I have previously shown that it represents the
difference between the lunar and the solar years; in other wordst
they were what we may now call the intercalary days added a
the end of each year to keep the concurrence of the luna,r and
the solar measures of time. The German traditions therefore can
be better accounted for, if we suppose that they are the remini-
scences of a time when the stag and the hunter actually commenced
the year. This also explains why the dog-days were considered
so imporatant. When Sirius or the dog-star rose with the sun at
the beginning of the year, the dog-days or rather the days when
the dog was not visible, were the new-year's days and as such
they were naturally invested with an importance which they
never lost. I have already alluded to the· passage in the ~igveda
which states that the dog awakened :ttibhus, or the gods of the
seasons, at the end of the year, and this appears to me to be the
origin of what are still known as dog-days in the western countries.
Owing to the precession ofthe equinoxes and by neglecting to main-
tain the correspondance of the seasons the days now fall during a
period different from the one they did of old, but such differences
we find in all cases where ancient rites or festivals are preserved.
The· feast of the manes, which the Parsis and .the Hindus seem
to have commenced together when the summer solstice occurred
in the month of Bh§.drapada,. now no longer coincides with the.
summer solotice; but for that reason we cannot say that it might
not have occurred originally at the summer solstice, -especially
when the later supposition is supported by other reliable evidance
and giv.es a better origin of the festival. I am not therefore
disposed to accept Prof. Kunh's explanation as satisfactory and
am of opinion tba the German traditions are the reminiscences
of a time when the vernal equinox was in Orion, the· hunter.