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)