Ancient calendars and constellations
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of the Zodiac, at a date when that month and con-. Plunket, Emmeline M. (Emmeline Mary), b. 1835 Ancient ......
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Ancient calendars and constellations,
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ANCIENT CALENDARS AND CONSTELLATIONS
ANCIENT CALENDARS AND CONSTELLATIONS By the Hon.
EMMELINE
M.
PLUNKET
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, 1903 a
W.
—
PREFACE The
Papers
some
alterations,
series
;
here
and reprinted,
collected
were not originally written as a
but they do,
form one, inasmuch
in fact,
as" the opinions put forward in each
arrived
one
at,
one leading
with
after the other, simply
Paper were by following
clue.
This clue was furnished by a consideration of statements
made by
contributed
by him
Professor Sayce in an article in
1874 to the Transactions
of the Society of Biblical Archeology.
At page "
The
1
50 he thus wrote
standard
:
astrological
work
of
the
Babylonians and Assyrians was one consisting of seventy tablets, drawn up for the Library of Sargon,
king of Agane,
in the i6th
century b.c."
— PREFACE
viii
And again at page 237 "The Accadian Calendar was :
arranged so as
to suit the order of the Zodiacal signs
the
month, answered
first
Now
sign.
the sun
still
to
the
and Nisan,
;
Zodiacal
first
entered the
first
point of
Aries at the vernal equinox in the time of Hipparkhus, and
From
B.C.
would have done so since 2540 that epoch backwards to 4698 B.C. it
Taurus, the second sign of the Accadian Zodiac,
and the
second
month
Accadian
the
of
year,
would have introduced the spring.
The
of the equinoxes thus enables us to
fix
the extreme
ancient
Babylonian
limit
of the
antiquity of the
precession
Calendar, and of the origin of the Zodiacal signs in that
country."
Not many years penned,
archaeologists,
came
evidence,
date
to
the
the
as firm
at first
supposed
them, not "in the
high date of 3800
was
in
;
result
conviction
Sargon of Agane was
of
had been
It
after this sentence
and
far it
had been of
much
that
earlier
the
than
was placed by
i6th century B.C.," but at the B.C.
endeavouring to account for the choice
PREFACE
ix
by Accadian astronomers of Nisan of the
year,
and of Aries as
when
the Zodiac, at a date stellation could not
as
first
month
constellation of
first
month and con-
that
have "introduced the spring,"
that a possible solution of the difficulty presented
my mind — namely,
to
itself
the
supposition
the Accadian calendar had been originated
winter
the
coincided
with
stellation
Aries.
the
equinox,
the
into
con-
place,
as
us, at the date, in
round numbers,
first
Paper here reprinted
this supposition
was put forward
;
and
stated, the
subjects
in the course of following, as
clue afforded
discussed
detached
pieces
calendars
of ancient
themselves,
by
it,
my
attention, as
information
of
nations
like
the
by degrees
concerning
came
pieces
the various
Papers claimed
successive
in
always more insistently
fitted
entry
sun's
when
B.C.
In the
above
spring
the
This coincidence took
astronomy teaches of 6000
not
solstice,
that
to
hand,
of a
the
and
dissected
map, into one simple chronological scheme.
PREFACE
X
The
study of calendars marked by
acquaintance
with
position of those constellations as they
were
constellations
the to
Zodiacal
be
an
necessitates
observed
through
many ages during
the
which they held the important over the year and
its
office of
presiding
Such
changing seasons.
acquaintanceship would have involved very careful
and accurate calculations were
of thinking
duced
them
was possible by easy
see,
without the trouble
what were the changes pro-
the scenery of nightly skies, millennium
in
millennium, by the slow apparent revolution
after
of the "Poles of tions
out,
not that, by the
it
help of a precessional globe,
mechanical adjustment to
it
—a
heaven" through the
revolution
referred
to
by
constella-
English
astronomers as "the precession of the equinoxes,"
and
more
French
graphically
astronomers
and as
epigrammatically "le
mouvement
by des
fixes."
In the second part of this book diagrams have
been given, made from a precessional globe, and
PREFACE
accompany the
which
explanatory notes
the
in
xi
Plates attention has been directed, not only to the
may be
problems which
chronological
discussed
with great advantage, as
I
of such a globe, but also
to various astronomical
by the help
believe,
explanations of ancient myths which occurred to
me
the
in
Zodiacal different I
in
course
and
studying
of
extra-Zodiacal
the
position
constellations
of at
ages of the world's history. Oriental myths
can only read Classic and
and
translations,
I
very sure that
feel
if
any
of the astronomic explanations here suggested for
ancient ones, in
legends
scholars
should
versed
in
prove the
their
linguistic
right
languages
they supple-
if
by
knowledge
considerations, will be able quickly to
the
original
which these legends were written,
ment
be
to
astronomic
and with ease
develop the suggested explanations much further
than
it
has been possible for
me
do
to
;
and ex-
planations of other astronomic myths
—astronomic,
—
doubtless
that
is,
and not merely
solar
myths
will
PREFACE
xii
come
to
their
minds as they follow similar
lines
of enquiry.
The
steps by which
travellers arrive at a far-
reaching view are often very steep and arduous. I
fear that
many
readers of this book will find the in
them-
they be considered only as
steep
separate Papers in selves
;
but
if
it
dull
and technical
and roughly-cut steps leading up of
chronological
and
historical
to
vantage points observation,
I
believe that the ruggedness of the path will soon
be forgotten
in the
to be obtained
absorbing interest of the results
by following
it.
CONTENTS PART I.
II.
I
...
THE ACCADIAN CALENDAR THE CON.STELLATION ARIES
.
PAGE I
24
.
ELEVENTH CONSTELLATION OF THE
III.
GU,
IV.
THE MEDIAN CALENDAR AND THE CONSTELLATION TAURUS
V. VI.
VII. VIIl.
ZODI.\C
...
ASTRONOMY NOTES.
IN
—AHURA
THE RIG VEDA
.
.
MAZDA, ETC.
ANCIENT INDIAN ASTRONOMY
-56 .88
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
44
.
-149 .162
THE CHINESE CALENDAR, WITH SOME REMARKS WITH REFERENCE TO THAT OF THE CHALDEANS
PART PLATES
XV., XVI., XVII.,
PLATES
XIX., XX.
PLATE XXI.
PLATE
XXII.
PLATE
XXIII.
PLATE XXIV.
INDEX
AND
1
85
II
XVIII.
-215
.
226 .
....
.
.
•
.
.
230 239 245
248 257
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE
I.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
xvi
OUTLINES OF TWO CARVED SLATES PLATES
I.
AND
IIL
IN
T/ie
Society of Biblical Archceology
THE CONSTELLATION PEGASUS PLATE XV.
.
PLATE
XVI.
PLATE
XVII.
PLATE
XVIII.
PLATE XIX. PLATE XX.
.
PLATE XXI. PLATE
XXII.
PLATE
XXIII.
PLATE XXIV.
.
DRAWN FROM
Proceedings of the
FOR MAY 1900
...
.
Page 237 „
250
.At End
ANCIENT CALENDARS AND CONSTELLATIONS PART
I
I
THE
ACCADIAN
CALENDAR
[Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archceology,
January 1892]
Epping and Strassmaier,
in
their
book Astrono-
misches mis Babylon, have lately translated
three
small documents, originally inscribed on clay tablets in the
second century
B.C.
From
these tablets,
we
learn that the Babylonians of the above date pos-
sessed a very advanced knowledge of the science of astronomy. that
Into the question of the extent of
knowledge we need not here enter
further
THE ACCADIAN CALENDAR
2
than to say that
i.
Babylonian as-
enabled the
it
[part
tronomers to draw up almanacs for the ensuing year
almanacs
;
in
which the eclipses of the sun
and moon, and the times of the new and were accurately noted, as throughout
planets
moon,
also the positions of the
These
year.
the
full
positions
were indicated by the nearness of the planet
in
question to some star in the vicinity of the ecliptic,
and the groups,
was
ecliptic
coinciding
extent with
portioned
very closely
twelve
and
position
in
twelve divisions
the
into
off
of
the
Zodiac
we now know them. As to the calendar or mode of reckoning the year, we find that the order and names of
as
the twelve months were as follows
:
Nisannu
(or
Nisan), Airu, Simannu, Duzu, Abu, Ululu, Tischritu,
Arah-samna, Kislimu, Tebitu, Sabatu, Adaru.
Of doubled
as
Adaru Arki years
months Ululu and Adaru could be
these
were
Ululu (the
Sami last
soli-lunar
(the
second Elul), and
Adar).
The Babylonian
that
:
is
to
say,
the
year
of twelve lunar months, containing three hundred
and
fifty-four
days,
year
of three
hundred
was
bound
and
to
sixty-five
the
solar
days
by
PART
CALENDAR
I.]
intercalating,
200 B.C.
occasion
as
3
a
required,
thirteenth
month.
Out
of every eleven years
were seven
there
with twelve months, and four with thirteen months.
The
day of the year being,
first
church
some of our
like
dependent on the time
festivals,
new moon, was "moveable" Strassmaier,
"
with
began
The
[schwankende).
year, according to the tablets before
Nisan,
the
of
Epping and hence
in
the
spring."^
This
work
of the Babylonian calendar
second century
the
in
a sketch
is
of
the
two
as
B.C.,
drawn
from
Germans
learned
the
above-
named.
Now we number the
find
in
"cover
Catalogue, years."
time of Rim-sin, tablets
of
the
Museum
a great
documents which, according
of trade
thousand
the British
a
There
period are
of
over
"tablets
of
to
two the
Hammurabi, and Samsu-iluna
;
time of the Assyrian supremacy,
of the time of the native kings, and of the time ^
"Was den Anfang
des Jahres
betrifft,
gezeigt, das die seleucidische Aera, wie
sie in
so
haben wir schon
unseren drei Tafeln
ihre Jahre mit dem Nisan, also im Friihjahr begann." (Epping and Strassmaier, Astronomisches aus Babylon, p. 181). vorliegt,
—
THE ACCADIAN CALENDAR
4
of the Persian supremacy
[part
i.
tablets of the times of
;
the Seleucidae, and the Arsacidcc."
These documents are
-"^
dated
all
such and
in
such a month of such and such a year of some king's
reign
under their '
months are the same
the
;
Accadian names
earlier
See Guide
to the
Nimroud Central
Samsu-iluna, about 2,100
e.g. B.C.
Assyrian supremacy from about 1275 to 609
B.C.
The
according to the
latest tablet in the collection is dated,
Catalogue, 93 -
b.c.
Accadian month names, and translations.
Assyrian.
Ni'sannu, '
2.
Airu,
3.
'Sivanu,
.... '
'
'
"
f-S''"'''
5-
Duzu, Abu,
6.
Uhilu,
Bar) sig-gar ("the
(or
righteousness
I
jT/irtr-jz'^/ (" ^;-
Tsivan,
/^^««-.?-'^
.
.
(" seizer of
A7
fire
that
seed
").
makes
fire").
("the errand of Istar"). Tul-cu (" the holy altar ").
Tasritu,
8.
Arahk-samna ("thel .,. ,„ (the 8th month ") I ^P'"-'™^'^
9.
CisiHvu, or Cuzallu,
11.
("the
6^z>2^z>-««
7.
10.
Kas
twins"). 6*/^ /f'/^/-7Z(!
.
the propitious bull")-
("of bricks"), and
^(5 rt^-^rtr(" .
sacrifice of
").
.
\ 4-
The
:
B.C.
Hammurabi, about 2,200
1.
we
as those
^)
Saloon, B.M., 1886.
dates of the rulers mentioned are as follows
Rim-sin, about 2,300
(at first
,
Dharbitu, Sabahu,
.
....
12.
Addaru,
13.
Arakh-makru
.
.
.
("the"i
incidental month"),/
bull-like founder?").
Can ganna very cloudy "). ^/j^^ «(?',-/;^ ("the father of light "). ^j (!-««(" abundance of rain "). (" the
5,»t*
«'
lis
5:2
^1^ a.
a O
IVJ
°
So"" u. I O I- e z^
.^
OT tt to tM tM
: fc ,
'
.'V-
o a. O UJ
L
1-
is
classed
Vedic Mythology,
p. 70.
2
/^/^_^ p. 92.
PART
AGNI IN THE WATERS
I.]
origin
The
the
in '
son
become a
of
waters
aerial
waters
'
has,
is
often
as
has
Then
distinct deity."
127
referred
to.
been shown,
turning to other
legends regarding Agni he says, "In such passages
Agni must be meant. Some of the later hymns of the Rig Veda tell a legend of Agni hiding in the waters and plants, and being found by the gods. ... In one passage of the Rior Veda also it is stated that Asjni rests in all streams and in the later ritual texts, Agni in the
the Hghtning form of
;
waters
is
invoked
in
connexion with ponds and
even in the oldest Vedic period, the waters in which Agni is latent, though not those from which he is produced, may in various passages have been regarded as terrestrial. ... In any case the notion of Agni in the waters is prominent throughout the Vedas." To explain this legend, Wilson makes other suggestions. He writes:^ " The legend of his (Agni's) hiding in the waters, through fear of the enemies of the gods, although alluded to in more than one place, water-vessels.
is
Thus,
not very explicitly related
the Sit-ktas (hymns)
may
....
the allusions of
be a figurative intimation
of the latent heat existing in water, or a misappre-
hension of a natural phenomenon which seems to have made a great impression in later times the
—
1
Wilson, Rig Veda, Introduction,
K
vol.
i.
p. xxx.
ASTRONOMY
128
THE RIG VEDA
IN
[part
i.
emission of flame from the surface of water either
shape of inflammable
in the
or as the result
air,
of submarine volcanic action." It
cannot but be admitted that these myths are
and that
puzzling,
account for the
to
of "
prominent throughout the Vedas waters,"
the
suggestions
various
notion so
Agni
the
in
"lightning,"
of
heat existing in water," "the emission of
"latent
flame from the surface of the waters, either in the
shape of inflammable
air or as the result of
sub-
marine volcanic action," are inadequate to explain the
fact
that
very name "is the
whose
Agni,
fire "
regular designation of
should
^
be so closely associated with water. difficulties
concerning
"
Agni
in
in
hymns
the
Nor
are the
the waters
" to
be
overcome by the tempting and poetic suggestion, put forward by some writers, that in these passages reference
made
is
to the
sun rising
in the
morning out of the ocean, and again hiding beneath the waves of the
Rig Veda
" scattered to
the
is
over the
at
attributed
to
Aryan
Punjaub and regions
west of the Indus '
The composition
sunset.
" :
itself
by such
Macdonell, Vedic Mythology,
p. 88.
settlers
lying
settlers the
PART
THE SUN
I.]
AQUARIUS
IN
129
sun could never have been seen rising out of the ocean, for no ocean bounded their horizon on the
Even
east.
evening
itself at
phenomenon
the
in the water,
of the sun hiding
could only have been
observed by those who lived on the western
and
therefore not easy to imagine
is
it
and sunset should
if
admitted,
myths with the Zodiacal
the
relating to
is
astronomic
Agni
as follows
Agni
interpretation
waters
in the
figures
is
not
is
of those
difficult
;
it
:
the personification of
personification
is
as the
fire
fire,
the celestial waters of Aquarius. in conjunction
but his chief
of the sun.
in the waters " is especially the fire
sun was
horizon.
once the acquaintance of the originators
of the Agni
is
sunrise
India have been so closely
in
and constantly associated with a sea But
why
coast,
"
Agni
of the sun in 3,000
B.C.
the
with Aquarius at the time
Those hymns
of the winter solstice}
therefore
which dwell upon the myths of Agni hiding himself being born
in,
^
The
in,
and
rising
position of the sun at the winter solstice 3,000 B.C.
was identical with that represented the
full
out of the waters,
moon
at the
summer
at Plate
solstice.
XI. as the position of
130
ASTRONOMY
may be
considered as
THE RIG VEDA
IN
hymns
[part
i.
referring to the sun at
the winter solstice in conjunction with the constella-
Aquarius, and therefore as hymns especially
tion
suitable for use
on the occasion of a great yearly
festival held at that
European
writers often describe the mid-winter
sun as hiding itself
season of the year.
or as every day withdrawing
itself,
more and more from view.
the snows of winter often
In poetic similes,
crown the head of the
aged out-going year, while the in-coming year
The
represented as a babe or infant. ness of such similes calendrical
new year
the winter
solstice.
is
its
its
due
to
the
appropriate-
fact,
that our
fixed within a few days of
sober
Again, in
sun at the time of
having attained
is
is
the
winter
lowest point,
tipward course on the
solstice to
ecliptic.
how
the
prose, is
said,
rise
or begin
It is
therefore
difficult
to
understand
who appear
to
have combined the characteristics
not
the Vedic
Rishis,
of poets and of scientific observers of the heavens,
should have 3,000 solstitial
sun,
as
B.C.
described
hiding
in,
the fire
being
born
of in,
the
and
rising out of the celestial ivaters of the constellation Aquaritts.
PART
VEDIC IMAGERY OUT OF DATE
I.]
In
may
Agni myth,
this
as
we
of Indra,
that
in
131
The
perceive traces of a pre-Vedic origin.
which the
latitudes in
Rig-
Veda was composed
not those in which attention
diminution of the
the
however,
over
as
well
drought
is
to
visibility
of
In the Rig Veda,
over
conquest
Indra's
and
strength
the sun at the winter season.
drawn
forcibly
is
darkness
and
celebrated,
same traditional cause may be assigned description of
are
Agni hiding himself
at the
for
as
the
the
time of
the winter solstice in the waters of Aquarius.
Soma, and Agni
Indra,
important place
Hindu Pantheon which
the
in
no longer hold the
they appear to have held in Vedic times, and on the astronomic
theory,
this
accounted for by noticing
changes
in
by
precession
the
how slow
the
partly
be
but inevitable
heavens, produced
the scenery of the of
may
fact
gradually
equinoxes,
obscured more and more completely the meaning of the imagery employed deities.
Indra,
stice,
indeed
still
is
is
that
the
hymns
to these
he represents the summer
if
still
triumphs over
no longer
in
as
the
demon
powerful
demon well
of
sol-
ever,
and
drought,
but
as
represented
by the
ASTRONOMY
132
Hydra
snake-like constellation
summer
of the
THE RIG VEDA
IN
the sun has
solstice, after
whole of Hydra
is
the
set,
No
above the horizon.
still
i.
on the night
for
;
[part
longer does the mid-summer full moon bathe its o brightness in the celestial waters of Aquarius,
nor does the mid-winter sun hide
The hymns to, exist
phenomena they
remain, the
them.
itself in
referred
no longer.
But leaving now the subject of the " ancient
and of reference
constellations "
Rig Veda,
let
argument
in
that
for
favour
beginning
the
of
modern
as stated above. ^
of the
fixation
Zodiac at
Indian
the
in
orig-in
It is
of
a claim
very modern date of 570 a.d. as
the
the
for
them
us turn to the second section of the
Hindu astronomy
made
to
of
"end
the
A9vini."
initial
— This
of
point of the
Revati and the
claim
I
desire
to
oppose. It
has been admitted by scholars, but almost
with a sort of reluctance, that mention
some of the Nakshatras hymns.
The
in
matter
is
cordially enquired into.
It
^
V.
a few of the rather is,
p. 92.
made of Rig Veda
is
avoided
than
however, a question
PART
of great and
known
important
whether the
possible,
we have
interest
was
read, all schools
if
Nakshatras was
circle of the
point
initial
133
ascertain,
to
Vedic Rishis, and
to the
whether the as
POINT OF ZODIAC
INITIAT.
I.]
were known,
if it
fixed there,
where
of Hindu astronomy
agree in declaring that the planetary motions com-
menced at the creation}
We that
we
at the
are no longer forced to
date of about
have
point It
have learnt from Babylonian archaeology
been
570
to
search
pages of the Rig Veda
for
important
point
astronomical
even before
they
Vedic
calendrical
should
find
may
such
well
and
the in
the
indications
been
the
sidereal
out-weigh
in
had
as
times,
later works, such as the
be drawn
astronomers.
ancient
indications that
year
arguments
this
fixed,
starting-point
—and
the
in
antiquity of this fixation, based
From
initial
need no longer be looked upon as
therefore
a
could this
a.d.
by Indian
fixed
an unreasonable quest
of
assume that only
Rig
if
we
Veda,
against
upon passages
the in
Yajur and Atharva Vedas.
Yajur Veda
itself,
arguments may
favour of a year beginning in the 1
V.
p. 93.
^
1
ASTRONOMY
34
month
THE RIG VEDA
IN
[part
Chaitra,^ at or before the date of the
i.
com-
position or compilation of that Veda.
In
the
Sanhita
Taittiriya
Yajur Veda) a passage occurs
and commented upon by
(contained
which
^
p.
passage
superior
discussed
three different days
Not any one with
conjunction
with
in the
of the year, full
moon
moon.
i.e.
three
The
appears to "
of
1
Chaitra
Zodiac
is
tlie
the
or
choice lie
sun's
of date
between,
first,
some month not named,
the mid-winter season
and
;
Tilak, after
— the beginning of Aswini.
^
Taittiriya Sanhita,
At
vii. 4.
;
second, the
the Chaitra
full
some pages of comment
to,
month which
third,
states in his
summing
begins, as closely as a luni-solar
at the sun's arrival at the
^
in this
sacrifice.
"distressed," or "reversed" period
on the passage referred
month may,
of
days has any con-
Krittika.
of PhalgunI
B. G.
suitability
yearly
equinox
the " Ekashtaka (day)
In this
et seq.).
spring
for the yearly sacrifice
but one
the
for
of these
the
46
which worshippers might
on
themselves
consecrate
nexion
the
translated
Tilak (The Orion,
B. G.
or Antiquity of the Vedas, is
is
the
in
initial
point of the
Hindu
8.
48 he quotes authorities in favour of the Ekashtaka (day) passage meaning the 8th day of the dark half of Magha. p.
ASWINI
PARTi.i
amongst
up,
KRITl'IKA
r.
135
which
others, the following" conclusions
he has arrived
at.
" i", that in the
the winter solstice
days of the Taittiriya Sanhita occurred before the eighth day
of the dark half of
Magha
.
.
.
and that through-
out the whole passage the intention of sacrificing at the beginning (real, constructive, or traditional) of the year
is
quite clear
:
.
.
.
2""^,
.
that the year
then commenced with the winter solstice": as
that
not be
can
there
three
real
of the year, at an interval of one
"
3"''',
beginnings
month
each, the
passage must be understood as recording a tradition about the Chitra full moon and the Phalguni full
moon being once
considered as the
first
days
of the year."
This
G.
B.
is
Tilak's
conclusion
merely
;
judging from the translation, the passage might, as
it
seems
to
me, be understood as unreservedly
recommending the full-moon of Chaitra most suitable
for
the
beginning of the
for in the text of the Taittiriya
of
it,
"It has no
But
in
fault
Sanhita
as
the
sacrifice, it
is
said
whatsoever."
whichever sense the words are under-
stood, this passage from the set against the
hymns and
Yajur Veda may be
lists
in the
Yajur and
ASTRONOMY
136
Atharva
celebrated
is
The
fact that the
of the year " as
the
in
first,
which
in
to,^
i.
and AswinI
evidence as to the beginning
the days of the Taittiriya Sanhit^,"
in
seems, so uncertain, and so contradictory
it
hymn
based on the
to the opinion
Brahmana concerning
in the Taittiriya
Krittika being the leader of
seems
Nakshatras,
the
alluded
[part
twenty-seventh place.
in the
is,
above
Vedas,
Krittlka
THE RIG VEDA
IN
add
to
interest
the
to
question whether there are, or are not, indications
Veda
Rig
the
in
And
?
Indian
was
year
ecliptic
as
^
at once, as
Rig Veda, on page to
the
same point on the
counted from the at present
that
it
seems
to me,
after page,
on turning to the
such indications are
be met with.
The
first
Nakshatra
The two
Aswini (Aswins). shatra are
the
twin
stars,
as
1
V.
At present the month Chaitra of the
Hindu
year.
they
may
in
at
most
Nak-
fairly
parts of India
The beginning
be
is
the
of the year
is
same point in the present the beginning of the Lunar Mansion Aswini.
measured by the return of the sun :
named
p. 94.
month
Zodiac
is
chief stars in that
2
first
Indian series
in the
(See Indian Calendar,
p. 45.)
to the
a
ASWINI,
PARTI.]
called,
a
and
AND
tt
Arietis
fi
—
twin heroes, the Aswins,
hymns composed
whose
stars
137
almost
of
The joyous hymns addressed
radiance.
year
ARIETIS
fS
appearance
honour of these
before
sunrise
s^ars,
heralded
at present in
on
the
is
a sidereal year.
It is
the
Hindu
approach of the great festival-day of the
new year. The Hindu year
the
to
would claim as new-
I
in
equal
counted
most parts of India from a fixed point from
not
ecliptic,
a
season.
It
a
is
Only one apparently
calendrical not a cosmic year.
small change in the
method of counting the years
would now require
to
be made,
and again
the
Aswins might be hymned by the Hindus as the "wondrous," and "not untruthful,"
by
their
festival
rising
heliacal to
a
new
be held on the
s i ars,
year's
15th, or
mdirking
festival full
—
moon's
day.
The Hindu year is now counted from the new moon immediately preceding the sun's arrival at the initial point of the lunar Zodiac. The first of Chaitra (the falls later
month
first
of the light half of Chaitra) never
than the 12th of April, and
earlier.
If the
may
arrive a
year were to be counted from
ASTRONOMY
138
same
the
IN
initial point,
THE RIG VEDA
but from the
first
[part
i.
new moon
following instead of that preceding the sun's arrival at that point,
whole month
The
first
there would be the difference of a in
day of
the range of the its
Chaitra.
bright half would then never
12th of April, and might
arrive before the
month
month
fall
a
later.
interpretation of the Vedic
For the the Aswins
I
hymns
to
would make the provisional suggestion,
when these hymns were composed, the year was so counted from the new moon folloiving and that
not from that preceding the arrival of the sun at
"the end of Revati and the beginning of A9vini." In support of this provisional theory,
read the
summing up
let
us
of the Aswini myths,
first
and of
the difficulties and uncertainties surrounding them,
according to the present modes of explanation
then
let
consider
us
interpretation
the
astronomic
;
method
and of
above proposed.
We read that^
"
Next
and Soma, the twin deities named the Asvins are the most prominent in the Rig Veda, judged by the frequency They are celebrated with which they are invoked. 1
to Indra, Agni,
Macdonell, Vedic Mythology,
p. 49.
THE ASWINS
PARTI.]
in
more than
several others, while their
400
among is
Though
times.
the
Indian,
of
and
connexion
their
phenomenon
they hold a distinct position
of light
deities
light
139
hymns and in parts of name occurs more than
entire
fifty
THE VEDA
IN
appellation
any
with
so
is
their
obscure,
definite
that
their
been a puzzle to Vedic interthe earliest times. This obscurity
original nature has
from
preters
makes to
probable that the origin of these gods
it
be sought
in
is
The
a pre- Vedic period
Asvins are young, the T. S. (Taittirlya Sanhita) even describing them as the youngest of the gods.
They
are
the
at
same time
ancient.
They
are
and honeyThey possess profound wisdom and power. The two most distinctive and fre-
bright, lords of lustre, of golden brilliancy,
hued occult
quent epithets of the Asvins are dasra, 'wondrous,' which is almost entirely limited to them, and ndsatya, '
which
explained
generally
mean
to
Their car .... moves round traverses heaven and earth in a single
not untrue.
heaven.
is .'
.
It
.
day as the car of the sun and that of Usas (the
Dawn)
are also said to do.
appearance '
darkness
is
.
.
.
The
time of their
often said to be the early dawn,
still
stands
among
the ruddy cows
when '
and
they yoke their car to descend to earth and receive the
offerings
of worshippers.
Usas
(the
Dawn)
ASTRONOMY
140
THE RIG VEDA
IN
[part
i.
awakes them. They follow after Usas in their car. At the yoking of their car Usas is born. Thus their relative time seems to have been between dawn and sunrise. But Savitr (the sun) is once said to set their car in motion before the dawn. Occasionally
the
appearance
kindling of the sacrificial
and sunrise seem
The Asvins not only at
fire,
of
Asvins,
the break of dawn,
come
natural time,
to the offering;'
but
also
evening or at morning, noon, and sunset. In the A. B. (Aitareya well as
dawn
;
the
be spoken of as simultaneous.
to
are invoked to their
the
in .
Brahmana) the Asvins
the .
.
as
Usas and Agni are stated to be gods of and in the Vedic ritual they are connected
The Asvins may
with sunrise
have been conceived as
finding-
and
originally
restorinof or
rescuing the vanished light of the sun.
Rig Veda they have come ing divinities."
.
.
.
to
In the
be typically succour-
Again, at
p.
51,
the writer
"Quite a number of legends illustrating the Asvins are referred to in the Rig Veda." Here follows an enumeration many miraculous of "protections," and cures, and then^ "The opinion of Bergaigne and others that the various miracles attributed to the Asvins are anthropomorphized forms of solar phenomena (the adds,
succouring power of the
—
1
Macdonell, Vedk Mythology,
p. 53.
PART
A PUZZLE TO C;OMMENTATORS
I.]
man
healing of the blind
141
meaning the
thus
release
of the sun from darkness), seems to lack probability.
At
same time the legend of Atri may be a reminiscence of a myth explaining the restoration the
As
of the vanished sun.
to the physical
the Asvins, the language of the Rsis that they themselves
do not seem
what phenomenon these
stood
.... what
they
actually
to
basis of
so vague
is
have underrepresented
deities
represented
puzzled
even the oldest commentators mentioned by Yaska. That scholar remarks that some regarded
them
(the Asvins) as
Heaven and Earth
(as
does
— Satapatha
Brahmana), others as Day and Night, others as sun and moon, while the legendary writers took them to be two kings, the S. B.
'
'
'
performers of holy
own
Yaska's
acts.'
opinion
is
obscure." In contrast to
explanations,
dictory
made base
and
underlie
does
not
poetic excellence.
therefore in
the
to
some appear too matter-
in
mythical
Indeed, an
hymns,
and
detract
reality
an added beauty,
Aswin
suggestion
astronomical
the
But that a firm and
prosaic.
should
similes
these vague and often contra-
page 137 may
at
of-fact
all
is
added to
when we
scientific
imaginative
from
their
fitness,
be can
and
recognized think
of
ASTRONOMY
142
them
as
IN
THE RIG VEDA
i.
addressed to well-known and beneficent
new year
presiding over the
deities
[part
— deities dawn
manifested themselves in the earliest
new
year's
and
easily to be recognised stars,
who
of the
morning under the form of two beautiful
and
whom
to
their
worshippers appealed for "protection," through the
unknown dangers I
of the future year.
give two diagrams to illustrate the fact
the time of the rising of the stars a necessarily,
and
on such a new year's
that
must
Arietis
/?
festival as
above
proposed, have taken place in some years before the
first
intimation of dawn, in others a few minutes
before the time of sunrise. It
is
of course to be borne in
Vedic years were
The
luni-solar.
mind
that the
actual
point
therefore on the ecliptic at which the conjunction
of sun and
from
which
moon
—or
each
new moon
year
— took
was counted,
different years to the extent of nearly
place,
varied
and in
30 degrees.
The diagram, Plate XII. Figs, and 2, represents the maximum and minimum distance between the rising of the Yoga stars of the Nakshatra AswinI, and of i
the sun on the
month of a
1
5th or full-moon's day of the
first
counted from the
first
luni-solar year
;
PART
NEW YEAR
I.]
143
moon following
conjunction of sun and arrival at the "
DIVINITIES
the sun's
end of Revati and the beginning of
A9vini." It will
be seen from the diagram that something
more than two hours was the longest
interval that,
according to the presumed method of counting the
Vedic year, elapsed between the appearance of yS
Arietis
and
and of the sun above the horizon.
This astronomic interpretation accounts varying times noted of the Aswins. for
u.
It
in
the
hymns
for the
also accounts, as
it
for the
appearance
seems
to
me,
the general tone of the hymns, but as regards
the long series of miraculous "protections" of the
many
Aswins, accorded by them to decrepit
personages,
does
it
not
sick,
at
aged, and first
sight
account.
We
have seen that Bergaigne and others have
opined that the various miracles attributed to the
Aswins are
"
anthropomorphized
phenomena," and with interpretation,
when
this
fully
forms
of
solar
view the astronomic
followed out to
its
logical
end, agrees.
But the
at first sight
we wonder how
the sun at
beginning of the calendrical year could,
in
ASTRONOMY
144
IN
THE RIG VEDA
Vedic times, be described as in any
way
[part
i.
especially
sick, aged, or decrepit.
3,000
was
solstice
and
when, as we have seen, the winter
B.C.,
in
sidereal
Aquarius,
such
year,
would have begun
at
solstice,
may
been supposed,
earliest
a month and a
The sun
and often
be,
weak, sick and old
;
is,
but at
a month
calendrical
has
as
its
half after the solstice. ^
Indian
the
at
the winter
described as pale,
the
beginning of a
and a half after the
calendrical
year,
solstice, the
sun no longer could have been thought
of as requiring
miraculous protection of the
the
heralding Aswins.
To
recourse
may
again wisely be had to Babylonian astronomic
lore.
The
help in solving this
fanciful
difficulty,
legends regarding the Aswins, con-
sidered only by themselves, can scarcely yield a sufficiently
firm foundation
far-reaching theory '
If the
Hindu
I
now
on which
to build the
desire to bring
year were noiv counted from the
following instead of t\\2it precedhtg the sun's arrival at the
forward new moon initial
point
of the Zodiac, owing to the precession of the equinoxes, the year
would begin
at earliest
Since 3,000
b.c.
twenty-one days after the spring equinox.
the seasons have advanced by
months, as regards their position amongst the
more than two
stars.
PART
THE ACCADIAN CALENDAR
I.]
concerning them
;
a theory on
fours with one
all
ventured some years ago to propound
Babylonian
to
"
the
astronomy,
Accadian Calendar."^
I
in reference
Paper
a
in
145
entitled
was there sug-
It
gested that the probable date for the origin of that Calendar
was about 6,000
The
B.C.
fact
was
pointed out that Aries, in the most ancient Accadian
and Babylonian astronomical works, always appears as leader of the signs
was
laid
and of the year, and
on the unlikelihood that
stress
this constellation
should have been chosen for this leading post at a date
when
the sun's entry into
did not corre-
it
spond with any one of the four well-marked natural divisions of the year,
i.e.
But as on the cuneiform
the solstices or equinoxes. tablets Aries appears as
leader long before the time in that constellation
the equinox,
it
solstitial not
the
first
calendrical
1
during the
was suggested the
the sun sojourned
first
that
month following was when the
it
equinoctial point coincided
degree
that
Aries,
of
had
scheme
namely about 6,000
A
when
first
the
been
with
Accadian
drawn
up
;
B.C.
corroboration
of the
view
then
put
for-
Proceedings of Society of Biblical ArchcEology, January 1892.
ASTRONOMY
146
ward
to
is
THE RIG VEDA
IN
Accadian,
in
i.
be drawn from a further study of the
The
Accadian month names. names,
[part
pointed out, to the
referred,
first
month
three
first
have
scholars
as
three constellations of the
Zodiac.
The month
(i.)
ness
"
of the " sacrifice of righteous-
to Aries.
The month
(2.)
of the
Bull"
"propitious
to
Taurus.
The month
(3.)
The
twelfth
seem
series
Twins" to Gemini. and thirteenth names in the same
originally
of "the
refer
to
counted
as
equally
clearly
beginning
at
"
the
They are called respectively 1 2th. The month of sowing of seed."
solstice.
:
The dark month
—"
cereals,
late
and early winter are the favoured seasons. crops however are
sown
in
early spring.
might then be a doubt whether
sowing of seed" more
year,
counted
sowing of seed
winter
13th.
of sowing."
For the sowing of most
sowing of seed
year
a
to
fitly
in the twelfth
from in
Many There
month of
described the spring
month of a
the equinox,
the twelfth
" the
autumn
—or
month
luni-solar
the
winter
of a luni-solar
PART
AS WIN LEGENDS, PRE-VEDIC
I.]
from
counted
year,
of which the there can, as
seems
years extended
January
from
the
dark,
is
any doubt
if
different
in
December
of
12th
described by
better
is
little
month whose range
the winter
that
me, be
to
we
thirteenth,
and added epithet
especial it
But when
solstice.
month followed by a
twelfth
find this
the
147
to
22nd
epithet dark,
than the rapidly brightening month whose range
extended from 12th March to 22nd April.
Very
and accurately does the
curiously, then,
Accadian calendar give us the date of
and of the
when
naming of
first
winter
the
its
its
months,
coincided with
solstice
origin,
as
that
the
suns
entry into the first degree of the constellation Aries'"
—the date To
in
this
round numbers of 6,000
same date
it
as
is,
B.C.
believe,
I
that
the miraculous protections accorded by the Aswins to
the
earth
distressed
and
appear to point,
corroborate the
took their 1
solstitial
The
rise
opinion in
winter solstice
sun's entry into Sagittarius.
now
and
fully
does this view
that
pre-Vedic
moon and
sun
the
Aswin-legends
times.
They
also,
coincides very closely with the
It precedes the sun's entry into Aries
by almost a third of the whole
circle of the ecliptic.
ASTRONOMY
14^
as do their
the
less
THE RIG VEDA
[^art
i.
Indra and Vritra myths, refer us for
origin
tropical
IN
India.
powerful
astronomers
a
to
more
northern
latitude
In the tropics the sun in
winter
who drew up
than
in
is
than
scarcely
summer.
The
the Accadian calendar,
and the myth-makers of the Aswin-legends, must, according to in
the
astronomic theory,
have dwelt
temperate zones and formulated calendar and
myths about 6,000
b.c.
VI AHURA MAZDA,
NOTES.
ETC.
[Ahura Mazda, a note reprinted from the Proceedings of
the Sociely
of Biblical Archaology, February 1900]
Professor
Hommel
in the
March number
for
1899
of these Proceedings calls attention in his Assyrio-
Notes to the name " Assara Mazas
logical
ing in a list in
of
of Assyrian gods.
list
which
foreign
The
"
appear-
section of the
name appears contains " a number sounding names " belonging to gods this
honoured, presumably,
in
out-lying portions of the
Assyrian dominions. Professor
Mazas)
is
Hommel
claims "that this god (Assara
no other than the Iranian Ahura Mazda,"
and he thus concludes this
his
opinion — "concerning
like to
remark
in
arguments
in
Assara-mazas,
favour of I
should
closing this paragraph, that
we
have here the same older pronunciation of Iranian 149
150
NOTES.— AHURA MAZDA, ETC.
words as
in the Kassitic Surias,
[part
i.
sun' (later
A Aura
and Hvarya, but comp. Sanscrit Asura and
surid),
which the
is
'
of the highest importance for the history of
Aryan languages.
In the
between 1,700 and 1,200
B.C.,
I
same Kassitic
period,
suppose was borrowed
by the Assyrians the Iranian god Assara-mazas." In a Paper entitled
The Median Calendar and
the Constellation Taurus, printed in the
ber for 1897 of these Proceedings, similar claim for the derivation of
great god of the Assyrians
The
June num-
made a very the name of the I
— Assur.
claim put forward was not based only on
the resemblance in sound of " Assur
but was in the identity of the
first
"
and
"
Ahura,"
place founded on the
virtual
emblems of Assur and Ahura Mazda.
For the origin of these emblems (referring as suggested they did to the
it
was
Zodiacal constellation
Sagittarius) a date as high as 4,000 B.C.
astronomic grounds, assumed, and
it
was, on
was pointed
out that at that date there was no evidence of the existence of the Assyrian nation as
a nation, nor
any trace of a Semitic worship of the god Assur whereas, on the other hand, as early as 3,800 there
is
evidence that a powerful Aryan race
;
b.c.
—the
ASSARA-MAZAS AND ASSUR
PARTI.]
Manda
—
rivalled
the
power,
151
and threatened the
Semitic rule of Sargon of Agane.
The
Ahura Mazda,
opinion that the symbol of
and of Assur, was of ancient Aryan
origin, naturally
suggested the further thought that the name Assur, so closely resembling the earlier Indo-Iranian form
Asura, of the Iranian Ahura, had, together with the
emblem
of the god, been borrowed from the
ancestors settlers
of
the
who, early
Medo- Persians in
Aryan
by the Semitic
the second millennium
B.C.,
established themselves to the north of Babylonia. It
may
here be pointed out that
no very certain
Semitic derivation at present holds the the
proposed
According
to
signifying
"
Professor
a word
Aryan some
derivation
scholars
it
would
which
the
name Assur
originally
which
occupy.
comes from a word According
a well-watered plain."
Hommel,
field
meant
is
"
to
derived from
the
heavenly
host."
Professor
Hommel, quoting
as his authority the
opinions of the Sanscrit scholar Oldenburg, and reinforcing Oldenburg's opinions
by arguments from
other sources, further maintains the high probability of the
Median god Ahura Mazda having been
the
NOTES.—AHURA MAZDA, ETC.
152
[part
i.
representative of the Vedic Varuna, and also that
Varuna was the moon. in opinion as to
Vedic scholars are divided physical is
phenomenon
is
what
He
represented by Varuna.
very generally supposed to personify " the vast
some say
extent of the encompassing sky," the sky at night-time
— others
claim him as a solar
whilst Oldenburg, as
divinity,
poses him to be the moon.
however,
especially
we have
It is
seen, sup-
not to the question,
what phenomenon Varuna represented,
but to that of the probability or improbability of his original identity with the
that
I
would now draw
It is
attention.
said that " the parallel in character,
not in name, of the god
Wise
the
may
Median Ahura Mazda,
Spirit."
Varuna
is
though
Ahura Mazda,
But a variety of considerations
lead us to entertain the possibility of a Vedic
god other than Varuna being the ter
and
is
also
in epithet of still
more
parallel in charac-
Ahura Mazda clearly to
a parallel which
be recognized
adopt the view, above contended of Assur, the a^xher
;
for,
if
we
of the identity
god of Assyria, with Ahura
Mazda.
The Vedic god Rudra
is,
like
Varuna, an Asura
PART
RUBRA—ASURA MAHA
I.]
He
or Spirit.
is
153
described as " the wise," and his
votaries are encouraged to worship
" for a
him
prehensive and sound understanding." " asura
passage
the
epithet
recalling
to
our ears
"Ahura Mazda,"
maha," so
name
the
But
of
com-
in
one
curiously
the
Avestan
As
actually applied to him.^
is
a wise and great Asura, Rudra seems to be as close
Ahura Mazda
a parallel to ^
Wilson, Jitg Veda, Mandala
among
scholars as to the exact
The Rev.
Ahura Mazda.
L.
Varuna
as
ii.,
Uncertainty prevails
6.
i,
meaning to be given to the name H. Mills, D.D., under the heading
" Zend," writes thus in Chambers's Encyclopedia
God
Deity Ahura Mazdah, the Living hving,' (niaz
or 'spirit'
'life,'
the resem-
;
—root
+ da = Sansk. mahd + dM),
«,^
or
= 'to
or 'the
'
The Supreme
"
:
Lord
be'), the
Wise One'
'
(ahu
=
'
the
Great Creator
{cf.
su-medhds).'"
Again, the same writer in his book on the G^ithks, pubhshed in 1894, gives on p. 3 in his "verbatim translation,"
donator
(?)
Mazda.
(vel)
O
Sapiens
uncertainty
Similar
(?),"
as
seems
alternative prevail
to
meaning
to
Veda
which reference has been made above,
to
Siikta vol.
ii.,
i.,
p.
be attached
verse 6.
2ir,
we
to the
read: — "Thou, Agni,
(of foes) from the expanse of heaven "
passage he says
:
"
Twam Rudro
asuro
art
for
the
i.e.,
in the Rig Mandala ii.,
of the
Rig Veda,
Rudra, the expeller
and
:
magni-
regards
as
words of the passage
In Wilson's translation
"O
meanings
in his note to this
maho divah : asura
is
explained satrun^m nirasiti, the expeller of enemies, divas, from
heaven (
;
or
it
may mean,
the giver of strength.
Fedic Mythology, p. 75) says that
" the great asjira of heaven."
Rudra
is
.
.
."
Macdonell
called in this passage
NOTES.—AHURA MAZDA, ETC.
154
blance of epithet in the case of Rudra
[part
i.
makes the
parallelism closer.
Varuna indeed
in
Vedic estimation held a much
higher and more commanding position than Rudra,
how opposed
but considering
the Avestan was to
Vedic mythology on important points, we ought not to expect that the
above place
all
god elevated by the Medians
others should have held a very exalted
amongst the Brahmins of
But
when we
it is
Ahura Mazda but
India.
turn our thoughts not only to
to
his
Assyrian representative
Assur, that the parallelism between him and Rudra
becomes more marked.
Rudra
is
not only a wise and great Asura, he
above everything
He
an archer. bow."i
He
strong
bow and
In
the
is
else celebrated in the
has "the
is
Rig Veda as
sure arrow, the strong
"the divine Rudra armed with the fast flying arrows."^
Paper
already
referred
to,
it
was
suggested that an astronomic observation of the equinoctial colure passing through the constellations
Sagittarius
and Taurus was the probable origin of
1
Wilson, Rig Veda, Mandala
^
lb.,
Mandala
vii., xiii.
v., x. (xlii.),
(xlvi.), i.
ii.
RUDRA, AN ARCHER GOD
PARTI]
Median and
(as
derived from
155
Median) Assyrian
symbolism concerning Ahura Mazda and This observation could, as was pointed
have been made 4,000 It
at the date, in
out,
only
round numbers, of
B.C. is
a very tempting enterprise to seek in the
mythologies of European
nations for
same astronomic observation
this
Assur.
allusions
—an
to
observation
made, as we may believe, when the ancestors of the Iranian and Indian Aryans, and possibly the ancestors of the
European
nations,
were
still,
if
not
all
dwelling together, at least within easy intellectual
touch of each other.
we have the Centaur (the Bullkiller) Chiron giving his name to the constellation Sagittarius, and in this fable we may, as it would In Grecian fable
seem, find a better astrono7nic explanation of the
term
Bull-killer
than that usually given concerning
the well-mounted Thessalian hunters of wild cattle.
The
constellation Sagittarius, an archer, half
half horse,
is
not a
figure
man,
of Grecian invention.
It is to
be met with depicted on Babylonian monu-
ments,
unmistakably the archer
sphere
;
and
this constellation,
of
when
our it
celestial
rises in the
—
— NOTES.— AHURA MAZDA, ETC.
156 east,
[parti.
always drives below the western horizon
i.e.,
mythically exterminates, the last stars of the con-
Taurus.
stellation
To is
Chiron, the chief Centaur, the epithet " wise
especially given,
skill
and "he was renowned
"
for his
hunting, medicine, music, gymnastics, and
in
the art of prophecy
"
of these not altogether con-
;
gruous attributes Rudra the Vedic god possessed three of the most important.
He
was
wise,
he was
an archer, and he was famed as "a chief physician
among
physicians."^
In a verse, part of which has
been already quoted,^ worshippers are exhorted to " Praise
him who has the sure arrow, the strong
bow, who presides over
Rudra ing,
for a
all
sanitary drugs
;
worship
comprehensive and sound understand-
adore the powerful divinity with prostrations."
Apollo the far-darter, Artemis the goddess of the silver bow,
also
shared these same attributes,
and Grecian legend would lead us the
same part of the heavens as
Chiron to
i.e.,
Sagittarius.
^
Wilson, Rig Veda, Mandala 2b.,
Mandala
v., x.
them
in
that allotted to
Apollo prompted Artemis
aim a shaft from her bow
^
to place
(xlii.),
ri.
at
ii.,
a point on the xxxiii., 4.
;
CHIRON— APOLLO— ARTEMIS
PARTI.]
and
horizon,
Now
Orion. in
this point
opposition the
that
Orion
the is
Orion
bow
astronomical
sending
as
The
to death.
of
stars
variant form,
its
represented
was the head of the hunter
constellation
to
legend
inferred from is
the
157
stars
Sagittarius plainly
is
in
be
to
which Artemis
Scorpion
a
exactly
is
sting
to
marking the Scorpion's
bow
sting are in very close proximity to the
stars of
Sagittarius.
Returning to Indian myths, the name of Siva
Rig Veda
does not occur in the Sanscrit works Siva
hymn
In a
and
the
of
but
in
later
the representative of Rudra.
to Siva,^ the following passages occur,
difficult to
it is
is
;
sculptured
read them and not be reminded figures
Artemis,
of
crescent-
crowned and leading a stag by the horns.
(Allow-
ance must be made, however, for the tendency
Hindu
art to multiply the heads, arms,
in
and features
of their gods.) "
I
worship the great Mahesa,
ten million suns
who ^
is
:
who
is
adorned with
crowned with the moon
Hymn
to Siva, prefixed to
who
"An
:
who
is
shines like triple
:
armed with
Exposition of the Principles
of Sanskrit Logic," by Bodhanundanath Swami, Calcutta.
M
eyes
NOTES.— AHURA MAZDA, ETC.
iS8
the trident,
the
bow,
goad, and the noose
Who Who Kaila9e
is
crescent
whose matted
;
hair
is
ablaze
with
the
;
Whose hands battle-axe
the
discus,
snowy summit of Mount
bright as the
moon
the
i.
:
the eternal Lord
is
;
mace,
the
[part
hold the head of a deer and a
;
Whose moon Whose
forehead
is
adorned with the bright
half-
;
deer
interlaced
are
fingers
to
typify
a
;
For the explanation of the Roman myths of Dianus and Diana (varying forms as the dictionary tells
of Janus and
for the
same astronomic
cerning" the
we may
Jana)
origin, as
Grecian archer
naturally seek for those
divinities.
Janus indeed has not, so
far as
I
know, ever
The
been represented as an archer or a Centaur. attribute for
which he
is
con-
especially
renowned
is
that
of "opener of the year," and this attribute, on the
astronomic theory here proposed, would furnish the
PART
SIVA—DIANA— JANUS
I.]
159
connecting link between the varying forms of the Italian deities
above mentioned.
The many and
still
changes that were made successive
rulers,
imperfectly
embodied Bull
"
"
lines
must have
originally
Roman
tradition
But
opening.
Virgil's
in
who
its
year by
have effaced the connexion of
that year with the stars which
presided over
Roman
the
in
understood
speaks of
" the bright
with his gilded horns opens the year."
^
The golden star-tipped horns of the Bull are as we know exactly opposed to the westernmost degrees of Sagittarius to the sun,
;
and that
constellation, in opposition
would therefore have marked the open-
ing of just such a vernal year as that alluded to by Virgil.
Whether
reformation was is,
this vernal still
year before the Julian
the calendrical year in
Rome
however, very doubtful.
Janus
even with
The
is
represented with two heads, sometimes
four,
full moon
"to typify the seasons of the year." in
Sagittarius 4,000
season of the spring equinox
— the
b.c.
marked the
sun then being
in conjunction
with the stars marking the horn tips
of the Bull.
The new moon '
Virgil, Georg., Lib.
in Sagittarius at the I.,
217, 218.
NOTES— AHURA MAZDA,
i6o
same
half waning moon
in
Sagittarius
of the winter solstice
i.
The
marked the season
and the half moon of the
:
waxing moon marked the season of the
crescent or
The
solstice.
moon in Sagittarius. The fact that the Indian
may
heads of Janus
four
thus have referred to the four seasons the
[part
marked the autumn equinox.
date
summer
ETC.
marked by
archer Rudra
=
(
Siva)
and the Grecian archer Artemis, were represented as crowned by the half, not the full moon, would refer these
what
myths
later
to
Iranian
an
I
ndo- Iranian, not to a some-
source.
It
was not
to
the
reformed Iranian equinoctial year that they pointed, but to the sun's triumph at the
Roman
the later
Median
Janus myth we influence,
solstitial
may
season.
In
rather detect the
and suppose that
to a year beginning with the full
it
moon
referred
in
when
Sagit-
tarius,
a year opening in the spring,
was
conjunction with the "gilded horns" of "the
in
the sun
bright Bull." All these mythological indications, derived from
Median,
Assyrian,
Indian,
though each of them looked
and
classical
at separately
sources,
may
not
speak with much insistence, yet considered together
THE MOON
PART I]
seem
to point us
IN
SAGITTARIUS
more and more
clearly as
them, to the fact that about 4,000
b.c.
i6i
we study
a very im-
portant and authoritative observation of the colures
(amongst the Zodiacal constellations) was made, and that
upon
this observation
of ancient nations
much
was founded.
of the mythology
VII ANCIENT INDIAN ASTRONOMY [Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archeology, February 1900]
It
on Talmudic authority,
only
is
I
think,
that
astronomy can be denied a place, and indeed an important
place,
in
researches
connected
with
Biblical Archaeology.
On
Talmudic authority we are told
protest against the sun-, moon-,
and star-worship of
surrounding nations, the Hebrews were mitted to calculate in any scientific
that, as a
not per-
way beforehand,
or by
methods based on the movements of the
heavenly bodies, their days, their months, or their years.
The end could stars
be definitely ascertained
only
were 162
of the day and beginning of the night
visible to the observer.
when
three
The moon must
PART
ASTRONOMY
I.]
have shown heavens,
THE TALMUD
IN
pale sickle to
its
before
the
first
some watcher of the
was dependent on the
also told,
year,
were
a sufficiently advanced
in
to
be presented
to the priest
Lord on a fixed day of the
the
we
are
earliness or late-
ness of the agricultural season, for three corn,
of the
month could be
of the
The beginning
announced.
163
state
ears of
of growth,
and waved before first
month of the
year.
This 1 iii.
is
what some passages of the Talmud
^
Bible Educator, edited by Rev. E. H. Plumptre, M.A., vol. and 240. " It may have been with a view to render
pp. 239
astrology
impossible,
the
that
calendar in the Holy Land, or lunar month,
is,
Jews were forbidden to keep a
...
as the length of the lunation,
roughly speaking, twenty-nine days and a
half,
is easy to know, from month to month, when to expect the crescent to become visible. Six times in the year the beginning of the month was decided by observation of the new moon. On two months of the year the determination of the new moon was of such importance, that the witnesses who observed the it
.
crescent were authorized
to
.
.
profane the Sabbath by travelling
These occasions were the records that on one occasion as many as forty pairs of witnesses thus arrived on the Sabbath at Lydda. Rabbi Akiba detained them, but was reproved When the evidence was for so doing by Rabbi Gamaliel satisfactory, the judges declared the month to be commenced, and a beacon was lighted on Mount Olivet, from which the signal was repeated on mountain after mountain, until the whole country was aglow with fires." to
give information at
months Nisan and
Tisri.
Jerusalem. .
.
.
The Mishna
ANCIENT INDIAN ASTRONOMY
164
seem it
to teach
but from Old Testament Scriptures,
not possible to infer these calendrical restric-
is
any degree of
tions with
there
trary,
to
;
[parti.
is
much
certainty.
in the
On
the con-
Scriptures to lead us
an opposite conclusion.
On
the very
" the greater "
also
first
and the
page of the Bible we read of lesser lights,"
set in the heavens, to
seasons, and
And
scarcely
when we meet the time it came to pass,
this first page,
statement that " in process of
Cain brought of the
that
" the stars
be "for signs, and for
days and years."
for
have we turned
and of
fruit
And
offering unto the Lord.
of the ground an
Abel, he also brought
of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof
And
the
Lord had respect unto Abel and
offering."
In the margin
the
to
words "in process
of time" are rendered "at the end of days."
considering this passage
touch
into
and
at
the
field
with
from
we seem
definitely
to
In
be brought
established
year
;
once archaeology and astronomy enter into of Biblical research, to
old calendar origin
a
his
us of a remotely
—astronomic indications
of this this
tell
calendar at about
calendar
we
would date the
6,000
B.C.
—and
learn that at "the end of
— PART
ASTRONOMY
I.]
"
days
— the
there
THE BIBLE
IN
165
end of the dark days of the year
righteousness "
month
a
followed
of
we may
a sacrifice,
:
''the
of
sacrifice
well suppose,
of the firstlings of the flock, as the stars in conjunction with the sun during this
imagined by the
To
this calendrical
again drawn
ram ready
first
when we
festival, to
the
under
for sacrifice.
month our
attention
is
book of Exodus,
read, in the
of the institution at God's
month were
of the calendar
institutors
the form of a lamb or
first
command
of the
Hebrew
be held on the 14th and 15th days of
month Abib. This month Abib,
later
Astronomy
generally assumed,
is
month Nisan, spoken
the equivalent of the
some of the
it
is
of in
books of the Old Testament.
and
again
archaeology
hearing on this point.
The month
claim
a
Nisan,
the
Semite equivalent of the Accadian month Bar
zig-
gar (the month of the "sacrifice of righteousness
"),
we may
gather from the evidence of the cuneiform
tablets,
had been the
year in Babylon for
perhaps
— before
first
month
many centuries
the date of
of a calendrical
—
Moses
for millenniums, ;
and therefore
archseology would teach us that the children of Israel
—
1
ANCIENT INDIAN ASTRONOMY
66
were being
recalled,
[part
from strange Egyptian modes
of reckoning, to the observance of an ancient
and
patriarchal year
year, to
and
when they were told be the first month of the of that month, "a night
festival,
them Abib was
that for
i.
to
and that on the 14th
be much observed,'' they were to sacrifice of the
firstlings
of their flock, and were to hold the great
festival of the
"Abib,"
If
Passover on the fifteenth day. "
Nisan,"
and "Bar zig-gar" are
names used by various nations the
to designate
one and
same month, Abib could not have been, as has
very generally
a month
been supposed,
varying
according to the uncertain ripening of agricultural
name from the ears of corn presented to the priest, and waved before the Lord on some fixed day of that month but rather it must have been (as we know, from Babylonian crops,
and one taking
its
;
sources that Nisan was) a well calculated soli-lunar
and
sidereal
we must find some month name Abib. difficult
On
Now,
month.
we adopt
if
this view,
alternative derivation
Nor
is
it
for
by any
the
means
so to do. the fourteenth
Bar zig-gar, Nisan, or
night of the
Abib —
"
first
month
a night to be
much
;
ABIB REFERS TO SPICA
PART I]
observed," or
"a
reading,
night
observations"
of
marginal
the
— the
which marks the ears of corn
Spica,
star
according to
rather,
167
the
in
the
in
above the eastern horizon as
Virgin's hand, rose
the sun set
bright
and
west,
midnight must
at
have shone down brilHantly on the Hebrew hosts for Spica
of the
is
full
so bright a
moon
have obscured
The
its
opposition
to,
the sun.
The
not
name
lunar
their
in
hand could not
at
lustre.
Indians of to-day
stars
the
riding close
;
even the beams
star, that
their
which
Zodiac
from those
in
months from are
in
conjunction with,
Arab and
close resemblance of the
Indian lunar Zodiacal series suggests the thought the
that
system
and
if
of this
Arabs
may have
month
followed
nomenclatiLre as
were the case
why Moses, who had
it
Hebrews
as that which forefathers
the
Indians
so lately returned from his
—
in
recalling
observance of such a year
was presumably followed by
Abraham,
spoken of the to
to
the
first
same
would furnish a reason
forty years' sojourn in Arabia, should
the
the
Isaac,
month
and Jacob
of the
their
— have
yet
year according
a non- Baby Ionian method of nomenclature, and
1
ANCIENT INDIAN ASTRONOMY
68
have
should
called
it
Abib,
[part
star
the
after
i.
in
opposition to the sun.
now we adopt
If
the opinion that an astronomic
method of counting the year did amongst present
Hebrews,
the
our
to
itself
a
in
great
minds
must
difficulty
regard
in
obtain
reality
the
to
generally accepted theory that only on a fixed day
of the first reaped
month of
handful
of
year might
the
waved
be
corn
the
first
before
the
Lord.
The than
in
seasons in Palestine are not more punctual other countries.
to a fixed
which he might
his sickle into the ful '
restrict
husbandman a
to
a fixed
still
more
not
would be
corn,
and arbitrary regulation
would be
day
extent of a
in
hurtful
a
a
season,
calendrical year
and
vice
might occur
felt
as a hurt-
in
luni-solar year
The
regulation.
may vary late
year might coincide with
agricultural
season.
A
whole month.
begin to put
but to restrict the
;
beginning of a soli-lunar, year
such
a husbandman
day of a year (even such a year as
before
ours)
To
to
the
beginning of a
versa
very early
an
early
a late agricultural
PART
NOT TO FIRST RIPENED CORN
I.]
Considerations to inquire carefully
theory
corn before the rests
whether the
(concerning
"
the
may
nature
of this
169
incline
us
" generally accepted
waving of the ears of
Lord during the Passover week)
upon Scriptural authority or on Talmudic and
traditional
As
teachinaf.
ag-ainst
broken array of commentators,
it is
an almost
un-
possible in this
connexion to quote from the work of a learned
Hebrew
scholar a
expressed opinion that
clearly
from the Scriptures themselves, to infer directly a
wavinsf of the 1
which
first fruits
Pentateugite,
(Lazare), torn. exists
connexion
Traduction
it
not possible
is
between the
in date
and the Passover
Rabbi
par
Nouvelle,
festival.^
Wogue
Discussing an important difference of opinion
3.
amongst Jewish scholars and commentators as
to the
exact day of the Passover festival, on which the priest was to wave
the sheaf before the Lord, the writer says
:
"
Lendemain du Sabbat,' indication qui a donne importante entre
adopts
les
des targoumim, de Josephe,
et I'usage
texte porte
lieu
Pharisiens et les Saduceens.
systeme talmudique, qui a pour
le
Le
.
:
'Le
a une dissidence .
lui I'autorite
.
Nous avons des Septante,
immemorial de la Synagogue
;
mais, a ne consulter que les textes sans parti pris, nous ne sousr
aucune des deux doctrines. Ni la ceremonie de Tomer, comput des semaines, ne sont mis par nos textes en rapport avec la Paque, mais uniquement avec les moissons, soit ici, soit dans le Deut^ronome (xvi. 9). Des la recolte de I'orge, le divin cririons a
ni le
L^gislateur veut qu'on lui fasse c^reale
que
la
;
il
hommage
des premices de cette
n'indique point de date, parceque la moisson, pas plus
vendange,
et pas plus
en Palestine
qu'ailleurs,
ne
commence
ANCIENT INDIAN ASTRONOMY
170
But
and
the existence in
of an astronomically counted
regarding
opinions
long-held
Mosaic
Hebrew year,
admission should require us to change
this
if
i
our enquiries should lead us to accept,
if
as at least a probability,
times
[part
right
the
observ-
Hebrew festivals, on the other hand, the fact that we might then trace Arabian rather than Babylonian influence in the name of Abib
ance
of
would have
weight on the conservative side of
its
controversy concerning the post or pre-exilic
the
date of the books of
The
that in
fact
opposition to the sun suggested
after the stars in
the above
and
in
in
as that of the
conjunction with the constellation Aries,
opposition to the star Spica, marking the
Zodiacal ears of corn. a jour
fixe.
tion
et
;
Hebrew month when the
proposed explanations of the
month name Abib sun was
Exodus and Deuteronomy. India the months are named
Mais une
comme
semaines apres,
fois ouverte, elle se
froments, en
is
a further point
continue sans interrup-
sent coupes sept pr^mices du froment doivent etre offertes au
les
les
But there
L'Omer et
bout de sept semaines.
la
Palestine,
Pentecote sont done mobiles
par exception, mais cette derniere est relativement tenant de quel
'
Sabbat
'
est
subordonn^ a rouverture de Sabbat qui
il
question
?
fixe.
Puisque tout
Mainici
est
la moisson, ce sera naturellement le
suit cette ouverture."
ABIB
PART
I.]
of
connexion
present date
of the
Indian year
month during which
the
Indian
namely,
archeeology,
Biblical
month
the first
171
between
observed
be
to
astronomy and
AND CHAITRA
that
the sun
month
name
called
is
Chaitra,
which
of the star Spica, and
it
is
the
is
in fact
Sanscrit the
marked month, which, according
sidereally
opinions here advocated, the ancient
Accadian,
was the
first
Babylonian,
is
This
conjunction with the constellation Aries.
in
the
at
is
same
to
the
month of
Hebrew
and
years.
must, therefore, be a question of interest to
It
Biblical students to determine,
if
possible,
whether
Indian first month has only so been counted
this
some
(as
whether
scholars it
tell
has so
us) since about
570
is,
or
been counted from the same
remote time as was the Accadian month Bar that
a.d.,
zig-gar,
possibly, from about 6,000 B.C.
This question as to the month Chaitra forms part only of a larger controversy which
has been
long waged concerning the antiquity, or otherwise, of the whole science of astronomy in India.
To tion in
this larger
my
controversy
I
have drawn atten-
Paper, Astronomy in the
Rig Veda, read
ANCIENT INDIAN ASTRONOMY
172
the Congress of Orientalists assembled
before
Rome
[part
in
forward
at
In that Paper, arguments are put
1899. in
i.
support of the opinion that the Vedic
bards possessed an acquaintance with the science of astronomy, and the the
hymns bore
proposed
seems
and
;
me
to
is
finally
the
which as
question,
Biblical
Archaeology
discussed,
— the
it
ques-
month Chaitra as
first
and pre- Vedic
of the Indian year in Vedic is
are
interpretations
one specially deserving the attention
tion of the position of the
times
of
Soma, Agni,
Indra,
astronomic
of the Society of
month
of the imagery
reference to the constellations of
Aswins,
the
much
For the gods
Zodiac.
and
that
and the claim that
it
was, and
throughout remote ages had ever been, virtually the
same month
as
the Accadian
Bar zig-gar
is
insisted upon.
Pursuing further the controversy concerning the antiquity of astronomy
the note on
"Ahura Mazda"
identification of the
god
— the
amongst the Aryan (p. 152),
I
races, in
proposed an
Vedic Rudra with the Median
god who presided over the Median
noctial year,
marked by observation of the
in the constellation Sagittarius.
full
equi-
moon
THE MARUTS
PARTI.]
173
Continuing then our enquiries into the astro-
nomic myths attention
of the
to
ancient
sons
India,
Rudra
of
us
let
— the
Maruts.
They
are a group of gods very prominent
Vedic
deities,
and
it
among
be noted that Rudra
to
is
Veda
oftener alluded to in the Rig
Maruts
—the
stormy
Maruts
of
troop
is
as the father of
Now
the Maruts than in almost any other capacity. the
our
turn
—are
celebrated as the companions and friends of Indra.
They
are
passages."
Here, at
first
sight,
the proposed astronomical
and Rudra as cations
solstitial
sons of the equinoctial
it
innumerable
in
might seem that
identification
of Indra
and equinoctial
personifi-
break down
must
him
with
"associated
;
for
how
should
the
Rudra always appear
as
the devoted companions of the solstitial Indra?
On
interesting itself.
the
examination,
further
a
very
explanation of this difficulty presents
From
Hindu
however,
a
hymn
(quoted at
p.
157) to Siva,
representative of the Vedic Rudra,
learn that the
we
crescent
half-moon blazes on the
Now
the crescent half-moon, in
forehead of Siva.
the western degrees of the constellation Sagittarius,
would, 4,500
B.C.,
have marked the month of the N
ANCIENT INDIAN ASTRONOMY
174
summer
solstice;
quarter"
in the first
attain to "full
the full
tions
in
in
i.
"first
its
degrees of Sagittarius, must
Aquarius
either in
later,
and
Pisces,
or
the
one or other of those two constella-
marked the season of the summer
somewhat
than
earlier
4,000
are often spoken of in the in
moon,
moon" seven days
constellation
moon
the
for
[part
The Maruts
b.c.
Veda
solstice
as a troop, seven
number, or as seven troops of seven, or as
three times
seven
number.
in
thought therefore suggests
Maruts represent
the
The
itself,
seven
astronomical the seven
that
days
elapsed
that
between the crescent half-moon, blazing on the brow of Rudra, and the
or
full
Soma pavamana
—
moon Soma
waters (see Plate XIII.).
of the
summer
solstice,
purified in the celestial
And
this explanation of
the Maruts does not contradict, but rather agrees
with and
includes
the usual
non-astronomic ex-
planations held regarding them, namely, that they
are
storm winds;
for
we know
which accompany the setting rainy season in
let
of the
the
days
solstitial
India are the days in which the
fierce tropical hurricanes or
Now
in
that
monsoons
prevail.
us turn from the Maruts to another, as
PLATE
XIII.
CKXXXX]
"
Outer circle divided into 360 degrees. 2nd circle. The names and extent of the Nakshatras " or divisions of the Lunar Zodiac. 3rd
circle.
Names and
extent
of
the
twelve
twenty-seven Indian
Indian
"Rashis"
or
divisions of the Solar Zodiac.
at
4th circle. Proposed three-fold division of the Vedic Season of Summer Solstice.
Lunar Month
Proposed identification of " Maruts " with Moon's Nakshatras" at Season of Summer Solstice. The Constellations here appear as drawn on the celestial globe they have not been reversed as in the other illustrations, hence an apparent, though not real, contradiction ensues. Section of 5th
circle.
course through seven "
;
[To /ace p.
174.
PART
it
TRITA APTYA
I.]
seems
to
me, lunar and
i;S
myth, namely,
solstitial
that of Trita Aptya.
Trita Aptya
a friend of the Maruts, and
is
said to have appeared on the
He
constantly,
is
same
the hymns,
in
car with them.
same hymn Trita ;
as per-
another passage of the
attributed to Trita. also
is
Soma and we read of
in
with
associated
Indra, and feats recorded in one passage
formed by Indra, are
is
spoken of together
often
with
ninth Mandala, again and again
in the
the ten " maidens, or fingers," of Trita
preparing the
Soma
juice for Indra.
All these attributes of Trita, and others to be
mentioned astronomic
later,
are
theory
identifications
of
easily
already Indra,
of
explainable
on
the
propounded
in
the
and
of
the
Soma,
Maruts.
name number
In the of the
Trita there three,
to
certainly a suggestion
and Macdonell,
Mythology^ brings proof felt
is
to
show "that
have the meaning of the third
Vedic
in his
"
it
— that
was is,
in
order of sequence.
But though the
third, 1
in
P. 69.
this
sense,
does not
ANCIENT INDIAN ASTRONOMY
176
actually carry with
whole ;
any one
yet, to
explanation
of
the
i.
meaning of third of a
the
it
[part
search of an astronomical
in
myth,
Trita
the
reiterated
mention of the ten fingers of Trita quickly suggests the thought of a whole
divided
three
into
chief parts, each part containing ten lesser divisions
—a whole therefore of thirty parts. Now the lunar month — reality in
twenty-nine and a over)
fractions
—
is
half
solar
in
Hindu
equal
consisting of
days
calendrical
into
" tithis,"
which are considered as lunar days
here, as
it
would seem, we arrive
basis of the Trita myth.
usage
portions of time called
divided
thirty
some
(with
and
;
at the physical
Trita Aptya, or Trita in
the waters (or of the waters), appears as the third part of the
the
moon
as Trita
lunar
month
—the
part
during which
is
to be seen in the celestial waters
is
so closely connected with
Soma pavamana,
that third part
;
and
Indra and
must have been
the ten lunar days (five before and five after " the full ")
during which the
in the constellation If
we
moon
is
at its brightest,
and
Aquarius.
think of Trita
Aptya as a
personification
of the triumphant third of the moon's course through
PART
TRITA AND FULL MOON
I.]
177
the constellations of the Zodiac at the season of the
summer member
solstice
that the
contained
Aquarius or juncture
in
of
moon during " third "
that
in
Pisces,
these
to understand
and
Plate XIII.),
(see
we
re-
the ten lunar days
came
to
its
sometimes indeed
we
constellations,
much
if
shall
full
at
in
the
be able
of the figurative language of
the Veda, which associates Trita with the stormy
Maruts, with the victories of Indra over Vritra,
and with the effulgence of Soma pavamana.
There
is
a legend concerning Trita not related
but alluded to in the Rig Veda. us that Trita
This legend
tells
was one of three brothers (Ekata,
Dvita, and Trita), and that he was pushed into a well by his brothers,
and over the mouth of the
well
a circular covering was placed with intent to keep
down and drown
Trita
But through the
him.
circular covering the ever-triumphant Trita burst.
Here
there can be
tion of the
the
full
waters
doubt
a mythic descrip-
is
temporary disaster of eclipse overtaking
moon of
little
of the
summer
Aquarius
covering can be
or
nothing
solstice in the celestial
Pisces. else
The
than the
shadow of the earth covering the
circular circular
disc of the
full
—
ANCIENT INDIAN ASTRONOMY
178
moon, and
may
Trita's triumph
and
eclipse
i.
remind us of
well
moon when
the serene victoriousness of the
emerged from
[part
it
has
unharmed along the
rides
sky.
In
many
with
points
represents
also
aspects,
From
myth
facts is
be surprised
Triton,
be
We
need of
traces
The name
inferred
of
and we may guess
men and
half fish
only a
the
Greek
as
Roman
the
to
and
Aquarius
stellations,
—
with
an allusion
at
basis
of
appearing
myth
in
Italian
'
the
two watery con-
Pisces,
in
which
the
his abode.
these composite figures,
our
—the
the
in
Tritons
Vedic Trita Aptya (son of waters) made
The Roman rendering of especially, may recall to
the
European
in
it
appears
that
not, therefore,
Trita,
sculptured forms of Greek and half
other
his
him on the way."i
termination,
of
of
slay
may
find
Thraetona
Trita.
of Thraetona's " two
to
it
in
made
pre-Vedic. to
mythologies.
change
is
corresponds
some
under
Trita
who seek
these
Vedic
the
and mention
brothers
Trita
Zend Avesta Thrita
the
art,
minds the Zodiacal
two as
fish
the
Macdonell, Vedic Afythology,
of
two
p. 69.
Pisces fish-tails
PART
TRITON—EKATA, HECATE
TRITA,
I.]
179
which terminate the human-headed figure of the
Again Hecate, as has been pointed out
Triton.
by
bears a close
scholars,
Hecate was a lunar divinity
to Ekata.
worshipped and sacrificed
We
month.
resemblance
may
to
therefore
sented the waning moon.
at
the
in
name
she was
;
of the
close
suppose she repre-
She
is
further said to
have been the daughter of Perseus and Asteria.
Looking Plate),
at the figures of the celestial sphere (see
we may
trace the third part of the moon's
—the ten days of Ekata—and observe how
course
began
its
waning appropriated
this portion of its course
close to the constellation Perseus.
Sanscrit Trita
to
myth may explain
the
Thus the name and
parentage of the Grecian Hecate.^
A
study of ancient European calendars may, on
the other hand, eke out our knowledge concerning
astronomic scheme in which
the 1
Trita
and
his
not to be supposed that only the month of the summer was divided into the three parts, personified by Ekata,
It is
solstice
Dvita,
and Trita
waters
(or,
in which the or Pisces.
:
the legend of Trita Aptya, that
of the waters),
is
is,
Trita in the
necessarily restricted to that season
moon came to its Some interesting
full
in the constellations
indications in
Aquarius
Indian and Greek
mythology seem to point to a similar division of other months, but the subject is surrounded with uncertainties and difficulties.
ANCIENT INDIAN ASTRONOMY
i8o
We
such important parts.
brothers played
[part
read
month was divided
that in the Attic year " each
three decades," and the statement
may
i.
into
confirm us
opinion that, following an almost too mathe-
in the
matically imagined calendrical method, the ancestors
Aryan
of the
months,
race
in
remote ages counted their
containing twenty-nine-and-a-half
not as
solar days, but as a portion of time containing three
great equal divisions, the
— Ekata,
first,
the second, and the
— each
of these
three
parts being again subdivided into ten equal
tithis.
third
If
have been the
should
this
Trita
Dvita,
interesting to note that the also, as
shown by
their
case,
it
would be
Greeks (and the Romans
cumbrous system of Kalends,
Nones, and Ides) retained the plan of a threefold division of the months, but lost the originally con-
comitant arrangement of the ten equal divisions of
each part into for
tithis,
whence much
Greeks and Romans
months of alternately
alike in
thirty
counting lunar
and twenty-nine days.
Indian astronomers, on the other hand, the accurate and elaborate into equal tithis,
of
its
ensued
difficulty
who
division of the
must have long ago
lost the
retain
month
thought
originally threefold partition, for the Indians
— NEW MOON
ATRI AND THE
PART I]
i8i
count each month as composed not of three periods
and a dark
of time, but of a light
To one more direct
our attention
chiefly
Vedic
celebrated
for
^
personage
let
ever-victorious
Trita,
misfortunes.
Agni,
his
and especially the Aswins, moved by
Indra,
come
misfortunes,
means of a hundred extricate
him from
the
to
acts,
us
Atri— Atri who,
namely, to
:
conquering and
unlike the is
lunar
half.
help
of
Atri,
his
and by
a hundred devices, they
captivity,
whether from a dark
cavern or from a burning chasm.
They make
the
time of his captivity even pleasant to him, giving
him refreshing
One
drink.
of our
own
poets
may
help us to under-
stand the Vedic metaphor of Atri's darksome cave. In
the
Samson Agonistes of Milton, the
hero,
describing his blindness, says "
The sun to me is dark And silent as the moon When she deserts the night, Hid
^
"
The
in
her vacant interlunar cave."
Luni-Solar year
instant
month
of conjunction Chaitra.
is
used for the regulation of festivals
commences at present at the Sun and Moon in the Sidereal The Hindu Lunar months invariably consist of
and domestic arrangements
;
it
of the
1
ANCIENT INDIAN ASTRONOMY
82
Atri
is,
[part
believe, a personification of the
I
New
Moon, and thus we may understand how he sometimes described as hidden while at other times he
a dark
in
spoken of as
is
chasm, when the uppermost thought poet's at
mind
was the custom
moon From his
Atri
delivered
is
especially
winter and
at
summer
the
On
the calendrical year.
at
sacrifice
many
in
the time of
marked
solstice,
as
India,
in
up
other countries, to offer
Moon,
a fiery
in
by the "hundred acts" of worship and it
cave,
the Vedic
in
burning sun.
the
dark cave, or burning chasm,
which
is
the close conjunction of the
is
time with
that
i.
festivals
New
of the
beginning of
or the
one occasion
we hear
^
of
Lunar days ; and the whole month is divided into two equal parts of fifteen Tithis each, the one called Shukla or Shuddh Paksha the bright half or increase of the Moon the the dark half or decrease of the other Krishna or Vadya Paksha Moon." (The Indian Calendar for the year 1892.)
thirty Tithis, or
—
1
"
5.
Wilson's
When,
spread
one
;
—
Rig
thee
with
bewildered,
Veda,
the
Silrya,
vol.
son
of
darkness,
knowing
iii.
the the
not
his
p.
297,
Asura worlds
were
beheld
like
When, Indra, Swarbhanu which were
place.
thou wast dissipating those illusions of
Mandala, V. xl. Swarbhanu over6.
spread below the Sun, then Atri, by his fourth sacred prayer,
dis-
covered the Sun concealed by the darkness impeding his functions. (Siirya speaks) Let not the violator, Atri, through hunger 7. swallow with fearful (darkness)
me who am
thine
;
thou
art Mitra,
;
PART
ATRI AT THE SUN'S ECLIPSE
1.]
Atri coming to the
183
assistance of the sun,
which
had been hidden by the demon Swarbhanu.
This
darkening of the sun
generally understood
is
to
refer to a solar eclipse.
A
take place at the time of
new moon.
a
little
puzzling to find Atri,
Atri personifies the
new
moon, saving
the
if
sun
solar eclipse can only
from
eclipse
being the cause of the disaster
Veda
enemy, of the gods of the Aswins
—we
light
may suppose
instead
a
—Agni, It
those divisions "
by
his
whose wealth 8.
is
Then
truth
the
it
sacred
fourth
The passage
sun.
me.
so that
;
;
is
the
in
prayer
(Atri),
9.
The
Sun,
be
also
Atri,
and
or
fourth
that
of
"
discovered
royal
difficult
Varuna both
the
one protect
applying the stones together,
and adoring them with reverence,
placed the eye of Surya in the sky of Swarbhanu.
third
no doubt a
propitiating the gods with praise,
may
rather
could be said that Atri
do thou and the
Brahman
at,
divisions of lunar time
were considered as personified by an eclipse terminated
and
Indra,
that the Vedic bard
than causing the sun's eclipse.
number of
an
not
friend,
chose to represent him as being present
that a certain
of
but as in the Rig
;
always appears as
Atri
It is
whom
;
he dispersed the delusions the Asura, Swarbhanu, had
enveloped with darkness, the sons of Atri subsequently recovered
no others were able
(to effect his release)."
;
1
ANCIENT INDIAN ASTRONOMY
84
[part
i.
the fact that Atri was present at the eclipse
still
of the sun seems to
rather in favour of than
tell
against the supposition that
new moon.
cation of the time of
The posed Atri,
Atri was a personifi-
four astronomical interpretations here pro-
for
are
Rudra, all
Maruts,
the
harmonious
with
to the four discussed in
my
and
in the
must
entitled
Astronomy
Trita
and supplemental at
Rome,
Veda.
They
Paper read
Rig
to a great extent all stand
They have been very
Aptya, and
or
briefly stated,
fall
but
together. if
indeed
an astronomic basis does, as suggested, underlie Vedic imagery, Sanscrit scholars, with the science of etymology at their to follow
command,
will
easily
be able
up and pronounce upon the value of the
clues here hazarded.
VIII
THE CHINESE CALENDAR, WITH SOME REMARKS WITH REFERENCE TO THAT OF THE CHALDEANS [Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Arckaology, December 1901]
The star
Lunar Zodiac
Chinese
groups named Siou.
divided
is
into
Gustav Schlegel
28
in his
Uranographie Chinoise having enumerated these 28 siou
—or
—says voyant
"
:
he translates that term,
as
La premiere chose
la liste
mence par
le
qui nous frappe en
des 28 domiciles, domicile Kio, ou
c'est
quotes from " as follows
'' :
'
le
^
quelle com-
preuve
Vierge,
la
positive que c'etait avec ce domicile
du commencer primitivement,"
"domiciles"
que I'annee a
and further on he
Eul-ya cette antique dictionnaire,"
L' Ancien des
constellations, c'est
Uranographie Chinoise,
Kio
p. 79. 1S&
et
1
THE CHINESE CALENDAR
86
Kang
.
.
sont les
ils
.
cause de cela on tions
:
et
'
exactement adds
:
"
lancien des constella-
signe d'Ancien des constellations
le
Kang."^
les domiciles J^zo et
Ce nom de Ancien
exactement a
celui
i.
des domiciles, et a
chefs
nomme
les
[part
'
est
Schlegel
des constellations r6pond
de Princeps Signorum que
les
astrologues remains donnerent au bdlier ; a lepoque
ou cette constellation
C'est-a-dire que le signe qui annoncait
printemps.
commencement de
le
Princeps signorum, tions.
Mais ces
d'autres
noms
mique que '
Sing-king
regions,
1'
par
I'annee
Ancien,
etoiles
I'asterisme
Legions
les
la
le
.
I
.
.
:
fait
astrono-
I'ann^e.
Chefs
la creation
l^cliptique et les
le
Chef, des constella-
les
celestes.
premier,
Vierge portent encore
des
Le quatre
Elles president elles sont traver-
sept clartds
commencent {leur revolution) par
The
le
Kio ouvrait
nomme
les
'
de
etait
qui tous ont rapport au
aux metamorphoses de sdes
signe de lequinoxe du
etait
(7 playlets)
elles."
concluding words from the Sing-king which
have marked
in
italics
—giving
as they
do the
opinions held by ancient Chinese writers respecting the
first
divisions ^
of their
Lunar Zodiac
Uranographie Chinoise,
p. 87.
— may
PART
CHINESE AND HINDU LORE
I.]
187
remind us of the opinions held by Indian
nomers as
astro-
to their first division of the Zodiac.
In Whitney's comments on the Sdrya Siddhdnta
—
The
point of the fixed
Hindu
sphere, from which longitudes are reckoned,
and at
he observes
:
"
initial
which the planetary motions are held by all schools of
Hindu astronomy is
to
have commenced at the creation,
the end of the asterism Revati, or the beginning
of Acvini."! It
is
impossible to read of these two traditions
concerning the
Hindu
the
suspecting
point of the Chinese and of
initial
ecliptic series of constellations,
some underlying cause common
without to
both
traditions.
The Chinese and Hindu metrically opposite
to
initial
points are dia-
each other on the
Calendrically speaking, such opposite points
ecliptic.
may be
taken to mark the same season and the same month
—as
for instance, in the old
Accadian calendar the
month names
referred to the
with the sun.
The month
stars
in conjunction
of the sacrifice of right-
eousness corresponded to the month during which the sun was in conjunction with the sacrificial 1
V.
p.
93.
Ram.
—
1
THE CHINESE CALENDAR
88
[part
i.
This same month counted (theoretically) from the arrival of the
of
sun at the end of Revati and beginning
AswinI— the
is in
initial
point of the Indian Zodiac
India called, after the star group in opposition,
Chaitra.
Spica {a Virginis)
is
the chief star of the
shatra Chaitra, and Spica also
Nak-
the chief star of
is
the Chinese siou Kio, " Fastdrisme," which, according to the tradition
above recorded,
" ouvrait I'annee,"
and which (together with the neighbouring "siou Kang), president aux metamorphoses de " sont traversees
commencent
To any
par I'ecliptique, et les sept clart^s
leur revolution par elles."
interested in the history of the Chinese
calendar, or rather to
of the
la creation,"
human
any interested
in the history
race, the question as to the
reason for
the choice of this point and for the equal honour in
which
it
was held
(as
we have
seen) by the Accadian,
the Hindu, and the Chinese nations,
is
a question
worthy of close attention. In former Papers contributed to these Proceedings,
I
have drawn attention
in ancient
seem
to the
many
indications
cuneiform and Indian literature,
to point to the conclusion that
which
about 6,000
B.C.,
—
"
;
PART
some
in
and
part of Asia
far north as
"
CHAITRA, SriCA
KIO,
I.]
189
a latitude probably as
in
40 degrees, a calendar was instituted by
some ancient race of men,"
that this calendar dealt
with a year beginning- at the season of the winter solstice,
and that the
chosen to mark the
stars
which
solstitial
at that date
year were those
first
degrees of the constellation Aries
with
—and
the sun.
were
in the
in conjunction
the bright star Spica in opposition to I
suggested that the Accadians and later
Babylonians, as also the Aryans of India, continued to follow as star-marks for their years the constella-
tions
chosen
calendar,
by the
institutors
and that therefore
of
ancient
this
in the course of
the beginning of the years of these peoples
gradually solstice,
away from
the
season of
moved winter
the
approaching always nearer to the vernal
equinox, close to which point at
ages
the time of the
fall
we
find
it
"
bound
of the Babylonian power
while in India, where the star-mark Spica followed, the year
is
still
now begins about twenty days
after the spring equinox.
Indications in
Mesopotamian and Indian
me
ture have
seemed
clusions.
The opposed
to
to point to the
litera-
above con-
view, held by most writers
O
THE CHINESE CALENDAR
I90
on the
subject,
is
[part
that only at the late date (about
the beginning of our era)
when
the stars of Aries in
conjunction, and the star of Spica in
marked the marks
I
in
opposition,
were they adopted as
equinoctial season,
beginning of the year by Babylonians
for the
and Hindus
i.
respectively.
think that the position held by the star Spica
Chinese ancient astronomical tradition
claimed as telling strongly
opposed
solstitial as
to
in
favour of an originally
an originally
equinoctial
beginning of the sidereal years of the
Hindu, and Chinese nations,
may be
for
Accadian,
never has the claim
been made that the Chinese years were counted from the vernal equinox
;
but on the contrary the opinion
has been very generally held and expressed by
Chinese scholars that at some remote date the new year's festival
was held
in
China
at the season of
the winter solstice.
Gustav Schlegel, one of the subject that,
latest writers
of Chinese astronomy, though
"selon
commence
I'opinion
g6n6rale
toujours avec le
he admits
I'annee
solstice
on the
chinoise
d'hiver,"
has
put forward a view entirely opposed to this generally
held
opinion
:
according
to
his
theory,
the
— PART
16,916 B.C.
I.]
:
191
Chinese have from the most remote times counted their
years, as
they count them at present
from the new moon nearest
i.e.,
mid-way
to the season
and the spring equinox as we have seen that the
between the winter solstice
and as he
is
convinced
—
—
beginning of the Chinese year was originally marked
by the asterism Kio, he demands as the lowest possible date for this origin of the Chinese calen-
when
dar, that of 16,916 B.C.,
marked, by solstice
its
the constellation Kio
heliacal rising, the
mid-season between
and equinox.
Schlegel brings forward
many
learned and
in-
genious arguments drawn from Chinese literature to support this
theory.
second hand, and
in
It
a small space, to state
arguments with a view volumes are
full
would be impossible
to
rebutting
me when
the grounds
fairly his
them.
His
of valuable information concerning
the " Uranographie Chinoise," but to
at
it
has not seemed
reading and re-reading his work, that
on which
he
relies
are
sufficiently
established to support the high claims to antiquity
which he puts forward
for the origin of the
modern
Chinese method of counting the year from the midseason between solstice and equinox.
THE CHINESE CALENDAR
192
has on the contrary seemed to
It
historical
[part
me
grounds a theory may be arrived
will furnish
that on at
which
a reasonable explanation of the present calendrical methods,
somewhat exceptional Chinese and which
i.
will, if it
is
accepted, strongly reinforce
the grounds for holding the already general opinion that the year in ancient times in
China was
solstitial.
That opinion once established must lead us with increased confidence to attribute the honour traditionally paid initial
by Hindus and Chinese
alike to the
point of their respective ecliptic series of star
groups
to,
as
I
have
said, their
common
acquaint-
ance with a calendar established on high authority at the date in
The
year
been pointed
round numbers of 6,000 in
China
out,
midway between
is
luni-solar,
b.c.
and
it is,
as has
counted from the season exactly
the winter solstice and the spring
equinox. It is
counted from this mid-season and not from
the sun's opposition
to,
or
conjunction with, any
particular star or star group.
a sidereal but a tropical year at
exactly the
Gregorian year,
same length
It ;
as
and is
therefore not
is it
is
our
estimated
European
GREGORIAN YEAR,
PART I]
We
1582 A.D.
here in Europe are not yet tired of con-
gratulating ourselves on
the scientific success at-
tained by Pope Gregory XIII.,
with the help of
calendar, a
many a
as
established,
learned
reform
when men and
of
the
—
civil
and
ecclesiastical
in
1582 he,
astronomers,
earlier
method of securely binding
airniversaries
same
193
all
—
Julian
recurring
to the exact
season of the year.
Calculations
for the
arrangement of the Julian
calendar had strained the scientific powers of the
astronomers of Greece and
Rome
in Caesar's time,
but the length of the year estimated by them was
twelve minutes greater than that arrived at by the
astronomers of Gregory's later date.
To
find, as
we
do,
in
the far east of Asia a
people counting the length of their luni-solar year with
the
same accurate exactness
as
that
only
attained to as late as 1582 a.d. in Europe, might well cause
us surprise,
were
it
not that history
furnishes us with an easy explanation of this exact identity of Chinese lations,
and European calendrical
by teaching us
the Chinese
now count
that the calendar their years,
calcu-
by which
and by which
they have counted them for nearly three hundred
THE CHINESE CALENDAR
194
was
years,
really
well
known, and
for
these methods must
novelty added to
Peking by
compiled at
whom
ecclesiastics, to
its
[part
i.
Roman
the Gregorian methods were
whom,
indeed, the study of
have possessed the charm of intrinsic utility
and
scientific
interest.
Two
learned
Jesuit
Fathers obtained
the
in
17th century great influence at the Chinese Court.
In 1600
Matteo Ricci was allowed with
A.D.,
companions
to settle at Peking,
remainder of his
life
in
his
where he spent the
teaching mathematics and
other sciences. In
Johann
1610,
learned
Jesuit
Adam
Father,
von
"was
Schall,
sent
out
another partly
in
consequence of his knowledge of mathematics and
astronomy to the
to
China," and was ultimately " invited
Imperial
Court
at
Peking, where he was
entrusted
with the
reformation
and
direction
of
the
school."
'
public
mathematical
^
Under "
the
of the calendar
these circumstances,
when we read
that
according to the Chinese work, Wan-nian-shu, or
Ten thousand-year '
Calendar,' in which
Chambers's Encyclopedia, 1901.
the
ele-
— PART
CHINESE CALENDAR,
I.]
1624 A.D.
ments of the Chinese calendar from 1624 192
r
A.D. are calculated
195 a.d. until
by the Astronomical Board
New
Peking, the earliest date of the Chinese
at
Year's
Day is January 21st, and the latest February 20th "^ when we read this and remember that Johann
—
Adam
von Schall was
1624
in
charge of the
in
we need
reformation of the calendar at Peking,
no surprise
to
find
" the
elements of the Chinese
calendar" calculated in advance that
279
for
tropical,
Indeed the influence of
Gregorian, years.
is
the European ecclesiastic
in
these calculations
clearly to be recognized in their very form, for
are easily reminded by
it
of the
Easter from the present time to year of
a.d. inclusive," prefixed to
Common
smile
Prayer.
we
when
see
the
"
Table
—such
is
we
to find
and such a
our English Books
And we may
be tempted to
jealously
Chinese nation so peaceably
—accepting a
feel
— perhaps
conservative unwittingly
reformation of their calendar at the
hands of foreigners, and contrast with
this accept-
ance the turbulent opposition with which for so ^
On
Chronology and the Construction of the Calendar, with Compictation of Time compared with
special regard to the Chinese
the European.
By
Dr. K. Fritsche.
'
THE CHINESE CALENDAR
196
long the introduction of the into
the
[part
i.
Gregorian calendar
many European countries was resisted. It may well be that the Jesuit Fathers to whom Emperor entrusted the reformation of the
calendar were themselves not aware of the magni-
tude of the reformation they were introducing into
Chinese
methods,
festival of the
new
for
they found
year, as
we may
the
luni-solar
learn from the
Chinese literature of that date, occurring close to
which they then so
that season to
bound
But, according to the theory which in this Paper
it.
I
scientifically
am
anxious to advocate, this season
tween
solstice
be-
and equinox had not been chosen
with definite intention as the Chinese,
midway
but had only
first
of the year by the
been arrived
at,
con-
in
sequence of an age-long following on their part of a star group, chosen thousands of years earlier, by
one of
their ancient emperors, as that
from which the
beginning of their year was to be counted.
This
group was the Siou (domicile) Hiu, the eleventh sion of their stars ^
Lunar Zodiac, and
^ Aquarii and The
a Equulei.
it is
star
divi-
marked by
the
(See diagram.)
28 Siou are not of equal extent, and there are
many
discrepancies in the Chinese tables which profess to give the
PART
TCHUEN-HIO,
I.]
There
the
in
is
2510-2431 B.C.
History
great
197
of
China
a
description given of a reformation of the calendar
by the Emperor Tchuen-Hio, whose
carried
out
date
placed at ^2510-2431
is
of the sun and
moon
The
e.g.
close to the Siou
description clearly referred to as a
choice of the scholars,
been
Hiu
la Chine.
He
Tchuen-Hio's
fact
for
of this
mark Hiu has, for European obscured by a most unfortunate
star
paraphrase made use of by Pere de translator into
this
is in
mark given
But the
the beginning of the year.
conjunction
Mailla,
the
French of the Histoire Gdndrale de gives us in the passage describing
reformation
the
phrase,
"15°
du
Verseau," instead of the Chinese expression, " the
Siou Hiu."i
The Siou Hiu extends over some number
of degrees attributed to each.
eisfht
or ten
In the diagram, therefore,
only the stars which compose the three adjoining domiciles, Niu, Hiu, and Wei are noted, and they are connected by straight
lines,
according to Chinese astronomical custom. ^
The
fact that P.
de Mailla has so paraphrased the Chinese
by the
original
has thus plainly been
Legge.
In answer to a question addressed to him on the subject,
attested
late
Professor
he wrote, in December 1894, to Mr. H. W. Greene, Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, as follows " In the passage from :
P.
de Mailla's History, that writer
phrasing 'the star group Hiu.'"
is
both translating and para-
;
DU VERSEAU"
"15°
PARTI.]
degrees of the
199
Aquarius
ecliptic in the constellation
to restrict to one degree the given star
;
mark was an
inaccuracy serious enough in an astronomical state-
ment, but this inaccuracy
pared with
the
further
when com-
as nothing
is
of facts
distortion
entire
occasioned by P. de Mailla's use of the ambiguous phrase, " 15° du Verseau,"
be taken the
sign,
ambiguous because
it
can
to refer either to the fifteenth degree of
or
of
the
constellation
"du Verseau"
(Aquarius).
The
Siou Hiu
situated, as stated above, in
is
the constellation Aquarius (see diagram), but astro-
nomers reading
P.
de
understood the phrase
in its
have therefore been led
Tchuen-Hio
peror
Chinese
year to
and
astronomically
as,
the
1
5°
the
and
or
constellation,
but
is
and
sense,
beginning
of the
the 15° Aquarius (sign) has star
technical
Em-
believe that the
to
fixed
have
translation
Mailla's
sign
technically
of
Aquarius speaking,
no reference only that
the
to
point
any of
the ecliptic to which the sun attains exactly at the
mid-season
between
winter
solstice
and
spring
equinox, they have taken for granted that 2,500
b.c.
the Chinese year began at that point, and therefore
THE CHINESE CAEENDAR
200 at
same season
the
as
does
it
at
[part
the
i.
present
time.
But as we now learn on the high authority of Professor that
Legge
that
Tchuen-Hio
is
it
was
to the star
have bound the
recorded to
beginning of the year, we know that is
begun
at the winter solstice,
season,
between
When due
it
the record
and not
at the
correction of P. de Mailla's paraphrase
made
in the
passage recording Tchuen-
in the
still
a difficulty to be
account of this event given
Histoire Gdn^rale de la Chine, or rather
say that
it is
when we have
it is
stated that
it
in the
should
I
corrected P. de Mailla's
paraphrase that this difficulty appears. history
mid-
and the equinox.
Hio's reform, there remains
overcome
if
year in Tchuen-Hio's time must have
true, the
has been
group Hiu
For
in the
was from the new moon
at
the beginning of spring, and near to the star group
Hiu, that the year was then and henceforth to be counted, and this statement contains an astronomical contradiction.
Our knowledge
of the precession of
the equinoxes teaches us that the star group
Hiu
in
Tchuen-Hio's time did not mark the beginning of spring,
but
rather
the
very middle of winter.
"THE STAR GROUP HIU"
PARTI]
Unless, then,
we throw
201
aside as worthless the whole
record of Tchuen-Hio's reform of the calendar, are driven to suppose that
some Chinese
we
historian,
ignorant of the precession of the equinoxes, and writing at a date when, owing to that
the
first
new moon
precession,
of spring was indeed close to
the star group Hiu, and that of the winter solstice far distant
from
it
— that
he
may
well
in
the
record with
substituted
this historian
made what
have considered a necessary correction which he was
" first
the
day
of
dealing,
spring
"
for
and the
Nor need we much blame making such a correction, when we
"mid-winter season."
him find
for
ourselves
by
driven
stress
modern
of
en-
lightenment to correct his correction, and to read " mid-winter " where he has written "beginning of spring."
Let us now read with due corrections, between square brackets, the record of Tchuen-Hio's reformation of the calendar as given in the Histoire Gdn^rale
de la Chine.
"Tchuen-Hio jouissoit I'empire,
Ce
fut
dans cette
.
.
.
profitant
transfera ville,
sa
de
la
cour a
paix
dont
Kao-yang,
que toujours passionn^ pour
THE CHINESE CALENDAR
202 la
connoissance des astres,
etablit
il
[part
i.
une espece
d'acad^mie, composee des Lettr^s les plus habiles
en cette science.
On
tions anciennes qu'on et
recueillit toutes les
compara avec
les
observa-
modernes,
on poussa I'astronomie a un degre de perfection
surprenant.
Les regies sdres
qu'ils
etablirent pour
supputer
mouvements du
soleil,
de
les
la lune,
pianettes, et des ^toiles fixes, acquirent a
Hio
titre
le
fondateur de
que
ces
regies
ne
venues jusqu'
pas
de
C'est une perte
astronomic. soient
Tchuen-
meme
glorieux de restaurateur, et la vraie
des
a
nous. "
Apres plusieurs anndes de
determina
qua
I'avenir I'annee
travail,
Tchuen-Hio
commenceroit a
la
lune la plus proche du premier jour du printems
[proche du solstice d'hiver] qui vient vers
Verseau
;
[vers le Siou Hiu] et
le calcul qu'il
en avoit
de son regne
les pianettes
la constellation le ciel, il
dont
choisit
le
Cke
fait,
et
savoit par
que dans une des annees devoient se joindre dans
milieu est vers le 6° des Poissons)
cette ann6e-la
la
il
du
(constellation qui occupe 17° dans
calendrier, d'autant plus soleil
comme
le 15°
pour
que
la
premiere de son
meme
annee
le
lune se trouvoient en conjonction,
le
cette
PART
TCHUEN-HIO'S REFORM
I.]
premier d'hiver]." It
du
jour
printems
jour
[le
203
du
solstice
'
may, of course, be objected to the proposed
correction of the season in this passage as follows
:
granting that either the star mark Hiu, or the spring season said to have been chosen by Tchuen-Hio,
must have been erroneously recorded
in the
Histoire
Gdndrale, the probabilities are equal as to which
element
statement
in the
is
or
is
Hio may have chosen the moon
nearest to the
day of spring, and may have named some tion other than
was
Hiu near
to
which
in conjunction with the sun.
historian,
constella-
this first
The
first
late
moon
Chinese
instead of tampering as above supposed
may have
with the recorded season,
name
Tchuen-
not true.
of the
star
substituted the
group Hiu, which
marked the beginning of
at
his date
spring, for that
"other"
chosen by Tchuen-Hio.
But the
probabilities
not equally balanced.
must take
this point are in reality
For, in the
first
instance,
we
into consideration the very general opinion
that the year in solstice,
on
and the
China anciently began fact that this *
Vol.
I. p.
at the winter
season was in Tchuen33.
THE CHINESE CALENDAR
204
[part
i,
Hio's time so accurately marked by the junction of
Wei and Hiu
the star groups
we must
the
to
star
Hiu
group
Chinese hterature, which connect with traditions
Many
Hio.
concerning the
where
on
Hiuen-hiao par appelle
Emperor Tchuenthis
he
thus
quotes
in
the
Eul-ya.
statement
a
encore ce
Signe
Pere
of the
as
effect,
and
for
comments
"On Hui
Constellation
la
ancient
in
very specially
it
passages in the works
Gaubil are to be met with to instance
many
further take into consideration the
references
and
(see diagram),
designe (sic)
Tchouen-Hio."
on
;
Gaubil
"
Le Signe Hiuen-Hiao est celui que nous appelons Amphora. Le dictionnaire [Eul-ya] met adds,
dans ce Signe
la Constellation
Hiu
;
c'est-a-dire
que
Signe commen^oit par quelque d6gr6 de cette
le
L'Histoire
Constellation. I'eau est le
L'Eul-ya
Chinoise
asseure
que
symbole du r^gne de Tchouen-Hiu
{sic).
dit
formellement que Hiuen-hiao Signe
Celestedu Zodiaquedesigne I'Empereur Tchouen-Hiu {sic)y^
Schlegel also
the soul of '
tells
Tchuen-Hio
Observations
us that the Chinese placed
in the constellation
Mathimatiques, Astronomiques,
et publiees par le P.
Etienne Souciet, tome
iii.
Hiu.
&c.,
pp. 31-33.
redigees
— PART
TCHUEN-HIO AND HIU
I.]
But not only
Hiu
is
associated with the
Chinese
in
205
literature closely
Emperor Tchuen-Hio
also
it is
:
closely bracketed with the season of the winter sol-
Schlegel gives
stice.
many
quotations to this effect
from Chinese authorities, but he would refer
back time between 14,000 and
allusions to the far
13,000
season, not
that
at
when Hiu was
B.C.,
Tchuen-Hio's
such
all
in opposition to the
conjunction with
in
sun
as
it
at
date.
Of Hiu he
writes
:
Hiu, ou Tertre fundraire} " C'est
cet
I'heure
tsze
d'hiver.
.
sur
la
la
culmination
.
Au
solstice
d'hiver,'
divination par la tortue,
'
la
dit le
M^moire
course du
et des astres n'est pas encore complete, et
consequemment et vides
comme
delaisses
{Hiu).'
Le
solstice
consider^ par les Chinois orphelin
nous
d'hiver
comme
la
done
dtait
position d'un .
par
litdralement
traduire
sont
des orphelins [Kou)
au
pref^rons
soleil
ils
tombeau de ses parents.' pere Noel a traduit {Hiu) par Vacuum, Vide '
a
{\\^ de la nuit) annongait le solstice '
.
dont
asterisme
.
.
;
Le
mais
Tertre
funeraire."^ ^
Uranographie Chinoise,
p.
214.
P
"
Ibid. p. 217.
—
THE CHINESE CALENDAR
206
Taking these various passages
we
are,
I
[part
i.
into consideration,
think, led to feel that the probabilities in
favour of Tchuen-Hio having chosen the star group
Hiu
to
mark,
solstice, are
paratively
mark
in
conjunction with the sun, the winter
greater than those in favour of a com-
modern choice of
group as a
that star
beginning of spring.
for the
Reading the passage of the Histoire G^ndrale as corrected above,
we may assume
Tchuen-Hio
that
intended to establish sure rules by which the Chinese
were
count their years from the
for the future to
solstice,
and from the conjunction of sun and moon
close to the star
group Hiu.
But we also know that
the following of these sure rules
was an
impossibility.
Either the season or the star mark must in the long course of ages have been abandoned.
be a
would
perhaps an impossible, task to ascer-
difficult,
how far, made under
It
or in
tain
what manner, the attempt was
successive dynasties to carry out the
injunctions of
Tchuen-Hio.
fucian Analects that
who had asked
him,
answer
in
"
We
how
read to his
in
the Con-
"disciple,"
the government of a
country should be administered," the Master said as the
first
of five rules
— "Follow
the seasons of
PART
HIU
I.]
2205 B.C.-1600 A.D.
Hsia."
And
tor says,
"Confucius approved the
in his
note on this text the commenta-
dynasties since the Ch'in." in
sway,
which the
Hea
During
^
B.C.,
Tchuen-Hio might have been
of
much
out
difficulty, for at the
to the constellation
Hiu
at the date of Confucius,
carried out with-
still
(see diagram),
551-479
b.c, this
Judging from the
we may,
take
think,
it
nearest to
have been
longer the case. I
the cen-
the sure rules
new moon
the winter solstice the sun would
near
all
the
all
Hsia dynasty held
or
from 2205 to 1766
i.e.,
Hsia
rule of the
His decision has been the law of
dynasty.
turies
207
for
final
granted
in or
though
was no result,
the
that
Chinese followed the star mark and not the season appointed for the beginning of the year by TchuenHio.
And
thus following the star mark, the begin-
ning of their year imperceptibly receded from the solstice,
1600
in
and approached the spring equinox, so A,D. the Jesuit fathers
found the year
beginning at the new moon, "vers
and hence solstice '
at the season
and the spring
midway between
still
Siou Hiu," the winter
equinox.
Legge, Chinese Classics, vol.
ch. X.
le
that
i.,
Confucian Analects, book
xv.,
—
—
THE CHINESE CALENDAR
2o8
[part
i.
In a former Paper contributed to these Proceedings^
suggested that
I
on Gudea's
the inscription engraved
in
diorite statue
we had evidence
of a
reform of the already existing Accadian calendar in
much
use from a date
earlier than
Gudea's
in the
neighbouring Babylonian kingdom.
Gudea's date
B.C.— not much
is
placed by scholars at about 2800
earlier than at that
claimed in the
Chinese History for Tchuen-Hio.
Much honour
given by this priestly ruler of
Ningirsu, and to the goddess Bau, his
" to
Lagash
is
beloved consort," and the concluding lines of the inscription run as follows "
On
the day of the beginning of the year, the
day of the
made
:
:
one
festival of calf,
one
Bau, on which offerings were
fat
sheep, three lambs, six
grown sheep, two rams, seven pat of sab of cream, seven "
Such were the
full
dates, seven
palm buds. offerings
made
to the
goddess
Bau, in the ancient temple on that day."
The (Ninib)
generally received opinion as to Ningirsu is,
that he
sun"; and, as
was the god of the "southern
contended
I
1
in
my
February 1896, V.
Paper, the southern
p. 54,
PART
GUDEA AND TCHIIEN-HIO
I.]
sun,
if
we
think of the sun in
in its daily course,
may
fitly
209
yearly, not merely
its
represent the sun of the
winter solstice, while the goddess Bau = Gula
by whose very name
goddess
Aquarius, as
the
constellation
we may assume, was designated
Accadian astrological
in the
texts.
from Gudea's inscription concerning the new
If
Lagash
year's festival a reform in the calendar of
may
the
is
be inferred, by which the beginning of the year
was transferred from the Aquarius, tion,
we should
stars of Aries to those of
Lagash
find that the
and the great History of China,
same
story
— the
Lagash
inscrip-
us the
tell
inscription supplementing
the Chinese History in this important point
— that
whereas the account of Tchuen-Hio's reform has
been manifestly more or descent through year's
festival
human hands is
untampered - with
moment
to note
garbled
less :
in
long
its
that of Gudea's
new
a contemporaneous and utterly account.
It
is
also
of
some
one curious point of resemblance
in
the idea connected with the stars of Aquarius, by
the astronomers of countries so far distant from each
other as China and Mesopotamia. learnt,
may be
translated as
"
Hiu, as
we have
Vacuum," and the
— THE CHINESE CALENDAR
210
name
Genesis
i.
the
as
signification
If
Bau
of the goddess
by
2
we now
"
or
[part
i.
Bahu bears the same
Hebrew word
translated
in
void."^
accept Tchuen-Hio's reformation as a
re-adjustment of a previously-existing sidereal and originally solstitial
calendar,
we
the clue to the two so similar traditions
—containing
and the
Hindu and Chinese
quoted above, concerning the
of their Lunar Zodiacs
Kio
are at once given
first
and we
:
the star
Spica
point
initial
shall recognise that
in
opposition
to,
degrees of Aswini, z« conjunction with,
the sun, obtained the posts of leaders of the lunar series for the
same reason
the beginning of the
— namely, that they marked
year
at the winter solstice
6000
B.C.
To
this
same cause
I
have here, and elsewhere,
attributed the fact that in the Accadian calendar the stars of Aries held the
the first
month
same
position,
of the year, as the
and marked
month
of the
"sacrifice of righteousness."
In thus tracing back the history of the calendars of the ancient nations of the East, in observing the '
Sayce, Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archceology,
February 1874.
"BEHOLD THE PEOPLE
PARTI.]
IS
ONE"
211
identity of their earliest astronomical traditions,
and
noting the curious points of contact and divergence in
their later scientific
and mythological
impression seqms to force
more were
definitely, that " scattered
itself
ideas, the
upon us more and
before the races of mankind
abroad upon the face of the whole
earth," their ancestors
were capable of great
achievements, and possessed in
common
scientific
high
intel-
lectual aspirations.
We
in these later days, so picturing to ourselves
the past,
may be
freshly struck
ancient history, which
whole earth was of speech,"
tell
one
by the words of the
us of the time
when "the
language and
of
one
PART
II
PLATES.
PART PLATES
II.
XV., XVI., XVII., and XVIII.
In the foregoing pages arguments have been urged of
view
the
that
the
ecliptic
(speaking in round numbers) of 6000
some "ancient race
by
of
men"
bling those which
we recognize
Most of the arguments
in the
date
twelve
divisions;
and
of the Zodiac had then
been imagined under forms more or
also
support
had been portioned
B.C.,
into
that the twelve constellational figures
in
remote
the
at
circle,
closely resem-
less
heavens
at the present day.
in favour of this opinion are neces-
based on considerations connected with the phenomena of
sarily
the heavens, effected in the long course of ages by a slow revolu-
of the
tion
earth's
axis.
Astronomers
during
thousand years have carefully observed the the causes of this slow terrestrial tell
last two and studied
the
effects
movement, and they can now
us with confidence and exactness that the space of 25,868
years
is
required for the accomplishment of one such revolution
of the earth's
axis.
In our enquiry into the astronomy of the ancients not at
all
we need
turn our minds to the difficult subject of the causes, or
indeed even to the axis, further
fact,
movement
of this slow
than to realize fully that
duce a slow but continuous change
its
in the
effects
of the earth's
have been to pro-
apparent position of the
change not in their position relatively to each other, distances from the heavenly equator and its poles.
fixed stars, a
but in their
The
effort
to fully realize these effects
and measurements astronomer a most arduous task
calculations
;
must but,
by means of careful
prove
to
any but an
by aid of the mechanical
contrivance called a " precessional globe,"
much
of the difficulty 215
PLATES XV, XVI, XVII,
2i6 of the task
may be overcome.
have been drawn
XVIII.
The accompanying diagrams
from a precessional
be
which can
globe,
adjusted so as to show the position of the poles and equator amongst the fixed stars, at dates distant from each other by intervals of
538 years.^ have shown in continuous outline those constellations for whose first imagining it seemed to me as early a date might be I
claimed as that referred to
The
in dotted outline.
in
each diagram
;
all
others are given
strange figures of the " ancient constella-
drawn as they are represented on the globe ; but the fixed stars which mark these figures for observers of the heavens, I have not ventured to indicate, as to do so would have required great accuracy of drawing and measurement. tions " are here
It
not for a
is
moment
to
be contended that
all
the ancient
under the forms by which we have learnt to know them from classic representations, from Variants the poem of Aratos, and from the star list of Ptolemy. constellations were imagined exactly
many
of
atlases
of the
lish the relative
forms
figures
and on the is
are to
celestial
be met with in astronomical
globes in use to-day
;
and
to estab-
claims concerning the antiquity of these variant
a branch to
itself
of research.
That these constellations have indeed been well denominated " ancient " is scarcely to be denied, and our only wonder, when studying the subject, must be, not that some differences are to be met with as to the exact form under which, at different dates and
by
different nations, these figures
were delineated in the heavens,
but rather the wonder must be that (as archaeological research is always more and more clearly establishing) through many
thousands of years, and by nations long and widely separated, the
stars,
which
scattered in wild ^
1800 A.D.
is
to an unaccustomed observer seem to be and random profusion on the sky, should have
the date to
intervals of 538 years can
which the globe in question originally
be reckoned backwards or forwards from
refers
;
the
this date.
ANTIQUITY OF CONSTELLATIONS been divided into the same representing the
But though
distinct groups,
same mysterious
it
may be
217
and thought of
as
beings.
impossible to maintain that the Grecians
have handed down to us in an absolutely unchanged form the figures of the ancient constellations as they in
were
remote ages, yet many proofs may be cited
opinion,
first
imagined
in favour of the
not lightly or arbitrarily did astronomical
that
artists
venture to tamper with the Zodiacal and extra-Zodiacal figures.
Some
of these proofs have already been pointed out in the
foregoing Papers.
Attention will be drawn to others in the con-
sideration of the diagrams here given.
In Plates XV., XVI., XVII., and XVIII., the positions of the solstitial
and equinoctial colures amongst the
given at the date 5744
Had
B.C.
it
constellations are
been possible,
I
because such as
it is
should have
—
drawn these diagrams as at 6000 b.c. not only easier to deal with and to remember a round number
liked to have
that,
but also because at that date the
solstitial
passed through the ecliptic only one degree distant from the point of the Indian Zodiac
reason to believe was the
—a
initial
colure initial
point which there seems good point of many, other than Indian,
ancient Zodiacs.
Owing it
to the mechanical restrictions of the precessional globe,
was not possible to adjust
it
to
any more accurate date than
that of 5744 b.c. It will
in
not be necessary here to reiterate the considerations
favour of the opinion already advanced that the calendrical
importance of the constellation Aries in some nations, and symbolical importance in the mythology of others,
may
its
best be
explained by the supposition that the choice of this constellation as " Prince and Leader " of the signs was made not when its stars
marked the
spring equinox, but
when they marked the winter
solstice.
Let us rather take
this
opmion
as a working hypothesis,
and
—
PLATES
2i8
XV., XVI., XVII., XVIII.
turn our attention to the importance, in ancient symbolism, of the four constellations— Aries, Cancer, Libra,
and Capricornus
which, according to this hypothesis, marked \\i
^
3
o
R
PLATE XXI.
238
represented the sun, and that " it is quite possible that this significance was heightened by the introduction of some bright substance, such as gold foil."
He points out that the composite monsters of the slates, all of which are represented on certain ivories, which he names, are always associated with the sundisk.
He
believes these figures to have a symbolic meaning, though he does
not in his Paper claim the especial astronomic interpretations advocated.
I
have above
—
PLATE
XXII.i
In Grecian legend Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Andromeda, the seamonster (Cetus), and Perseus are associated together, and on the Grecian sphere
neighbouring constellations represent the
five
actors of the legend.
Studying these constellations as they must have appeared to observers of the heavens at different dates,
some reason
we
shall, I think, see
to attribute the imagining of the figure of the hero
Perseus to a later age than that of the other members of the group, and, on the other hand, there are considerations which
make
us hesitate whether
constellation
Andromeda
we should not at
an even
may
place the origin of the
date than those of
earlier
One
Cepheus, Cassiopeia, and the sea-monster. °
point in
the
legend, however, finds strong astronomic support from a study of the precessional globe
—namely, the
peia were personages of Ethiopian It will
be seen in Plate XXII.,
as far South as i8° early date of
6000
N. could the b.c.
fact that i.e.,
fig.
Cepheus and Cassio-
of tropical provenance. i,
that only in a latitude
figure of Cassiopeia
— have been imagined
— even
as that of a
at the
queen
seated in royal dignity, and visible in the northern quarter of the heavens.
By
referring to Plate
XV., we may learn that
in Lat. 45°
N, at
would have appeared in the southern quarter of the sphere, head downwards, while the figure of Cepheus could only have been observed by turning first to one and then to the other quarter of the sky. As, however, the head of Cepheus would have marked so exactly the solstitial colure 6000 B.C., it seemed that date, Cassiopeia
1
This plate has been drawn from the globe adjusted
5744 B.C. Lat. 18° N., and of 3588 See below at p. 246, and pp. 242, 243.
latitudes of ^
B.C., Lat.
to
the dates and
23° N.
239
;
PLATE
240 to
me
XXII.
only right to seek for a latitude in which his figure and that
of his queen should appear upright and in the
heavens
—a
which
latitude, therefore, in
it
same quarter of the
might be possible to
suppose these constellations had been originated as star-marks of
To
the solstitial season.
To
suppose
human
race,
seemed
to
if for
attain this object
was necessary to
it
globe to the very low latitude of i8° N.
set the
at
but
so wide a diffusion, not only of the
6000
b.c.
also
of astronomical science
and
authority,
Moreover, even
involve an historical unlikelihood.
the sake of suitably establishing the dignity of this regal pair
one were tempted to suppose the great improbability of schools of astronomy
existing,
and with equal authority
instituting constella-
tions as star-marks for the year, in regions as far north as Lat.
45° N. and as far south as 18°
N.— even
so, I
do not think
the
position of the constellations themselves in relation to the solstitial
colure as
shown
in the
diagram
is
by any means so convincingly
symmetrical as to force us to accept the date 6000
The head only
origin.
figure
B.C. for their
of Cepheus appears on the meridian, his
and the whole constellation of Cassiopeia
lie
considerably
to the east of that line.
Under
these circumstances
and therefore
at
it is
satisfactory to find at a later,
a more historically probable date, and
still
in
an
Ethiopian (tropical) latitude, a meridian line on and about which the constellations
Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Andromeda, and Cetus
form a well-balanced group. This meridian, but
it is
it is true, is not that of a solstice or an equinox one which marked a very important astronomical moment
—namely, the commencement
of the calendrical year
—the
year
counted from the entry of the sun into the constellation Aries. (See Plate XXII.
Of
,
fig.
2.)
the high calendrical importance attached through thousands
of years to this point in the sun's annual course
by the Accadian and Babylonian nations and by the Hindus down to the present
CASSIOPEIA day, astronomic records
241
Egyptian mythology and Chinese refer to
it
:
it
need
to find constellations imagined
us
surprise
testify.
have claimed,
traditions also, as I fore,
AND SEA-NYMPHS
to
not, there-
mark the
beginning of a year counted from that point, even at a date virhen this beginning did not coincide either with solstice or equinox.
3500
the approximate date
B.C. is
I
would suggest
in a latitude
not far from 23° N. for the origin of the constellations Cepheus, Cassiopeia, and probably also for that of Cetus.
The legend
tells
us that Cassiopeia by boasting of her
own
or
of her daughter's surpassing beauty incurred the enmity of the nereids.
She
is
"... To
The It
seems
to
astronomic basis
that starr'd Ethiop
queen that strove above
set her beauty's praise
sea-n)Tnphs, and their power offended."
me
that for this legend, as for
may be
assigned.
3500
b.c.
passed through the constellation Aquarius.
'
many
others,
an
the solstitial colure
The
stars of that
constellation might then not unfitly have been likened to sea
schools of astronomers and calendar keepers
divinities,
and
may have
exalted the praise, on the one hand, of the stars that
rival
marked a calendrical, and, on the other hand, marked a solstitial year.
A
of those that
curious fact as to the lines in which Aratos refers to the
must here be noted. Aratos versified " the Fhainotne?ia of the astronomer Eudoxos, who lived cir. B.C. 403-350." It has often been pointed out that constellation Cassiopeia
the facts concerning the constellations which Aratos and
Eudoxos
record " are to a great extent traditional and archaic, and belong to another and far earlier epoch." What is said of Cassiopeia is a case in point
ment
at line
;
for thus the poet deplores her pride
654
et seq.
— 1
Mihon,
// Penseroso.
and
its
punish-
—
PLATE XXn.
242 "
And now
she, too, her daughter's form pursues,
Sad Kassiepeia
Show from
;
nor seemly
But she head foremost
With knees divided
On
still
her seat her feet and knees above
boasts to equal
like a
tumbler
sits
;
:
since a doom must fall Panope and Doris." ^ :
Now in Eudoxos' time and in his latitude, though Cassiopeia's head did by a few degrees extend into the southern heavens, yet her position was not so deplorably ignominious as the poem would Three thousand years earlier the pity for her expressed by Aratos would have been more appropriate, for then her whole figure for observers in lat. 35° N. would have been visible in the suggest.
southern quarter of the sky, and her Lat. 23° N.),
would have been on the
not her head (as at
feet,
zenith.
These considerations may lead us to suppose that the idea of i.e., her reversed Cassiopeia's pride, and the fit punishment of it form in northern must have assumed position in the heavens, latitudes almost at as early a date as the constellation figures were
imagined in tropical
first
If this
be
so,
it is
latitudes.
indeed curious to find a legend which em-
bodied the atiimus of astronomic
rivalry
3500
B.C.
handed down
for
thousands of years, and repeated in what professed to be a somewhat treatise at a date
scientific
between 400 and 300
B.C.,
when
the
astronomic facts no longer tallied with those narrated in the legend.
As
to
Andromeda, the
classic
daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia
story describes ;
— except on legendary grounds — might equally well the beginning of a solstitial year 6000
and calendrical year 3500
The
her as the
but the constellation
B.C.,
itself
have naarked
or of a non-solstitial
B.C.
representation of a
human sacrifices in ancient times, may make us almost fear that the chained human victim had its place in the
sphere at the earlier
(solstitial) date.
and
terrible prevalence of
at the solstices especially,
^
The Phainomena or " Heavenly Display
"
of Aratos, ub, supr.
— ANDROMEDA The
6000
OR
3500 B.C.
243
chains which bind Andromeda's arms are fastened by
They appear
staples to the sky.
(at fig. i) at
driven into two important astronomic lines
6000 B.C. as though one of them into
i.e.,
the line of the equator, the other into that of the
solstitial colure.
This may, of course, be a mere coincidence, and should not be allowed to weigh at all heavily in the almost evenly adjusted balance of probabilities regarding the date of the origin of the
Andromeda.
constellation
Her
story
is
so interwoven, not only
with that of Cepheus and Cassiopeia, but also with that of the sea-
monster Cetus, that we should not hastily attempt to dissociate the
members of this group. The very interesting question
as to
what southern people
first
depicted the Ethiopic king and queen on the sphere cannot be
AVe know that the latitude in
answered on astronomic grounds.
which these
were imagined must have been
figures
tropical,
learn from the celestial globe in
if
the
But we cannot
date of their imagining was as early as 3500 B.C.
what was the longitude of the land Ethiopia proper, and parts of
which they were so imagined.
Arabia and India, in classic writings,
lie
within the tropics, and the term Ethiopia,
embraces
all
these countries.
Etymologists are, I beUeve, divided
in opinion as to
what
language the rather un-Grecian names, Cepheus and Cassiopeia,
were derived from.
Some
writers
have suggested
names Capuja and Cassyape
the Sanscrit
:
and
for their origin if,
as
I
have
already urged, the Aries-year was followed in ancient Vedic times in India, the Sanscrit derivation suggested will likely one.
Nor under these suppositions would
propose a possible
though
for this
all its classic
not the
name
Sanscrit
origin
for
the
it
be
difficult to
name Andromeda,
purpose we should have to deprive the legend of
and romantic charm.
Cassyape, in Sanscrit story,
of a gloriously beautiful queen, but of a " sage,"
might be that the constellation Andromeda Indian astronomers, represented merely a human
it
seem not an un-
also,
is
and
for ancient
sacrifice,
not that
—
PLATE
244
XXII.
of the beautiful daughter of a beautiful mother.
Rig Veda there is no legend of the sacrifice of a we meet with seven consecutive hymns referring real or symbolical, of
Sunahsepas, the son of a
Though in the woman, yet in it to the sacrifice,
who,
rishi or sage,
according to the commentators, had consented to yield his son up to this cruel fate.
The
prayers of the victim, addressed to
many
gods, at last result in his deliverance.
Two
other
hymns
in the
Rig Veda
relate to the great
of the sacrifice, real or symbolical, of a horse.
I
me
some of the considerations which have convinced praises of the
winged steed
i.e.,
ceremony
give at
p.
252
that the
of the constellation Pegasus,
and not merely the praises of an earthly horse, are the subject of these two hymns. The ceremony in question bore the name of Aswamedha, literally Horse-Sacrifice. In reading and comparing these two series of sacrificial hymns, some points of contact present themselves, and, observing
me that some Sanscrit word ending in Mcdha and conveying the meaning of huma?i sacrifice, might by ancient Indian astronomers have been attached to the constellation, which for us represents the hapless Andromeda for if we suppose that the constellations Cassiopeia and Cepheus were imagined in India, but adopted with an appropriate legend the names of the personages in the into the Grecian sphere legend at the same time suffering a Grecian change it would be this,
—
it
i.e.,
occurred to
sacrifice,
:
—
—
easy further to suppose that the Indian
name
of the constellation
near to them, transformed and misunderstood, in
Grecian story not merely a
human
came
sacrifice,
to represent
but that of the
much-to-be-pitied daughter of the proud Cassiopeia.
Whether these
fanciful speculations
concerning the names of
the actors in the ancient legend be adopted or not need not affect
our judgment as to the reasonableness, or otherwise, of the date,
3500 B.C., and of Lat. 23° N. group here discussed.
for the origin of the constellational
PLATE The
probable dates for the
are here given
—namely,
suggested:
marked, year
;
month
the
Ophiuchus,
Centaur,
his
the beginning of the calendrical Aries-
conjunction with the sun, the beginning of the seventh
of the
same
year.
It
not necessary, at that date, to
is
attribute a low latitude to the astronomers figure
:
Auriga,
round numbers of 3500 B.C. (fig. huge figure would have well
in
at that date
opposition,
in
or, in
imagining of four constellations
first
for
and Perseus. For the Centaur the date i) is
XXIII.i
in that of 35°
N., as
shown
in
who designed
this
the diagram, the whole
would then have been well above the horizon. The B.C. might perhaps be claimed for the Centaur. At that date, as I have assumed, the calendrical and (Compare Plate XVII. and Plate the solstitial year coincided. IX.) As between 6000 and 3500 B.C. I have often hesitated, but constellation
much
earlier
on the whole the
epoch of 6000
I
have come to think the
later date, as here given,
more probable. 2.
Fig.
—Again
at
the
date
3500
B.C.
and
in
35° N. I have drawn the constellation Ophiuchus as
sun
at the
the latitude
would have
season of the spring
appeared
in opposition to the
equinox
triumphing over the powers of darkness
;
it
— namely, the
scorpion on which he treads and the serpent which he crushes with his hands.
Although
at the
date in question Hercules' posi-
was not quite so commanding and years earlier (see Plate XIX.), yet thousand symmetrical as it was a XXIII., fig. 2) the heads of (Plate in the lower latitude given here tion in the northern heavens
^
The
figures in this plate
have been drawn from the globe adjusted to the Fig. 3, Figs, l and 2, 3589 B.C., Lat. 35° N.
following dates and latitudes.
3050
B.C.,
Lat. 35° N.
Fig.
4,
1443 b.c, Lat. 40° N.
245
—
PLATE
246
XXIII.
Hercules and of Ophiuchus would have been on the zenith, and one of them in the northern
these brothers might have been seen,
and the other
in the
southern quarter of the sky, strongly combat-
and conquering the
ing
forces
of winter and
darkness at the
season of the spring equinox.
— For Auriga,
have suggested the later date of 3000 then the bright star Capella, the most important star in
Fig.
3.
B.C., for
I
the constellation and one of the brightest in that part of the sky,
was on the meridian spring equinox
— and
in
conjunction with the sun at noon of the
in opposition
at mid-night of the
autumn
equinox.
The star Capella has, by several writers, been identified with the star " Icu of Babylon " mentioned in many of the Babylonian astrological texts.
of Babylon
identification
If this
of Capella and " Icu
" should be estabfished as correct,
we
ought, I suppose,
to credit Babylo7iian astronomers with the delineation of the figure
Auriga. Fig. 4.
— Unless we adopt
Cassiopeia, will
on the authority of the Cepheus, and Andromeda legend the date 3500 for Perseus, it
seem, I think, almost necessary to attribute the
one of 1433
B.C. for
much
the designing of this constellation.
earlier date the position of
Perseus
mihtates against the likelihood of as part of the figure of Perseus
its
— see
Plate XXII.,
later
At the fig.
2
having then been imagined
would have been
;
visible in the
northern and part in the southern hemisphere.
we may note the way
In favour of the later date figure of Perseus has
named still
been
fitted in, as
constellations, so that
it
in
which the
were, between already-
though restricted to a small space
it
retains heroic proportions.
The
whose strange alternations of magnitude may some malignant monster, was imagined by the astronomers who drew the figure of Perseus, as on the brow of the Gorgon Medusa. It star Algol,
well have suggested to the ancients the winking of the eye of
CENTAUR, OPHIUCHUS, AURIGA, PERSEUS will
be seen in the Plate how,
at the
247
date there given, this mysteri-
ous star exactly marked the equinoctial meridian. The northern latitude 40° N., suitable for the imagining of this constellation,
and
its
name
Perseus, seem to point to an Iranian
school of astronomers as the probable originators of this figure.
—
PLATE XXIV. be seen that by consulting the precessional globe it has been possible to suggest dates at which the various simple and composite human figures, represented on the (Grecian) sphere It
will
could have been originally imagined in an upright position, either
on the northern or southern meridian of the year
— that
is
at
some well-marked time
of either a cosmical or a calendrical year.
That many other of the remaining ancient constellations Canis Major and Canis Minor, Aquila, Cygnus, &c., were depicted and named
at
very remote dates, there can,
The wide-spread
traditions
an early origin for them.
I
It is
night,
year, rather
than
may have been
be
little
doubt.
probable that the heliacal rising of
certain bright stars in these constellations at
of the
think,
connected with these figures demand
their
the
some
culmination at
special season
or at mid-
?ioo?i
occasion for the interest taken in
them.
A
further study of the precessional globe with
this
thought
present would probably suggest approximate dates for the imagining of
some
of these constellations, small in extent but
marked by
bright stars. I will
now
only allude to the two remaining ancient constella-
— namely,
wide extent
to Argo and Pegasus. (Astronomy in the Rig Veda) the almost upright and symmetrical position of Argo 3000 B.C. may suggest the likelihood that at that date or perhaps a few hundred years later, and in a latitude about 12° higher than that given in
tions of
Glancing
at
Plate
X.
the diagram, this constellation was imagined. that all the stars of Argo, even the bright
It will
be observed
and southern Canopus at 35° N. would have been above the horizon and visible at midnight of the winter solstice. At noon of the summer solstice 248
ARGO AND PEGASUS
249
they would have been above the horizon, but invisible in conjunction with the sun.
But now turning our thoughts difficulty confronts
even to
this present a.d.
has held and
1903
:
downwards
b.c.
Pegasus as depicted on the globe
holds a reversed position in the heavens.
still
very fact that for
to the constellation Pegasus, a
us at every date from 6000
all
The
the other ancient constellations which repre-
sent living beings, it has been possible to find some season and some date at which they could have been observed upright in the sky, makes it a more imperative need to seek for some explanation of the anomalous treatment meted out by astronomers of old to the winged steed.
In
this
which
stress
of
will, I fear, at
and quite out of
difficulty, first
sight,
I
venture to
make
a suggestion
appear far-fetched and
line with other suppositions
fanciful,
put forward in
this
book.
My
suggestion
is
that an error concerning the right depicting
of this constellation was fallen into by
and
that this error
some astronomers of
old,
was handed down to us through the Grecian
school. If
on some
clear
autumnal or winter night we search
constellation Pegasus, not
on a globe or
map
we may quickly recognise mark the corners of an almost square on the vault of heaven. Then
quarter of the actual sky,
it
very extensive
towards the horizon and to the west,
this
we may
square
by four
exact and
very bright stars which
away from the lower and western corner of
for the
but in the southern
stretching still
farther
trace the faint stars
which mark the neck, and the somewhat brighter star which marks the head of the Demi-Horse while starting from the upper western :
corner of the square and stretching
and
to the west
we
still
higher towards the zenith,
detect the lines of fainter stars which
mark
the
and the hoofs of Pegasus. If we allow the four stars of the " square of Pegasus " still to mark the body of the horse, and fore legs
PLATE XXIV.
250
think of the upper lines of faint stars as marking
and of the lower ones
as
figure exactly reversed will
constellation, with the
marking still fit
in
fore legs
its
neck and head
and hoofs, the
within the hmiting lines of the
satisfactory result
not miserably floundering on
be seen
its
its
that
the winged steed,
back but upright and
our mental vision night after night pursuing
alert, will its
course
from east to west across the heavens.
rORE LEGS
THE SQUARE OF
PEGASUS
WEST.
^^<
AQUARIUS But even
to arrive at so satisfactory a result,
dare to propose without some other plea than so arbitrary a
its
we might scarcely mere desirabihty,
method of dealing with the reversed
position of
Pegasus, as that of thus correcting a supposed error on the part of early astronomers.
There is, however, I think, in Grecian and in Vedic legend some support to be found for the opinion that the original position of Pegasus was upright and not reversed.
—
—
PEGASUS ALWAYS REVERSED Though on
251
the Grecian astronomic sphere Pegasus appears
on no artistic monument, vase, or coin is he thus represented, and in Grecian legend he is ever a glorious and highly-prized friend and helper of gods and heroes. Amongst other achievements, we read of him that he produced with a blow of his hoof
reversed,
the inspiring fountain Hippocrene.
Veda we read of a swift horse, belonging to the who from his hoof filled a hundred vases of sweet liquor.
In the Rig Aswins,
Max nomy
Miiller has pointed out that the
The
Pagas.
called
stars
a and
/3
Aswins possessed a horse
Hindu
Arietis are in
these stars in
the possessors, according to
we look
Max
Miiller, of the
Pegasus in the sky, and observe
at
that constellation the bright stars
appear,
we
that
horse Pagas.
how
mark the head of Aries
understand how these Aswins might have
shall easily
them the
in front
swift steed Pegasus.
In two hymns addressed to the Aswins we read as follows
Mandala "
You
cask, a
filled
hundred
I.
—
Svikta cxvi.
and verse
jars
now
is
fountain, cask or vase. (see Plate
XXIV.),
if
from a
of wine."
from the hoof of your
As Pegasus
:^
7.
from the hoof of your vigorous steed, as
And again in the next hymn, cxvii. verse 6 " You filled for the (expectant) man a hundred (liquors)
If
closely following
by Vedic bards been imagined as possessing and driving of
astro-
and at p. 137 I have contended that Vedic times symbohsed the twin heroes, the Aswins,
called the "Aswins,"
his
vases of sweet
fleet horse."
represented his hoofs touch no well or
we
him
as suggested
above
hoof would indeed appear as almost
in the
But
if
depict
act of striking the vase in the constellation Aquarius, from which
the abundant waters gush forth. 1
Wilson's Uanslation of the Rig Veda.
—
—
PLATE XXIV.
252 I
have already alluded to the Aswamedha hymns
Veda
horse, but rather to a symbolic sacrifice of the
the constellation Pegasus.
from the hymns
in question
Let neither
I.
we proclaim
I will
quote
:
I,
MITRA
INDRA, RIBHUKSHIN,
Rig
an actual
winged horse of
In support of this opinion
Mandala "
in the
as probably referring not merely to the sacrifice of
— Sukta
nor
clxii.
VARUNA, ARYAMAN, AYU,
nor the Manits censure us
in the sacrifice the virtues of the swift
when
:
horse sprung
from the gods. "
When
2.
they, (the priests), bring
the presence (of the horse),
who
the prepared offering to
has been bathed and decorated
with rich (trappings), the various
-
coloured goat going before
him, bleating, becomes an acceptable offering to
INDRA
and
PtlSHAN. "
This goat, the portion of
3.
brought
first
with the
fleet
PUSHAN,
courser, so that
fit
for all the gods,
TWASHTRI
is
may
prepare him along with the horse, as an acceptable preliminary offering for the (sacrificial) food."
Looking
at Plate
XXIV.,
Figs,
i,
2,
we may observe how
constellation Capricornus " goes before " that of Pegasus,
may understand
the aspiration that Twashtri
the
and we
may prepare him
along with the horse as an acceptable preliminary offering. After details
many the
of
sacrificial
verses entering into minute and rather horrible "immolation" and even of the cooking of the
horse the 19th verse adds
" There
is one immolator of the radiant horse, which is and these words seem to carry us back from thoughts of an actual to a, in some way, symboHcal sacrifice, especially when
Time
"
;
at verse 2
1
we read
:
:
PEGASUS AND ASWAMEDHA " Verily
harmed
INDRA,
horses of
their cars),
The
the steeds of the
hymn
great
birth,
;
nor
shall
thou
art
The
(Ixiii.) I
O
I.
Horse,
is
(to
—
give in extenso
— Sukta
be yoked
in the shaft of the ass of
bear thee to heaven)."
(to
following
Thy
die
Maruts
be placed
shall
Mandala 1.
not
dost
by auspicious paths to the gods.
and a courser
ASWINS
the
moment thou
this
at
for thou goest
;
253
clxiii.
to
be glorified; whether
springing from the firmament or from the water, inasmuch
first
as thou
hast neighed (auspiciously), for thou hast the wings of
the falcon and the limbs of the deer.
TRITA
2.
INDRA
harnessed the horse which was given by
mounted him, and
GANDHARBA
YAMA
3.
TRITA
by a mysterious act
:
:
thou art associated with
:
YAM A
seized
Vasus, you fabricated the horse from the sun. Thou, horse, art thou art A'DITYA
reins.
The
first
:
his
thou art
SOMA.
sages have said there are three bindings of thee in heaven.
4.
three
They have upon earth
;
said that three
and three
are thy bindings in heaven
Thou
in the firmament.
me, Horse, who art (one with)
VARUNA,
that
;
declarest to
which they have
most excellent birth. have beheld, Horse, these thy purifying (regions)
called thy 5.
I
impressions of the feet of thee,
who
here thy auspicious reins, which are the protectors of the preserve 6.
(the
I
;
sharest in the sacrifice
these ;
and
rite that
it.
recognise in
earth) below,
head soaring
aloft,
my mind
thy form afar
off,
going from
by way of heaven, to the sun. I behold thy and mounting quickly by unobstructed paths,
unsullied by dust. 7.
I
behold
thy
most
excellent
form
(receive) thy food in thy (holy) place of earth
S
coming eagerly to when thy attend-
;
PLATE XXIV.
254
ant brings thee nigh to the enjoyment (of the provender), therefore greedy, thou devourest the fodder.
The
8.
O
Horse of maidens
car follows thee,
follow thee
the loveliness
;
men
:
attend thee
(waits)
upon thee
cattle
;
troops
;
have sought thy friendship; the
of demi-gods following thee
gods themselves have been admirers of thy vigour.
His mane
9.
thought,
to partake
of gold
is
INDRA
his feet are of iron
;
;
and
fleet
as
The gods have come oblation; the first who
his inferior (in speed).
is
of his
(being
offered
as)
mounted the horse was INDRA.
The
10.
when
full-haunched,
slender-waisted,
and
high-spirited,
coursers (of the sun), gallop along like swans in rows,
celestial
the horses spread along the heavenly path.
Thy
11.
body, horse,
is
made
for
motion;
thy
mind
is
rapid
wind the hairs (of thy mane) are tossed manifold directions and spread beautiful in the forests.
(in intention) as the
;
in
;
The
12.
swift
horse approaches
the
him
is
place
of immolation,
mind intent upon the gods the goat bound to before him after him follow the priests and the
meditating with led
;
;
singers. 13.
The
excellent
and
horse
may
Many
and
his
most
is
mother (heaven
Go, (Horse), to-day rejoicing to the gods, that (the
earth).
sacrifice)
proceeds to that assembly which
to the presence of his father
:
yield blessings to the donor.
this hymn, such as those in verse 3 and Soma, may suggest corroborative astronomic observations,^ but I would here especially refer to the description,
passages
in
referring to Trita
verse
of the horse possessing "the wings of the falcon,"
i,
verse 6 to
the words,
"I behold thy head soaring
and in and
aloft,
mounting quickly by unobstructed paths, unsullied by dust."
As
I
read these
hymns '
I
cannot think merely of an actual
V. pp. 176, 177.
—
PEGASUS ERECT IN THE SKY
255
horse led to sacrifice, but of the winged celestial Pegasus it
easy to think of that celestial horse as
it is
nor
;
is
at present depicted,
reversed in the sky.
The Vedic
poet beheld his head soaring aloft, but in the " I have beheld Horse, those
previous verse he has said,
were the
stars
head, but, as
we
shall
I
"
and
;
if
.
" these " impressions
which, on the Grecian sphere, marked the horse's
have contended,
marked
originally
i.e.,
and when the moon was
at the
at its
his hoof, then
and
understand how, associated with Soma,
with Trita by a mysterious act solstice,
.
.
impressions of the feet of thee
season of the
full
in
identical
summer
the constellation
Aquarius, ancient astronomers imagined to themselves the horse
Pegasus producing with his hoof the sweet exhilarating waters of the fountain Hippocrene.
The Pegasus
date of this particular legend concerning the hoof of I
should be inclined to place at about 3000
was so closely
the solstitial colure sions of the feet"
For the B.C. is
first
of the
marked by
when
"swift horse sprung from the gods."
imagining of the constellation
more probable
B.C.,
" those impres-
(see Plate
XXIV.,
I
Figs,
think that of 4000 i,
2).
01
l-l
c
^^^
^
INDEX Apam Napat, 126 Apin-am-a, 4 Apis Bull, 218, 233-235 Apollo, 156 Apollonius of Tyana, 97 Aptya. See Trita Aquarii ;8, 196 Aquarius, 9, 40, 44-47, 51-57, 66-70,
Ab AB-GAR, 4 Abba uddu, 4 Abel, 164 Abhra, 113 Abib, 165, 166, 168, 170 Aboo Simbel, 39, 40, 41 Abraham, 167
Abu, 2, 4 Accad, 6, 52-57, 80.
Set Calendar
AchEemenid Idngs, 60, 73 See Aswini Afvini. Adar, Adaru, 2-6, 69 A'ditya, 253 Agane, 151 Agni, 125-131, 138, 140, 181, 183 Agrahayani, 228 Ahi, III. See Vritra
223, 232-235, 241, 250, 251, 255
Aqrabu, 44 Aquila, 66-70, 80, 124, 248 153,
172,
Arakh-makru, 4 Arakh-samna, 2, 4 Aratos, 216, 224-227, 241, 242 Archer. See Sagittarius Arcitenens, 44
Ahura Mazda, 60,
64, 65, 73-76, 8183, 149-155. 172, 227 Airu, 2, 4, II
Aitareya Brahmana, 140 Akiba, Rabbi, 163 Albumassar, 17, 18 Alexander, 25, gi, 103
Argo, 248 Aries,
1-19, 24-44, 53-57, 92, 94, 104, 145-147, 170, 171, 186-190, 209, 210, 217, 218, 220, 224, 235,
245. 251
and /3, 94, 137, 251. Arsacidse, 4 Artemis, 156, 157, 160 Arietis a
Algol, 246
Alphonsus, 23 Altair, 67
Amen, 32-41 Amen-Ra, 32-34, 39-41 Amon. See Amen Amphora, 44, 45, 67,
79, 80, 83, 123, 124, 129-132, 144, 174-179, 197, 199, 202, 209, 221-
142,
143,
Aru, 44
Aryaman, 252
As
a-an, 4 Assara Mazas, 149, 150 79, 204,
233> 236
Andromeda, 239-244, 246 Anna, 48
223,
Assur, 74-79,
83, 84,
86,
150-155,
227 Assurbanipal, 6, 69 Assyrian Standard, 77-80, 83, 86 267
INDEX
258 Asteria, 179
Asura, 81,82,85,86, 112, 150-153, 182, 183 Asura maha, 153 Aswamedha, 244, 251 Aswini, 92-94, 104, 132, 134, 136148, 172, 181, 183, 187, 188, 210, 251. 253 Aswins, the. See Aswin! Atharva Veda, 94, 133, 136 Atri, 141, 181-184 Attic year, 180 Auriga, 245, 246 Ava, 85 Avesta. See Zend Avesta Ayu, 252
Calendar, Egyptian, 31, 34, 3S, 39 Grecian, 180 Gregorian, 193-196 Hebrew, 162-170, 234 Indian, 88, 92, 96, 104, 132-148, 167,171,176,181-184, 188,217 Lagash, 54, 57
Median, 56-87, 222, 229 Persian, 58-61
Roman,
II, 159, 180, 193
Cambyses, 235 Cancer, 8, 36, 44, 218-221 Canis Major, 248 Canis Minor, 248
Canopus, 248 Capella, 246
Bau, 47-55, 57, 69, 210-212
Caper, 44 Capricornus, 52, 218, 220, 222, 252 Capuja, 243 Cassiopeia, 239-244, 246 Cassyape, 243 Castor, 221, 222 Centaur, 155-158, 245 Cepheus, 239-244, 246 Cetus, 239-243
Bel, 16, 81
Chaitra, 134-138, 171, 172, 181, 188
Bel-Merodach, 69
Che, 202 Chevreau, 23 Ch'in, 207 China, History
Babylonia. See Calendar Bahu. See Bau Bailly,
Jean Silvain,
17,
20, 26, 27,
29 Barrett, Dr, 222 Bar zig-gar, 4, 7, lo, 13-15, 53, 104, 165, 166, 171, 172
See Aries Beltis, 16 Bentley, Mr, 100 Bergaigne, 140, 143 Berosus, 18, 83
Bi^lier.
Bethel, 233 Bible, the, 21, 84, 164-170
Bodhanunddnath Swami, 157 Bootes, 223-226 British Museum, 3, 8 Brown, Robert, 224, 226, 247 Browne, Bishop, 21
of,
197-209
See Perrot Chiron, 155, 156 Choris, 32, 33 Chipiez.
Cisilivu,
4 Claudius Ptolemy, 17, 216 Clemens Alexandrinus, 23 Confucius, 206, 207
Bull.
Cook, 21 Corona Australis, 77, 229, 230 Crab. See Cancer Cumont, 61
Cain, 164
Cuthah, 85 Cuzallu, 4 Cygnus, 248 Cyrannid books, 17
Brugsch, 33 See Taurus Bulls, Assyrian, 87 Burgess, 90, 93, 98
Calendar, Accadian, 1-23, 57-58, 103, 145-147, 187, 208-210, 224 Babylonian, 1-3, 103, 165, 234 Chinese, 185-211
Dan, 233 Darmesteter, 60
Denderah, 218, 232
INDEX Deuteronomy, Devas, 82 Dhanus, 223 Dharbitu, 4
Gir-tab, 8
169, 170
Go, 113 220 Golden calf, 233, 235 Gregory XIII., II, 193
Goat-fish, 8,
D'Herbelot, 18 Diana, 158 Dianus, 158 Doris, 242 Draco, 223 Dupuis, 27-29 Duzu, 2, 4 Dvita, 177-180
Eagle,
64.
259
Griffin,
Gu, 9, 44-47 Gudea, 48-57, 208, 209, 222 Gula, 9, 46-57. 69, 209 Gutiura, 81
Hamath,
85
gammurabi,
See Aquila
Heb
Ebers, 35, 233
3, 4, 6, 12,
83-85
en-ant, 35
Hecate, 179
Eden, 21, 22 Edfu, 232 Ekashtaka, 1 34 Ekata,' 177-180 Ekhud, 48 Elam, 81 ElUlla, 48
Hermes, 17 Hercules, 226, 229, 230, 245, 246 Herodotus, 81 Hierakonpolis, 236 Hillebrandt, 122
Hippocrene, 251, 255 Hiu, 196-209
Elul, 2, S
Hommel,
Eninnu, 48 Enzu, 44
Epping and Strassmaier,
68
Griffiths, 31
I- 10,
44,
45. 1.02
149- 151
Horus, 33, 40 Hsia, 207 Hvarya, 1 50 Hydra, 1 17-123, 132, 227, 229
Equulei,
'84, 252, 253
Kang,
Maspero, 33, 49, 68, 69, 219 Ma^u, 44 Maut, 32, 33 Mayer, 102 Medusa, 246
186, 188
Kao-yang, 201 Karnak, 35, 36, 39 Kas, 4, 10 Ker Porter, 58, 65 Khar-sidi, 4, 10
Khophri, 220
Ki Gingirna, 4, 10 Kimta-rapaStu, 6 Kio, 185, 186, 188, 191, 210 Kis, 69 Kislimu, 2, 4 Kneeler, The, 226
Kou, 205 Kris£nu, 125 Krishna, 182 Krittika, 94, 134, 136 Ku (sarikku), 44
Kumbha, 223 Lactantius, 23 Lagash, 4B-57, 68, 69, 208, 209, 222 Lajard, 63, 66 Latadeva, 98 Layard, 74, 77 Legge, Mr, 234 Legge, Professor, 197, 200, 207 Lehmann, 102 Leo, 44, 64-70, 79, 80, 83, 221, 232, 233, 235, 236 Libra, 44, 218-220 Lion. See Leo. Lugal-ki-uluna, 6 Lydda, 163 Lyra, 226
Macdonell,
111-128, 153, 175
Magan, 49 Magha, 134, 135 Mahesa, 157 Mahler, 102 Mailla, Pere de, 197-200 Mait, 219
Manda.
See
Umman Manda
Mangala, 96 Marchesvan, 234 Marduk, 5
Memnonium, 35 Memphian Triad, The, 33 Mercury, 9, 103 Merodach, 68 Mesopotamia, 8, 49, 80, 83-86, 209 Mills, 153 Milton, 181, 241 Mishna, 163 Mithraeum, 62 Mithras, 60-65, 74) 81, 234, 235 Mitra, 81, 252 Mlechchas, 95, 97 Moguls, 95 Montucla, 89 Moses, 165, 167 Mriga, 228 Mrigasbirsha, 228 Miiller, Max, 251 Muna-xa, 8 Munga, 4 Muradi, 17
Nakshatra,
92, 94, 104, 132, 133, 136, 142, 188, 227-229
Nana, 6 Nekropolis, 35-37 Nicephorus, 23 Nile, 32, 35, 36, 37 Nineveh, 73, 74, 84, 86 Ningirsu, 48-51, 208 Ningiszida, 48 Ninib, 49-53, 208 Nisan, 2-19, 53, 69, 163-166 Nisannu. See Nisan
Noah, 58 Noel, 205
Nowroose, 58-60
Oldenburg,
151, 152
Olivet, 163
Onuphrius Panvinius, 23 Ophiuchus, 245, 246
INDEX
261
Oppert, 102 Orion, 157, 227-229
Revati, 92, 93, 104, 132, 138, 143, 187, 188
Ormuzd, 65
Ribhukshin, 252 Ricci, Matteo, 194
Osiride pillars, 40 Osiris, 33,
Rig Veda, 92,
219
105-148, 184, 228, 244, 251-255
Ostia, 62
Rim-sin,
Roman Rome,
Sabahu, 4 Sabatu, 2 Sabbath, 163, 169, 170 Sadducees, 169 Sagitta, 125 8, 76-83, 147, 150-160, 172-174, 220-223, 227, 230
Sagittarius,
Sam, 36 Samaria, 84, 85 Samaritan Pentateuch, 22
Phalguni, 134, 135
Samson Agonistes,
Pharisees, 169
Samsu-iluna,
Philastrius, 23 Philostratus, 97
3,
181
4
Sani, 96
Phoenicians, 81 174,
177-179,
220, 221 Piscium f, 93 Pleiades,
See Rishis
Rsis, 141.
236
80,
year, 180 61, 172, 193
Rudra, 152-160, 172-174, 184
See Soma Pegasus, 244, 24S-255 Peking, 194, 195 Perrot and Chipiez, 64, 71, 73 Persepolis, 64, 70, 72-74, 86, 87 Perseus, 179, 239, 245-247
44,
4
3,
Romaka, 98
Pavamana.
Pisces,
171-
Rishis, 97, 106, 108, 123, 130, 133
Pa, 44 Pagas, 251 Paitamaha, 98 Panchasiddhantika, 98 Pafii, 112 Panope, 242 Panvinius, Onuphrius, 23 Passover, The, 169, 170 Paulisa, 98
Petrie,
153,
94
202,
Sara zig-gar, 4. See Bar zig-gar Sargon I., 6, 7, 10, 12, 13, 16, 80, 81, 83, 151
Sargon
II.,
78
Sassinide dynasty, 60
Ptolemy, 17, 216 Pulukku, 44 Punjaub, 128 Pushan, 252
Satapatha Brahmana, 141 Sater, 96 Saturn, 103 Saura, 98 Savitr, 140 Savitra, 98 Sayana, 228 Sayce, 7, 9, 46, 69, 81, 102
QuiBELL, 236
Scarabseus, 218, 220 Schall, J. A. von, 194, 195 Schlegel, Gustav, 185, 186, 190, 191,
Ram.
204, 205 Scorpio, 8, 44, 63-67, 80, 221, 231-
Plumptre, 163 Poissons, Les. See Pisces Pollux. See Castor Ptah, 40
See Aries
Rameses II., 35-40 Ramessides, 33 Rashis, 92 Ravi, 96
236 Se-dir, 4, 13, 14, 146, 147 Se-ki-sil, 4, 13, 14, 146, I47
Seleucidte,
4
INDEX
262 Semites, 83-85
Theban Triad, The,
Sepharvaim, 85 Septuagint, 22 Seth, 20
Thebes, 34 Thibaut, 98 Thor, 96 Thoth, 38, 39 Thraetona, 178 Thrita, 178
Seti, 36,
39 Shou, 33 Shuddh Paksha, 182 Shukia, 182 Siddhantas, The, 98. Siddhanta
Simannu,
See
Surya
Siou, 185, 188, 196, 197, 202, 207 Siva, 157, 173 Slates, 235-238
ni, 121-125,
131,
138, 172-177. 253-255 Souciet, 204
170,
Tsivan, 4 Tuisco, 96 Tul-cu, 4 Twashtfi, 252 Twins. See Gemini
Udhar, 171,
1S8-190,
Standard, Assyrian, 77-80, 83, 86 Strassmaier. See Epping Strauchius, 23 Sucra, 96 Suidas, 23 Su-kul-na, 4 Sunahsepas, 244 Suria, 150 Surias, 1 50 Surya, 182, 183 Surya Siddhanta, 90, 93, 98, 187 Susa, 70-73, 87 Swarbhanu, 182, 183 Syncellus, 17
Taittiriya Brahmana, 136 Taittiriya Sanhita, 134-136, 139 Talmud, 162, 163, 169 Tasritu, 4 8, n, 44, 56-87, 146, 156, 159, 160, 221, 232-236
Taurus,
Tchuen-Hio, 197-210, 222
Ululu,
154,
113
4
2,
Umman
210
Tebitu, 2, 4 Telloh, 48, 49 Te (mennu), 44
Tortoise, 8, 218 Trita Aptya, 175-181, 184, 253-255 Triton, 178, 179
Tyana, 97
Southern Crown, 77 Sphinxes, 32, 34 Spica, 28, 167,
163
Tithis, 176, 180, 182
Sirius, 31, 38
108,
Tilak, B. G., 134, 135, 228 Tischritu, 2, 4 Tisri,
4 Sing-king, 186 2,
Soma, 96 Soma, 107,
32, 33
Manda,
81-86, 151
Unger, 27 Universal History, 21 Ursa Major, 224 Usas, 139, 140 Usher, Archbishop, 21, 22 Utu, 5
Vadya Paksha,
182 Vala, 112 Valley, Feast of the, 36, 38 Varaha, 97-99 Varahamihira. See Varaha Varuna, 152-154, 252, 253 Vasistha, 98 Vasus, 253
Vedas, 95, 106, 128. See Atharva Veda, Rig Veda, Yajur Veda Venus, 103 Verethraghna, 114 Verseau. See Aquarius Vierge. See Virgo Virgil, 159 Virginis a, 188 Virgo, 10, 28, 44, 80, 185, 186, 220, 221
INDEX
263
Yajur Veda, Yama, 253
Vossius, Isaac, 23 Vrihaspati, 96 Vritra, 111-123, 14S, 177
Yaska, 141 Yavan, 95, 97
Vrtrahan, 114
Yoga
stars,
142
Wan-nian-shu, 194 Water-jar. See Amphora
Zamama, 69
Water-man.
Zend Avesta,
See Aquarius
Week, Days
of,
96
Whitney, 93, 187 Wilson, 112, 124-127, 153, 182, 251
Woden, 96 Wogue, 169
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