Page 82 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

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the east then marked the beginning of the year, and this position
of Mdla is likely to be especially noted as tbe beliacal rising and
setting of a star, and so of Agrahdyana, is difficult to be accurately
watched. The etymological meaning of Mtlla may thus be said
to supply a sort of corroborative evidence for placing the vernal
equinox in MTigashiras though, in absence of other strong grounds,
it is of no better value than a similar conjecture of Bentley about
the name Vishoikha, noticed in the last chapter. ·
I have already mentioned before that the year was divided
into two ayanas, the northern and the south n and that though
originally the northern ayana indicated the passage of the sun to
the north of the equator yet it afterwards came to indicate the
passage of the sun from the winter to the summer solstice. I have
also stated that" after this change was made all the attributes of
the older ayanas must have been gradually transferred to the new
ones, though the old division was concurrently kept up and that
the new ideas were formed solely with reference to the soistitial
division of the year. Thus the Pitriyana during which time the
sun in older times went down the equator must have come to be
regarded, for some purposes at least, as commencing from the
summer solstice. With the winter solstice occurring on the Phalgun1
full-moon day, we shall have the summer solst~ce on the Bhadra-
padi full-moon, so that the dark half of Bbadrapada was the
first fortnight in the Pitriyana, understood as commencing on the
summer solstice. It was thus pre-eminently the fortnight of the
pitris or the manes; and to this day, every Hindu celebrates the
feast to the manes in this fortnight. As far as I know no reason
has yet been advanced why the dark half of Bhadrapada should
be called the fortnight of the pitris ( pitri pak~ha) and why special
feasts to the manes should be ordained at this particular period
of the year. With the winter solstice in the ·asterism of Uttara-
Bhadrapada, that is when' it occurred on the Phalguni full-moon
the matter is simply and satisfactorily explained. For then the
Dak~hi~ayana or summer solstice commenced on the dark half
of"Bhadrapada and this fortnight therefore naturally became the
first fortnight in the ayana of the manes. •
-- ---- - - ---
• Thi; explanation implies that the feast to the manes became
permantntly fixed at this time; and there is nothing improbable in it.
For as the Parsis hold similar feasts on corresponding days we must