Page 84 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

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"'RAHAXA!'I~ 71

feasts to t\le manes were celebrated,* bega~ , with the summ~r
solstice. Again the -fourth month of the A vesta calendar was
'I:i!ihtryehe or the mo~th of Tistrya, which has been ident$ed with
the star Sirius. Counting with Bhidrapada in the summer sol!ltice,
the fourth month in the Hindu calendar would be Marga~~hirsha
or the.Jllonth ofMrigashiras, which Nak~hatra is qu~te . near . Sirius.
We can now also ea ily explain why Dathushp should have been
dedicated to the Creator. Beginning withFravashinam in the summer
solstice, Dathusho begins exactly at the vernal equinox, and as
marking the revival of nature it was properly dedica.teq to the
Creator. Roth again was partially correct when he imagi..O.ed that
Dathusho must have once commenced the year inas~uch as it
was dedicated to the Creator Ahuramazda. For fr;m 'the old
Hindu calendar we see that the vernal equinox was also a beginning
of the year. In the primitive Avesta calendar we can thus discover
the traces of the year, begjnning with the vernal equinox and also
from the summer solstice (in opposition to the Hindu winter sol-
stice) in Bhadrapada, the month of the manes. These coincidences,
especially about the month of the manes, cannot be said to be
merely accidental. The worshippers of Ahuramazda changed the
commencement of the year from the winter to the ummer sol tice,
But as observed by Roth ' a sacred and solemn fea t could not be
removed from its place in the year 't, and this affords therefore

• The last five days of the old year and the first l!ve days of the
new year a!;e called 'FraYardigan · days. 'During these ten days the
fi·oli.m (f11mrski or jrfiVm'li) the spiritual representatives Of the deceased
are believed to come to the houses' of men on the earth. See Dr.
Haugh's Essays on the Parsis, p. 225 note. At present the Hindu feasts
extend over the whole of the f<\rtnight. 'Ve, however, find an alterna-
tive period recorded in the NirQ.aya Sindhu, which states that the
feasts may extend over a fortnight, ten days or five days !
t See Dr. Geiger's Civ. An. Iran., Vol. I, p. qs. The annual
feasts to the manes amongst the Parsis came after the Gahanbars and
It is interesting to note that the titri pn.hsli11 1S defined in the SQrya
Sidhflllta, xiv. 3-6, as the period of 16 days after the four $1wf.as11iti
muklitz> or festivals at intervals of 86 days each beginning with Libra.
The author of the llrya Siddh:i.nta is here evidently describing some
old festivals and as R~,;,; , were in use in his days he fixes the d ura tJon
of these festh·als according to the calendar then in force . The mention
of Libra does not therefore prevent us from regarding .~h,,t{,IS!titi-muMns