Page 450 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

VEDIC MYTHS- THE CAPTIVE WATERS 231
in his yearly course. It follows, therefore, that after Sharad there
was no period of sunshine in ancient times; and a Vedic passage,*
quoted by Shabara in his commentary on Jaimini Sutras VI, 7,
40, says, " The sun is all the seasons; when it is morning ( uditi ),
it is Vasanta : when the milking time ( saligava) it is
Gn'~hma; when mid-day ( madhyan-dina ), it is Varsha; when
evening ( aparalu}a ), it is Sharad; when it sets ( astam eti ),
it is the dual season of Hemanta and Shishira. " If this passage
has any meaning, it shows that the powers of the sun declined in
Sharad, and the end of Sharad ( autumn ) therefore, represented
his annual succumbing to the powers of the darkness; or in short
to dual season of Hemanta and Shishira represented the long
night when the sun went below the horizon. It may also be
mentioned that the word himya ( lit. wintry ) is used in the ~ig­
Veda for night (I, 34, 1 ), implying that the wintry season was the
season of special darkness.
But it may be urged that we have no authority for holding
that, in ancient days, time was reckoned simply by seasons and
days; and chatvarilnshyam sharadi cannot, therefore, be interpreted
to mean " On the 40th ( day) in Sharad. " The objection is not,
however, well-founded; for in ancient inscriptions we find many
instances where dates of events are recorded only by reference
to seasons. Thus in the book on the Inscriptions from the Cave-
Temples of Western India, by Dr. Burgess and Pandit
Bhagwanlal Indraji, published by the Government of
Bombay in 1881, the date of inscription No. 14 is given as
follows : " Of king ( rano ) Vasi~hiputa, the illustrious lord
( sami-siri ) ( Pu.tumayi ] in the year seventh ( 7 ), of Gr£~hma the
fifth ( 5) fortnight, and first (I) day," Upon this Dr. Burgess
remarks that " the mention of the 5th fortnight of Gr£~hma shows
that the year was not divided into six seasons ( ritu ) but into
three, namely, Gr£~hma, Var~ha and Hemanta." But what is
important for our purpose in this inscription is the method of
giving the date by seasons, fortnights and days, without any
reference to the month. This inscription is followed in the same

• Shabara or Jaimini VI, 7, 40, quotes, ~r 9T ~ ~ij'Cf: ~ ~­
~~ cffim ~~r ~s~ !17~) ~~ ~<t~s~ 'fl'l"f ~·~:rsq~cl'ts~ ~~~it~
ro-~~() I I have not been able to trace the passage; but it clearly
states that the last two seasons formed the night of the yearly sun.