Page 376 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

THE COWS' WALK 161

cters so far as its duration is concerned. SAya~a and Bha~~
Bhaskara, in their commentaries on the Taittirtya Sanihita, canno~
therefore, be said to have invented any new theory of their own
as regards the double duration of this annual Sattra. We shall
discuss later on what is denoted by " cows " in the above pass-
ages. At present we are concerned with the duration of the
Sattra; and if we compare the above matter-of-fact statements
in the Samhita about the double duration of the annual Sattra
with the legend of the Dashagvas sacrificing for ten [months,
the conclusion, that in ancient times the ancestors of the Vedic
Aryas completed their annual sacrificial session in ten months,
becomes irresistible. This duration of the Sattra must have been
changed and all such Sattras made to last for twelve months when
the Vedic people came to live in regions where such an annual
session was impossible. But conservatism in such matters is so
strong that the old practice must have outlived the change in the
calendar, and it had to be recognised as an alternative period of
duration for this Sattra in the Sanihitas. The Taittirtya Sambita
has thus to record the alternative period, stating that it is an
ancient practice, and I think it settles the question, so far as the
duration Qf these Sattras in ancient times is concerned. Whatever
reasons we may assign for it, it is beyond all doubt that the oldest
annual Sattras lasted only for ten months.
• But the Taittirtya Samhita is not alone in being thus unable
to assign any reason for this relic of the ancient calendar, or the
duration of the annual Sattr'a. We still designate the twelth
month of the European solar year as December which word
etymologically denotes the tenth month, ( Latin decem, Sans.
dashan, ten; and ber Sans. vara, time or period), and we all
know that Numa added two months to the ancient Roman year
and made it of twelve months. Plutarch, in his life of Numa records
another version of the story, viz., that Numa according to some,
did not add the two months but simply transferred them from
the end to the beginning of the year. But the names of the months
clearly show that this could not have been the case, for the enu-
meration of the months by words indicating their order as the
fifth or Quintilis ( old name for July ), the sixth or Sixtilis, ( old
name for August ), the seventh or September and so on the rest
in their order, cannot, after, it is once begun, be regarded to have
abruptly stopped at December, allowing only the last two months
All