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

THE COWS' WALK. 229 explained, for the sacrifice was performed at the beginning and the close of the long night and, was therefore, adequately called a trans-nocturnal sacrifice. Between these two Ati-râtras came all the night-sacrifices mentioned above, offered exclusively to Indra. The old Gavâm-ayanam of ten or less than ten months, the Ati-râtra or the trans-nocturnal, the Râtri-kratus and Râtri- sattras, or nightly Soma sacrifices of two, three, &c., up to a hundred continuous nights' duration, and lastly the Ati-râtra, to be again followed by the Gavâm-ayanam, thus formed the com- plete yearly round of sacrifices performed by the primeval ances- tors of the Vedic people; and each of these sacrifices had ori- ginally the same place in the yearly round as is indicated by the root-meaning of its name.* But when the year of ten months was converted into one of twelve to suit the altered conditions of the new home, the Gavâm-ayanam expanded into a performance of 360 days, and the elastic nature of the greater portion of the performance, as pointed out above, permitted the change to be easily carried out. But though the annual Sattra expanded in this way, encroaching upon the night-sacrifices of the long night, which were no longer needed, the Ati-râtra was retained as an introductory sacrifice and was incorporated in the ceremonies of the Sattra itself. Thus the two Ati-râtra sacrifices, which were originally performed, as shown by the etymology, at the two termini of the long night, came to be converted into the introductory and concluding sacrifices of the annual Sattra; and if the word Ati-râtra had not been retained, we could not have got any clue to reveal to us

• The time here assigned to the Râtri-sattras appears to have been known to the Shrauta Sûtras, or in the Lâtyâyana Shrauta Sûtra VIII, 2, 16, we have, समाप्ते वा संवत्सरे रात्रिसत्रेषु राजानं क्रीणीयुः, meaning that "After the year (annual secrificial session) is over, the Soma should be purchased during the Râtri-sattras," evidently shewing that the Râtri-sattras came at the end of the yearly Sattras.