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XVIII. The Vedic Calendar
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Extract
In an article in the Indian Antiquary Mr. R. Shamasastry has made a new attempt to prove the existence in Vedic India in the period of the Saṃhitās and the Brāhmaṇas of a really elaborate calendar. He starts from the admitted existence of an intercalary month, which is referred to from the Ṛgveda onwards, and from the fact that in the Yajurveda and the Atharvaveda we find the Ekāṣṭakā, traditionally identified with the 8th day of the dark half of Māgha, treated as the commencement of the year. “Whether we will or no,” he concludes, “the fact cannot be denied that the idea of a thirteenth month, i.e. an intercalated month, could not have dawned upon the mind of the Vedic poets unless they had been quite familiar with the true lengths of several kinds of years.”
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References
page 627 note 1 xli (1912). Reprinted as The Vedic Calendar (Bombay, 1912).Google Scholar
page 628 note 1 See Macdonell, & Keith, , Vedic Index, ii, 412–13.Google Scholar
page 628 note 2 Calcutta ed. (1895), p. 782.
page 629 note 1 p. 778.
page 629 note 2 i, 12.
page 629 note 3 iv, 24.
page 629 note 4 iv, 11. 11, with which MrShamasastry, connects iv, 15. 13Google Scholar ( = Ṛgveda, vii, 103. 1).Google Scholar
page 629 note 5 iv, 16. 6.
page 629 note 6 i, 560 ( = ii, 773); Āraṇya Saṃhitā, iii, 5Google Scholar (as cows); Sāmaveda, ii, 173 (as streams).Google Scholar
page 630 note 1 There is nothing of this in the passage of the Atharvaveda, iv, 15. 13Google Scholar, cited by Shamasastry, nor in iv, 11. 11, to which he seems also to refer; see also Whitney, , JAOS. xvi, p. xciv.Google Scholar
page 630 note 2 See Nidāna Sūtra, vi, 6.Google Scholar
page 631 note 1 The passages cited are too vague to yield any certain sense.
page 631 note 2 vii, 1. 10.
page 631 note 3 See Delbrück, , Altind. Synt. p. 131.Google Scholar
page 631 note 4 vii, 2. 1.
page 632 note 1 Śrauta Sūtra, iv, 6. 12.Google Scholar
page 632 note 2 xxv, 18. 1.
page 633 note 1 Śrauta Sūtra, xiii, 27. 5.Google Scholar
page 634 note 1 x, 9.
page 634 note 2 The simple sense of course is that 12 yearly sessions on the one hand is equivalent to a session lasting 12 years in time. Mr. Shamasastry has to turn this into a declaration that the Tapaścits celebrated 12 days, not one, each four years. For this he cites Nidāna Sūtra, iv, 12Google Scholar, which does not contain any allusion whatever to a celebration once in four years. Nor does any other passage of that text or of Lāṭyāyana, or of anyone else.
page 635 note 1 xli and xlii. A reprint of these articles, as of his article on the Vedic Calendar, I owe to the author's courtesy, which I gratefully acknowledge.
page 635 note 2 i, 10. 8.
page 636 note 1 There is no evidence even in Sutras for a 366 day year as actually recognized as such, Vedic Index, ii, 159Google Scholar. On Nidāna, v, 12Google Scholar, see Fleet, 's note in The Vedic Calendar, p. 14, n. 21.Google Scholar
page 636 note 2 See Macdonell, & Keith, , Vedic Index, ii, 161.Google Scholar
page 637 note 1 Maitrāyaṇī Saṃhitā, i, 10. 5.Google Scholar
page 637 note 2 Ibid. i, 6. 12.
page 638 note 1 ii, 5. 2; vi, 5. 1.
page 638 note 2 That this identification can be accepted is inadmissible, bub the argument is, even on the identification, without value.
page 638 note 3 xviii, 18. 29.
page 638 note 4 Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, vi, 1. 1. 2; ix, 2. 3. 44–5Google Scholar.
page 638 note 5 Ṛgveda, ii, 12. 11.Google Scholar
page 638 note 6 Ibid, i, 130. 7; iv, 30. 20.
page 638 note 7 Śatapatha Brāhṃana, x, 2. 4. 7.Google Scholar
page 639 note 1 Śatapatha Brāhṃana, xi, 5. 2. 10.Google Scholar
page 639 note 2 i, 7. 3.
page 639 note 3 Atharvaveda, xiii, 3. 8.Google Scholar
page 640 note 1 The Vedic Calendar, pp. 13, n. 18Google Scholar; 14, n. 24; see also Weber, , Naxatra, ii, 281 sqq.Google Scholar