Page 83 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

10 SAMAGRA ,li:AK -·2 • THE ORION

And not only the Hindus but· n., Parsis celebrate tbeir .feast
tt>·1be 1Jlanes at tne same time. Tbe ~cidenoe is impo'lUJit iu-
asmuch as we ate here dealing with peHotts of 1lhtiquity when· the
Indian, the Iranian, and Hellenic Aiyas mukt have lived to~her,
a'nit ·if our theory is c~rrect i! is· sure 'to be Corroborated by the
. . . . ' . ,
custom';, practices, and. traditions of the other 'two 'sections of
"' ' . .·.
the Aryan race. I shall in the· next two chapters show that there
is ampl~ independeJJ.t c;_vid~~ee ~f this .'kin~ col)firmato~ of the
tp~ory; ~h~t Mrigashiras co~e~9c:d th,e cq\J,inoctial year in those
early -days. At present I shall,Qnl.y,t~f~ to the ccnc~usio~ of Dt:.
Geiger as to the nature of whatthe calls.tbc primitive. or the oldest
Avesta calendar. He takes-madhyMy()--Twbicll literally means not
• mid-winter', but • mid-year '-as his basis and concludes that
in the primitive A vesta calendar the year commenced with. the
summer solstice.t This is just what we should expect. The Indian
Aryans cotnmenced their year from the winter solstice or the
beginning of the UttarayaJ).a atid the Iranians, who hi such matters
always took a diametrically opposite view, naturally commenced it
with the summer solstice the beginning of the Dakthii)Ayana, thus
b~ng.in~ the Bruma (or the winter solstice) in the middle of the
year. But the coincidence doe~ not stop here; and in the light of the
o~9 Jndian. calendar we are in a position.,to.explain some difficult
points.in the primitive Avesta calenqar. The Hindu pilri-palqha or
the fortnitrbt of the manes commenced with the summer solstice,
while· the Iranians celebrated their feasts to the manes just at
fbe same time. The first month in their calendar was called Frava-
sliina'm or the month of the manes-, and, according to the primitive
c~lendar determined b~· Dr. Geiger, this first month, when the

suppose that these feasts became fixed long before the Pants and the
lndians separated. When the vernal equinox receded to the Krittikls
the,feasts still continued to be celebrated in the darlc half of Bhadra·
pada But though the priests could not alter the days of tbeae feasts•
yel in assigning deities to the Nakthatras they recogntsed the change
making pilris preside over MAgha at the summer solstice.
··"·' tSee Dr. ue1ger's Ctvillsation of the Eastern Iranians in Ancient
Times: tr:tnslated by Darab Dastur Phes!ltotan San jan at Vol. 1.
p. J 33"·