Page 54 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

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If Jaimini's interpretation of this passage is correct we may,
so far as our present inquiry is concerned, deduce the following
conclusions from it :- ( l ) That in the days of the Taittirtya
SaiJlhita the winter solstice occurred before the 8th day of the dark
half of Migha, which again was a month of the cold season. Whe-
ther the solstitial day fell on the Magha full-moon is not so certain,
though it may be taken as fairly implied. For the Eka,htak& was
abandoned because it occurred in the " reversed" period oft~
year, and it is quite natural to suppose that the priests in
choosing a second day would try to remove. as many of the objec-
tions to the EU•htaU as they could. In other words, they would
not select a day itt the "reversed" period of the year, nor one in
the last season. The fact that a day before the full moon in Magha
was sel~ted is, thctrefore, a clear. indication of the solstice occurr-
ing on that day, while their anxiety to utilise the EkA•h1aU fully
accounts for the selection of the fourth in preference to any other
day before the full moon. I may also remark that throughout the
whole passage the intension of sacrificing at the beginning (real,
constructive or traditional ) of the year is quite clear. The full-
moon in Magha must, therefore, have been one of such beginnings.
( 2) That the year ~hen commenced with the winter solstice. ( 3)
That as there cannot be three real beginnings of the year -at an
interval of one month each, the passage must be understood as
recording a tradition about the Chitra. full moon and the Phalgunt
fuU-moon .being once considered as the first days of the year. (.4)
That Vifhtlwi.n had lost its primary meaning and that it fell in
the rainy season if the sacrifice was commenced ori the Phalgunt
full-moon.
The passage thus supplies not only confirmatory, but direct
evidence of the coincidence of the K fittikas with the vernal equi-
nox in the days of the Taittirtya Saq1hita. For, if the winter
solstice, fell on the full-moon day in Magha, then the summer
solstice, where_ the moon must then be, must coincide with the
asterism of Magha, and counting seven Nak,hatras backwards
we get the vernal equinox in the Kfittikas. Independently of the
Vedanga hqti•ha. we thus have four different statements in the
Taittirtya SalllhitA and Brah.m~a clearly showing that the vernal
equinox was then in th~ KrittiUs :firstly, the lists of the Naklha-
tras and their presiding deities, given in the Taittirtya Saq1bita and