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.