वेदों की प्राचीनता एवं काल-निर्णय / ओरायन (लोकमान्य बाल गंगाधर तिलक - खगोलीय वैदिक शोध)

MONTHS AND SEASONS. 183 no doubt that the passage contains the description of the year, and the two halves of the verse, which are introduced by the phrases 'they say' and 'others say,' give us two opinions about the nature of the year-god of twelve forms. Let us now see what these opinions are. Some say that the year-god is five- footed (pañcha-pâdam), that is, divided into five seasons; and the others say that he has a six-spoked car, or six seasons. It is clear from this that the number of seasons was held to be five by some and six by others in early days. Why should there be this difference of opinion? The Aitareya Brâhmaṇa I, 1, (and the Taittirîya Saṁhitâ I, 6, 2, 3) explains that the two seasons of Hemanta and Shishira together made a joint season, thereby reducing the number of seasons from six to five. But this explanation seems to be an afterthought, for in the Shata- patha Brâhmaṇa, XIII, 6, 1, 10, Varshâ and Sharad are com- pounded for this purpose instead of Hemanta and Shishira. This shews that in the days of the Taittirîya Saṁhitâ and the Brâh- maṇas it was not definitely known or settled which two seasons out of six should be compounded to reduce the number to five; but as five seasons were sometimes mentioned in the Vedas, some explanation was felt to be necessary to account for the smaller number, and such explanation was devised by taking together any two consecutive seasons out of six and regard- ing them as one joint season of four months. But the ex- planation is too vague to be true; and we cannot believe that the system of compounding any two seasons according to one's choice was ever followed in practice. We must, therefore, give up the explanation as unsatisfactory, and see if the verse from the Ṛig-Veda, quoted above, enables us to find out a better explanation of the fact that the seasons were once held to be five. Now the first half of this verse describes the five-footed father as full of watery vapours in the farther part of heaven, while the year of six-spoked car is said to