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

230 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. the story of its changing fortune. But the night-sacrifices, the Râtri-kratus or Râtri-sattras, which were performed during the long night between the two Ati-râtras, were no longer needed and their nature came to be soon misunderstood, until at last the the Mîmâṁsakas finally made room for them in the class of daily Soma sacrifices, partly under Ahînas and partly under Sattras, by means of the equation that râtri (night) is equal to aho-râtre (day and night) in the sacrificial literature. How this change was carried out is a question beyond the scope of this book ; but I may here state that, in my opinion, it was the authors of Brâhmaṇas, or the Brahmavâdins who preceded them, that had to perform the difficult task of adapting the ancient sacrificial calendar to the changed conditions of their new home, somewhat after the manner of Numa's reform of the ancient Roman calendar. The sacrifice was the main ritual of the Vedic religion, and naturally enough the priests must have tried to preserve as much of the old sacrificial system as they possibly could in adapting it to the new conditions. The task was by no means an easy one, and those that find fault with the Brâhmaṇas as full of fanciful speculations must bear in mind the fact that an ancient and sacred system of sacrifices had to be adapted to new conditions, by assigning plausible reasons for the same, at a time when the true origin of the system was almost forgotten. The Brâhmaṇas could not have indulged in free speculations about the origin of the rites and ceremonies mentioned by them, had the latter originated in their own time, or in days so near to them that the real traditions about the origin of these ceremonies could be preserved intact. But so long as these traditions were fresh, no explanation was probably needed; and when they became dim, their place had to be supplied by plausible reasons based on such traditions as were known at the time. This throws quite a new light on the nature and composition of the Brâhmaṇas; but as the discussion is not