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

MONTHS AND SEASONS. 185 Thus pare ardhe is contrasted with upare ardhe in the second line, pañcha-pādam (compare pañchāre in the next verse, i.e., Ṛig-Veda I, 164, 13) with ṣhaḍ-are, and purīshiṇam with vichaksh- nam. In short, the verse under consideration describes the year either (1) as five-footed, and lying in waters in the farther part of heaven, or (2) as mounted on a six-spoked car and far-seeing in the nearer part of the heaven. These two descriptions cannot evidently apply to seasons in one and the same place, and the artifice of combining two consecutive seasons cannot be accepted as a solution of the question. Five seasons and ten months, followed by the watery residence of the sun or dark nights, is what is precisely described in the first half of this passage (I, 164, 12), and, from what has been said hitherto, it will be easily seen that it is the Arctic year of ten months that is here described. The verse, and especially the contrast between purīshiṇam and vichakshaṇam, does not appear to have attracted the attention it deserves. But in the light of the Arctic theory the description is now as intelligible as any. The Vedic bards have here preserved for us the memory of a year of five seasons or ten months, although their year had long been changed into one of twelve months. The explanation given in the Brâhmaṇas are all so many post facto devices to account for the mention of five seasons in the Ṛig-Veda, and I do not think we are bound to accept them when the fact of five seasons can be better ac- counted for. I have remarked before that in searching for evidence of ancient traditions we must expect to find later traditions associated with them, and Ṛig. I, 164, 12, dis- cussed above, is a good illustration of this remark. The first line of the verse, though it speaks of five seasons, des- cribes the year as twelve-formed; while the second line, which deals with a year of six seasons or twelve months, speaks of it as 'seven-wheeled,' that is, made up of seven months or seven suns, or seven rays of the sun. This may