Page:The Life of Lokamanya Tilak.djvu/402

 From these data, astronomers have calculated that the solstitial colure occupied the above position between 1269 B.C. to 1181 B.C. There are many passages in the Taittiriya Samhita and the Taittiriya Brahmana where the Krittikas occupy the first place in the list of the Nakshatras. We must, therefore, presume that the Vernal equinox coincided with the Krittikas when the Taittiriya vSamhita was compiled. The Taittiriya Brahmana (i 5, 2, 7) says that the Nakshatras are the houses of Gods and that the Nakshatras of the Devas begin with the Krittikas. The Shatapatha Brahmana expressly states that the Sun was to be considered as moving amongst and protecting the Devas, when he turned to the North, in the three seasons, of spring, summer and rains. This, therefore, at once fixes the position of the Krittikas at the beginning of the Devayana or the vernal equinox at the time when these works were compiled. The Taittiriya Samhita expressly states that the winter solstice fell in Magha. From all these, we conclude that the Krittikas coincided with the Vernal equinox when the Taittiriya Samhita was compiled (2350 B.C.)

The passage in the Taittiriya Samhita which states that the winter solstice fell in Magha also refers to the Phalguni full-moon and the Chitra full-moon as the first days of the year. Now as evidently there can't be real beginnings of the year at an interval of one month each, the passage must be understood as recording a tradition about these two full-moon days being once considered as the first days of the year. If the year commenced with winter solstice with the Phalguni full-moon, the Vernal equinox must have been