Page 663 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

16 SAMAGRA TILAK •• 2 • VEDIC CHRONOLOGY
the book based upon this misconception must be set aside as
groundless.
Such, in brief, is the scheme of the Vedic Calender disclosed
by the oldest tract on the subject. But as the astronomical
elements on which it was built up were only approximately true
and further approximations were accepted to simplify the rules,
it was not to be expected to simplify the rules, it was not to be
expected that the scheme would remain in force for more than
two or three generations without any further modifications or
corrections; and as pointed out by S. B. Dikshit, we do find such
modifications introduced in later times. For instance, we find a
new 12 years' cycle of Jupiter introduced at about the same time,
doubtlessly to secure a still greater coincidence of the lunar with
the solar time than a five years' cycle would do; and in the Pita-
maha Siddhanta, as epitomised by Varaha Mihira in his Pancq-
Siddhftntika, rules for omitting a tithi ( tithi-kshyaya) or intro-
ducing an intercalary month are given in a slightly modified and
more correct manner. But we are not here concerned with these
later developments of the Vedic Calender. We have to see what
kind of Calender was used in the time of the Brahmap.as and
the Vedic Sa~phitas; and for this purpose we may well make the
' Vedanga Jyoti~ha' as our starting point and see what elements of
the system contained therein are found in the older Vedic Works.
This work has been done by S. B. Dikshit in the first part
of his work on the History of Indian Astronomy, referred to above.
He has shown that in the Bnihma!la period of Vedic literature
the nature of the Calender was substantially the same, as we find
it in the ' Vedanga Jyoti~ha ', Thus the list of Nak~hatras given
in the Taittiriya Saq1hita ( 4. 4. 10 ), Taittiriya B rahma'(la ( 1. 5.
1; 1. 1-2; and 3. 4. 4-5) and even in the. Atharva Veda Sat11hita
( 19. 7 ) is the same as in the ' Vedanga Jyoti!Jha, ' with this
difference, however, that whereas Dhanistha is the first in the
'Vedanga J yoti ~ha ' the series in the Brahmap.a and the Sa:rp.hitas
always begins with the Krittikas.
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