On The Succession of The Hindu Priesthood. The B Rigus, Añgiras, and Atharvans, and The Historical Evidence Thence Derived

Notes on the Early History of Modern India. Part V. On the Succession of the Hindu Priesthood.
The Brigus, Agiras, and Atharvans, and the Historical Evidence Thence Derived, Followed by the History of the Year Author(s): J. F. Hewitt Source: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, (Jul., 1890), pp. 527-605 Published by: Cambridge University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25208985 . Accessed: 31/07/2013 12:28
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527
Art.
on the Early History India. of Modern the V. On Succession Priesthood, of the Hindu the Bhrigus, Angiras, and Atharvans, and the Historical Evidence thence derived, folloived by the History of the Notes Part Year. By J. F. Hewitt, Esq., M.R.A.S.
X. ?
to the last Essay of this series, pub the Appendix in April, and 1890, by adducing proof that Maghada Bharata were derived from the roots Mag and Bhri, both of " to bring forth," and that they both meant which mean " the sons of the great mother who brings forth all man lished
kind."
I closed
is another name of a tribe in which the root seems me which to to that appears, prove conclusively in its original form was not an Aryan word, but one Bharata to Dravidian formed according rules, and that the tribe so must race. have been of Dravidian called In the originally war the of the of ten hymns telling kings, Vashishtha how the Trtsus drove describes the weak Bharatas before them like oxen,1 but in his great song of triumph celebrating the victory of Sudas, he does not name the Bharatas among the tribes opposed to the Trtsus. But among these tribes he as names the Bhrigus the Turvasu and Matsya following across the river to attack the Aryans.2 In this word Bhri-gu " the root is derived, appears in bhri," from which Bharata its naked form. This is not usual in Aryan words derived " " a usual from verbal roots, nor is of Aryan gu ending " nouns formed from such roots. But in Tamil " gu is one suffixes added to verbal roots to form of the commonest is therefore a noun regularly formed nouns,3 and Bhri-gu But there Bhri according to Tamil rules from the root "bhri." This root
2 Rg. vii. 18. 6. Grammar of Dravidian Languages, 35
1 vii. 33. 1-6. 3 lig. Caldwell, Comparative yol. xxii.?[new series.]
p. 468.
528 " bhri"
EARLY HISTORY OF NORTHERN INDIA.
" " to in the roots appears in modern Tamil poru " to bring forth;2 and the name would bear,1 and peru" " the bringer thus signify forth," or, as the name of a tribe, the mother the sons of The Mother, which must be, like Magha, The form Bhrigu, which earth. is thus shown to be rich in a must be word surviving from fossil historical instruction, the people of Northern the time when India were trying to assimilate the Northern roots3 and forms of speech of their teachers with those of a Dravidian people, and this Assyrian as Aryan form was, altered earlier influence increased, It was the Bhargas into Bharga. who are named in the as having been conquered Mahabharata Finally, byBhima.4 the "g" of the original ending was dropped, and the people as Bharata. name still But the original became known lingered in the sacrificial ritual, the repository of the oldest traditions, and we thus find the wiseBhrigus spoken of in the as the finders and creators of In the Sata Rigveda Agni.5 are as two Brahmana named with the patha Angiras they are also named in the ritual The Angiras tribes of priests.6 of the Soma sacrifice as the priests who used to perform the or sun-worshippers, and it Soma sacrifice before the Adityas, that when they offered the sacrifice for the new " " the sons of Saro (speech), who worshipped Yach as the sun, they received from them a white speech as well In the numerous versions of the horse as a sacrificial fee.7 of of the release the cows, or the gods of light, from the story is said comers, the they were kept by the trading Panis, are to said of the whether of darkness, they gods worshipper be released by Indra, Agni, and Sarama,8 by Sarama alone,9 or are always spoken of as in charge of by Brihaspati,10 they prison where
2 lb. p. 486. is so widely disseminated among Aryan nations that it must, have been adopted at a very early time. if originally Dravidian, Its Dravidian as Penka as ber or per, Penka, form would, shows, have been unaspirated, the Origines Ariacse, chap. vi. p. 158, where he shows that the tenues preceded aspirates. 4 Sabha (Digvijaya) Parva, xxx. p. 85. * Kg. x. 46. 2 and 9. 6 Sat. Brah. i. 2. 1. 13, vol. xii. p. 38, note 1. 7 Sat. Brah. iii. 13-19, vol. xxvi. pp. 113-115. 9 s 10 Eg. v. 45. 6-11. Eg. x. 108. 8 and 10. Eg. x. 67. 1-7. 1 lb p. 473. 3 The root " bhri"
THE BHRIGUS, PRIESTS OF THE MOTHER-EARTH.
529
and it was the offerings and songs of the Angiras the Angiras, It was they who by which helped Indra to free the cows.1 and it was in the realms their sanctity attained immortality, of the immortals that they learnt the order of the months.2 These citations, to which others might be added, prove that they were the priests of the old gods and of the tribes who
learnt how to measure time and arranged the course of the
lunar year. But they were not the priests of the earliest we find Usana, and in the Mahabharata wrho is ritualists, as the called also Sukra, and Bhargava represented Daitya He is the father of Deva priest of the Asuras or Danavas. the wife of Yayati, the son of yani, the goddess-mother, to who bore him Yadu He and Turvasu. is also the Nahusha, " or for he It is I who down rain Sukra, says, pour god Indra, for the good of creatures, and who nourish the annual plants which sustain all living Now Bhargava, which is things."3 one of the names by which Indra is here called, is exactly to Maghavat, and both mean the son of the Great equivalent or were her sons and and the Bhrigus Mother, Bhargavas priests, and were the ancient bards who are called in the Rig and who were the first veda the poets who formed Agni,4 thinkers who believed in a common mother for all mankind. They were first of the three lines of priests who successively framed the Hindu ritual, and were succeeded by the Angiras,
wrho again were succeeded by the Atharvans, or fire-priests,
are always the sons of Atri, while the Bhrigus spoken of as the wise men of old, whose memory is almost lost in the mists of half-forgotten tradition. There are very definite statements made in the Rigveda, Brahmanas, and the Laws of Manu as to the position and tenets of the Angiras. They were the priests of the old gods of darkness, who retained the gods of light in were till released the bondage they by Sarama, mythological or Atar of the prototype of Atri of the Rigveda, Zendavesta,5 who was the Adar of the Assyrians, the god of glowing fire.
2 iii. 31. 11. iii. 31. 9. Eg. lxxx. p. 245. See the whole (Sambhava) Parva, legend, Adi (Sambhava) 4 lxxvi.-lxxxiii. 232-255. Parva, pp. Rg. i. 127. 7, x. 46. 2. 5 Darmesteter's i. Books Sacred Sirdzah of the East, vol. xxiii. 9, Zendavesta, pp. 7-8. 1 Eg. 3 Adi
530
EAELY HISTOEY OF NOETHEEN INDIA. " find it stated that the the (sacred) task as they kindled the fire works. They thus united with them the possessions all of the Panis own) 4 and 5, we
In Rigveda i. 83. first Angiras began with zeal and pious selves (made their
(traders), both men and herds rich in cattle and horses." " But the Atharvans first made the road by offering, and then was the beautiful sun born as protector of light." The or priests of the old gods with of the Angiras connection or trading races is still further illustrated in the in ceremonies the Brahmana, Satapatha prescribed concluding sacrifices. It will be recollected for the new and full moon for kindling the fire on the altar for that in the directions the Panis these sacrifices, the sacred fire was ordered to be inclosed " " or sacred sticks formed of the in a triangle paridhis the of the The two sticks triad. gods representing early forming the angle pointing eastward represented the universal father and mother, while the middle stick, or the west side,
represented the productive power animating them both.
When throw
the these
sacrifice
is concluded, the priest sticks into the fire. inclosing
to is ordered " The middle
stick he throws first with the text (Vajasaneya inclosing 'The stick which thou laidest around 11. Sanhita, 17a), thou wert O divine when concealed thee, by the Panis, Agni, not for it thee I bring prove faithless thy pleasure ; may ' text With to thee! the ye the place (ib. b), 'Approach l Thus beloved of Agni,' he throws the two others after it." the Angiras were, are the gods of the Panis, whose priests one with their successor and conqueror the fire-god, made were the Atharvans of the Rigveda, the whose ministers Athravans But the or fire-priests of the Zendavesta.2 statement of the succession of the best and clearest to is that derived the from the Angiras fire-priests Brahmana of in the Aitareya sacrifice the Dvadasaha connected with it. the and services the of the story of which
account
sixth day of Nabhanedishtha
Nabhanedishtha,
1 Sat. Brah. i. 8. 3. 22, Sacred Books of the East, vol. xii. p. 245. 2 Darmesteter's iii. 15, Sacred Books of the East, Introduction, Zendavesta, vol. iv. p. 1.
ANGIRAS, PRIESTS OF THE LINGA-WORSHIPPERS. means nearest
531
to the navel (nabha),1 was a son of Manu (the thinker), who was deprived of his share in the family property he asked them for it, they told him by his brethren. When to go to their father. When his father heard his complaint, " he said to him, Your brethren are the Angirasah, who are to is which take them to their session sacrificial holding
heaven, but they are puzzled as to what ceremonies are neces
You tell them to recite Rg. x. 61 sary on the sixth day. and 62, and they will then go to heaven and give you the thousand due to you. When by this recitation they became aware of the heaven-world and went to heaven, they left him the thousand, but it was at once claimed by Rudra, the phallic who said he god, but Rudra gave it back to Nabhanedishtha, when he acknowledged had received it from the Angirasah, that it was Rudra to whom it had first belonged, that is to say, that the vital creative power was first ascribed to Rudra." 2 were the What is proved in this story is that the Angirasah was by the help priests of the earth-born deities, and that it that they learnt that it is in heaven that the power resides, and that, as the imparter of this took the place among the gods Nabhanedishtha knowledge, which had previously been assigned to Rudra the earthly father. But in order to understand it must first the story perfectly, of Nabhanedishtha real creative be shown who Nabhanedishtha is. Of the two hymns named in the myth, the first, Rg. x. 61, is called the Nabhanedishtha It tells of the union or marriage of heaven (Prajapati) hymn. and earth (his daughter). From this union the seed of all life, called Nabhanedishtha, In the eighteenth is born. and nine teenth stanzas of this hymn, which are translated as follows by defines his mission and his power : Haug, Nabhanedishtha "v. 18. His relative the wealthy Nabhanedishtha, who, his towards thee, speaks on looking directing thoughts " in heaven "] (as translates forward [Grassmann follows):
1 This means the fire-god. See Ait. Brah. i. 5. 28, Haug's vol. translation, is ordered to address the sacred fire on the altar in the ii. p. 62, where the Hotar vords of Eg. iii. 29. 4, "We place thee, 0 Jatavedas (Agni), in the place of in the centre i.e. navel), on the earth to carry up our offerings. Ida, 2 Ait. Brah. v. (nabhi, 2. 14, Haug's vol. ii. is Rudra translation, pp. 341-42. naiied as the claimant of Nabhanedishtha's share in Tait. Sam. iii. 1. 9. 4-6.
532 ' This
EARLY HISTORY OF NOETHEEN INDIA.
our navel (that is, as heaven) is the highest, as often on earth). required I was behind him (the Nabhanedishtha " v. 19. This is my navel, here is what resides with me ; " l these gods are mine, I am everything.' The next hymn, Rg. x. 62, is addressed to the Angiras, who are asked in the refrain of the first four verses to " in this receive the son of Manu." But the son of Manu not is the is said in but Nabhanedishtha, Aitareya hymn to be Narasamsa, Brahmana who is said to be the son born from the seed Nabhanedishtha,2 who is endowed with the was of It this who was shown, Narasamsa speech. faculty in the account with of the seasonal the sacrifices self-created Tanunapat, jointly tive of the vital creative power, which, old triad, bound heaven and earth together,3 and formed the middle stick of the sacred triangle. it is in the Zendavesta But that the whole series of ideas connected with Nabhanedishtha or the vital power " nearest " to the navel and Narasamsa is most clearly explained. In " 4 we find in the the Zendavesta Vendidad the word Naba which is the Zend form of the plural of Nabha nazdistanam," used to denote the lineal descendants nedishtha, (who are to the navel) of an offender, and the word is also nearest used as an epithet of the Fravashis, or in holy mothers, i. 18, and Fravardin Yasna in the of 156, Yast, meaning next-of-kia.5 But it is as the angel Nairya-sangha, the or god of Zend form of Narasamsa, the Yazad royal lineage, that the Zoroastrian Nabhanedishtha assumes a personal form and appears as the guardian of all seeds, and the fountain of all life. It is he who guarded the seed of Zarathustra from the three prophets of the future, Hushedar, Mah, and to spring, and committed it to the care of Anahid, Sdshyans,are " is the Ardvl who Sura Anahita" of the Aban Yast, the
1 Ait. vol. i. p. 24. Introduction, translation, Haug's 2 Ait. Brah., Brah. vi. 5. 27, Haug's vol. ii. p. 424. translation, 3 Part IV. J.R.A.S. 1890, pp. 339-343. April, 4 Darmesteter's iv. 11. 5-10, Sacred Books of the East, Zendavesta, Farg. vol. iv. pp. 36-37. 5 Mill's Yasna, i. 28, Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxxi. p. 231 ; Darmesteter's Fravardln Yast, Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxiii. p. 230. Zendavesta,
IV., to be, the one, representa in the symbol of the in Part
whence
SACRED FIRES OF THE ZENDAVESTA. of the fertilizing In the Slrozahs waters.1 goddess as the described who dwells "god Nairyo-Sangha navel of kings."2 But his historical he
533 is
in the
exact position in the sacred hierarchy and the succession represented by the five days' sacrifice of the Angirasah and the advent of Nabhanedishtha is best in the Yasnas shown in the lists of the sacred fires given and Bundahis. In the Yasna list the sacred fires are named of lofty use before 1. The fire Berezi-savangha Ahura Mazda and kings. 2. The fire Vohu-Fryana (animal heat of men and beasts). 3. The fire Ur-vazista (the fire of life in plants). 5. The 4. The fire Vazista (the lightning). used in fire Spenista most that the bountiful, world). (the 6. The fire Nairya-sangha, of royal lineage (that the Yazad in temples). 7. The household fire. Of these seven sacred fires the first five appear in the Bundahis in the same order as in the Yasna,4 and there to be the fire in the first fire, Berezi-Savang, is explained used the earth and mountains, or, in other words, the vital or in the mother-earth. The word Savangha Savang
same the which wives of appears the great in the snake name Savangha-vach, who Azi-Dahaka, of
as follows.3
power is the
one of
afterwards
married
the Zend Indra, who slew the great Thraetaona, the Eastern It would appear to be connected with snake.5 the holy Savah, over which region called in the Bundahis star Tistrya, who brings the waters, presides, and which lies
in the east of the sacred central land called Khvanlras in the and Hvarizm, and Hvaniratha Khvarizm Bundahis, This would appear to be the country known Zendavesta.6 as Sogdiana, the Oxus flows, and which lies through which
1 Darmesteter's FravardTn Yast, Zendavesta, 62, Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxiii. p. 195, note 2 ;West's xxxii. 8, Sacred Books of the East, Bundahis, vol. v. p. 144. 2 Darmesteter's i. 9, Sacred Books of the East, vol. Zendavesta, Sirozah, xxiii. p. 8. 3 Mill's of Books the East, vol. xxxi. p. 258. Yasnas, xvii. Sacred 4West's xvii. 1-4, Sacred Books of the East, vol. v. pp. 61-62. Bundahis, 5 Darmesteter's Zendavesta, Aban Yast, 33-34, Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxiii. pp. 61-62. 6West's xi. 1-3; Darmesteter's Mihir Yast, xiv. and Bundahis, Zendavesta, xv., Sacred Books of the East, vol. v. p. 33, vol. xxiii. p. 123.
534
EAELY HISTOEY OF NOETHEEN
INDIA.
the central the modern name of Khvarizm, land of the Zend tribal confederacy. It was in this country that the sacred mountain Ushidarena, and the the home of Zamyad, the spirit of the mother-earth, hallowed symbol of the pregnant mother, was situated.1 And from this it would appear that the worship of the mother earth originated in the East, and it was thence that the ancient Magi, or priests of the divine mother Magha, whose name is preserved in Margiana, the ancient name of the western part of Sogdiana, first made their way to the Persian as the as the Akkadian Gulf and thence Highlanders, to India. Maghas it is means But while Berezi-Savangha the mother-earth, we name find that in the of the second fire, Yohu-Fryana, as the idea of generation the especial function of the gods, most which underlies the myth of Nabhanedishtha, clearly This name must refer to the tribe called Fryana, expressed. as the Turanian in the Gatha Ustavaiti tribe who named " shall further on the settlements of piety with zeal," that this But allies of the Mazdeans.2 is, act as the intimate word cannot be the actual Turanian name of this tribe, as the Turanian do not use aspirated labials, and the languages v. In a sound to f they possess nearest is the semi-vowel to nearest the Zend Turanian the sound Fry would language be Viru, and Viru-an would be the god Yiru. This, as we seen in the account of the Hindu Yirata,3 have already means masculine title of the and is the distinctive energy, Yiru the This turned into phallic god. Aryan Fry points to Fria, the moon-god and Old High of the Scandinavians is mascu and in both these languages the moon Germans,4 seem to be connected with the line.5 This word would also ' 6 and Norse Frio, free, Swedish and Danish fro seed,' Fryano
1 "West's xii. 15, Sacred Books of the East, vol. v. pp. 37-38. Bundahis, 2 Mill's Yasnas, Yasna xlvi. 12, Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxxi. p. 141. 3 Part IV. J.R.A.S. 1890, pp. 402-404. April, 4 See Max Miiller's In in Comparative Theology, Essay on False Analogies or Fri-day, is shown troduction to the Science of Religion, p. 313, where Frya-dag, to be sacred to the moon both in Norse and Old High German. 5 Mallet's Northern Bonn's edition, p. 465, note. Antiquities, 6 lb. Glossary to Prose Edda, s.v. Freyr, p. 551.
east of Khorasan,
IDENTITY OF ZEND VAZISTA AND HINDU VASHISTHA. or Yiruano would thus mean
535
the seed-sower, and this coincides in the of Yohu-Fryano given by West as the fire of the difluser it who Bundahis, good interprets Thus Yohu-Fryano would mean within the bodies of men.1 the phallic god, the universal father. now come to the third fire, Ur-Yazista. Here Yazista We who is evidently the same word as the Sanskrit Yashishtha, with the translation was was two fire-sticks, while his wife Arundhati2 was kindled the fire in the second, which by the friction means the ancient form of of the first stick, and Ur-Yazista the original the vital energy which made pair capable of was ascribed to the divine heat. this before power production
power was, as I have shown, represented as Andro
one of the
This
gynous The stick
or Hermaphrodite.3 fourth
fire, Yazista, was the male form of the fire in later mythology when the gods were represented looked for in heaven as the lightning, while the fifth fire most is the female member of the (the Spenista bountiful),
pair.
Thus these five fires represent first the ancient triad of the father, mother, and creative and productive force, while the last two of the group represent what was originally the earliest form of worship of the creative energy, that of the universal
We now
father
come
the pair of fire-sticks,

to
and mother, who the Swastika.

the sixth fire,
became
in later theology
Nabhane
Nairya-sangha,
dishtha, the Yahram the Frobak
or Narasamsa.
This is the sacred fire of the temples, is represented as in the Bundahis fire, which on Gadman-homand fire established by Yima
inKhvarizm, Khorasan.4 This is the (the glorious mountain) as priests.5 fire of the kings in their character It is the and perpetual continual of the sacred fire as worship
1 xvii. Sacred Books of the East, West's Bundahis, 2 Adi (Chaitra-ratha) Mahabharata, Parva, clxxvi. vol. v. p. 61, note 3. Arani means p. 500. the
3 Part IV. J.E.A.S. April, 1890, p. 351. 4West's xvii. 5, Sacred Books of the East, vol. v. p. 63; Mill's Bundahis, Yasnas, Yasna xvii. Sacred Books of the East, p. 258, note 7. 5 Darmesteter's Slrozah i. 9, Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxiii. Zendavesta, p. 7, note 2 ; also p. 294, note 2.
536
EAELY HISTOEY OF NOETHEEN INDIA.
the highest form of the creative power which is represented who by the addition to the ritual made by Nabhanedishtha, or fire-priests, while thus became the first of the Atharvans, were clearly the priests of the older race of the Angirasah of the sacred pair and the triad. worshippers another myth, that of the sacrifice of of is which told both in the Rigveda story Sunahsepa, and the Aitareya illustrates which Brahmana, very clearly the historical position occupied by the Angirasah. was the son of Ajigarta of the race of the Sunahsepa race had of the Ikshvaku King Harischandra Angirasah. But there the a son called (the heaven of night)l to sacrifice to the god. He Rohita, whom he had promised on his and various pretexts, promise finally delayed fulfilling then Yaruna allowed him to go and wander in the forests. and with afflicted Harischandra Rohita, dropsy, having obtained from Varuna in the forest by the advice of Indra, six years wandered save his father, who hinted to him that by so doing he might Rohita wanted met Ajigarta the Rishi, who was starving. three sons, Sunahpuccha, Sunah to take one of Ajigarta's
sepa, or Sunolangula, to be sacrificed to Yaruna as his ransom,
is still
and offered to give him one hundred cows as his price. the eldest of the three, and the mother father refused but youngest; they allowed him to take the middle to his father, and presented then took Sunahsepa Rohita to Yaruna,
The the son. him
who accepted the sacrifice. On the day appointed was Hotar, the Zaotar of the Zoroastrians, the Visvaraitra or the the gods. pair of Jamadagni, priest who addressed or offering priest, the Zend Rath the Adhvaryu, fire-sticks, or later addition was the Brahma viskar,2 while Yasishtha to bind Sunahsepa it was necessary to the priesthood. When offered to do it for another to the sacrificial post, Ajigarta and he was bound, as we are told in the hundred cows; " or sacrificial posts,3 that is to three drupadas" Rigveda,
1 i. 2 Rg. Haug's Fargard, v. he original 3 Rg. i. drupada." at night. 24. 9, where the stars are said to show Varuna Ait. Brah. vol. i. Introduction, Zendavesta, p. 13; Darmesteter's 57-58, Sacred Books of the East, vol. iv. pp. 63-64, show these to be names of the priests called by Haug Zota and Rathwi. See also Rg. iv. 32. 23, where the marriage 24. 13. post is called As the sacrificial post was phallic April, (see Part IV. J.R.A.S.
KUSIKAS ABOLISHED HUMAN SACRIFICE.
537
to say, he was to be sacrificed to the triad of which Yaruna was offered for another the chief god. When Ajigarta the sacrifice, cows to kill his son and complete hundred on to sent He him who called Agni. Sunahsepa Prajapati, then went to Savitar, the sun (but this is evidently a later like that of Ushas further addition of the sun-worshippers, Varuna referred him back on), who sent him to Yaruna. to release him if he praised who promised again to Agni, or gods of the country. the Yisve Devah They said Indra was the most to praise the told him Indra and powerful god, or Asvins and released him on twins, heavenly they finally his praising Ushas. The verses he recited are all taken from to the group of hymns, Rg. i. 24 to 30, which are dedicated to preserve the legend. and evidently written Sunahsepa, was When recovered. freed, Harischandra Sunahsepa son to him ; then be restored asked that his might Ajigarta as but Yisvamitra him the eldest of his and refused, adopted hundred sons,1 though he was an Angirasah. were the priests of In this story we see that the Angirasah were the old gods to whom human sacrifices offered, and that these offerings were made before the sacrifices were burnt with fire; but when the tying of the the ritual prescribed victim by the neck to the sacrificial post, and then killing it by stabbing it in such a way that the blood spurted over the it, as well as the earth in phallic sacrificial post, and vitalized which it was fixed. The story evidently marks the period when Kusikas, human at sacrifices least; ceased, according was for Yisvamitra to the ritual the prince of the of the
the phallus that 1890, p. 377, note 4, and p. 378), it was, according to this passage, the bride and bridegroom used to walk round seven times as they now go round the sacred mango-tree. This reference to Drupada also throws light on the The king of the Panchalas was Drupada, but his story of the Mahabharata. son or Krishna, were not and his daughter Drupadi, Dhrishtadyumna begotten but were born from the sacrificial flame by the prayers of Yaja, an naturally, Adi clxix. This 479-483. Parva, pp. impure Brahmin, (Chitra-ratha) miraculous birth represented the change in the sacrifice made when the victim was burnt instead of being fastened to the sacrificial post (drupada) by the neck, and stabbed, so that the blood vitalized both the phallic post and the earth, and a new era, as also foreshadowed became the bride of the Pandavas, the Drupadi seasons of the new epoch, and their generalissimo in their great Dhrishtadyumna, war against the See Part IV. J.R.A.S. 1890, pp. 425-438. April, 1 Ait. Brah. Kauravyas. vii. 3. 13-18, vol. ii. pp. 460-471. translation, Haug's
538 Kusikas,
EARLY HISTORY OF NORTHERN INDIA. and was of his also
as I have shown in the moon-god, Mithra.1 It was the counterpart speaking Kusikas who introduced the full lunar year, and it was this race of handicraftsmen and with who brought in fire-worship, were or heavenly whom also the Asvins, twins, especially connected.2 It will be seen in the story of Sunahsepa that were and the in Asvins the his release, Agni principal agents and it was the people who first introduced into the ritual these mythological the computa conceptions who completed Zend tion of time by months, which is the Angirasah,3 by adding two to months dedicated to the gods of were who the priests, predecessors to ascribed in the Rigveda the sacred period of eleven generation by their special or fire of the Atharvans,
But this change in the ritual did not cause the priests. of the Aflgiras, who were retained in an honoured elimination the Bhrigus, and they became place with their predecessors also the priests of the moon-god Visvamitra, and are described as among his most zealous followers. in the Rigveda Thus in Rg. iii. 53. 7, "The and Yirupas generous Angiras sons of the of heaven, bi-formed, bi-sexual, god), (worshippers are said by " men of the Asuras," treasures to Yisva giving to to have wished his mitra, lengthen days." But there is another line of descent by which we can gauge the historical One of the titles of sequence of the Angiras. or the or Sukra, Usana, great Bhrigu priest of the Daityas or Asuras, and of the Danavas the mother-worshippers, of the Mahabharata, snake and phallus-worshippers isKavya, the son or of the race of Kavi.4 Kavi is in the meaning said to be the son of Angiras,5 and Kavya Laws of Manu is one of the seven Rishis in the Great Bear, included the of the Zendavesta.6 Hapto-iringas amost are kings important dynasty
1 Part 2 Part IV. J.E.A.S. IV. J.E.A.S.
Furthermore, in the fragments
the Kavi of history
1890, p. 366, note 2. April, 1890, pp. 407-410, where I have shown that the April, the two months added to the sacred eleven by the Asvins represent probably to make the full lunar year of thirteen months. Kusikas " It is 3 iii. 31. 9, the Angirasah who attained the order of the months." 4 Eg. Adi (Sambhava) Parva, lxxvi. pp. 233, 236. Mahabharata, 6 Buhler's Manu ii. 151, Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxv. p. 58. 6 Alberuni's vol. i. p. 394. India, Sachau's translation,
TUEANIAN EULE IN SEISTAN AND INDIA. recorded in the Zendavesta.
539
They ruled over the country as that " where lies Lake in the Zamyad Yast or sea in Kasava" Zarah Hamun Seistan, the (the present of river the with the Haetumant Sogdiana Greeks), along where there stands Ushidhan Mount (the Helmend), (Ushi This was the country now forming the west of darena).1 or sons of the ancient home of the Kusikas, Afghanistan, Kus. as named in the Zamyad The kings of this dynasty and Fravardln Yasts are?1. Kavi Kavata, 2. Kavi Aipi or Usadhan. and Kavi Usadha, Kavi vohu, or Aipivanghu, described Usadha, Bundahis, who had is the Kai Kaus, or king of the Kausikas of the four sons, of whom I need now only notice
Syavarshan, being exiled by his father, took the Turanian who was king of Frangrasiyan, Turan for two hundred years, and seems to have ruled in the for in the Bundahis it is said that country of the Kavis, a thousand Frasiyav (Frangrasyan) brought springs into the sea Kyansih, the lake Kasava of the sons of Kus, or Kayans, and to have brought or Helmend, the Hetuamant, into the same sea, into which it flows at the present day.3 But seems also to have ruled India, and to Frangrasyan Syavarshan.2 refuge with
represent the snake and phallus-worshippers there, for Sya
vakshan in his exile founded the fortress of the holy Kangha in Kang-desh, to the Bahman Yast, he whither, according went from the good Chakad-i-daltik, or the country of the mother river Daitya.4 Now Kangdesh is clearly India, and for it is described in may possibly be the modern Kandesh, as lying "in the direction of the East, at the Bundahis many from the bed of the wide-formed ocean towards that leagues side."5 In the Dina-i which, Mainog-i-khirad, though a late work, is founded on old traditions, is said Kang-desh to "be intrusted with the Eastern near to quarter Satavayes,
Yast, 3 Darmesteter's to AstJid Zendavesta, Zamyad Yast, x. 66 ; also Introduction Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxiii. pp. 302 and 283, also p. 33, note 1. Darmesteter's xi. 71 ; Fravardin Zendavesta, Zamyad Yast, Yast, 132, Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxiii. pp. 303, 222, also p. 64, note 1 ;West's xxxi. 25, Sacred Books of the East, vol. v. Bundahis, 136. p. 3 West's xx. 34, Sacred Books of the Bundahis, East, vol. v. p. 82. 4 West's Bahman Yast, iii. 26, Sacred Books of the East, vol. v. p. 226. & West's xxix. 10 ; Sacred Books of the East, vol. v. pp. 119-120. Bundahis, 1
540
x Now Satavaesa on the frontier of Airan Yejo." is, as I have of Argo, which ruled the shown, the southern constellation ocean to the south of the Persian Gulf, and the country lying to the east of its influence would immediately also states that there is a river The Bundahis the river of is called Chatro-miyan, which one the of countries outside the is Kang-desh of Khanviras. and It is mentioned along with be Kandesh. in Kang-desh Mokarstan.2 sacred region Saukavastan
He is ruled by Gopatshah. Saukavastan is others. son as same the of and brother the Pashang Aghraeratha, killed him. His who which of Frangrasiyan, name, means the king (badshah) of the cows (Gos), shows why in the Gos Yast.3 the semi or bull-man he was called the plain of countries named are Tazikan, the plain of Nalv tak, Airan the plain of Pesyansai, in India. In Yej, the inclosure formed by Yim, and Kashmir can no doubt that be there Sauka these countries, identifying The other outside the Arabs, of the is the country of the Sakas, the Sakastane or or the island the and Greeks, Sakasthana, Sakadwipa, place It is Seistan Sogdiana, of the Sakas of the Hindus. lying, on the way from Turkistan to as is said in the Bundahis, or China. It is the country of the Oxus.4 The Chinistan The plain of Pesyansai country of the Arabs lies to the west. The inclosure is in is Kabul.5 Ataro-patakan.6 Airan-vej formed by Yim is in the middle of Pars (Persia), answering Now Kang-desh to Khorasan. appears to be quite outside this was the son of Vishtasp, that there It Peshyotanu, country. the Kang-desh from his name, Chitro-Maino, ruled, and took name This Chitro-Maino river Chitro-Miyan.7 may be, as or West "maungho" spirit, suggests, derived from "mainyu" and as I have shown that the name of the Indus the moon;
1 lxii. 12-14, Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxiv. p. 109. West's translation, 2West's xx. 7 and 31, Sacred Books of the East, vol. v. pp. 77, Bundahis, mean the country of the Mughs, which must have been in 82. Mokarstan may ruled India, the name of ancient times, when the Mughs or mother-worshippers the country. 3 Darmesteter's 18 and 22, Sacred Books of the East, Gos Yast, Zendavesta, vol. xxiii. pp. 114-115. 4West's xxi. 4. 5. and 13, Sacred Books of the East, vol. v. pp. Bundahis, 5 lb. xxix. 11. p. 120; Bundahis, 116, 117, 120. 7 lb. xxix. 5. 6 lb. xxix. 12. p. 117.
vastan
KANG-DESH PEEHAPS THE MODEEN KANDESH.
541
(Sindhu) was probably derived from Sin, the moon, it would In is the most probable.1 appear that the last derivation " " moon to be either the this of river the short, appears of the Zendavesta and Bundahis Indus or, if the Kang-desh is the same as the modern Kandesh, the Tapti. This river called the Payoshni the river, and afterwards anciently a name sun. It may have been originally of the the Tapti, was conquered This country of Kang-desh moon-river. by new star, Tusa, the son of Naotara (the probably Tistrya),2
from the sons of Yaesaka, the Satavaesa, or the snake
was
is conquest the Northern probably in the conquest of Syavakh Kusikas which is commemorated shana and the tale of Peshyotanu, and it must have been this was which the son of Sya country conquered by Husrava, when his he father varshan, avenged by killing Frangra the identification of Kang-desh with the siyan.3 Whether worshippers another version of modern is tenable or not, one thing is certain, that the Kavi the sons of Kus, ruled the whole of kings, Northern and established their at Kasi India, capital Kandesh
of
the
Persian
and Gulf, of the invasion
this
and that, according to Manu and the other (Benares), in this series of proofs I have adduced here and elsewhere essays, they were the founders of the lunar year. Whether the kingdom of Anga, which was situated to the south of as in the country now known and Magadha, Bhagulpore, is mentioned in the Atharvaveda,4 takes its name or the Angiras, from cannot I but the two it, say; they or Bhrigus, the country of the Maghas countries, Magadha, are very close and Anga, and two the tribes of together, are most and connected Angiras Bhrigus historically closely in together, and both were in intimate alliance and united which from the Kusikas entered India. But the country of Anga immediately adjoins, if it did or not anciently form part of Yanga the modern Banga,
1 lb. xxix. p. 2 Darmesteter's 3 Darmesteter's 117, note 2. Zendavesta, Zendavesta, April, Aban Yast, 53. 55. Sis Yast, v. 21. 22, Sacred 1890, p. 477 ; Atharva-veda,
their ritual before
Books v. 22.
xxiv. p. 115. 4 Part IV. J.R.A.S.
of the East, 14.
542
The union between Magadha and Anga was not Bengal. means for Bimbisaro, indissoluble, by any king of Magadha, the contemporary of the Buddha, Now conquered Anga. a name to bears of Ashi resemblance the very strong Vanga Yanguhi, described
Husrava,
the Zend goddess, who, in the Zendavesta, is as the patroness to whom of married women,1
the son of Syavarhan and the conqueror of
sacrificed. But this name Yanguhi also seems Frangrasyan, to have something to do with the Yeh river, considering that all rivers were looked on as mothers and fathers from the This in river, described days of the Indra-worshippers. as made of the Bundahis Arak up (Oxus), (Araxes), Ami or the Indus, and the Frat Egypt, appears to be the circular river which surrounded Euphrates,2 But when the sons of Iran came the sacred land of Iran. to the south-east, and settled on the Gunga, it is possible that to extend the boundary of they would have been inclined their sacred land to its banks, and to call it also the Yanga the river of Misr
or mother-country, after the name of their goddess Ashi
Yanguhi,
was almost
the goddess
certainly
of the Yanga
these northern
or circle of the Yeh.

immigrants who intro
It fire
duced
the family life of the household and the household in place of the tribal life of the Turanian nations.
is conjectural, but A great deal of this last dissertation the conclusions at all events fit in with the historical proofs, a very near approach to and show, I would submit, with certainty, Bhrigus Angiras Atharvans that in the successive lines of the priesthood, are the priests of the mother-worshippers, and of the snake and phallus-worshippers, of the northern fire-worshippers, as the sons of Kus or the Kavi and substituted
who, as
the the the
and
that
it was
they who, India Northern

Turanian
their
is
rule
shown
kings, conquered for that of their

in the present
predecessors,
instance
by the account
of the irrigation
works
of Frangras
of the East, of the East,
1 Darmesteter's Zendavesta, Ashi Yast, 41-43, 54, Sacred Books pp. '-278 and 280. vii. 15-17, xxi. 7. 8. 9. 10, Sacred Books West's Bundahis, vol. v. pp. 29, 76, 77, note 4, and 78.
OPPOSITION TO KEISHNA
IN ANGA.
543
civilized people, and represented yan, were already a highly of the Mahabharata. and Kauravyas the Yiratas In addition to the foregoing proofs connecting Anga with that the latter were accredited and showing the Angiras, of Kasi who also ruled Anga, I must priests of the Kusikas point out that the Mahabharata of Krishna, principal opponents were Karna the charioteer, Vasudeva
the two
proves or Yishnu, Yanga
or Kusika
king
were not
of
the adjoining
the same country.
that two of the and the Pandavas and king of Anga, or Bengal, if indeed
was the miracu
Karna
son of Pritha the mother-earth, who (Prithivl), lously born was also the mother of the three elder Pandavas. His father on his birth in the was the Sun, and his mother, Kuntibhoja on river the Asva, placed him in a basket and com^ capital, him to that river. He was thence floated down the mitted Oharmanvati till he (Chambal), the Jumna, and the Ganges, the capital of Anga. reached Champa, He was then saved the chief of the charioteers the wife of Adiratha, by Radha, or Kusikas.1 He was made king of Anga by the Kauravyas, and was their most conspicuous military leader in the great war with the Pandavas; but before that he had, in the annexed to their rule a interests of the Kauravyas, long list as his recorded in the Mahabharata of kingdoms, conquests.2 to the reform personified The religious opposition in Yishnu as its chief god, is proved by the speech of Krishna, where he as " that wicked wretch denounces Yasudeva, king of Yanga, among the Chedis who represents himself as a divine person
age, who has become known as such, and who always bears
the signs which distinguish me, that king of and the Kiratas, who is known upon earth by Pundra Vanga, 3 This name the of Pandraka and Yasudeva." saying and from foolishness the opposition of Karna, king of Anga, fully prove that the Eastern country was, long before the advent of the Yishnu from the West, reformers the seat of a ites, or religious ruled the a and Kusikas, powerful monarchy by possessing
1 Adi cxi. pp. 330 331, Vana (Sambhava) Parva, (Kandala-harana) cccv.-cccviii. J.R.A.S. pp. 901-907; 1889, p. 277 April, 2 Vana (Ghosha-harana) cclii. Parva, 3 Sabba Parva, xiv. p. 45. (Rajasuyarambha) vol. xxn.?[new series.] 36 Parva,
544
strongly organized religious system, with a priesthood which must have included the Angiras This religious in its ranks. on ritual must have the sacrificial been based organization was upheld the Yishnuite which of the predecessors by as the old sacrificial priests, must reform, and the Angiras, have been powerful members of this Eastern hierarchy.1 But it was these successive lines of priests, whose history I have tried to discuss, who first, in order to secure the due of the sacrifices at the proper times and seasons, the task of measuring the sequence of time. ? As the the whole of the sacri The History Year. of a of all the ancient nations who ficial adopted system rests upon the year, that the it is evident fixed ritual chrono is of the greatest of the year possible history observance undertook it is under For when importance. logical and historical of the sacri stood, it becomes plain that the sequence most valuable in ritualistic manuals fices recorded gives evidence as to the dates which are partly denoted by changes
in the ritual. This we see in the seasonal sacrifices, where
in one place five seasons are invoked, while in another there are only three seasonal and in other festivals prescribed, seasons are mentioned. It is six only by learning the places as these can be ex such that the of year changes history as I seasons denotes, as the change to three and plained,
have shown, a racial and dynastic revolution, under which
tribes worshipping the rule of the Northern sacred water, and of their allies the Sakas substituted explanation for that of their Dravidian valuable brings out most
the god of the and Aryans, was
the predecessors, information. historical
1 Stanzas 15-19 of a noteworthy of the successive description Eg. x. 27 give or sacrificial priests ; v. 15 speaks of the seven men who came orders of Angiras, from the South (the priests of the pentad, the old phallic fire-god and Indra, god from the North of the waters). (those who looked on They were joined by eight nine came from the West laden eight as the symbol of the heavenly fire), while whose sacred number was nine), and ten from the East with coin (the Vishnuites, ten months of to whom the of Eastern India, gestation (the mother-worshippers the offer were sacred). In v. 17 they are all said to have disputed as to whether a or to to is be burnt is it whether not?that be should cooked say, offering or ing In v. 19 one in which the blood of the victim is to be poured on the ground. who destroys the phallus worshippers they are all said to disappear before the sun, See Grassmann's Eigveda, vol. (Sisna, the phallus, for Sisna deva, phallic gods). ii." p. 469.
THE THIRTY-THREE GODS OF TIME.
545
for sacrificial purposes, The year was originally calculated and as the prosperity of the country was thought to depend correct performance of sacrificial cere upon the absolutely of monies at the times ordained for each rite, the preparation the dates of each separate calendar marking and solemn sacrifice in the annual round of sacrificial observances must have been from the earliest times regarded as one of the most important duties of the priests. I have some account I have given of of the principal shown, in the the official festival a remote period in the and the history of the system extends, past the ritualistic the time when the first altar was year must begin with to celebrate and the first victim sacrificed consecrated, the recurrence of one of the annual epochs of seasonal sacrifices in the Hindu ritual, to what
change.
ritual, as we learn from the Maha and the gods of time who ruled bharata, Rigveda, Brahmanas, were the sacrificial to be thirty-three in year thought number. I have shown that there were three certainly of distributing them over the sacrificial recognized methods In the later Hindu year. gods
Sakas
The first was that of the Rigveda, which divides the into three groups of eleven each. But this division is seasons introduced by the entirely based on the three Aryan
and Aryans, and the eleven gods consecrated as the
as sacred by of generation, regarded the linga-worshippers, who added one month, to dedicated the earthly father, to the ten months of the mother's year. Thus the work of generation required eleven gods, and these
eleven begot the three seasons, wrhich are the number recog
rulers
of the period
and which are by some of the writers of the Rigveda, as the number still reckoned of seasons in the Northern In the Brahmanas Punjab, where the Yedas were written.1 nized the god who makes Yashatkara, among the thirty-three gods, and include the seasons; but, as the based upon a year of five seasons, of the thirty-three gods of time,
1 Zimmer, Altindisches Leben.
the seasons, is reckoned this proves that they must whole sacrificial system is it is clear that the division which depends
p. 373.
upon
only
chap. xiii.
546 three
seasons, cannot be that which was contemplated by those who first fixed on the number thirty-three as represent The second mode of distribution was ing the official year. that of the Yishnu-worshippers, can only be under which stood by explaining the third method, is that which
to recognized by the authors of the Brahmanas. According were them the thirty-three of made eleven up Rudras, gods were and twelve Adityas, to which added eight Yasus, the son of Manu, and Yashatkara, the god who Prajapati, are admitted makes the seasons. to Now the twelve Adityas be the twelve months of the solar year, of the eight Yasus
seven represent the seven sacred days of the week, the
Amesha
and the eighth Yasu I Spenta of the Zendavesta, to be the god Dyu, have proved in the called Bhishma and who is the son of Yisvamitra of Yedic Mahabharata, son old of the the of the father tradition, Gadhi, moon-god, or Kusikas; the eleven Rudras Kasyapas sacred months of generation. When dealing I to before,1 attempted explain this division it was based on Brahmin of the ignorance
tentions of their predecessors. I now see
were with
the eleven
this subject that by pleading methods and in

that the explana
tion is totally wrong, and that this division of the gods of time is really a complete of the synopsis previous methods a new of calculating and and wonderful time, proof of the ritual great learning and eclectic toleration of the Brahmin are the eleven of the Rudras ists. Thus sacred months make and these, with Prajapati and Yashatkara, generation, the full lunar year of thirteen months, which was the year or Dravidian of the Turanian people, who were the descend ants of Manu the thinker, of who was also the father means the who makes which Yashatkara, Prajapati. god the Yashat call, is the god of the linga, the Rudra who was summoned to the sacrifice by the cry Svahu, which is named as the Yashat that he is asked to bear it to call, and means
the gods. In this arrangement the sacred eleven months of
are placed first as the oldest ritualistic division, and generation the wrhole sacrificial year is concluded by the two months
1 J.R.A.S. April, 1889, pp. 302-306, and 318-324.
THIRTY-THREE TIME-GODS ALSO ZOROASTRIAX. were, as will be shown later on, or sons of Kasyapa, the Takshakas by Within these thirteen months. of year lunar the which complete represented of time sacred to placed the divisions which added to make
547
to the eleven
up the full two inclosing limits, sacrificial year, were immi the Northern
These and the Semite Akkadian grants sun-worshippers. are the seven sacred days of the week, the eighth day sacred to the to the sun-god, calendar added in the Zoroastrian last two weeks twenty-eight
solar year.
of the month, in the month,
to make and the
thirty days instead of of the twelve months
What the exact division made by the was I have found no evidence to show, nine reckoned Rudras, and it they only on the list ture how the other numbers
Yishnu-worshippers beyond the fact that is useless to conjec were allotted. But
at any rate none of these methods of distributing the thirty three gods can be looked on as that which was originally
made.
was held to be sacred from thirty-three very ancient times is proved by its persistent use, both in the and as it is Hindu sacred writings and in the Zendavesta,1 seasons must based upon the have originally of the year, it in the original sacrificial included the number recognized That this number
ritual. This was, as I have conclusively shown, fiye, and there
must mean remaining twenty-eight twenty-eight sacred divisions of time, and these must be the twenty-eight days of the lunar month, and the original year must have con sisted of months of twenty-eight days each, and have been in the Maha divided into five seasons. But in the explanation fore the led me to look on the Nakshatras bharata, which originally as among the thirty-three or wives of gods, the Nakshatras Soma are said to be only twenty-seven, and to make up I showed, on the authority of the Aitareya thirty-three
1 Mills, Gathas and Yasnas, Yasna i. 10, Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxxi. Preface to vol. A passage quoted by Max Miiller, p. 198, and many other places. iv. of the Eigveda, ii. 3. 5. I, in which the Sanhita, p. 53, from the Taittiriya are said to be thirty-three of Prajapati in number, gives undoubted daughters is the proof of the antiquity of the sanctity attached to the number, as Prajapati chief of the old lunar gods.
548
EAELY HISTOEY OF NOETHEEN
INDIA.
that six seasons must be added,1 as Yashatkara, the Brahmana, last of the thirty-three gods, is there called the god who makes the six seasons. This is the number which is said in to have been reckoned by the fathers, the Satapatha Brahmana and was the number of ritu or seasons of two months reckoned in the solar year, and in the sacrificial year of the Jyotishah, Therefore the which is the official year of the Brahmanas.2 six seasons points to the use of a year later than that on which the sacrificial ritual was based. But in the passage of the Mahabharata where twenty are mentioned, seven Nakshatra are stated they distinctly " to be parts of the year, as they are employed in indicating must and therefore these twenty-seven Nakshatra time," mean a year, and not the twenty-eight of month the ; days must have been and this Nakshatra year specially adapted to the sacrificial annual cycle, and it is this year which is recorded
But these
in the official
twenty-seven
lists
in
the Taittiriya
constituting
Brahmana.
the year
Nakshatra
form
unite
the
the
lunar section
lunar and
of the cycle of five years

solar years, and in this
formed
to
arrangement
all the months

each Nakshatra
except
three are divided

a phase of
into two Nakshatra,

the moon. To each
representing
are allotted three months three Nakshatra of the remaining to make the lunar year of thirteen months correspond with the solar year of twelve, and even then there is one Nakshatra over. this monthly allotment But does not mean that
there are ever three phases of the moon in any month, but
divisions, cycle only nominal solar and lunar time the real agreement between being made " lunar the called tithi." in the Thus by shortening day are reckoned as five years' cycle I860 lunar "tithis" equal or solar to 1830 nukthemera hours each. days of twenty-four It is quite clear that the twenty-seven JSTakshatra used in a calendar thus formed could never have been originally for this purpose, but that they must have come calculated
1 iii. 6, Haug's Brahmana, translation, vol. ii. p. Aitareya J.R.A.S. 1889, pp. 318-321. April, 2 Max to vol. iv. of edition to the Rigveda, Preface Muller, 177; see Part II
the Nakshatras
are
in
this
pp. 34-35.
LIST OF QUESTIONS TO BE DISCUSSED.
549
If their first use had been from some earlier arrangement. to describe the number of phases of the moon in the lunar in must have been year of thirteen months, twenty-six they and the but we never find twenty-six Nakshatra, number;
number is always twenty-seven or twenty-eight. The twenty
seven Nakshatra
sacrificial cycle,
are
whereas
only
found
in connection
and Persians,
with
who
this
are,
the Arabians
the Hindus, the only people who used Nakshatras, and the Hindus reckoned themselves twenty-eight,1 always an or was that additional also there allowed twenty-eighth But these twenty which Nakshatra, they called Abhijit.2 could never have been used to represent eight Nakshatra besides the number of phases of the moon in the lunar or any other is, which did they represent ? In year, and the question order to clear up all the difficulties arising from these con to is consider the following it necessary flicting numbers,
questions.
divisions of the year were originally represented the and what was their original number ? Nakshatras, by 2. Did they first receive names as representing divisions or some unit ? smaller of the year of 1. What
3. How was the original year reckoned, what number of
months did it contain, and what was the number the month of the first and subsequent collocations
used to measure time exceeding one month ?
of days in of months
did the original year begin ? 4. When cannot be satisfactorily As these questions solved without I wish to say a few words as to the the help of the Zendavesta, value of the evidence thence deduced. historical The great those who, under his name, expounded object of Zarathustraand wras the promotion the Mazdean of righteousness. religion, was a not in their debtor and creditor eyes merely Religion account between God and man, represented and sacrifices by on one side and benefits paid on the other, nor was it a offerings system of generating
India, chap.
prosperity,
wealth,
children,
flocks
and
1Alberuni's 2 Bundahis, P. ii.
Sachau's edition, chap. lvi. vol. ii. pp. 81-82. Sacred Books of the East, ii. West's translation,
vol. v.
550 herds,
EAELY HISTOEY OF NOETHEEN INDIA. by feeding with it was to produce sacrifices
the higher powers, whose these benefits for their worshippers. duty The whole system of Mazdeism represents a phase of religious much later than those shown in these crude development
conclusions. This change arose when a recorded moral law
was
on as a necessary to the sacrificial supplement law of debtor and creditor. From this time the observance of the law was looked on as the best sacrifice, and the account opened between God and man was one in which not the looked sacrifices the
offered, but the good deeds of those who obeyed law were placed to their credit. In the religion of was some in to which both Zarathustra, points analogous and priests, what was required those of the Jewish prophets was that each of the servants of Ahura Mazda should dedicate their whole in which
was
worship, powers of those who believed.

or no change made in
time to his service, and make their life a perpetual the sacrifice that was offered was the life and In the Zoroastrian
the modes of reckoning
ritual
time,
little
on
which
the previous sacrificial code of Iran had been based;l but instead of the sacrifices of horses, oxen, and lambs, which had been offered by the national heroes of the past,2 Zara a pure sacrifice of "Haoma thustra prescribed (Soma) and
meat, offered with the holy wood (for fire), the baresma (the sacred twig cut from a tree without thorns), the holy mortar or Soma), the wisdom of the tongue, (to crush the Haoma with the holy the libations, sacrifices were spells, with the speech, with the deeds, with 3 These the rightly and spoken words." at the beginning of the last those instituted ritual, when burnt offerings of slain to be discredited, and were being the the fruits of like earth, hallowed, by
reform animals gradually
in the sacrificial were beginning replaced
1 There was one change made as to the Gahs, which, as I have shown, were reform became the five periods formerly the five seasons, but under Zarathustra's of the day, each devoted to its special religious exercises. 2 See the sacrifices of and other heroes, in the Aban Yimakshaeta, Haoshyanga, Yast, each of whom offered a hundred stallions, a thousand oxen, and ten thousand Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxiii. pp. 52-58. lambs, Darmesteter's Zendavesta, 3 iii. l,note Vendidad, 2, also Fargard xix. 18, and Aban Yast, xxiv. Fargard 104 ; Darmesteter's Sacred Books of the East, vol. iv. pp. 22 and Zendavesta, 209, and vol. xxiii. p. 78.
EUPHRATEAN ORIGIN OF GODS OF ZENDAVESTA. the
551
it was not But burnt offerings, by heat and fire. as truest and best the sacrifices which Zarathustra regarded was on insisted he what conduct, holy offerings; religious to the service of and the life-long devotion of true believers into Ahura Mazda. To insure this, each day was divided a five periods called Gahs, in each of which separate form of belief must be recited. It also required the devotion of every a form of the Supreme Being. day to some power representing In the lists of these days, called Sirozahs, the heavenly to month were whom of the each of the powers thirty days to be devoted are named. this list of thirty But besides powers, we find another in the earlier section of the heavenly or rules for sacrifice. In this Zendavesta called the Yasna gods, who are called in the section thirty-three these and in many other places throughout rules, beginning " l the ritual, the thirty-three lords of the ritual order." This list is followed by a statement that the sacrifices that " are to be offered are the to the month, monthly offerings lords of the ritual order, to the new moon and the later there and the yearly festival to the seasons.2 Thus showing moon/' are the gods of time, the that the gods to be worshipped of the Brah who the Prajapati makes the months, moon-god
manas, and the year-god who makes the seasons, the Hindu
are
is, as I have shown, the god of the linga, These thirty-three father. gods must have been as same the the gods of the thirty-three originally exactly the days of the lunar Hindu year, and both must represent month and the seasons. than that they Any other hypothesis Yashatkara, the earthly who
sprang from one common source is impossible, as no two
of separated as the early moon-worshippers could both have separately Iran and the Southern Hindus divisions. developed a reckoning of time based on thirty-three This method of reckoning time must have come from the same country as that from which the name of Ahura Mazda is derived. Ahura is, as Professor Darmesteter shows, merely nations
1 translation of the Yasnas, Yasna i. 10, iv. 15, vi. 9, and many other Mills, Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxxi. pp. 198, 216, 220. places, 2 Yasna i. 8. 13. xxxi. Sacred Books of the East, pp. 198, 216. 9, iv. 14, vol.
so widely
552
another form of Asura.1 Asura is derived from the Akka dian Asari, the chief, and the Asuras were, as we know from the Hindu Biahmanas, of the snake-gods headed worshippers came snake the who from the Euphrates Nahusha, great by Further and almost conclusive evidence of the valley. of time is origin of the Zoroastrian Euphratean gods given in the library of Assurbanipal of a list of by the finding the gods to which each was with the days of the month, on the This is referred to by Prof. Darmesteter, Prof. From of these considerations it is authority Halevy.2 clear that in the Zendavesta we find most valuable and trust evidence as to the original Akkadian worthy chronometry, and of the ancient inhabitants from which that of the Hindus of Iran was derived. dedicated. the first question I have What divisions of the year were origin proposed and what was their original ally represented by the Nakshatra, astronomers number ? The Hindu quoted by Max Muller,
in the essay to Bhatta, which who I have gives so often referred, an ancient Kamalakara Madhava, namely, astro
I will
now proceed for solution.
to consider
nomical
and Garga, both tell us that writer, as his authority, moon the of the heavens was the monthly passage through were stages in that as a circle, that the Nakshatras regarded month consists of one passage circle, and that a Nakshatra
also says through all the Nakshatras. Patanjali that the passage of the moon through each Nakshatra repre Ahoratra sents a Nakshatra (a Nakshatra day and night).3 the number of days in a Nakshatra Hence month, according to these authors, corresponds with the number changes of the moon. occupied by the monthly of lunar days
of the moon
1 Darmesteter's to Vendidud, iv. 3, Sacred Books of Introduction Zendavesta, the East, vol. iv. p. 5S. 2 Darmesteter's to Sacred Books Introduction of the Sirozahs, Zendavesta, ii. 82, tells us, also, as Herodotus, East, vol. xxiii. p. 3, note 1. The Egyptians This must, like the rest of their consecrated each day in the month to some god. I have early ritual and their original gods, be derived from the Euphrates valley. already, in Part III. J.R.A.S. July, 1889, pp. 540, 542, traced these triads to and Hindus, that source, and have shown that, like the early Akkadians they the earthly father or phallic god of the new the mother earth, Horus, worshipped moon, and Osiris or Thoth, the moon-god. 3 Max to vol. iv. of the Rigveda, and note to Preface Miiller, pp. 55-58, p. 58.
HINDU NAKSHATRAS AND CHINESE SIEU. Alberuni
553
month explains very clearly how this Nakshatra astronomers that observed the He says early originated. the circuit her changes makes in completing that the moon " to in and the be visible of the heavens, West," beginning " is done in twenty in East." This to the visible be ceasing
seven days and three-quarters,1 or in round numbers in
days. twenty-eight who, as Alberuni says, had

rely upon as means of
Hence
the Arabians only their

fixed
and early observers to eyes and numbers

several stations for
research,
the
to the constella each day of the moon's journey according moon the stands in con tions and fixed stars, with which or in the immediate neighbourhood of which she junction,
passes. Alberuni, moreover, points out that the stars used
by numbers and
the Arabians the Hindus
and Hindus do not as the Arabians of Nakshatras, only twenty-seven.
have only twenty-seven the Hindus to arise from the attempt made and Varahamihira Garga to astronomers the solar and lunar years Hindu combine by in one measure of time, which they fixed as a cycle of five the Zodiac into twenty In doing this they divided years.2
seven equal parts of 13? 20' each, to represent the lunar year,
twenty-eight the reason why is shown by Nakshatras Now
agree, have
nor
do
the
which and they then dropped the twenty-eighth Nakshatra, as a division of hitherto used had the circle.3 monthly they it was impossible for the stars and constella Consequently the twenty-seven divisions of the tions, which represented five years' cycle, to correspond with those marking Hindu the divisions of the Arabian which circle, twenty-eight merely marked But the lunar month. no examination of this question can be complete with
1 This is the India, Sachau's edition, computation given by Alberuni, Alberuni's The real computation is 27 dys. 7 hrs. 43 min. lvi. vol. ii. pp. 81, 82. chap. 2 Max Miiller, Preface to vol. iv. of edition of the Eigveda, p 51; Varaha edition of mihira, Pafichasiddh.antika, chap. ii. 7, p. 11 of translation, Thibaut's 1889. 3 The Arabian that the Hindus always astronomers, when they told Alberuni left out one Nakshatra, because it was always covered by the rays of the sun, the absence of the twenty-eighth Nakshatra and not explained quite rightly, as he thought. What Nakshatra they meant was that the twenty-eighth wrongly would not fit in with their solar reckoning of time, Alberuni's Sachau's India, edition, chap. lvi. vol. ii. p. 82.
554
out considering the Chinese Sieu. There are twenty-eight stars the described astronomer Biot as single great by single stars near the equator, in time had the intervals of which been when carefully observed, by noting in water clocks the instant the meridian. they passed They refer to these the of stars and other positions planets coming to the meridian stars thus represented These between them. twenty-eight
divisions of the heavens by which the motions twenty-eight of all the heavenly bodies, sun, moon, planets, and comets were determined, without being specially devoted to any one of twenty-four of these stars had of them.1 The positions more than 2000 years to been determined, Biot, according before our era,2 and the last four appear to have been added stars are all at different before or about 1100 b.c. These and hence the divisions of the circle are not, like intervals, those
tion of
of the Hindu studied

concordances the
has carefully "of
Nakshatra, equal. the subject, says

existing among
Prof. Whitney, who that after the exhibi

the three systems
the Hindoos, and Arabians, it can enter into Chinese, the mind of no man to doubt that all have a common origin, and are but different forms of one and the same system." 3
Now
the original twenty-four stars of the Chinese have been supposed to have some connection with the twenty-four hours ; to the present inquiry is that they, but what is most pertinent as well as the twenty-eight a circle finally adopted, represent the and in the heavens used for astronomical purposes; use of division of the into the sky twenty-eight general one among the many unequal parts, as among the Arabs, is proofs that one of the first astronomical divisions of time used was the lunar month This was of twenty-eight days. as a in and the the circle reckoned heavens, passage of time
1 Max Preface to vol. iv. edition of Rigveda, Miiller, pp. 39, 45 and note, 51, and 82. 2 But these stars were certainly Akkadian. twenty-four They were the divine ii. by Diodorus judges, twelve north and twelve south of the Zodiac, mentioned Leetures for 1887, p. 72, note) documents 30, and in Akkadian (Sayce, Hibbert a were the twenty-four later invention than hours, but they must have been they found as the funda the earlier division of time by watches, which is so universally calculation of the intervals of light and darkness. mental 3 edited by Burgess and Whitney, p. 201, quoted by Max Surya Siddhanta, vol. iv. of edition of Rigveda, Miiller, p. 45.
THE SIROZAHS ORIGINALLY STELLAR OR LUNAR.
555
was computed by the distances of the stars, which were used as of each division.1 The division of the heavens the mile-stones later than the into twTenty-four hours must have been much as the ancient Akkadians, like astronomical circle, original used to reckon their time by watches. Hindus, the original system of the Hindus must, like that of the have been taken from the early Akkadians, and the Arabs, must reckoned have originally Hindus by junction-stars as they retain the term in their astronomical (Yoga-taras), the modern But and were able to point out twenty to Alberuni vocabulary, which agreed with those used by the Arabs. The others they could not point out, as the use of the cycle had destroyed the twenty-eight their old astronomy and converted unequal divisions divisions division into the twenty-seven of the early computators equal of the heavens. The earliest Persians also used the of twenty-eight stars, as is shown in the list of the
of the heavenly circle in the Bun subdivisions twenty-eight of the month dahis :2 and that this was based on a division an is examination of the into twenty-eight proved by days Sirozahs and of the list of the days of the month, with the to which they were sacred, found in the bilingual gods
Akkadian and Assyrian documents.
are divided the thirty days of the month In the Sirozahs seven first two of into four w7eeks?the days and the last two of eight days each; but it is the first seven which are especially If holy, and are called the Amesha Spenta, or Ameshpends.3 the list had been originally solar, the seven Amesha Spenta would, Hindu like in the the Yasus, who occupy the same position But instead of ritual, have been turned into eight.
1 I have shown later on that this early circle was probably succeeded, when an time by divisions of the circle, by one marked by attempt was made to calculate was 'ihe monthly used for yearly calculations, circles only ten stars. This one star or con represented daily changes noted by the passage of the moon from were to were the to the next. afterwards increased and stellation They thirty, x. 109. 3 above referred to. It was the thirty spheres of the Yedic hymn Eg. of the passage circle of ten stars used for the purpose of the general measurement of time, which was the invention of the sons of Kus, and the instrument used by the lunar year. them in determining 2West's Pehlavi Texts, Bundahis, chap. ii. 2, Sacred Books of the East, vol. v. p. 11. 3 Darmesteter's Slrozahs i. 8, Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxiii. Zendavesta, p. 6, note 11.
556 making retained
EAELY HISTOEY OF NOETHEEN INDIA. the alteration
as the Hindus did, the Zoroastrians seven days in the place of honour, and placed the weeks with eight days at the end of the month. a stellar list, That the list of the Sirozahs was originally the ancient
framed from astronomical observations on a lunar model, is
rendered Tistrya,
likely by the important the dog-star, which was Anahita, of the tenth
the tenth day, thus recalling month of the mother's year, while Tistrya rules the thirteenth, as the seed of the waters which is the father of the offspring of the waters
months.
shippers of Ardvi the ruling deity
to Tir or position assigned star of the ruling the wor the great water goddess, who was
produced
in the
full
lunar year
of
thirteen
calendar also shows similar traces of The Assyro-Akkadian an original month on of twenty-eight founded been having the of seven month consist three weeks of days, for the first days and the fourth of nine. on further comments I will now proceed, before making those from the Assyrian these lists, to place tablets, the Yasna and Sirozahs, side by side, for purposes of comparison.
II. I. list showing gods Assyrian to which each day was sacred.1 No. 1. 2. of day. Anu and Bel The two Istars No. Yasna Sirdzah.3 list.2 III.
of day. 1. Ahura 2. Yohu
Nt>. Mazda man5
of day. 1. Ahura 2. Bahman,
Mazda Yohu
3. Merodach Zerpanit day)

4. Nebo, rodach, son
and (a fast
of MeTas-
(The good mind) 3. Asha Yahista (Righteousness)

4. Khshatra Yairya
mano 3. Ardibehest Yahista

4. Shahrevar Khshatra Yairya,
Asha
and
(Sovereignty)
his nut wife 5. Armaiti 5. Mul-lilandNin-lil (Universal weal and (lord and lady of lower firmament) immortality)
Lord of Metals. 5. Sapendarmad, Spenta Armaiti
1 for 1887, p. 70. Sayce, Hibbert Lectures 2 Mills, Yasna i. 1-7, Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxxi. pp. 195-198. 3 Darmesteter's i. Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxiii. Sirozah Zendavesta, pp. 3-13.
ASSYRIAN YASNA AND SIROZAH SACRED DAYS. II. L

6. Eimmon and Mn6. Haurvitat (the 6.
557
III.
Khordad, Haur
lil
(Eitnmon
is
god 7,
body of the kine)

sons
vitat years)
(the
and
sea
the
the beneficent
of the seasons)l
7. Past day to MeroAmeritat (the
7. Murdad
Ameri
dach and Zerpanit (Sabbath) 8. Nebo 9. Adar and Gula
kine's fire) 8, Asnya lords) 9. Havani
soul, the (the day
(flocks and herds) 8. Dai pa Adar (the day before Adar) 9. Adar Atar (the of the glory
tat
Aryas) 10. Mn-lil Ardvi (mistress 10. Savanghi (lord 10. Aban of cattle)2 Anahita (God of of the lower firmament and the the Waters) divine judge) 11. Tasmit and Zer- 11. Ylsya (lord of 11. Korshed (the or theVis well-horsed sun) panit people) 12. Mithra 12. Bel and Beltis (of the 12. Mah (that keeps in it the seed of wide pastures) the bull) 13. The Moon (the 13. The Yazad (god) 13. Tir, Tistrya, Sir of the spoken ius (leader of the Supreme God) name Haptoiringas(the
great 14. Beltis and ]S"ergul 14. Eama Hvastra 14, Gos bear) Drvaspa
(Sabbath) 15. Sin (the Moon 15. Eapithwina the of God, lady (the house of heaven) 16. Merodach and 16. Pradatshu 17. ISTebo and Tasmit 18. Sin (the moon goddess), 17. Zantuma3 18. Uzaheirina Samas Eazista
15. Dur Mihir) 16. Mihir

Eama
pa Mihir day before Mithra

Hvastra
Zerpanit
17. Srosh Sraosha 18. Eash, Eashnu Arstat
(the sun-god) 1 Hibbert Lectures for 1887, p. 205. Sayce, 2 i. 3, Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxxi. Mills, Yasna p. 196, note 5. 3 in Yasna i. 4, Asha Vahista, and Ameritat, Ahura's Here, Bighteousness, 3 are Nos. and but these insertions have been made, as 7, fire, again introduced; I shall show later on, to increase the original number of sacred days twenty-eight of the month to thirty.
558

I. II. III.
19. Gula (a sabbath) 20. Sin and Samas 21.
19. Fradatvira 20. Dahyyuma
19. FravardinFrava shis 20. Bahram Yere

thragna
Sin and Samas (a 21. Ahura Fapat 21. Earn, of the Hvastra sabbath) Apam (son
waters)
Eama Yayu
22. 23.
Sin and Samas Samas and Eimmon
22. Aivisruthrima 23. Abigaya
22. Bad (the wind) 23. Dai pa dm
24. Lord and Mistress 24. Zarathustro tenia 24. Dm Chista (the of the Palace law) 25. Bel and Beltis 25. Fravashis 25. Ard Ashi Yan 26. Ea orHea 26. Yerethragna Arstad makes the (that world grow) 27. Asman (Heaven) 28. Zemyad (the guhi 26. Astad
27. NergulandZikum
(chaos)
27. The
Yictorious
Ascendency
28. Ea
or Hea (the 28. TJshahina day of resting of earth) Nergal)

of 29. Berejya Mathra
29.
of resting Day the moon-god
29.
Mahraspand, Spenta
30. Anu and Bel
30. Nmanya
(the holy word) 30. Anirun (the

eternal space) luminous
31.
32.
Srosha
ence) Eashnu
(obedi
Eazista
(the most just)

33. Arstat vances ad (who the settle
ments) seems The first thing to be noticed in these lists is?what lists and that of to go far towards proving that the Assyrian the Sirozah both have come from a common origin?that the ninth, day in both is sacred to Adar, who is, as I have
HISTOEICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE GAHS.
559
the Akkadian shown, the god of the fire-stick (Svastika), In that case Gula, who is asso Uras, and the Greek Ares. ciated with Adar, is the second of the two sticks which, when rubbed together, produce the fire. As to other points, as the list in the Yasna contains thirty three gods, these ought to be the twenty-eight days of the month and the five seasons, but instead of the names of the the names of seasons, as recorded in later lists, it mentions the five Gahs, 9. Havani, 15. Rapithwina, 18. Uzaheirina, 22. Aivisruthrima, and 28. Ushahina. These Gahs are also or mentioned in the list of the Slrozah after No. 7. Ameritat, in the same place in which Asnya, the day lords, appear in in the Yasna therefore, list, Asnya are which the the sacred divisions Gahs, probably represents or invocations of the day. But as certain Yasts, to special gods, were ordered to be recited at each Gah, it is probable that these recitations may throw some light on the original These are as follows:? of the Gahs. meaning 1. Havani, Yast No. xxxv. The Mihir Yast to Mithra and list. So
Rama Hvastra.
the Yasna
2. Rapithwina, last Yast 3. Uzaheirina,

Anahita.
iii. To Ashi Yahista, Yast No. and the to Atar (Ameritat). Yast No. v. The Aban Yast to Ardvi Sura Yast No. The xiii.
to
4. Aivisruthrima,
No. xv.,
The Fravardin
Verethragna.
Yast
and the
No.
the Bahrain
Yast
5. Ushahina.
Rashn Yast,
Srosha Yast,
No. xii.,
No.
xi.,
to Sraosha;
and
to Rashnu
Razista,
xviii., the Astad Ya?t, No. xvii. to Arstat. this list it appears that there are ten gods to be in 2. Rama Hvastra, voked at the several Gahs : 1. Mithra, 3. 4. Atar, 5. Ardvi Ashi Yahista, Sura Anahita, 6. The Fra From vardin, Arstat. which
Hindu
7. Yerethragna, 8. Sraosha, 9. Rashnu Razista, 10. These ten appear to be the ten months of gestation, I have shown to be specially connected with the five
seasons, or ritu, of two months each.
the gods invoked at each Gah give distinct evidence Again, the seasons, for in Uza that the Gahs originally represented
VOL. XXII.?[new series.] 37
560
to the Idah of the Hindu Brah heirina, which corresponds is invoked.1 manas, the rainy season, the god of the waters or to In Aivisruthrima, the which Barhis, corresponds and the male god, the Fravashi, autumn, the holy mothers, as in the Hindu rituals the the father, are invoked, just to the fathers and mothers festival is held in the autumn. In Ushahina, which is the winter, or the time when the old to be born, the out and the new year is waiting are in to the ancient three number, answering gods the This triad of Hindus. is shown in the passage generating names as the brothers in the Ashi Yast, which of Ashi year dies invoked the patroness the holy mother, of married Yanguhi, pairs, are three gods (two of which the same as those invoked in this Gah) invoked in this Gah, Sraosha, Bashnu, and Mithra of the a thousand wide pastures, who has ten thousand spies and ears. Mithra, who was the is here originally moon-goddess, or the moon-god, probably, like the Hindu Daksha and Arstat, the physical generative power which is the father of the moon. If these five Gahs were included in the Sirozah list, as they are included in that of the Yasna, the number in the former would
Yasna,
be thirty-five,
if Asha Yahista,
and
this would
be
and
the number
Ameritat,
of the
Ahura's
righteousness,
fire, were repeated twice over, as is done in the Yasna list; but when we examine the Yasna list still further, we do not or Atar, find Adar the fire-god, If directly mentioned. to is said in the Yasna the which be kine's soul Ameritat, a and Ahura's fire, was originally fire-god, the seven sacred included the god of the days of the week must have anciently and the people who invented the days of the week fire-stick, seven their must have been the fire-worshippers who made
sacred 1 This number.2 or Sirius, who appeared in god is again represented in the star Tistrya He was also to the Greeks the rains with him. the early autumn and brought II. xvi. 385. The goddess the harbinger of rains and fevers, II. xxii. 26-31, Ardvi Sura Anahita, the heavenly spring, from which all the waters on earth flow the rivers Tigris became the river-goddess and down, representing probably as filling in the early autumn; but this goddess, as deified by the Indra Euphrates as as or Hea-worshippers, in and well made the rivers in Babylonia Assyria, Before that she was the mother earth. India, the mother of races. 2 The use come a must have into division of ancient week, though time, very never have been known long after months and years were invented. They could to the early seafaring mother-worshippers, from whom the Greeks and Romans
THE PENTAD, OK FIVE GODS OF THE ZENDAYESA.
561
seems to prove But a further examination of the Zendavesta on a that the religion was founded, like that of the Hindus, still more archaic basis, in which five was the sacred number. For among the gods who are invoked, there are five who are especially named in the Yasts as those to whom the old heroes sacrificed, the heroes and their sacrifices to heroes being men to these gods These are (1) tioned in the Yasts dedicated Ardvi Sura Anahita, No. 10 in the Sirozah list, to whom the Aban is addressed. 14, also called (2) Gos, No. and Gosarun horses in who (the health), Drvaspa (she keeps No. soul (or cow) of the bull).1 also called Ram, 21, (3) a male god. Ram Hvastra, the daughter (4) Ashi Yanguhi, of Ahura and guardian of married women, No. 25 ; and (5) the earth, No. 28. To these gods the Aban, Gos, Zamyad, are addressed. Yasts and Of these five Ram, Ashi, Zamyad Yast gods, who are apparently both and those worshipped by the
four are, strange to say, female
the gods of the five seasons of Iran, earliest inhabitants

gods, and one only is a male
But it is god, for the earth is always said to be a goddess. a with Hindu the that their full pentad only by comparison can five be understood. Of the Hindus of the gods meaning the first god, the Idah, the central god, is bisexual, while or Samidhs, is also bisexual, as it god of the two fire-sticks is only by the union of the two that the fire is produced, while the last or fifth god is the male father of all beings. In the Zoroastrian pentad, on the other hand, all the gods
except Ram, the central god, are females, and are spoken of
as females
throughout
the Zendavesta.
On
the other
hand,
of time got their calendar, as no people who had ever used weeks as measures could have reverted to the cumbrous Roman system of Kalends, Nones, and Ides, while the Greek division of decads could only have been introduced after the solar a month of twenty-eight year was substituted for the original lunar year. With It must have originated days, a reckoning by periods of ten days was impossible. the who the from removed earth to heaven, and among gods fire-worshippers, introduced the custom of burnt offerings, which bore the offerings of the wor shippers from earth to heaven by the agency of the sacred fire, and who, in con dedicated each period of seven days into junction with the Indra-worshippers, which the lunar month was divided to separate gods, giving five days to the gods of the old pentad, the sixth day to the fire-god, as is shown in the myth of and the seventh day to the great Ea, the god of Nabhanedishtha, pp. 530-533, the divine waters. The later dedication of the days of the week to planets must date from a time subsequent to the introduction of sun-worship. 1 Gos vol. xxiii. Sacred Books of the East, p. 110. Yast, Introduction,
562
Bam appears in the Yasts in two forms, once in the Bahram the male father, and again in Yast, where he is Yerethragna the Bam Yast, where he is Bama Hvastra, the god who gives or and the wind. This good pastures, Yayu god, in his male is not to the said been have form, by phallic worshipped early national heroes, and would thus appear to have been an imported the god who gives good pastures, god, while called by the name Yayu the wind, is clearly a form evolved The name Bam must apparently by the Indra-worshippers. same as the Sanskrit Bama, which the have signification means to ; and if this is the case, Bama is equivalent a all whence things proceed, conception abyss is historically which far older than that of the rain-god as the chief creator. this pentad seems to represent Accordingly the ancient creed of Iran, which looked on all creation as born the t'hom from four mothers darkness or
power given to them by by the generative the spirit of God, which dwelt in the abyss of darkness. As for these four mothers, the the first two represent the second mother the Ardvi Sura and earth, Gos, Anahita, the soul of the bull, the moon-goddess, while Ashi Yanguhi, the patroness of married in the women, is, like Sarasvati Hindu the tribal mother of the those who mother, pentad, as a higher mode of existence in marriage than the believed tribal concubinage of the Turanians. The was apparently the mother of the Aryans
Scythian races, who always seem to have
later Sarasvati or Northern

permanent
made
and household life a fundamental marriage The fourth mother, tribal polity.1 Zamyad
rule of their or the Mount
is the sacred upland country which gave birth Ushidarena,2 to these Northern tribes, who were, like the Northern Akka as all mountaineers, dians, opposed to the Southern Sumerians From the plain country watered by the great rivers. these in it is clear that this pentad, as represented considerations
1 Ashi refused to accept libations from sterile people, from old men Yanguhi or boys and girls. who can have no children, the courtezans, In other words, she from those who believed in Turanian would not receive worship customs, Ashi Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxiii. p. Zendavesta, Yast, x. 54, Darmesteter's See the question further discussed later on. 280. 2 Zamyad. Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxiii. Yast, Darmesteter's Zendavesta, p. 286.
AGREEMENT OF THE THEEE LISTS OF SACRED DAYS. the Yasts
563
has been altered from its of the Zendavesta, races who introduced house the form innovating by original hold It could not have been made by the linga life. for if so, it would who made the Hindu pentad; worshippers have made the male father Yerethragna the central god, or
at least have made the male element more conspicuous than
and as it is, it is in the amorphous Rama the darkness; a five divided into parts from the represents unity evidently most It must have originally times. ancient represented wras altered seasons which of the Turanians, the five so as to bear a genealogical inno meaning by the Aryan of the the mother-year vators. It at first represented as shown in the her five under aspects, mother-worshippers
seasons.
of these deductions, of the correctness evidence Further and also of the identical origin of the three lists, is furnished Thus Ardvi by a comparison of some of the entries in them. or the lady of 10 in the Slrozah, is Nin-lil, Sura Anahita, No. or in the Akkadian the lower firmament, list, and Savanghi, Now Nin-lil means Nin means both HI (the cloud of dust).1 as there is another god of the lil, Mullil, must mean lord (Mul) of the dust, Nin-lil or mother earth. the the lady of the dust, Savanghi, again, the same as the goddess Savanghavach, who is is evidently in the Aban and Ram Yasts, as with Erenavach, mentioned the lord of cattle, Nin (the lady) of and lord lady, but means the which in that of the Yasna.
the two wives of Azi-Dahaka, the three-mouthed snake, who
was slain by Thraetaona, he marrying them after the death of the Great Snake of the phallic triad.2 Savanghi means lord of must mean lady of cattle, and the lady cattle. Savanghavach of the cattle of the pastures purified by the divine waters of from heaven, or the Ida, the purified earth, as distinguished
1 for 1887, pp. 151, note 1, pp. 152, 154. Sayce, Hibbert Lectures 2 Aban Sacred Books Zendavesta, Yast, x. 34, Ram Yast, vi. 24, Darmesteter's is the Trita Aptya Thraetaona of the East, vol. xxiii. pp. 62, note 2, and 255. and the Brahmanas, the god of the sacred waters, the Indra who of the Rigveda killed Visvarupa (having the form (rupa) of human beings (visva),) the three mean materialistic the anthropomorphic triad which clearly headed Tvashtar, Sat. Brah. i. 2. 3. 1. of gods worshipped by the Asuras or snake-worshippers, note and 48. and 2, vol. xii. pp, 47, 3,
564
EARLY HISTORY OF NORTHERN INDIA. earth who delighted in libations of blood.1 she became Ardvi Anahita, the heavenly on earth flow down.2 from which all the waters we have a representative in Erenavach of Gos, or
the earlier mother In her new form spring Similarly Drvaspa. Hvastra
is Bama This goddess, No. 14 in the Sirozah, in the Akkadian in the Yasna, and Beltis and Nergul the fourteenth day of the month, calendar. She represented or the full-moon a Semitic is merely Now Beltis day. to the list of gods, the old Akkadian addition god being or who is of Beltis. the husband hero, Ner, Nergul,3 great the wife or counterpart of Bel. Beltis, again, is properly the god armed with the sickle Bel the hero is Bel-Merodach, shaped like the crescent moon, who killed Tiamut the dragon.4 the moon-god, and the is Bel-Merodach short, Nergal moon on the full is that he com fourteenth of which day and his recovered full form. his Bama conquest pleted In Hvastra,
pastures,"
again,
is in
"the
later
god
of
the
the
resting
clouds
place
; but in
with
the
good
earliest
Mazdeism
the darkness, religion he is, as I have already shown, Bama all things are born, who is called in the the abyss whence the waters, the firmament the god who divides Bam Yast is Gos Gosarun of the Biblical narrative. (the soul, or cow) is with of the bull, and Erenavach the again connected the goddess who Akkadian Iru, the bull, so that she means or the mother firma gives life to the bull, the moon-goddess, ment of heaven. the son Again, while Ahura Napat Apam, with moon of theWaters, No. 21 in the Yasna list, exactly corresponds the later form of Bama Hvastra, the Yayu, Sin, the an of the earlier form in the Akkadian, represents
1 But may be derived from Savah, the Eastern Savanghavach region of the xi. 3, Sacred Books of the East, vol. v. p. 33), and Bundahis (West's Bundahis, in Zend as in Sanskrit, Savanghavach if Yach has the same meaning would mean she who speaks the Eastern she who speaks that of Iran tongue, and Erenavach or of the country of Iru, the bull. 2 Darmesteter's to Aban Yast, Sacred Books of the Introduction Zendavesta, East, vol. xxiii. pp. 52, 53. 3 Hibbert Lectures for 1887, p. 195. 4 Sayce, Hibbert Lectures for Can Tiamut have any con 1887, pp. 101-103. Sayce, nection with the Dravidian Tai, the mother ? If so, the victory of Merodach would tell not only of the conquest by the moon of the dragon, which was trying to devour it, but also of the conquest of the worshippers of the mother earth by the moon-worshippers.
AGREEMENT OF THE THREE LISTS OF SACRED DAYS. chief god Akkadian the
565
of heaven, while Bel and Beltis, No. 25 in the to is equivalent list, is the married Bel, which or wives, in that of the Yasna sacred Fravashis, list, to of the Slrozah. of the races who This introduced last goddess is the household life
the Ashi Yanguhi mother
goddess customs and marriage, and thereby superseded the Turanian of tribal life and temporary unions. in She is represented the Ashi Yast as escaping from the Turanians and the swift
horsed Naotaras by hiding first under the foot of a bull, and afterwards by hiding, like Ulysses escaping from the cave of the Cyclops, under the throat of a ram.1 In the Aban Yast are again mentioned as the lords of swift horses, the Naotaras as are named and their kings who was not a Ylstaspa, Naotara
heiress,
himself,
and who
but
was
who
the
married
great
Hutaosa,
of
a Naotara
Zarathustra's*
supporter
reforms.2 Another king named is Yistauru, the son of Nao tara. The whole that shows household life and story were introduced by the race of horsemen who were marriage the worshippers of the bull, and who were the sons of Kas or that and this reform was afterwards insisted on by Kasyapa, the Aryan
Yaruna's
and
victim,
Semitic
which
tribes,
was
who
worshipped
up by Abraham
the
ram,
as a
offered
substitute In No.
agreement
for his son.3 28, the day

in the three
sacred
lists,
to Zamyad,
or Ea the
there
is a similar
god,
Hea
water-snake
there is god. While a the between Ushahina, evidently correspondence ruling god of the winter season, and the earth which is represented in the Hindu the mother earth, who by Kadru, mythology rules the last month of the lunar year, and whose connection with Zamyad is shown by the name of the mountain Ushi represents of Zamyad. But we also find in the darena, the equivalent further evidence as to the process by which above analysis of time was evolved. the reckoning The first measure of
1 Darmesteter's Ashi Yast, x. 54 56, Sacred Books of the East, Zendavesta, vol. xxiii pp. 280 281. 2 Darmesteter's Aban Zendavesta, Yast, xxii. 98, xxiv. 105, and xix. 76, Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxiii. pp. 76, 77, 78 and 71. 3 Sat. Brah. ii. 5. 2. 16, vol. xii. p. 395; Gen. xxii. 13.
the
old Akkadian
earth
566 continuous
shorter time was the five seasons; but when periods required to be reckoned in order to insure the offering of sacrifices on the correct dates, the next guide sought was the waxing and waning moon. It was this reckoning which made the fourteenth day, dedicated to the conquering moon but this did not allow for the god, a specially holy day; as was of five the sacred number of the early seven, sanctity
Turanians. The sacred number seven was evidently a later
of Hea, of the fire-worshippers and the worshippers the god of the waters. It was Hea, the great god of the and ruled the Sumerian Asuras, who became Ahura Mazda, first day of the sacred week, while Ameritat, Ahura's fire, ruled the closing day. The religious reforms which these to the calendar imply were both the work of the additions addition Northern
came
races, and
as
they must
Prof.
have
been made
by his
after
reference
they
to
southward,
Darmesteter,
the Norse fimt or five days week,1 shows that the sacred five days which was used by the Mazdeans in reckoning the lunar month of thirty days, was also known in the Aryan also shows though the seven holy North. Prof. Darmesteter Amesha Spentas were worshipped ruling the first seven days of the month in the Sirozah; for yet in the calculations lunar sacrifices the month of the thirty days was divided into six periods of five days each. But the original sacred number of days was, as I have not five or a multiple of five, though and shown, fourteen,
these perhaps might have been used before the moon was used as a measurer of time. As soon as time began to be reckoned by lunar periods, the days of each period were as calculated and further convincing in number, fourteen names of the lunar proof of this fact is shown in the Hindu or half days of the lunar to the Karanas days belonging month. The names of these are as follows : 2
1 Darmester's 3, Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxiii. Zendavesta, Mah Yast, p 90, note 5. He shows that in the Mazdean ritual, as set forth in this passage, the first fifteen days of the month were divided into three parts of five days each, " or " antare maungha," called the the moon within, the fartum" pancbak the "hereno maungha," the moon full, the first quarter, "panchak datigar," and the panchak to the full moon. sitigar, the vishaptatha, belonging 2 Alberuni's India, Sachau's edition, chap, lxxviii. vol. ii. p. 197.
THIRD QUESTION, RECKONING OF ORIGINAL YEAR.

The white or light half of the month. The dark or black half
567
of the month.
1 Amavasya 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 (new moon) Barkhu Biya Triya Caut Panchi Sat Satin
Now of these
9 Attn 10 Navin 11 Dahin 12 Yahi 13 Duvahi 14 Trohi 15 Chaudahi 16 Purnima panchahi

names Amavasya
17(1) 18(2) 19(3) 20(4) 21 (5) 22(6) 23(7) 24(8) 25 (9)
Barkhu Biya Triya Caut Panchi Sat Satin Attn Navin

the
26(10) Dahin 27(11) Yahi 28(12) Duvahi 29(13) Trohi 30(14) Chaudahi
means
new
moon,
but
all the rest are merely ordinal to Chaudahi the fourteenth. Purnima
numbers, After the
extending the first
from one fourteenth
is Panchahi, fifteenth, completed meaning a like is later but and the addition, added; this, Amavasya, of the days of the first half of the month by a naming to the calendar, is one notation in which the day, according in the ordinal number by which day more than is expressed it is named distinctly shows that originally or twenty-eight days formed the lunar month,
earliest measure of time reckoned after the
twice fourteen which was the

five seasons, and
must have represented the twenty-eight Nakshatras month. the lunar This conclusion the twenty-eight of days answers the first question, and the evidence I have adduced therefore
to prove this also answers the second, as it shows that the
Nakshatras
the lunar
first
month,
received
and
names
that
as representing
these names
the days of
they were
under
included
ritual order.
in the thirty-three now

year
gods third
of
time,
the
lords of the was

number
We
original
proceed
measured
to
the
by
question.
reckoned,
How
what
the
of
months
did it contain, and what was the number of days in the month of the first and subsequent collections of months used to measure time exceeding one month ? An answer to this has months been
year
begun
was one
by the proof
of five
adduced
These
to show that the original

were the five ancestral
seasons.
sacrifices were offered by the first ritualists. gods But this division of time must have been made by a people to whom
568
living in a country where there is a monsoon or rainy season, and this must have been the Lower Euphrates Valley near the It was thence that the five seasons were Persian Gulf. both to the Zoroastrian districts lying between the Sea and to and India The gods also itself. India, Caspian of these five seasons must have been originally the central of the the mothers abyss or t'hom, and her four daughters, brought, whole bodies, earth, and of all beings living and those of the tribe and on it, of the heavenly the country to which
worshippers using the ritual belonged. I have now succeeded in proving that the year began with five seasons used as a measure of time by the people living on the Persian Gulf, who diffused their mode of reckoning that were the adjoining countries, and have also shown through after the seasons lunar months of twenty-eight days now first reckoned. must to consider the I proceed one month evidence proving when periods of time exceeding
to be measured by months instead of by seasons.
time
began
both the Bomans find distinct and Hindus Among mention of a sacred period of ten months, the representing an of gestation, is called by the Bomans which period " or ring of time. annus" these ten In the Mahabharata months appear as ten of the fifty daughters of Daksha, who are the wives of Dharma, of the heavenly the embodiment immutable law,1 the others being the thirteen wives of Kas yapa, the thirteen months of the
or wives of
we
full
the
lunar
moon,
year,
and
the
twenty-seven
Nakshatra
representing
the lunar sacrificial year only be ten lunar months
These forty weeks. mentioned both in the Bigveda second perio.d was subsequently
These can of the five years cycle. of twenty-eight days each, making are ten months of gestation frequently This and the Mahabharata.2 to eleven increased months,
1 of the Greek defiis, the goddess of law Dharma, Law, is the exact equivalent and order, who is named by Hesiod, Theog. 16, as one of the great gods, and who is identified by JEschylus, Prom. 18. 205. 874, with Gaia the earth, and named as one of the older gods, Liddell and Scott, s.v. dc/iis. 2 v. 78. 7, x. 184. 3 ;Mahabharata, Vana Parva, cxxviii. p. 388, Rigveda in the story of Jantu, he is born ten months after the sacrifice which had where, also Vana Parva, cxxxii.-cxxxiv. made his mother pregnant; pp. 402-405, where are referred to in the dispute between Ashtavakra of gestation the ten months and Vandin as to the sanctity of numbers, and many other places.
THE ROMAN YEAR OF TEN MONTHS. as is shown thirty-three

the great
569
by gods
the mention of time,

animal
of eleven Rudras among the the offered at eleven victims by

by the eleven stanzas of
annual
sacrifice,
the Apr! hymns recited at the annual animal sacrifice to the gods of the year, and by the number eleven sacred to the ritualistic mythology older gods. But the proof in Hindu of the sanctity of the periods of ten and eleven months, and though very strong, is only deductive so strong as that furnished not absolutely
" annus" of ten months. This "annus" or
and inferential, the Roman by

year is called
minutely and Macrobius, G. Sir Lewis Solinus, of whom by l as " learned and intelligent antiquarians." They say that this year consisted of ten months, with March, beginning and that of these ten months six, April, June, August, were hollow months and December, September, November, of thirty days and each, and four, March, May, July, were so of full months that October, thirty-one days each, authors, Censorinus, the first two are described the whole ten months contained 304 who reformed days Numa Pompilius, seven (57) days, twenty for January and thus made the whole year 361 days; February,
period does not agree with any solar or lunar
the year described
of Romulus, by three
and
is under
this
name
To these 304 days. the year, added fifty and twenty-eight for but this
The year.
whole will
of thirty days each, which I year of twelve months show later on to have been most generally used, only
360 days, and another year also used, of alternate
contained
months
days.
of twenty-nine besides
as
and thirty there
days,
only
contained as
of
354 to the
these
But
acceptance
this,
absolutely
is another
of the
difficulty
statements
correct
when
as to the Ovid, history of the Roman year. the in the Fasti, of year of ten months speaking of says that it consisted of the ten lunar months distinctly three authors
gestation :2 c. 20; Censorinus, See also p. 35.
1 of the Ancients, cites Lewis, Astronomy p. 55. He Macrob. Sat 1. 12, ? 3. 38, 1. 13, ? 1-7 ; Solinus i. 37-38. 2 Ov. Fasti iii. 121.
570
" Annus

erat decimum cum luna orbem.
receperat
Hie
numerus magno tunc in honore fuit Seu quia tot digiti per quos numerare solemus Seu quia bis quino femina mense parit."
The ten Bomulean months described above are distinctly as they each, with the exception of solar months, and August
December, contain exactly the same number of days as are
in the Gregorian solar year. The thus could have been to these days only computed assigned months But the ten by persons dealing with a solar year. sacred lunar months must have contained 280 days. And the addition of fifty-seven to this number would only make 337 can never have been reckoned as the number of days, which days
as
reckoned
in these months
in the year.
the
But
if, instead
year, we
of taking
take eleven
ten solar months

lunar months
making
Bomulean
of twenty-eight Hindu Budras, fifty-seven total will

solar year.
days each, the number sacred to the eleven we find that they contain 308 days, and if the of Numa to these, the be added days Pompilius be 365 days, which almost exactly represents the
accounts as to whether Numa knew the real length of the solar year are conflicting,1 but there is no doubt whatsoever that a system of correcting time by intercalations was intro duced and used by the priests to bring the solar-lunar year of 354 days and that of 365 days into harmony, and that this as to produce the confusion system was so badly worked The which was remedied therefore It cannot by the Julian year. be determined whether the explanatory is actually correct; but at any rate it likely solution of the problem than that authors, who knew only of lunar months
suggestion I have made presents a much more
offered by the Boman and thirty days, and whose calculations must of twenty-nine of thirty and thirty be erroneous, as they used solar months one days to measure time reckoned by lunar periods. By
taking eleven lunar months instead of ten solar months,
and
days said by tradition to have been retaining the fifty-seven a we at statement of the length of the solar year arrive added,
1 Lewis, Astronomy of the Ancients, p. 40.
THE ROMAN LUNAR YEAR. enough for ordinary And exact. it nomically whoever undertook correct
571
purposes, and very nearly astro is certainly most probable that to reform the calendar knew at least that
the solar year contained 365 days. of these proceedings But there is another explanation some probability. to possess If the which also appears is retained, number of 304 days for the ten months and of twenty-eight of the arbitrary numbers days of sixty days, making thirty January and twenty of Februar}^ one for January and twenty-nine for February, be added for these two months, the result would give a total number of 364 years, or a complete lunar year. As it is certain that a and 364 days, was used before lunar year of thirteen months, the solar year, this may probably have been the reform of the king known by the name of Numa mythical Pompilius, been confused which may have by tradition with the subse of the year on the introduction revision of solar quent
reckoning.
instead
The whole story is evidently an attempt to account for the And to do this it was necessary year of ten lunar months. for those who knew only of the later solar year to add two months ten ; but that this explanation to the original is not correct, is proved conclusively by the fact that Januarius, which means the opening month, was always the first month of
the year, and must have been so when the name was given.
What
is absolutely certain is, that the ancestors of the Romans and the original authors of their ritual regarded the ten months of gestation as an especially sacred period, while there is the strongest reason to believe that they, like the Hindus, also looked on eleven months as sacred, and that they used a or 364 lunar year of thirteen months, before days, they used
a solar year.
lunar year, uni original existence of an independent versally accepted by all the civilized nations of the ancient world, is conclusively proved by the persistent attempts made by astronomers in all countries where their science was studied The
to assimilate the solar and lunar years. Of these attempts,
the following
may
be mentioned:
In Greece
there was
(1)
572
the ancient Athenian cycle of three years, called the Tpierrjpk, a in which month of twenty-nine every days was intercalated second year after Poseidon.1 (2) Meton's cycle of nineteen years, dating from B.C. 433, followed one hundred years after the period of the by that of Calippus, which quadrupled Metonic and these both contained years of thirteen cycle, as well as years of twelve.2 months Besides these, there were other changes, such as that of Solon. In India there was the of years' cycle, and the year formed by the addition twelve days to the lunar year of 354 days, spoken of in the as the rest of the Bibhu in the house of Agohya.3 Bigveda was there the Sothiac In Egypt cycle used in Borne, and to these must be added the changes already spoken of. But five
these endeavours to make the two years commensurate, while
of a lunar year of existence they testify to the previous all prove its extreme antiquity. thirteen months, In treating of the Indian year, Zimmer, who argues the very fully, thinks that only solar years and the question lunar-solar by the five years' cycle were known recognized I must But this conclusion, to the authors of the Bigveda.4 say, seems to me
months are usually
to be very doubtful.
spoken of, and that
It
in
is true that twelve

the great cosrao
of the twenty logical hymn, three the and the three mothers, three fathers meaning hundred and sixty days and nights of the year, are spoken of as passing through the heavens in the chariot of time with its twelve spoked wheels, and in another stanza the twelve months of the year with their three hundred and sixty spokes are named.5 But even in this hymn, which is unfortunately of a thir there seems to be distinct mention obscure, very From 15 runs thus:?" Stanza teenth month of the year. the hundred and that which is begotten in the self-same manner (that is, in
seven
sons
1 Leben, p. 370. Zimmer, Altindisches 2 Britannica, Calendar, vol. iv. p. 668. 3 Encyclopaedia Leben, chap. xiii. p. 366; Rg. iv. 33. 7. The Ribhu Zimmer, Altindisches chariot (the of the year, who in their three-wheeled are the genii or guardians three seasons) pass through heaven without horses, and by these changing seasons 36. 1. iv. make earth and heaven young again, Rg. 4 Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, chap. xiii. pp. 364-374. 5 Rg. i. 164. 11 and 48.
THE GREAT C0SM0L0GICAL HYMN OF THE RIGYEDA.
573
the way in which the year, the son of the universal mother, was begotten the self-begotten (see by thought), meaning stanza 8), they call the seventh month the single born (that The six paired months (the twelve) is, the self-produced). l her rule the wise call Under those begotten of the gods.' or of the the the thirteenth, month) seventh, (that unpaired, are her in order. In wished-for region (children) ranged in their places/' of diverse mien range themselves can seems to to me, the moon which, as This, it only refer the goddess of the divine lotus, is ruler of the Pushkara, month of the summer solstice, and thus ruled the remaining those of the year. The mention in another hymn of the to Varuna, known the lord of order, months rich in children,1 also shows month was known to the authors of the months thirteenth besides that the month the thirteenth as
twelve
Zimmer Rigveda. this the authors of the that explains by insisting Rigveda knew and used the five years' cycle, but this cycle, as ex in the calendar in the Taittiriya Brahmana, plained quoted does not make any mention of thirteen by Max Miiller, it makes the lunar year to consist of twenty-seven months;
Nakshatra twelve months or phases and of six the moon, and included the in a year of seasons, correspondence
the solar and lunar computations is effected by or days shorter than the solar the lunar "tithes" making days, there being 1860 lunar days in a lustrum of five years, to 1830 solar days.2 But at the same time the mention of or can Maruts in the Nakshatra twenty-seven Rigvedas only have been made by an author seven Nakshatra of the cycle. of Maruts. spoken twenty-eight in the Yeda to the ten allusions who knew Otherwise Zimmer horses of the twenty he would have
between
again explains the of the car of time, as five made into and the five divisions of time represented as six,4 denoting the five years' cycle ; but this is very doubt
1 Rg. i. 25. 8. 2 Max Miiller, Preface to vol. iv. of edition of the Rigveda, pp. 34 and 35, 55 and 56. 3 i. 13. 3. 6. * Rg. iii. 55. 18; Zimmer, Altindisches Rg. Leben, chap. xiii. p. 368.
574 ful.
as I have shown, The five and six almost certainly, refer to the five and six seasons, and the ten horses are the ten months of gestation. Thus, in stanza 12 of the cosmo i. 164), to which he refers, the father, (Bg. logical hymn is divided into twelve parts (or the year of twelve months), and hence in the next stanza (13) the said to be five-footed, to and on this wheel all be five*spoked, time is said of wheel means this the five seasons, which rest. Surely living beings not five the are parts of the year, and years' cycle, which is as Grassmann nor the five wet months, of it, a multiplication in stanza 14, which Zimmer quotes, Similarly, conjectures. is said to be drawn by ten the car resting on this wheel of the cycle, horses, but these cannot be the ten half-years which would not draw the five seasons of the year, but must in which the year was of gestation, be the ten months true that the last lines of this stanza It is forth. brought sun wanders space and surveys all through say that the sun not justify an inter of does the mention this but things; the previous lines, which can only be made by of pretation is the obvious sense, which, when fully considered, wresting to violence without of doing any explanation quite capable The author of the hymn, of the words. the plain meaning seems to have known like the authors of the Brahmanas, and that of thirteen, months twelve of both of the years as the months of twelve the and to have regarded year ritual the that old orthodox year, but to have remembered which he the older year of thirteen months, recognized it was regarded looked at in the same light as that in which who said that twelve cups the Brahmanas, by the authors of of the year, of Soma must be drawn for the twelve months may also draw thirteen, "for they say l month." there the different to represent is intended The whole hymn the different and course of the the year lights in phases of and has sacrificial in the was ritual, it which regarded stanzas ten The first a five to do with years' cycle. nothing mother from the the tell of the birth of begotten year-calf, but that the priest is a thirteenth
1 Sat. Brah. iv. 3. 1. 5, vol. xxvi. p. 318.
THE GREAT C0SM0L0GICAL HYMN OF THE RIGYEDA. 575 earth by the thought of the heavenly spirit which filled her the sacred mist by the water of life, from impregnated which her son (the year) was born (stanza 8). with It is in short the legend of Manu and the birth of Ida in The next form, transferred to the birth of the year. five stanzas, 11 to 15, tell of the growth of the year, and the another
numbers of the stanzas throughout are so arranged as to
make
up a complete compendium as to the measurement doctrines sacred numbers
deepest
which conveyed in a symbolic shorthand which meanings wrapped interpreted by a few figures what would have occupied much in words which, time and trouble if conveyed before the had to be learnt by heart, and which, invention of writing, after the the invention
of the differing ritualistic in the of time expressed to the early ritualist the
even by could
hymn,
of writing, could only be recorded even then of much labour, and which expenditure Thus in this be communicated very slowly.1 only the ten months the first ten stanzas represent of
the next five the five seasons, and the fifty-two gestation, verses which the hymn the four lunar represent complete to them the four Agnis, making up between years dedicated
the two completed pairs necessary according to the idea
of production ritual, to produce a perfect underlying to the same The four solar years also dedicated sacrifice. are runs stanza in the 48th which four Agnis completed are fixed in one felloes thus: Twelve (the twelve months) naves Who three understands wheel, with (the seasons). and sixty three hundred this ? To this there are fixed sums stanza Thus this steadfast days). (the spokes unwavering measures of the Northern the of time twelve the nations, up and sixty the three seasons, and the three hundred months, a like the unification The whole Brahmanas, hymn is, days. of the Southern ritual, with its five seasons, ten lunar months the
1 I would here remark upon the obvious advantage gained in a time when if known at all, was only known to a select few, and the wide diffusion writing, of knowledge embodied difficult, by a system which by writing was exceedingly in numbers. of many sentences the meaning Similarly, myths were exceedingly in a form easy of recollection the history of centuries. Thus useful, as arranging a whole epoch was comprehended to the instructed formed an in a name which technica. excellent memoria vol. xxii.?[new series.] 38
576
of gestation, and the year of thirteen months, that with which is based on three seasons and solar time. It represents the union of the five lunar races represented five by the snake gods with those who are descended from the three fathers and three mothers, the two being united by the fire god, the fourth Agni, who thus makes up the nine, the sacred number of the Vishnu worshippers in their nine embodied
Budras.
and
But whether this attempt some obscure passages considered
be not
to interpret the inner meaning of a very obscure hymn be or as argument to help strong sufficiently
towards a conclusive proof of the ancient methods materially of measuring time and their history, one thing is certain, that the Hindus used a year of thirteen months before they used are the solar year, and that it is these months which as the wives of Kasyapa. spoken of in the Mahabharata If these thirteen months had ever been used as an inter calary year in India before the five years' cycle was adopted, a use of which I have found no evidence, the first month of the thirteen (Aditi) would not on that account have been made the and yet they the solar months, parent of the twelve Adityas, are said in the Mahabharata to be her sons.1 But though the evidence I have now adduced proves that a lunar year of thirteen months preceded the solar year both in Europe and India, yet it does not show quite conclusively these years both originated centre. in one common this purpose it is necessary not only to consider more of the fifty great fully than I have yet done the significance of the and the of Danaus Akkadians, gods fifty daughters sons and be will also the who of Priam, Endymion, fifty true shown to contribute most as to the important evidence For of these fifty gods and goddesses. I will also show meaning that there is both in the Bible and the Zendavesta most to show that this early year was first evidence important used in the Euphrates valley, and thence transported with the other measures of time to and Europe. Egypt In Part III. of this series of essays I, on the authority of
1 Adi (Sambhava) Parva, lxv. p. 185.
that
DHRITARASHTRA AND PRIAM FORMS OF PHALLIC GOD. 577 asserted that the fifty gods of the Akka the dians, daughters of Danaus and Endymion, must, like the mean the twenty in the Mahabharata, of Daksha daughters seven lunar periods, the thirteen months of the lunar year But I have in this essay of gestation.1 and the ten months were only used in Nakshatra shown that the twenty-seven the Mahabharata, five years' cycle, and that the original number was the twenty-eight days of the lunar representing twenty-eight, can it be unless and therefore, month; proved that this cycle was used in other countries where we find the fifty gods, could not be one of the component numbers of twenty-seven these fifty gods, if they included a the sacred fifty. Now must solar element like that of the twenty-seven Nakshatra, show some traces of a solar origin ; but of this there is no the Hindu mother and Danaus. in the story of Endymion The is Selene, the moon, of Endymion of the daughters and their father is the phallic god. Legend does not tell of but he himself is also the the mother of Danaus's daughters, the the Hindu Danu, strong man, the father of the phallic god, the Turanian Danus of the and Danava of the Mahabharata, case of Priam and his fifty sons But it is in the Zendavesta.2 we evidence of the infiltration that find the strongest into trace whatever Greece of early lunar Hindu Mythology. Priam is, like Dhri a blind tarashtra, who is the father of the Kauravya, king, that is, he is the phallic god who is, like the earlier Cupid, blind. Priam's wife isHecuba, who must represent the mother of Ida, the mother mountain earth before the consecration the wife of Dhritarashtra, of the Troad. had one Gandhari, hundred sons, who were all born from an egg like a ball of flesh as hard as iron, which had been two years in the mother's womb. uniter) When with the Rishi Vyasa reproached (the in failure the fulfilment of his apparent she should have one hundred sons, he directed should be sprinkled with water, that is, that it this Gandhari
promise that that the ball
1 Part III. J.R.A.S. Adi (Sambhava) July, 1889, pp. 550, 559 ;Mahabharata, Parva, lxvi. p. 189. 2 Darmesteter's Aban Yast, xviii. 73, and Farvardin Yast, ix. 37. Zendavesta, 38, Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxiii. pp. 71 and 189, in both of which places the Danus are called Turanians.
578
should be sanctified with the water of life, and it then became into "into one hundred and one parts, each about the size of the thumb." These were then put into pots of clarified butter, the divine seed, and kept carefully covered for two full divided
years, when a hundred sons and a daughter, named Dusshala,
who was married
were to Jayadratha, king of the Sindhus,1 born. Now these one hundred and one persons represent the the their mother, fifty-one gods of the lunar ritual, with
Nak which bore them all,2 the twenty-eight moon-goddess, ten the and the thirteen months of lunar the shatra, year
months of gestation, and they were snake-gods as they came
alive out of the egg like young snakes, and were born by the help of the two great phallic gods, the Budra, or god who lives on butter, and the later god of the fertilizing waters, who gives the first impulses which are fostered into life by the fifty the phallic father. The remaining fifty represent recon as worshipped the after the by sun-worshippers gods cilement of the two calendars by the adoption of the cycle This Nakshatra. the lunar year of twenty-seven containing an the to account of is intended origin legend clearly give
of the Kauravya, or snake-worshipping races, and as they
it is the Euphrates valley, certainly so too, but did that list of the probable original fifty gods to make a fifty these fifty gods must, if there is no addition as Nakshatra the first, represent forming part twenty-seven of the combination. stories of the daughters In the Greek of Endymion and Danaus there is certainly the phallic father, and in that of Endymion there is also, as in the Hindu myth, came to India from the mother moon to make nized before the invention numeration Akkadian it appears that the father and mother are the fifty great gods must date and that therefore wanting, and that they must from a later period than the fifty-one, up the fifty-one of the five years' lunar gods recog cycle ; but in the
1 Adi pp. 337-342. (Sambhava) Parva, cxv.-cvii. 2 the Gandhari is the moon-goddess, Gandhari and so is Dus-shala, being the moon-goddess and Dus-shala of the sons of Kasyapa, original moon-goddess was of the Sindhus. to the legend of the Mahabharata, Dus-shala, according born after her brothers, being produced from the egg by the Rishi Vyasa, at the special request of Gandhari, Adi (Sambhava) Parva, cxvi. pp. 340, 341.
EVIDENCE OF ILIAD AND ODYSSEY.
579
have been adapted to a people who believed the gods of time to be self-created, and who had tried to reconcile the solar and lunar calendars by the adoption of the five years' cycle, which was to from the Euphrates transferred afterwards valley India. In the myth of Priam we find the same number of lunar and solar elements as in the Hindu story of Dhrita rashtra and his sons. there and in both First, in both cases the father is blind, between the solar is a distinct connection of time. But Hecuba does not have one
and lunar reckoning but twelve. but fifty sons, and not one daughter, hundred, is In the Trojan legend the symbol of the producing mother to the twelve solar months, while the fifty sons transferred and their blind
and moon-worshippers.
father make up the fifty-one
gods
of the snake
of numbers proof of the extreme significance the myths the in which is poems legends given by I have already shown I have here spoken of are developed. But another in ancient that
twelve
the eighteen
months and
books
the
of
six
the Mahabharata
seasons, and in
represent
the same
the
way
Homer's
each of which and Odyssey, contain twenty four books, both represent a completed sacrificial period of two productive years, as the best offering which can be made by the singers or poets, who are the high priests of the The Iliad represents the war of the sun goddess of speech. of the Troad, for the with moon-worshippers worshippers has shown, the possession of Helena, who is, as Max Muller is the Greek form the Sanskrit Sarama, the dawn, and Paris Iliad the greedy avaricious moon-worship of the Sanskrit Panis, are representations the Iliad and Odyssey of Both pers.1 sun the contest the and and between of the solar myth,
at Troy in the latter being vanquished moon-worshippers, in the disappointed suitors of the Iliad, and slain by Ulysses in the But for the immediate of purpose Odyssey. Penelope these the and poems, my present argument, proof given by to of the importance attached the Mahabharata, anciently of time by early authors, is most significant. The divisions Iliad and Odyssey both, in the number of their books, show
1Max Miiller, Lectures on the Science of Language, 2nd series, pp. 470, 471.
580
the value assigned to pairs of years, and the Mahabharata shows that given to a single completed year. It was in the form of years that the ancient poets, the earliest historians, the poetical accounts of the epochs they tried to produced was and it in the form of years that their depict, necessarily the earliest historiographers, whose successors, history was exhibited in the form of genealogies, cast their narratives. A conspicuous instance of this early form of history is given in An the genealogies of the patriarchs in the Book of Genesis. v. and examination of the early genealogies given in chaps, iv. xi. of this book show that in each genealogy the number of ancestors Ewald It has been already suggested by given is thirteen. that the first two genealogies had some connection with the solar year, as the name Enoch, which means the beginner, like the Latin Janus, the Hindu Aditi, and the Egyptian Ptah, seemed to him tomean the solar year, which recurs every three life.
hundred
and sixty-five days, the number of years of Enoch's means the god of He thought also that as Mahalaleel to have he do with may sun-worship.1 light, something But before discussing the question connected with these ge further, it will be better to place them side by side. nealogies
I. Male and female Gen. line. iv. II. III. of Shem. Line Male line. Gen. v. Gen. xi.
1. Adam 2. Eve 3. Cain 4. Enoch 5. Irad 6. Mehujael 7. Methusael 8. Lamech 9. Adah 10. Zillah 11. Jabal 12. Jubal 13. Tubal
1 Ewald,
1. Adam 2. Seth 3. Enos 4. Gainan 5. Mahalaleel 6. Jared 7. Enoch 8. Methuselah 9. Lamech 10. Noah 11. Japhet 12. Ham Cain
of Israel,
1. Noah 2. Shem 3. Arphaxad 4. Salah 5. Eber 6. Peleg 7. Beu 8. Serug 9. Nahor 10. Terah 11. Abram 12. Nahor 13. Haran
4th edit. vol. i. pp. 266, 267.
13. Shem
edited by Martineau,
History
MEANING OF GENEALOGIES IN GENESIS. It
581
is universally admitted that in the first two of these names in from Cain and his counter the both, genealogies are practically identical, while Adam part Cainan to Lamech, " and Enos both mean " the man," Seth means the germ," "a and Cain created thing." But it is in Lamech and his wives that the meaning of these genealogies is most clearly seen. Dr. Sayce has shown that Lamech is the Semitic as of I and have equivalent Lamga; pointed out,1 is Lamga, exactly phallic Lamech as the Hindu Linga, the sign of the Dr. further that the song of god. Sayce suggests in verses 23 and 24 of Gen. iv. means that Lamech had slain as a young man the god Tammuz; the Yeled, word used in Genesis for young man, being the equivalent of the Assyrian Thus Lamech Ilatta, the title of Tammuz.2 and his two wives ing the autumn, would the same word
represent the winter months follow or which kills the old year Methuselah same as the of word the husband Methusael, Mutu-sa-elati, the goddess, that is, the god Tammuz. But these wives,
whose names mean darkness and shade (Assyrian edu and
tsillu),3 Hindu triad, and Savanghavach

the great snake Azi Dahaka
would
thus be the moon
and earth goddesses of the and Erenavach, the wives of

in the Zendavesta, who was
slain by Thraetaona in the land of Bauri or Babylon.4 They would thus represent a year closing with the winter solstice and beginning with the months represented by the sons of Lamech. The year would thus, like the Roman year, close with the tenth month December, and begin with the month called Jabal or Abel, the Assyrian the son Ablu, meaning
1 Part III. J.R.A.S. July, 1889, p. 538. 2 for 1887, p. 186, note. He also, in p. 185, identifies Sayce, Hibbert Lectures Enoch with the Akkadian the place of settlement, the ancient name of Unuk, Erech, and thinks that this was the city which Cain built, and called after his son also connects Jared and Irad with Eridu, He Enoch. the great port of the the three names being identical Sumerians, Again, he thinks that Methusael are the same as Mutu-sa-ilati, and Methuselah the husband of the goddess, i.e. the sun-god Tammuz, the husband of Istar, who had a shrine in the forest of Eridu, while Istar was the presiding deity of Erech. 3 The Genealogies between Adam and the Deluge, Lenormant, Contemporary I have given the mean Review, April, 1880, p. 573, says Adah means beauty. Dr. Sayce. ings given by 4 Darmesteter's Zendavesta, Aban Yast, viii. 31, Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxiii. pp. 60 and 62.
582
to these sons, a sister of But, in addition (of the old year). and in Genesis, Tubal Cain, named Naamah, is mentioned doubt whether there is any there appears to be considerable between Jabul (Yubal), (Yabul) and Jubal that and from Ablu, suggests coming though Ewald Jabul may mean the husbandmen, and Jubal the musicians, or learned class, it seems likely that they both refer to the to whom Abel, whose name is the same as class of shepherds and who have always been connected with theirs, belonged, real difference both music and and poetry. of Naamah in the genealogy The mention names almost complete the Jabul and of identity Jubal, makes it likely that she once had a place in it; and if it represented, as I hope to prove, the months of the year, it is all but certain that she was reckoned among them. Naamah, which means "the the graceful one," had, as pleasant, the
Lenormant has pointed out, the same name as a Phoenician
or Astronome the Greeks called Nemannum, goddess, was the of the (Ashthar No'ema), who Aphrodite, prototype the month of Hindu mother.1 the great mother, great Magha, as well as Tai the mother, were the first two names of the or her equivalent of the Hindu months year,2 and Naamah whom must have occupied a similar place in the calendar from which was taken. But as the Hindu this genealogy year, which was made to begin originally began with Tai, the mother, so the original mother of afterwards with Push, the bull-god, if these month vernal
by the would make this which interpretation, sun-worshippers. at the Adam represent the first month of the year, beginning that the vernal equinox, only depends upon the assumption to Lamech, and representing him as causing lines attributed But
1 Adam and the Deluge, between Lenormant, Genealogies Contemporary 1880, p. 575. Review, April, 2 In the list of names of months taken from the in Max Brahmana Taittiriya is entered to vol. iv. of the Rigveda, Miiller's Preface pp. 34 and 35, Tishya as another name for Pushya, the first mouth, and this shows that the Tamil list, which began with Tai, was the standard form from which the names of the months were taken.
the Semitic year was changed to Ablu the son. But names represent the first months of the year, the must that of the have been Adam by represented must altered and the calendar have been equinox,
DIFFERENT BEGINNINGS OF GENEALOGIC YEARS.
583
the original meaning of the death of Tammuz, represent If these lines are a later addition, as this genealogical year. as the I think is probable, Adam would be the same month the great mother Hindu Aditi, and would mean earth, the first month winter mother, and Zillah, the lunar year beginning with of the original and Eve would be the the solstice, heavenly Magha, the moon-goddess. Lamech and his two wives, Adah would then be the last three months the tenth with of the year the Hindu
month, ending and Vinata. the mother of the Pradha, " the dark abyss. The t'hom Apsaras,1 daughters of Apsu," " " is Adah, of both Visva, meaning darkness"; beings or Zillah, sexes," is Lamech, the bisexual parent, and Vinata2 of the handicraftsmen the mother "shade," represented " while Tubal the beautiful," Cain would be ; Naamah, by the purified mother, the Aphrodite sanctified by the waters, who was also, like the arts of the handicraftsmen, the daughter of thought, or of Manu, the thinker. and the She, Tubal-Cain, northern shepherds, or Jubal, would close the year which they the sacred ten months of genera had worked out by making tion, with the additional month dedicated to the fire-god of the metal workers, the sons of Tubal Cain, the full year of thirteen
months, the year of the sons of Kasyapa. Under this arrange
of generation Pradha, Visva,
ment, Lamech and his wives would represent the fathers and in the tenth month. mothers who were worshipped This was an earlier form of the myth of generation than that which con nected them with the abyss as their generator. The latter was mystical, nation. be later than the anthropomorphic expla came the father and mothers, original three months whose duty it was to prepare for the birth of I have already shown that in the Hindu the coming year. After the the winter solstice as Pushkara, the the moon-goddess, lady of the divine and must
with year beginning to the Hindus known
1 Adi Parva, lxv. p. 187. 2 Vinata(Sambhava) must be the mother, as the tenth of the wives of Dharma, who repre sent the sacred months of gestation, was Mati the mother, Adi (Sambhava) Parva, lxvi. p. 189. connect the word Vinata with a root meaning to Bohtlingk-Roth It is apparently connected with Vina, bow down. the lute, which brings forth See Part III. J.R.A.S. music. also p. 556. In p. 545 " July, 1889, pp. 551-553, I have connected Vinata with vinsati, twenty," but this is perhaps untenable.
584
as Chitrangada, the lotus, and to the mother-worshippers coloured Pushkara bracelet with the warrior-god, (chitra), or Takshaka, Bharma the Greek Ares, ruled the the maker, and this appears to be the place assigned to who in the Cain genealogy. counterparts Mehujael, " holds the sixth place, means smitten of God," and Methu " means the husband of the goddess." sael, like Methuselah, These names both show traces, like that given in the legend of Lamech and in the age of Enoch in Gen. v., of the influ " " ence of the smitten of God and thus the sun-worshippers, must have a former deity who was like Mahalaleel, to whom solstice,1 their
he corresponds in the genealogy of Gen. v., a warrior-god,
summer
the fire-god, the Greek Ares. While the husband of the goddess Istar, must Methuselah, have been originally the phallic god who was by those who as the head of the triad placed in the father the worshipped that have been to the moon-goddess. The allotted place formerly v. is of and also in the in iv. Gen. Enoch place genealogies comes imme the In iv. Gen. Enoch, significant. beginner, of the year repre diately after the first three lunar months and Mercedonius, sented by the Latin Januarius, Februarius, the wage-setter; the Hiudu Aditi, Diti, and Danu (the strong and the Egyptian Shu, Tefnet, and Set (the phallic god man) and the month of the of the evil principle), thus represented vernal equinox in which the solar year opened, so that he was "the beginner" of the solar year, and also the beginner of the fulfil the promise of the ten months which of generation, of for the the coming year. Again, and birth prepare present in Gen. v. he occupies the seventh place, but this is assigned solar year, which of the Egyptian him to mark the beginning summer add another and this would the after solstice, began and others to argument to those already adduced by Bunsen this in of all that the mankind, Seth, germ prove genealogy the Set, the great is really snake, or god of the evil This assumption abhorred by the Egyptians. is, principle
1 Part II. J.R.A.S. April, 1889, p. 320.
is, he must
centre
THE TEN KINGS OF BABYLON A CIRCLE IN THE HEAYENS. 585 however,

grounds.1
emphatically
condemned
by Ewald
on
linguistic
with
the above review of some of the questions connected these genealogies, it appears that Gen. iv. shows that a and a full lunar ten of of generation lunar months period as the accepted on were of looked thirteen months year From official measures does period
tion
not
and
of time. But the mere statement of the fact a interval between the great how prove logical of ten or eleven lunar months of gestation and genera
a year capable of being used as a continuous measure
of time, like the year of thirteen months, was filled up. This observation, change must have been made by astronomical and it is the earliest record of the first conclusions formed by the early observers of phenomena, who looked to the heavens for the explanation of the mysterious changes of times and seasons, that we apparently find in the list of ten antediluvian The following is the kings of Babylon preserved by Berosus. list, with the number of sars and years during which each king is supposed to have reigned:
Name of King. No. of Sars. No. of Years.
1. Alorus 2. Alaparos 3. Amelon 4. Ammenon 5. Amegalaras 6. Daonus 7. Enedorachus 8. Amempsinus 9. Obartes 10. Xisuthrus
10 3 13 12 18 10 18 10 8 18
36,000 10,800 46,800 43,200 64,800 36,000 64,800 36,000 28,800 64,800
Total
These 600 years, sars, as measures ners, and of called six
120
time, are ners=one
432,000
composed sar; of periods of one therefore
sar=3600
1 note Ewald, 2.
years,
History
and this multipled

of Israel, 4th edition,
by 120,
the number
vol.
of
edited
by Martineau,
i. p. 264,
586
sars assigned to the reigns of the ten kings, gives a total of 432,000 years. But this multiplication by ten was used by the Akkadians for the division of the circle. Thus they used to divide into = 120, or the number or into 12x10 of sars 60x2 parts, If these 120 sars are during which the ten kings reigned. divided into 360 degrees, the number in a circle, each sar will=3 Each will thus stand for the degrees. king's reign : number of degrees following 1. Alorus 2. Alaparus 3. Amelon . 30 . 9 . 36 54
30
39
4. Ammenon. 5. Amegalarus.
6. Daonus.
7. Enodorachus 8. Amempsinus
9. Obartes .
. . 54
54 30
24
10. Xisuthrus. Total. That
360
is the true this division of the circle into degrees the to numbers assigned these several kings, is of explanation who says that the Chaldseans apparently proved by Ptolemy, used to divide heavens each of the twelve signs of the circle of the 60 minutes, into ten degrees, each degree containing Thus 10 x 60 x 60 = 36,000 = and each minute 60 seconds. So of the circle, and 36,000 x 12=432,000^ one-twelfth that the 432,000 years of the reigns of the kings represent a circle
or seconds.
complete
degrees
in the heavens,
whether heavens,
it be divided
into
But if this was a circle in the must have been consisting of quite mark the divisions of these points, and that stars were the division, or
1 Ptolemy,
it is clear that it unequal parts, and that to stars must have been used, junction-marks,
i. 32.
the Hindu
Tetrabiblos,
HEAYENLY CIRCLES ENDING IN XISUTHRUS AND NOAH.
587
in this circle, is clear from the names of the first Joga-tara, two. with scholars have long connected Alorus Assyrian a a Akkadian the translation of male Ailuv, Lu-nit, sheep, and hence Alorus has been identified with Hamul the ram, star the first in the constellation Aries. That the second King is a star in the constellation Taurus is still more Alaparus means "the divine bull of the foundation," certain. Alaparus "Alap," divine bull, and "Ur," foundation. stars have been identified by astrouomical remaining but the meaning of the names has not been measurements, determined.1 It thus appears that this circle was, like that of the Chinese Sieu, marked out into ten divisions at unequal The intervals that by ten stars, and it was with this instrument the early Akkadians, like the Chinese, began to determine the positions and changes of heavenly bodies. The number ten must have been taken from the mother's year of ten and
of
from Akkadian
months,
genealogy
that Noah,
Gen. v.,
who
is the
occupies
same as
the tenth place

Xisuthrus, is
in the
certain,
because
in the time of Xisuthrus, according to Berosus, that the deluge took place, and it was he who was saved in the Ark. if Xisuthrus is a concluding mark in a time Hence, in Genesis must probably represent a period of circle, Noah
time. But when we turn from Berosus's account to that
it was
in the deluge tablets found in the library of Assur given the of the Noah identification of Genesis with a banipal, more of the is rendered still certain. year period According
to this account, it was Tammuz, name meaning the TJbaratutu, an Akkadian autumn sun, " splendour son of sun of
the fish-god, the all set," who was warned by Hea-bani, father of the Sumerians, of the coming deluge. By Hea's command he built a ship, which he coated inside and out with which the sun-god, Samas, When sent the rain destroyed all life, Tammuz was saved by the ship and the seamen to whom he entrusted it. Now this story is to similar that of that in Lamech's Lamech, exactly except bitumen.
1 See the whole question discussed, and the list of the ten stars given, in the or heavenly Phainomena done into English verse by Robert display of Aratus, II. pp. 79-80. Brown, jun., F.S.A., Appendix
588
story he kills the autumn sun, and so kills himself as the god of the present year ; but in the Deluge story Tammuz is saved to give life to the future year and to the race of beings to be water. In both born, who are purified by the sanctifying stories the natural phenomena referred to are the rains of the late autumn This in the signs of the zodiac by Aquarius. has, I would submit, now proved that investigation in the genealogies Genesis each represented a year of thirteen represented
lunar months, used to denote an epoch, that this year was calcu
lated by observing the motions of the heavenly bodies, and that of the moon, who ruled the year, were calculated the motions a in the heavens, divided into ten spaces, marked by circle by stars. It must have been by means of this circle that junction the yearly motions of the moon were calculated, and that thir
teen months were fixed on as the continuous measure of time.
raised further with the special questions proceeding more must to I in order these ascertain now, by genealogies, was turn to this the how evidence made, change clearly as to the in Indian records, and in the Zendavesta, given race which first adopted the full year of thirteen months, of Genesis in the genealogies in the and who are represented and Noah. Indian tradition, as I have children of Lamech the framer of the out, makes Kasyapa pointed frequently or Kasis, is the ancestor of the Kusikas lunar year. Kasyapa Before the founders both of the of the Bigveda, the Chitraratha or Multan, and of the still more sacred city of Kasyapura It was they who were the sacred city of Kasi or Benares. tribes who ruled the most of one of the united ancestors are ancient Indian empire called that of Magadha. They as a Northern and their of people, original always spoken The Indian Kasyapa was home was in the Kabul country. and the word of the Zendavesta, the same as the Keresaspa " or horse in his name shows that he, like the Kusikas, aspa" the sons of the to the people who called themselves belonged " as the sturdiest of the men of is described He horse. 1 to his for He Zarathustra, manly courage." strength next
1 Darmesteter's vol. xxiii. p. 295. Zendavesta, Zamyad Yast, vii. 38, Sacred Books of the East,
KERESASPA CONQUERS AND USES THE MOON.
589
is called also the son of Sama, and also the fourth created of i.e. Thraetaona, the Trita Aptya man, the son of Thrita, the third,1 and and Brahmanas, who was the Rigveda He is of the Samas. who is said to be the most helpful " as the as and with the club-bearer plaited hair, represented 2 like the hero," Kaparddin ringlet-headed bludgeon-bearing is said to and the modern of the Mahabharata Siva. He to in the valley have ruled have offered his sacrifice, that is, in the same country i.e. Pishin, south of Kabul, of Pisanah,3 the Hastinapore the primaeval capital of Pushkalavati, stood. This was the country called the Mahabharata, or the land of the evil shadows, the seventh land Vaekereta, in the Zoroastrian cosmogony, and it was there he lived with Knathaiti the Pairika, who was created by Angra Mainyu where of the evil spirit.4
Pairikas or
This
connection
stars, the
between
moon,
Keresaspa
the planets,
and the
comets,
wandering
and other moving heavenly bodies, is also referred to in his the "who were rushing with open of Gandarewa, conquest to the living world of the good prin destroy jaws, eager 5 This is the same legend as is told in the Rigveda ciple." of Kutsa, who is said by the help of Indra to have conquered
the Gandharva.6 Now these Gandharva are in their earthly
the tribe known as the aspect the sons of Kasi or Kasyapa, the charioteers, whose home was in the Kabul Gandhari, But in their valley. heavenly aspect they are the charioteers
of heaven, the planets, or wandering stars, as opposed to the
throughout on as the agents of the good principle,7 always looked are the bad demons, the planets or Pairikas while against
1 Mills, Yasna, 2 Darmesteter's
fixed are
stars.
Now
the Zendavesta
the fixed
stars
ix. 10, Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxxi. p. 233. xix. 61, Sacred Books of the Fravardin Zendavesta, Yast, East, vol. xxiii. p. 194. 3 Darmesteter's Zendavesta, Aban Yast x. 37, Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxiii. p. 62. 4 Darmesteter's i. 10, Sacred Books of the East, vol. iv. Zendavesta, Fargard 7. p. 5 Aban Yast, x. 38, Zamyad Yast, vii. 41, Sacred Darmesteter's Zendavesta, Books of the East, vol. xxiii. pp. 63, 295. 6 Kg. viii. 1. 11. 7 Darmesteter's Rashn Yast, xxv. Sacred Books of the East, vol. Zendavesta, xxiii. p. 176, note 2.
590 whom
EARLY HISTORY OF NORTHERN INDIA. are fights,1 and it is they who as dashing the celestial against are in short constellations.2 They in the otherwise orderly celestial
the dog-star Tistrya in the Bundahis described the sphere and mixing the elements of disorder
world.
must
these various indications we can easily collect what be very nearly an accurate account of the process by was reckoned. the lunar year of thirteen months which From
There were evidently among the ancient astronomical in
one living in the South of the Euphrates quirers two parties, or high and the other the Akkadians the Sumerians, valley, of to the countries of North the landers, whose rule extended were the people who first calculated the India. The Sumerians year by five seasons and by lunar months, and who worked out but their observations of ten months; the year of gestation were not made on a regular system; they trusted too much to
unconnected observations of the movements of the moon and
they and the people who planets, and consequently the ancient Jews who like similar upon guides,
their year by new moons, were always at a loss
depended reckoned
how to
or It was the Akkadians of time. the passage out races who first hit upon the idea of mapping highland the motions of the heavenly the heavens, and thus measuring and these from time the and observations, bodies, calculating estimate this purpose they deter they used the circle, in which on and marked ten fixed points mined they fixed by stars, of to lunar months the as that assigned this number gesta began to be made, tion, which was, till these observations the only period of time to which any certainty was attached. or the the Sumerians, It was these people who conquered the The contest between Turanians. mother-worshipping two races is referred to in the Zendavesta, where Keresaspa is said to have offered his sacrifice to the wind-god by the or Tigris, to avenge the or channel of the Bangha Gadha for
1 Darmesteter's vol. of the East, Tir Yast, v. 8, Sacred Books Zendavesta, star that afflicts the Pairikas, is called "the xxiii. p. 95, where Tistrya glorious the earth that vexes the Pairikas, who, in the shape of worm-stars, fly between and the heaven." 3 "VYest's iii. 25, Sacred Books of the East, vol. v. p. 19. Pahlavi Texts, Bundahis
CONFLICT BETWEEN STAR AND PLANET WORSHIPPERS. death
591
of his brother TIrvakhshaya, who was slain by Hitaspa the Grandarewa, who the waters.1 lives beneath Urvakh a as is described in the Yasna order,2 shaya judge confirming and the Grandarewa, who lives beneath the waters, are the stars as guides people who took to the planets and wandering
for the measurement of time, but which really, when uncon trolled by observation, It was disturb the heavenly order. was this disordered to be of which said calculation system victorious when Urvakshaya, the judge who maintained
order, was slain. It was, therefore, as a reformer, that
used the power obtained and Keresaspa by his conquests, his object was to restore order by the maintenance of well use of on earth, and by the intelligent organized government as bodies and indicators of time. heavenly By observing on their the stellar formed motions map, by the measuring circle with
the annual
its marked
course of
stars
the
as guide-stones,
and made
he
traced
out
coin
moon,
the months
cident with the seasons, and in thus making the lunar year of thirteen months the measurer of the year, he made the con called the Pairika the ruler of Knathaiti, moon-goddess, tinuous the ruler of the time, as she had been hitherto disconnected months and of the sacred period of gestation. But in order to trace the career of the sons of Kas still turn to the Bible. We there find the further, we must Hindu the son of Cush, a name called Nimrod, Kasyapa same as the Hindu the He hero. also, like his exactly Indian prototype, was a great builder of cities, for he built as the Indian Kus built Pushka Babel, Erech, and Akkad, and Benares, and thence went into Assyria. lavati, Multan, The
1
connection
of Cush with
India
is further
proved
by the
Darmesteter's Ram Yast, vii. 28, Sacred Books of the East, vol. Zendavesta, Can Hitaspa mean the Hittite horsemen ? The Hittite p. 255. empire in early times certainly extended as far as the Tigris, and it may, to judge by the constant intercourse which undoubtedly existed between the seafaring people of the Hittite coasts in Palestine and Asia Minor, have once extended over the whole of the Euphrates valley, that is, the country must have been ruled by tribes of kindred origin, all worshipping the mother It was probably the invasion earth. and conquest of the Tigris and Euphrates Akkadians country by the Northern which broke up the continuity of this wide-spread confederacy. 2 ix. 10, Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxxi, p. 234. Mills, Yasna, xxiii. vol. xxii.?[new series.] 39
592
was one of the sons of Cush,1 and Havilah, in the second chapter of Genesis, is the land which is watered and the by the River Pish on, where there is gold, bdellium, mnst the Havilah be and River Pishon India,2 onyx-stone. must be the Indus, which is here called after the name of the valley of Pisanah, or Pishin, in the kingdom of Keresaspa. fact that Havilah from the Indian people who, as we know calculated the lunar of and thirteen months, traditions, year it is these people who are both mechanics handicrafts and men as well as warriors. to the heavens It was by applying these the same system of measurement which they used as carpenters and builders that they were able to calculate the years upon the heavenly circle marked by the stars. They are in Genesis and Cain, the father not only of represented by Tubal-Cain built those who make destructive weapons, but of all those who in copper and iron. It was inland cities 3 and worked moon the the from who took among away aimlessly they
stars, and subjected her motions to rule, and she
It was
wandering
was
to the Yen the Pairika who, according the Knathaiti, The of in to clave didad, description Keresaspa.4 Keresaspa as of hair shows hero the the Yasts the plaited club-bearing of Siva, and hence we find that he was the representative
the lunar year, it having been in Sankara or Siva ruling of the linga and material fire vented by the worshippers between the The connection Kasis, stick, the earthly fire. or Kusikas, and the Indra-worshippers appears both in the for in the one Keresaspa and in the Rigveda, Zendavesta is, as I have shown, the son of Thraetaona, the Mazdean Indra,
1 Gen. x. 7. 2 Or at least that forms the northern region watered by part of India which on Genesis, Franz Delitszch the Indus. Ophir is probably the southern part. xxxvi. new Clark's Foreign series, vol. pp. 93, 94, and Theological Library, is to the East of the Persian xxxvii. p. 129, shows from Gen. xxv. 17 that Havilah The sons of Ishmael are there said to dwell Arabia on theWest. Gulf, touching " unto Shur, that is before Egypt as thou goest towards Assyria," from Havilah and the sons of Joktan, who dwelt in the and identifies the people of Havilah whom Strabo to the East (Gen. x. 26-30) with the Xav\vra?oi, hill-country of Arabia and the Nabathseans (xvi. 4.2), places between quoting Eurysthenes, the Agrseans. 3 Maritime rivers, had probably cities, and cities near the mouths of navigable been built before by the mother-worshippers. 4 Darmesteter's i. 10, Sacred Books of the East, vol. iv. Zendavesta, Fargard, p. 7.
THE FOUR RACES AS DISTINGUISHED while
IN GENESIS.
593
or in the other, Kutsa, the conqueror of the Gandharva, But the statement in is the charioteer of Indra. Gandarewa, the Yasna is the fourth man, and the son of that Keresaspa the head of the third race, is an inversion of the Thraetaona, It was order set forth in the history of all other nations. who the Indian and Kusikas, repre Tubal-Cain, Keresaspa, sent the handicraftsmen and charioteers, who were the first who finally of the snake; and it was Thraetaona his and the snake Azi-Dahaka, appropriated great destroyed race in is fourth This and Erenavach. wives, Savanghavach and male female in the the Biblical genealogies represented the Greek the graceful, lines by Naamah, the beautiful, opponents in the who rose out of the waters, and by Noah Aphrodite male the comforter, and it was he who line. Noah means was regarded by the Semites as the ancestor of the regenerate race which succeeded the Flood, and who always looked to the This genealogy father as the only ancestor worth mentioning. Gen. v. is evidently copied from the earlier genealogy in and Seth Noah for substituted Adah, iv., Eve, being and Zillah. Whether Seth, or Sheth, is or is not the Egyptian name snake-god Set, as Bunsen affirms and Ewald denies, his in Gen.
the exactly " germ," equivalent or " scion," to Adam, while both Enos meaning is merely "the another man";
means name
to and these two names have absolutely no history attached a On the other Cainan them. hand, very important occupies to him in the song of position, as is shown by the reference " it is said, If Cain shall be avenged seven Lamech, where
fold, surely Lamech seventy and seven-fold." x The colloca
of figures set forth in this threat appears numbers of years of the lives of the patriarchs tion
They are as follows :?
again in the in Gen. v.
Adam. Seth.
Enos . Cainan ...
130+ 800= 930 105+ 807=912

90 + 815=905 90 + 840 = 930
. Jared Enoch_
Methuselah Lamech
162+ 800=962 65+ 300= 365

187 + 782 = 969 ... 182 + 595=777
Mahalaleel
65+ 830=895
1 Gen.
Noah.
iv. 24.
600+ 350= 950
594
EARLY HISTORY OF NORTHERN INDIA. life are exactly seven before Seth was
to Lamech looks very years allotted the seventy and seven-fold of the poem. The 130 years that Adam lived before Seth was born are also apparently signifi cant, as it seems that they refer to the years of thirteen and of ten months, and thus make the pure race, of which Seth was the and his offspring and Noah the descen progenitor races to the wicked who worshipped the dants, begin after mother and earth, and the phallic god, had been destroyed, their modes of reckoning time displaced by the solar year. of time is dis In the story of the Flood the solar reckoning as it was on the first day of the tenth month, used, tinctly of gestation had passed that is, after the nine solar months the of mountains the that away, tops appeared out of the the remaining enigmas concealed in so easy of detection as those in the of list and the only Babylonian patriarchs, corresponding notation is the item which corresponds with the Babylonian seems Flood?600 to the before Noah of age years?which these Unfortunately numbers are not
times 130, the number the 777 born ; while
In this list the 910 years of Cainan's of years Adam
lived
waters.1
Ner. represent a Babylonian we find we come to deal with the third genealogy, When the descendants of of the it the that Semites, history begins " was This the the name." who Shem, meaning people all the the one ineffable God, who embodied worshipped to seekers after the Deity attributes attached by previous are connected truth. It is these Semites who apparently for we find him called the son of Sama in with Keresaspa, records an and Yasts. At the Yasna any rate Genesis to the East, the son of for of Semites Joktan, emigration had thirteen in from fifth descent the Noah, sons,2 Eber, names which evidently among whom are Ophir and Havilah, the north country, and Ophir refer to India, Havilah meaning
that of the western ports, and the former name also connects
as Havilah is also a the Semites with the Cushites or Kusikas, seems to son of Cush.3 But this Eastern Semitic emigration have taken place at a late period, for the whole Semitic gene
1 Gen. viii. 5. a Gen. x. 26. 8 Gen. x. 7.
WHY
SEASONS WERE CHANGED FROM FIYE TO SIX. 595
alogy
has shown, a list of the countries they suc in Armenia, and cessively inhabited, beginning with Arphaxad valley, represented by JNahor, the ending with the Euphrates river, or the great snake. The evidence that I have now brought is, as Ewald
forward seems to me to go very far towards proving con
clusively the very early existence of the lunar year of thirteen and to show that this was worked out by astronomical months, observations made by the sons of Kus, who added two months to the longest unit of time previously reckoned, the eleven or Cainites, which was again founded months of the Rudras, on the But the of ten lunar months. period of gestation of this cannot be considered complete till history early year on the the change in the number of seasons, consequent introduction original
were
of
the full
there
year,
reckoned
In the lunar year, is explained. of gestation before the ten months

were five seasons, and it was the
consecrated,
of these, so as to make a productive pair, which reduplication as the first led to the adoption of two months apparently " ritu." These duration of a season, called by the Hindus and it was five "ritus" made up the time of gestation, of the connection formed by from a combination probably
observations of recurring years with astronomical calculations
that the sixth season, or ritu, of two months was added to the At any rate, the Brahmanas eleven. tell us that the Pitarah
Somavantah, the moon-worshippers, recognized six seasons,
and there are six seasons and Afri Nagan, which, parts of the Zendavesta. the milk-giver; Zaremaya, giver ; 3. Paitishahya, breeder ; 5. Maidhyairya, the special
reduced to four, and
in the Yasna Yisparads recognized the five Gathas, are the oldest except are there called, 1. Maidhyo They
the pasture 2. Maidhyo-shema, the corn-giver 4. the ; Ayathrima, the cold; 6. Hamaspath Maedhaya, time for ritual deeds.1 In the Bundahis these are
three months are assigned to each season,
and Maidhyairya is said to end on the day of the winter solstice, the twentieth day of the month Din, when Hamas
1 Mills, Yasna Visparad, 335 and 198. i. 2, Yasna, i. 9, Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxxi.
pp.
596
path Maedhaya begins,1 and it lasts till the vernal equinox. When there were six seasons and thirteen months in the and the year, one of the seasons must have had three months rest two. Hamaspath the special time for ritual Maedhaya, deeds, must have ruled the year, and year's festival and the Hindu women's included festival the great new of the Huli in
at Athens, and February, with the festivals of the Dionysia the Lupercalia Matronalia new at and great year's festival Rome. This season must have lasted from about the 21st of to the 15th of March, December and the others must have up to the 11th Maido-zaremaya to 6th of July. the the summer, up Maidhyoshema, to the 31st of up up to the Paitishahya August. Ayuthrima 26th of October, and Maidhyairya to 21st the of December. up This would make Ayuthrima, the season specially dedicated to ancestors, agree exactly with Aivisruthrima in the older was of the which to the five sacred seasons, arrangement followed of May. order. the mothers, and to Verethragna, the phallic god, Fravashis, the father. It thus appears that the third question should be answered as follows : The first years, or rather periods of time measured by months, which succeeded the year of five seasons, were the and generation of ten lunar months first, periods of gestation to which an eleventh was added. That when the heavens were mapped out into marked divisions, it was found possible,
by measuring the motions of the moon, to introduce a perma
in regular
than that given by the of time more accurate seasons and that thus the and months, unregulated recurring lunar months was deter the first full year of the thirteen mined, and that then the seasons, which had been hitherto nent measure
reckoned as five, were increased to six.
I have now come to the fourth question proposed for solution. When did the original year begin ? I have already shown that in the case of the Hindu year there can be no doubt whatever that the year began with the winter solstice dedicated first to the great mother
1 West's note 2. Bundahis,
Tai,
xxv.
called Taishya
3-6, Sacred Books of
in the Brahmanas,
the East, vol. v. pp.
and
91-93,
LUNAR YEAR BEGAN WITH WINTER afterwards
SOLSTICE.
597
The Boman to the bull-god Bush. year also same time; and though the Athenian certainly began at the year, at the year in its latest form began, like the Egyptian summer solstice, there can be but little doubt that it originally like the Boeotian, Delphic, the winter solstice, began with as to the beginning of The evidence and Bithynian years.1 as to customs the of all is the conclusive the Delphic year the supremacy of the states who acknowledged Grecian most were and the ancient while the Boeotians Delphic god, were a races. of the Greek The Bithynians conservative and the fact that of cognate race to the Thracians,2 with solstice their the winter proves that year they began to Greece. But this year, the custom passed over from Asia the used throughout which appears to have been universally people
ancient world, could never have been a solar year, as from
this year has always been based the very beginning starts from the time of the vernal Zodiacal circle, which Therefore the year equinox. beginning with the winter solstice must belong to an earlier system, which can only be that which time by the lunar year of thirteen months. This year was, as I have shown, most probably calculated the celestial from a circle coincident with equator, which was ten marked but it is stars,3 certainly most by originally that the found the who had value, for pur people probable reckoned
poses there of were comparison, thirteen of a circle of ten of points, time, would, have when increased separate measures
on the
the divisions of the circle to thirteen. When the discovery that the sun ruled the year was made, and when it was found that the path of the sun was not coincident with the equator, to alter the position of the heavenly it was necessary circle;
1 of the Ancients, Griech. Lewis, Astronomy p. 39, quoting K. F. Herman's Monatskunde, pp. 122-9. 2 ninth edition, vol. iii. p. 793, sect. Bithynia. Britannica, 3 Encyclopaedia This was the first circle used for computing time exceeding a month. The moon in her monthly course had probably, as I have before daily positions of the shown, been noted in the lunar circle of twenty-eight stars, afterwards increased to thirty. But the scholars who are now studying Akkadian astronomy will solve these and many other questions connected with probably shortly early A book to about called appear, astronomy. Babylonische Kosmologie, by Jonson a P. Strasburg I and will (Triibner), will, great deal, hope, prove certainly, I am told, give an earlier list of zoological signs than that I have used.
598
EARLY HISTORY OF NORTHERN INDIA. to prove that this change

When a change
but there is no evidence

great disturbance or
caused any
was to be
commotion.
made affecting the reckoning of time, which was so politically imbued with the spirit of ancient conser important, minds vatism would make every effort to make the change in such a way as would raise no or fanatical and religious prejudice, therefore would the while altering position they naturally, and numbers of the stars of the heavenly circle, try to pre serve in it the names of the old months which were before Now in three of the oldest given to its distinguishing points. list of months which are recorded?the and Egyptian, Hindu, or the mother find the bull-god Pahlavi?we the occupying In the Egyptian is Thoth, year the first month the bull-god Osiris. In the oldest form of the Hindu year Tai, the mother, and in the latter Push, the bull year the god, rules the opening month, while in the Pahlavi or to the Fravashis, first month is Fravardin, dedicated con was the the Akkadians mothers.1 bull Among always sidered to be the god who guides Bel was the original Gudana, the when transferred to the sun-god, It is therefore the bull of light.2 the year, and the moon-god bull of heaven, whose title, was changed into Gudibir, first place. a name of
antecedently probable that the old equatorial circle into the ecliptic, the in changing the old authors of the change would use, where possible, transferred the bull of the names, and that they therefore winter solstice, who had replaced the mother earth in the list to the vernal equinox. If we retransfer the signs of months, in the lunar calendar, of the Zodiac to their orginal position we shall find that they give a much better ideal picture of is placed the changes of the year than they do when Taurus as the first month coincident with the vernal equinox. the This will be much clearer if we begin by comparing earliest list of the signs of the Zodiac taken from the Akka dian tablets with the lists of Akkadian months.3
1West's xxv. 20, Sacred Books of the East, vol. v. p. 97. Bundahis, 3 for 1887, pp. 48, 163; Part III. J.R.A.S. Lectures July, Sayce, Hibbert 1889, pp. 542-543. 3 I have to thank Mr. of the British of the Assyrian Benzon, Department I have also taken for this information, which he most kindly gave me. Museum, some of the names from a list by Dr. Sayce.
YEAR BEGUN BY TAURUS AND WINTER

1 Akkadian Months. ' 1. Khas-sidi 2. En Ga The hull of increase or The making The of bricks 2 Meaning. 3 Akkadian Signs of the Zodiac. 1. Tete 2. Mas-masa The The
SOLSTICE.
599
4 Meaning. bull
5 Ordinary sign.
3. Su-gal-na 4. Ne-ne-gar, 5. Gin-ninina, Ki-gingu na 6. Dul-azag, Tul-ku 7. Bin-ga-a
seizer of seed fire
Munga 3. Nungaru The crab, the The seizer of seed 4. A 5. Ki The water The lion, earth or The The
The bull twins, or The twins the bricks crab lion
Fire making The
errand of Istar
virgin
The pleasant hill, The holy altar Crowned Mouth chest
6. Nuru
Light The scorpion
The balance The
(of the 7. Agrabu the 8. Pa 9. Shuhu
scorpion
the body)
opposite foundations
8. Gan-ganna, 9. Ab-ba-e
The very cloudy The cave (of the rising
The The
sceptre ibex sun)
The
archer
Capricornus, or the sea goat. The water
10. As-san 11. Se - gindar, Se-kesil
The
curse of rain
10. Gu
The
dog?
Se=win,
12. Sa-segen-dar Se-dei 13. Bara-ziggar
Sowing The cloudy The dark
11. Zeb dar = cutting of seed known Segundar month of 12. Ku
Meaning The ram
ing pot not The fishes The ram
sowing The altar of the demi urge.
the last sign, which is a perfect epitome The the ram, which in Tamil isMesham history. is the victim sacrificed on the altar of the goat, evidently or creator. It is a reproduction of the myth of demiurge, Jantu in the Mahabharata, where the king sacrifices to secure Now to begin with of ritualistic increase of offspring; and of the sacrifice of Isaac by Abra as in that of Bhrixos, ham, only in the sacrifice of Abraham, in the story of the Argonauts, the sacrifice of the ram is for that of the human victim. substituted It is the sacrifice of the old year, which is by its blood poured out to secure the fertility of the next. But this original sacrifice was
600
earth, the Hindu Kadru, who ruled the lunar year, whereas the Akkadian last month of the Indian altar was the stone or brick altar, the representative of the was the to it and this the that father, phallic god, goat god was offered which became, under the rule of the sun-worship
pers, the ram, which was always a solar animal. We thus see
offered to the mother
the Akkadian god of the altar, the male father, ruled the close of the year, just as Sankha, or Sankara, the Hindu If the month represented solstice.1 Rudra, ruled the winter the last is taken to be by sign of the Zodiac before Taurus the month ending with the winter solstice, the altar and the sacrifice have a most if it whereas significant meaning; before the vernal equinox, it has no course with the of the the year. apparent Again, evidence that the bull or cow represented the first month of with the winter solstice is very strong. the year beginning the birth of a new which In the Manu represents legend, as new as a was of it well Ida, both the sacred earth, year cow and the mother earth, who rose out of the waters. Aditi, represents the month connection well the opening Hindu the mother lunar month, means earth as as the beginner, was and Tai, the Tamil mother, like the mother who became earth, Ida, originally probably,
afterwards the cow. As for her successor, Pushy a, he was
that
the Rigveda he is by certainly preceded This goat was the Tamil called the god drawn by goats.2 sign of the Zodiac Mesham, who was the animal sacred to the power which was to make the new year fruitful. fecundating In the original Athenian the year it was the Grecian Pushan, the who ruled the time of winter which Poseidon, solstice, god in Poseidon, the month sacred to him, and he, like happened was the of the black bull, to whom bulls were Pushan, god sacrificed The at Ephesus.3 second month, represented among the Zodiacal signs
the goat,
for
in
1 Alberuni's India, Sachau's edition, vol. ii. chap. lxi. vol. ii. pp. 118-120. Saturn is shown in the list of snake-gods given as ruling the year to represent Sankha. See Part II. J.R.A.S. 1889, p. 320. April, 2 vi. 55, 4, vi. 57. 3. 3 Rg. See Part IV. J. R.A.S. fell in the latter half Poseidon 1890, p. 443. April, of December and the first half of January.
THE TWINS ORIGINALLY TWO MONTHS.
601
by the twins on the bricks, clearly consists of two symbols. If these were taken from the lunar calendar, they must have two months. In the Hindu Zodiac the twins are represented a boy and in and the of the Assyrian girl,1 representations as two male But the evidence appear signs they figures.2 names second the and third the of months in the given by lunar series seems to show that they originally represented the two sexes. lunar month In the Mahabharata is Diti, who the name of the second is the mother of the Daityas; and was a which lunar month, again, Magh, probably originally is, as I have already shown, almost certainly a female goddess, and to the evidence I have already brought forward to prove is this, I may add that in the list of Nakshatras Maghah On the other hand, the third lunar month feminine. in the as Danu Hindu list is evidently masculine, is the putative race called Danus in the Zendavesta, father of the Turanian As it was one of these in the Mahabarata. and Danava months which was usually inserted as an intercalary month when an additional month was required to correct the errors it must have been one of these two of the solar calculations, months which was left out when the thirteen months were It was after February reduced to twelve. that the Romans month their inserted and after Mercedonius, intercalary inserted theirs. that the Athenians The redupli Poseidon cated Hebrew month Va-adar was inserted after Adar in the
embolismic year in order to secure the observance of the
Passover Nisan
I have
right day, at the vernal equinox,3 with

quoted, Se-gen-dar and
on the
the full moon and month

Sa-se-gen-dar.
of the month of this practice must have in the Akkadian

Further
originated
the reduplicated
list
evi
dence that the month represented by the twins was formerly a pair representing and father, is given in the the mother name of the second month, Gamelion, or the Athenian was to form this month It that two lunar marriage-month.
Sachau's edition, vol. i. chap. xix. p. 219. Order, by Robt. Brown, jun., F.S.A. (Longmans, 1882), also Lagard, Culte de Mithra p. 80, No. xiv.; (1847), pi. xxvi. Appendix, 6 vol. iv. Art. 678. Calendar, p. Britannica, Encyclopsedia 1 Alberuni's India, 2 Law of Kosmic
602
months were married and formed into one.1 This marriage was symbolized in the Akkadian Zodiac by the bricks which were put we to When make the together permanent month. done that in the Hindu is sacrificial ritual everything in pairs, we can see how the most natural way of making one the change required in the years seemed to amalgamate of the pairs of the month Further into a single month. evi recollect
the twins with the lunar year of the sons connecting or is given by the connection that I have Kasyapa, twins, or horse already shown to exist between the heavenly men, and the northern charioteers of India. Further evidence as to the truth of this explanation is dence of Kus, name of the sixth month, cor by the Hindu Jyestha, into Jeth. to the This, according rupted present hypothesis, was formerly It means the seventh month. the eldest, or This is a name which chief. is most appropriate for the given month which is sacred to the sixth, formerly the seventh, of the the in the Akkadian list which, Zodiac Nuru, sign light, to in Hindu the Zodiac Varahamihira, according appeared as "fire."2 This was the month which was formerly sacred to the moon which ruled the summer solstice, and which in as is represented in the standing the Hindu lunar list
the warrior moon
the great cosmological hymn of the Rigveda the the self-produced, seventh month, being midst
she
of the six pairs

appears as Krodha,
of months.3
the ancestress
In
of
and snake races, who were hateful

tribes.
to the Aryans
and Northern
sign, Pa, the sceptre, and its counter eighth Akkadian the ruling power, both represent the archer, part, Dhamsu, and fully justify the name of the Hindu month Srabon, which means the glorious month. But one of the clearest proofs of the identity of the signs The as I have arranged them, and the Hindu months they repre Shuhu, the Ibex, later sent, is that given by the Akkadian or sea-monster the Tamil Makaram, ; and last of all, Capri
1 This was also of Zeus and Here which was symbolized by the"lepos 7^09 in Gamelion. See Part IV. J.R.A.S. celebrated at Argos, 1890, p. 450. April, 2 Alberuni's India, Sachau's edition, chap. xix. vol. i. p. 219. 3 See above, pp. 572, 673. Hg. i. 164. 15.
THE TWO GOATS OF THE ZODIAC. This the Greeks by corresponding " blessed-footed/' footed" month, cornus.
603
tells us, represented animal was, as Alberuni as a goat with a fish's tail.1 The names of the are Bhadrapada, the Hindu months meaning and but
the "ox Proshthapada, meaning month is of the the dominant deity with the the one-footed exactly goat,2 agreeing Ajaekapad, was Zodiacal sign of the sea-goat with its fish's tail,3 which its one foot. Again, Mesham, the Tamil twelfth, formerly the thirteenth goat, agrees precisely with the sign, meaning name of the present twelfth and former thirteenth Hindu " or which means the deer month, Mirga, Margasirsha, This was the gazelle, formerly headed animal." sacred to the Akkadian chief phallic god Mul-lil, in the represented Akkadian the months altar of the Creator, by Bara-ziggur, which was afterwards altered first to the goat, and next to
the ram.
will be made more clear by the explanations in which I have placed the Hindu months table, following side by side with the signs of the Zodiac they represent when the Zodiacal year is reckoned as beginning with the winter :? the first month solstice, making December-January The above
Name of Hindu month. Akkadian sign of Zodiac. Ordinary Zodiacal sign.
1. Pushan 2. Magh 3. Phalgun 4. Chait 5. Baisakh 6. Jeth 7. Assar
the bull the twins, Masmasa, or the bricks Tete, the crab, Nungaru, the seizer of seed A, the lion, or water Ki, the earth Nuru, the light the scorpion Agrabu,
The bull The twins The The The crab lion
virgin The balance The scorpion
1 Alberuni's edition, vol. i. chap. xix. p. 219. Varahamihira India, Sachau's also calls it Makara, and translates it "hippopotamus," but Alberuni corrects him. 2 Alberuni's India, Sachau's edition, vol. ii. chap. lxi. p. 122. 3 He is the fish-man called by Berosus Oannes, which is the equivalent of the Akkadian the god (ana) Hea or Ea, who arose from the sea to Ilea-ana, impart civilization and knowledge to the Euphratean His earlier form was populations. the goat, or ibex. It was the worshippers of the sanctifying water of life who assimilated him to the fish.
604 8. Srabon 9. Bhadon 10. Asvin 11. Khartik
EARLY HISTORY OF NORTHERN INDIA. Pa, the sceptre the ibex the dog? The archer the
Shuhu, Gu,
Capricornus,
sea-goat (Makara) The watering-pot (Aquarius) The fisher The

goat.
12. Margasirsha
Zeb, meaning unknown Ku, the ram
ram,
or
the
shown that the year everywhere originally altered solstice, but certain nations began with the winter custom. this original Thus the Egyptians, who were imi tated by the Athenians, the summer began their year with the rising solstice, because this period nearly coincided with event of the of the Nile, which was the most important the and like the Others, year. Spartans Egyptian again, Peloponnesian Asia Minor,
This change
It has thus been
and the States of the Macedonians States, with the their autumnal year began equinox.1
was made under the influence of Tammuz
worship, Lamech having
and, in Genesis been made

But
as I have
out, the Song of already pointed iv. gives evidence of a similar change followed
was
in the reckonings
Tammuz worship
by the Biblical
a solar
chronologists.
essentially
to the lunar year cult, and must have been long posterior form of I have now com its in earth-worship. except original on I which and started, have, I hope, given pleted the inquiry a as what will be accepted fairly accurate proof of the processes by which the solar year was evolved from the earliest year of five seasons. the division calculation were divided The first stage towards reckoning time, following of the year into five seasons, was that made by the into twenty-eight of the lunar month days. These
into two periods of fourteen days each, repre moon ; but these phases, the Hindu the phases of the senting as a measure of annual time till the were not used Nakshatra, the solar and lunar year, Hindu five years' cycle, reconciling was calculated. The first period beyond the month recog of nized as a stable unit of time were the ten lunar months
1 Lewis, Astronomy of the Ancients, chap. L sect, 6, p. 29.
CONCLUSION. 605 to eleven by the addition increased gestation, subsequently of a month in honour of the earthly father; but the complete till a map year of thirteen lunar months was not calculated of the heavens had been framed by dividing the celestial characterized equator into ten unequal divisions by selected
stars. From the tables thus formed, measurements and
of the heavenly bodies calculations of the movements was months from the of thirteen which made, year more and to three divisions this circle probably mined, added when the thirteen lunar months were fixed on
were deter were as the
This year always began with the winter period of the year. solstice. From the signs used to denote the circle by the lunar those used by the founders of the solar year were astronomers, selected. Two of these signs, which were first the two sacred fire-sticks, and afterwards the husband and wife, were made into first the pair of bricks, afterwards the boy one, representing and girl, and last of all the male twins; and it was the that was again re-inserted that was thus discarded month when an intercalary month was required to correct errors in
calculation.
But when
equinox,
in this order were made subsequent perturbations was fixed at the autumnal the beginning the of year
as among the Tammuz-worshippers; in the summer
solstice, as among by the solar year.
the Egyptians
and Athenians
; and, lastly,

On The Succession of The Hindu Priesthood. The B Rigus, Añgiras, and Atharvans, and The Historical Evidence Thence Derived

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On The Succession of The Hindu Priesthood. The B Rigus, Añgiras, and Atharvans, and The Historical Evidence Thence Derived

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Notes on the Early History of Modern India. Part V. On the Succession of the Hindu Priesthood.

1 vii. 33. 1-6. 3 lig. Caldwell, Comparative yol. xxii.?[new series.]

528 " bhri"

EARLY HISTORY OF NORTHERN INDIA.

THE BHRIGUS, PRIESTS OF THE MOTHER-EARTH.

is concluded, the priest sticks into the fire. inclosing

to is ordered " The middle

sixth day of Nabhanedishtha

ANGIRAS, PRIESTS OF THE LINGA-WORSHIPPERS. means nearest

532 ' This

EARLY HISTORY OF NOETHEEN INDIA.

IV., to be, the one, representa in the symbol of the in Part

EAELY HISTOEY OF NOETHEEN

gynous The stick

the pair of fire-sticks,

and mother, who the Swastika.

dishtha, the Yahram the Frobak

EAELY HISTOEY OF NOETHEEN INDIA.

The the son. him

KUSIKAS ABOLISHED HUMAN SACRIFICE.

EARLY HISTORY OF NORTHERN INDIA. and was of his also

Furthermore, in the fragments

the Kavi of history

TUEANIAN EULE IN SEISTAN AND INDIA. recorded in the Zendavesta.

EARLY HISTORY OF NORTHERN INDIA.

KANG-DESH PEEHAPS THE MODEEN KANDESH.

and Gulf, of the invasion

their ritual before

xxiv. p. 115. 4 Part IV. J.R.A.S.

of the East, 14.

EARLY HISTORY OF NORTHERN INDIA.

or circle of the Yeh.

the the the

they who, India Northern

kings, conquered for that of their

proves or Yishnu, Yanga

EARLY HISTORY OF NORTHERN INDIA.

the god of the and Aryans, was

the predecessors, information. historical

THE THIRTY-THREE GODS OF TIME.

EAELY HISTOEY OF NOETHEEN INDIA.

this subject that by pleading methods and in

of the month, in the month,

to make and the

thirty days instead of of the twelve months

EAELY HISTOEY OF NOETHEEN

of the cycle of five years

all the months

three are divided

into two Nakshatra,

LIST OF QUESTIONS TO BE DISCUSSED.

1Alberuni's 2 Bundahis, P. ii.

EAELY HISTOEY OF NOETHEEN INDIA. by feeding with it was to produce sacrifices

worship, powers of those who believed.

reform animals gradually

in the sacrificial were beginning replaced

EUPHRATEAN ORIGIN OF GODS OF ZENDAVESTA. the

EAELY HISTOEY OF NOETHEEN INDIA.

now proceed for solution.

HINDU NAKSHATRAS AND CHINESE SIEU. Alberuni

days. twenty-eight who, as Alberuni says, had

the Arabians only their

and early observers to eyes and numbers