Page 22 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

SACRiflCE ALIAS THE YEAR 9
is, as I have said before, no early work extant on Vedic calendar,
except the small tract on Jyoti~ha, and our information about the
oldest calendar must, therefore, be gathered either from strAy
references in the Vedic works or from the early traditions or
practices recorded in the old sacrificial literature of India. There
are several sacrificial hymns in the ~igveda, which show that the
sacrificial ceremonies must then have been considerably developed;
and as no sacrificial system could be developed without the know-
ledge of months, seasons, and the year, it will not be too much to
presume that in Vedic times there must have existed a calendar
to regulate the sacrifices. It is difficult to determine the exact nature
of this calendar, but a study of the sacrificial literature would show
that the phases of the moon, the changes in the seasons, and the
southern and northern courses of the sun were the principal ll;lnd-
marks in the measurement of time in these early days. What is
still more interesting, however, is that the leading features in
the early sacrifices are the same as those in the year. The Jate Dr.
Haug, in his introduction to the Aitareya Brahma~a, has observed
that " the satras, which lasted for one year, were nothing but an
imitation of the sun's yearly course. They were divided into two
distinct parts, each consisting of six months of 30 days each. In
the midst of both was the Vi~hUvan, i.e., the equator or the central
day, cutting the whole satra into two halves."• This clearly shows
that the ancient ~i~his prepared their calendar mainly for sacri-
ficial purposes, and the performance of various sacrifices facili-
tated, in its tum, the keeping up of the calendar. Offerings were
made every morning and evening, on every new and full moon,
and at the commencement of every season and ayana.t When this
course of sacrifices was thus completed, it was naturally found that
the year also had rUD its course, and the sacrifice and the year,
therefore, seem to have early become synonymous terms. There
are many passages in the Brahma~as and SaQlhitas, where Samvatsara

• Ait. Br. Intr., p. 48.

t Cf. Baudh!yana SGtras, ii. 4· 23, which describes the continuous
round of sacrifices as follows :-~~~Jri"4Qitili~l 01~ fi~<{••'•U­
'4~fil(t'!lj i(ll,~RI1"1144fU~A"I~~unflif<il: ~Cfll*l@ii\<II""!Me ~ R
:ocilfttilt~ mettSilqUJi( I Also compare Manu iv. 25, z6 and YAjnavalkya
i, 125.