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

198 THE ARCTIC HOME IN THE VEDAS.
Sattra with the legend of the Dashagvas sacrificing for ten
months, the conclusion, that in ancient times the ancestors of
the Vedic Aryas completed their annual sacrificial session in
ten months, becomes irresistible. This duration of the Sattra
must have been changed and all such Sattras made to last for
twelve months, when the Vedic people came to live in regions
where such an annual session was impossible. But conserva-
tism in such matters is so strong that the old practice must
have outlived the change in the calendar, and it had to be re-
cognised as an alternative period of duration for this Sattra in
the Samhitâs. The Taittirîya Samhitâ has thus to record the
alternative period, stating that it is an ancient practice, and I
think it settles the question, so far as the duration of these
Sattras in ancient times is concerned. Whatever reasons we
may assign for it, it is beyond all doubt that the oldest annual
Sattras lasted only for ten months.
But the Taittirîya Samhitâ is not alone in being thus
unable to assign any reason for this relic of the ancient calen-
dar, or the duration of the annual Sattra. We still designate
the twelfth month of the European solar year as December,
which word etymologically denotes the tenth month, (Latin
decem, Sans. dashan, ten; and ber Sans. vâra, time or period),
and we all know that Numa added two months to the ancient
Roman year and made it of twelve months. Plutarch, in his
life of Numa, records another version of the story, viz., that
Numa, according to some, did not add the two months, but sim-
ply transferred them from the end to the beginning of the year.
But the names of the months clearly show that this could not
have been the case, for the enumeration of the months by words
indicating their order, as the fifth or Quintilis (old name for
July), the sixth or Sixtilis, (old name for August), the seventh
or September and so on the rest in their order, cannot, after it is
once begun, be regarded to have abruptly stopped at December,
allowing only the last two months to be differently named.