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