Page 39 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

26 SAMAGRA TILAK - 2 • THE ORION

The Vedic observations could not again be such as need any
minute or detailed arithmetical operations. I shall therefore adopt
for the present the simplest possible method of calculation,-a
method which may be easily understood and followed by any one;
who can watch and observe the stars after the manner of the
ancient priest. We shall assume that the zodiac was divided into
27 parts, not by compass but by means of the leading stars, which
Prof. Max MUller rightly calls the milestones of the heavens. The
Vedic priest, who ascertained the motion of the sun by observing
with his unaided eye the neares~ visible star, • cannot be supposed
to have followed a different method in making other celestial
observations; and if so, we cannot assume that he was capable of
recognizing and using for the purposes of observation any arti-
ficial divisions of the ecliptic pn a mathematical principle, such
as those which would result from the division of 360° of the zodiac
into 27 equal parts, each part thus extending over· 130 20' of the
ecliptic. Of course, such an artificial method might be easily foll-
owed j.n later days, when the means of observation increased and
the sclcnce of arithmetic was developed. But in the earliest days
of civilization, it is more natural to suppose that the motions of
the sun and the moon were determined by observing which of
the known fixed stars was nearest to them. When we, therefore,
find it stated in the Vedic works that the sun was in the K~ittikas,
it is more probable that the fixed asterJsm, and not the beginning
of the artificial portion of the zodiac, was intended. I admit that
the accuracy of such observations cannot be relied upon within
two or three degrees, if not more. But we must take the facts as
they are especially when it is impossible to get anything more
accurate from the ancient observers of the heavens. t It will, I
trust, however, be found that this inevitable want of accuracy in
the old observations does not affect our conclusions to such an ex-

• Taitt. Br. 1. 5· 2. J, pre'\·iously quoted. The passage is very
importan'tn-.4 describes the method of making celestial obserntions
rn old times.
t Similar observations have been recorded by Greek poets.-Homer
mentions 'the turns of the sun, ' and Hesiod • the -rising and the
setting o( the Pleiades at the beginnings of day and night.' The obser-
vations in the Vedic works may be supposed to have been made i R a
similar way.