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

THE COWS' WALK. 211 (vimshatim râtrîh, VII. 3, 9, 1; dvâtrimshatam râtrîh, VII, 4, 4, 1). According to the principle of division noted above all night- sacrifices of less than thirteen nights' duration will be called Ahîna, while those extending over longer time upto one hundred nights will come under Sattras; but this is, as remarked above, evidently an artificial division, and one, who reads carefully the description of these sacrifices, cannot fail to be struck by the fact that we have here a series of night-sacrifices from two to a hundred nights, or if we include the Ati-râtra in this series, we have practically a set of hundred nightly Soma sacrifices, though, according to the principle of division adopted, some may fall under the head of Ahîna and some under that of Sattras. Now an important question in connection with these Sattras is why they alone should be designated 'night-sacri- fices,' (râtri-kratus), or 'night-sessions' (râtri-sattras)? and why their number should be one hundred? or, in other words, why there are no night-sattras of longer duration than one hundred nights? The Mîmâmsakas answer the first part of the question by asking us to believe that the word 'night' (râtrih) is really used to denote 'a day' in the denomination of these sacrifices (Shabara on Jaimini VIII, 1, 17). The word Dvi-râtra, according to this theory, means two days' sacrifice, and Shata-râtra, a hundred days' sacrifice. This explanation appears very good at the first sight, and as a matter of fact it has been accepted by all writers on the sacrificial ceremonies. In support of it, we may also cite the fact that as the moon was the measurer of time in ancient days, the night was then natu- rally more marked than the day, and instead of saying 'so many days' men often spoke of 'so many nights,' much in the same way as we now use the word 'fort-night.' This is no doubt good so far as it goes; but the question is why should there be no Soma sacrifices of a longer duration than one hundred nights? and why a gap, a serious gap, is left