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

284 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS. when mid-day (madhyan-dina), it is Varsha; when evening (aparâhna), it is Sharad; when it sets (astam eti), it is the dual season of Hemanta and Shishira." If this passage has any meaning, it shows that the powers of the sun declined in Sharad, and the end of Sharad (autumn), therefore, represented his annual succumbing to the powers of darkness; or, in short, to dual season of Hemanta and Shishira represented the long night when the sun went below the horizon. It may also be mentioned that the word himyâ (lit. wintry) is used in the Ṛig-Veda for night (I, 34, 1), implying that the wintry season was the season of special darkness. But it may be urged that we have no authority for holding that, in ancient days, time was reckoned simply by seasons and days; and chatvâriṅshyâm sharadi cannot, therefore, be inter- preted to mean "On the 40th (day) in Sharad." The objec- tion is not, however, well-founded; for in ancient inscriptions we find many instances where dates of events are recorded only by reference to seasons. Thus in the book on the Inscriptions from the Cave-Temples of Western India, by Dr. Burgess and Pandit Bhagwânlâl Indrâji, published by the Government of Bombay in 1881, the date of inscription No. 14 is given as follows:—"Of king (raño) Vâsiṭhîputa, the illustrious lord (sâmi-siri) [Puḷumâyi] in the year seventh (7), of Grîshma the fifth (5) fortnight, and first (1) day." Upon this Dr. Burgess remarks that "the mention of the 5th fortnight of Grîshma shows that the year was not divided into six seasons (ṛitu) but into three, namely, Grîshma, Varshâ and Hemanta." But what is important for our purpose in this inscription is the method of giving the date by seasons, fortnights and days, without any reference to the month. This inscription is followed in the same book by others, one of which (No. 20) is thus dated:—"In the twenty-fourth year (24) of the king Vâsi- ṭhîputa, the illustrious Puḷimâvi, in the third (3) fort- night of the winter (hemanta) months, on the second (2)