Page 661 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

14 SAMAGRA TILAK --2 • VEDIC CHRONOLOGY
Vedic works are learnt by heart by our priests. The tract was
known to Sir William Jones, Colebrooke, Davis, Bentley, and
other Scholars of the time and its text was published so early as
1834 by Captain Jervis at the end of his' Indian Metrology'. But
neither these scholars nor Weber, who published the text again
in 1862, was able to interpret more than a few verses therein and
in consequence the important astronomical statements embodied
in these verses did not receive the recognition they deserved.
Whitney, for instance, considered that the tract was ' filled with
unintelligible rubbish ' and ' left us quite in lurch as regards
the valuable information ' about the nature of adjustments
resorted to in the Vedic Calender to make the lunar and the solar
year correspond with each other. But thanks to the labours of
recent workers in the field-especially of S. B. Dikshit, Barha-
spatya ( Lala Chottelal ) and Pan~it Sudhakar Dwivedi, -the
difficulties of interpretation have been well nigh completely over-
come, and we are now in a position to thoroughly grasp the
scheme of the Vedic Calender set forth in this ancient book. In fac.
Dikshit has already given an outline of the scheme in his above
mentioned work on the History of Indian Astronomy. It will be
seen therefrom that the Vedanga Jyoti~ha starts with the data that
in a period of five solar years, that is., in 366 x 5 or 1830 civil days
the sun makes five complete revolutions of the Zodiac and that in
the same time there are 62 lunar ( Synodical ) and 67 lunar
( Siderial ) months. This makes the duration of the Synodical
lunar month equal to 29-i days and that of the Sideriallunar month
equal to 27 ~ days. The quinquennial concurrence of the lunar
and the solar time here assumed is only approximately true, not
rigidly correct; and the daily motions of the sun and the moon,
on which the calculations are based, are all mean or average
motions, being regarded as constant and not as, is actually the
case varying each day. But this has enabled the' Vedanga Jyoti!:!ha'
to frame such rough and ready practical rules, as could be easily
worked out by a Vedic priest, and having a knowledge of elemen-
tary arithmetic but unacquainted with astronomy, for determining
the requisite age ( tithi) of the moon and the place ( Nakeyhatra)
both of the moon and the sun on particular day in the period
( Yuga ) of five years. We might even say that this is the main
object of the book and that it does not pretend to be a treatise