Page 75 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

62 SAMAGRA TILAK.:.~ • THE ORION

ever being the first of the Nakthatras, was completely lost in those
days and native scholars believed, on what they considered to
be sound etymological grounds that the month and not the Nak-
thatra was the commencement of the year. Once started and embo-
died in the Gtta, the theory gained an easy and rapid currency
amongst native scholars, all of whom naturally felt bound to shape
their views accordingly.
And not only literary scholars, but astronomers appear to have
done the same. In old astronomical works the year commenced
with the winter solstice and the first month of the year meant the
first month of the Uttari)'&J}.a which commenced with this solstice.
H then the Mlrpshirthi full-moon was said to be the first night
of the year; an astronomer would naturally understand such
stattment to mean that the winter solstice fell on the full-moon
day of M&rgashtrtha. Now if we suppose that the MA.rgashrttht
full-moon was thus the night of the winter solstice, it would mean
that the full·moon on that day happened to be near the asterism
of Mrigashiras. With the sun at the winter solstice, the moon, to
be full, must be near the summer solstice; and therefore the summer
solstice must have then coincided with the asterism of M rigashiras.
The vernal equinox is 90 ° behind the summer solstice; and M riga-
shiras coincided with the latter, the vernal equinox would then be
90° behind the asterism of M!igashiras. This is the only logical and
mathematical conclusion possible if we accept the theory that the
full-moon night in MA.rgashtrtha was the first night of the year
at the winter solstice. And what does it mean ? It means a clear
mathematidll absurdity to us, though older astronomers, -not realiz-
ing its full effect, invented an explanation to account for it. The
SAtya Siddhlnta ( viii. 2. 9 ) giv~ 63 ° as the polar longitude of
Mripshiras,counting froJU Revati. Now if·the vernal equinox was
90° behind the asterism of Mrigaahiras, it was 90°-63° -27°
behind the asterism of Revati r• The Vedic works, on the other

• Thia may imply that the SQrya Siddhlnta waa in existence at the
tlme when the libration theory waa started. I think it waa. But it hu
been· auggelled that lhe libration theorr might have been aubaequently
inserted there in ( aee Whttney'a SQr. Sid., p. 104 ) .. It h not, however,
neeeaaary to make aay supposition regarding the uiateoce of the SQrya
Siddbtnta at this tim·e ai almost all other Siddhlntas give the same
IJI:ora; Tiz., 63° forl4Jigaabiraa. See Colebrooke'a Eaaaya, Vol ii, p. 335
( table).