Page 265 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

52 SAMAGRA TILAK- 2 • THE ARCTIC HOME

days and a year of twelve such months, to which an intercalary
month was now and then added, to make the lunar and the
solar year correspond with each other. The ecliptic, or the
belt of the zodiac, was divided into 27 or 28 divisions, called
the Nak~hatras, which were used as mile-stones to mark the
annual passage of the sun, or the monthly revolution of the moon
roJ~nd the earth. The two solastitial and the two equinoctial points,
as well as the passage of the sun into the northern and the
southern hemisphere, were clearly distinguished, and the year
was divided into six seasons, the festivals in each month or the
year being accurately fixed and ascertained. The stars risjng and
setting with the sun were also systematically observed and the
eastern and western points of the · eompass determined as
accurately as the astronomical observations of the day could
permit. In my Orion or the Antiquity of the Vedas, . I have
shown how the changes in the position of the equinoxes · were
also marked in these days, and how they enable us to classify
the peJjods of Vedic antiquity: According to this classification
the Taittirtya Sarithita comes under the Kpttika period ( 2500 B. C. ),
and , some may, therefore, think that the details of the Vedic
cal,en:dar given above are peculiar only to the later Vedic literature.
A cursory study of the ~ig-Veda wjJl, however, show that such
is not the case. A year of 360 days, wi~ an intercalary month
oecasionally added, or a year of twelve lunar months, wit1t twelve
intercalary days ins~rted at the end of eac;h yea,r was familiar
to the poets ofthe ~g-Veda and is often mentioned in the hymns.*
The northern and the southern passage of the sun from equinox
to equinox, the Devayana and the Pitriyana, together with the
yearly sattras, have also been referred to in several places, clearly
showing that .the ~ig-Vedic calendar differed, if at all, very little
from the ~6ne iri use at the time of the Taittirtya Samhita or the
Brahma:pas. A calendar of twelve months and six seasons is
pecul,iar only to the temperate or the tropical zone, and if we
'were to judge only from the facts stated above, it follows that
the peopie who used such a calendar, must have lived in places

,' , • See l.{ig, J, 2,5, 8,_:_iR ·~ffi ~) ·~ 3f\1IJiRf: I "iRJ lJ ~ I
Also I.\ig. IV, 33·, 7,- 00 ~Mltt.~'E411'd~ ~: ~: See Orion,
page 167 f. In ~ig. I, 164, II, 360 da~s and 360 nights of the year are
expressly, mentioned·. · ' · ,