Page 452 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

VEDIC MYTHS- THE CAPTIVE WATERS 233
gives as present in this to the Ratu ( religious head ) ; and we have
therein such expressions as " On the 45th ( day ) of Maidhyo-
Zeremya, i. e. on ( the day ) Dae of ( the month ) Ardibehest ";
or" On the 60th ( day ) of Maidhyoshma, i. e., on (the day) Dae of
( the month ) Tir," and so on. Here each date is given in two different
ways : first by mentioning the Gahanbar or the season ( the year
being divided into six Gahan bars ), and the day of that season;
and secondly, by mentioning the month and the day of that month.
Strictly speaking there is no necessity to adopt this double method
of marking the days of the year, for either of them is enough to
accurately define the day required. It is, therefore, highly probable
as remarked by Mr. Ervad Jamshedji Dadabhai Nadershah that
the method of counting by seasons and days is the older of the
two, and the phrases containing the names of the months and
days are later interpolations, made at a time when the older
method was superseded by the latter. * But even supposing that
the double phrases were used originally, we can, so far as our
present purpose is concerned, safely infer from these passages
that the method of marking the days of the year by mentioning
the season and the day thereof was in vogue at the time when
the Afrigan was written : and if the method is so old, it fully
warrants us in interpreting chatvdriinshyam sharadi to mean
" On the 40th ( day ) in Sharad ( autumn ). " There can be little
doubt that the Vedic bards have recorded in this passage the exact
date of the commencement of Indra's fight with Shambara, but
in the absence of the true key to its meaning the passage has been
so long unfortunately misunderstood and misinterpreted both by
Eastern and Western scholars. The grammatical possibility of
connecting chatvariinshyam, as an adjective, with sharadi helped
on this misconception; and though Vedic scholars were unable
to explain why Shambara, according to their interpretation, should
be described as having been found in the 40th year, yet th~y seemed
to have accepted the interpretation, because no other meaning
appeared possible to them. The alternative construction proposed
by me above is very simple. Instead of taking chatvariinshyam as
an adjective qualifiying sharadi I take the two words as independent
locatives, but the change in the meaning caused thereby is very

" See his essay on "The Zoroastrian months and years with their.
divisions in the Avestic age" in the CamaMemorhl TO/ume, pp. 251 -254·