Page 338 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

MONTHS AND SEASONS 123
the temperate zone. I have shown elsewhere that calendar and
sacrifice, especially the annual sattras, are closely connected, and
that in the case of the annual sattras, or the sacrificial sessions which
lasted for one year, the priests had in view, as observed by Dr.
Haug, * the yearly course of the sun. It was the duty of these
priests to keep up sacrificial fire, as the Parsi priests now do and
to see that the yearly rounds of sacrifices were performed at proper
times ( ritus ). The sacrificial calendar in the Arctic home must,
however, have been different from what it came to be afterwards;
and happily many traces of this calendar are still discoverable in
the sacrificial literature of Vedic times, proving that the ancient
worshippers or sacrificers of our race must have lived in Circum-
Polar regions. But before discussing this evidence, it is necessary to
briefly describe the points wherein we might expect the ancient
or the oldest sacrificial system to differ from the one current in
Vedic times.
In the Sarithitas and Brahmaqas, the annual sattras, or yearly
sacrificial sessions, are said to extend over twelve months. But
this was impossible within the Arctic region where the sun goes
below the horizon for a number of days or months during the year,
thereby producing the long night. The oldest duration of the annual
sattras, if such sattras were ever performed within the Polar regions
would, therefore, be shorter than twelve months. In other words,
an annual sattras of less than twelve months would be the chief
distinguishing mark of the older sacrificial system, as contrasted
with the later annual sattra of twelve months. It must also be
borne in mind that the number of the months of sunshine and dark-
ness cannot be the same every where in the Circum-Polar regions.
At the Pole the sun is alternately above and below the horizon for
six months each. But as all people cannot be expected to be
stationed precisely at the Pole, practically the months of sunshine
will vary from seven to eleven for the inhabitants of the Arctic
region, those nearest to the North Pole having seven month's
sunshine, while those living farther south from the Pole having the
sun above their horizon for eight, nine or ten months according to
latitude. These periods of sunshine would be made up of the long
Arctic day at the place and a succession of ordinary days and nights
closely following each other; and sacrificial sessions would be held,

• See Dr. Haug's Aitareya Br.\h. Vol. I, Introduction p. 46.