2l8 



NA TURE 



[Jan. 8, 1885 



was sought to connect and equalise all three units, was 

 the one most in use. This is comprehensible when we 

 recollect that now we want to fix single days as far back 

 or in the future, as we wish, and that therefore this form 

 of year appears complicated to us ; but in primitive times 

 it was really the most simple form of all, for the sun and 

 moon relieved man of the trouble of reckoning days, and 

 in the months and seasons wrote large on the face of 

 Nature herself the hours and minutes, if we regard the 

 days as seconds. A glance at the heavens or at the sur- 

 rounding vegetation must have told primitive man the 

 most that he wanted to know of the passage of time, and 

 have supplied the deficiencies of his calendar. How the 

 luni solar year came direct from Nature herself, and also 

 how it was to be taken as an approximate method only, 

 may be seen in the most ancient form of the Jewish year, 

 which was so regulated that the feast of Passover should 

 be celebrated when, during full moon the barley, which 

 was required as an offering, was ripe, and it must be in 

 the first month of the year, which was then Nisan. 

 Twelve months then were counted from this ; but if at 

 the end there was no prospect that the barley would be 

 ripe in fourteen days, a second month, Adar, was simply 

 intercalated, and the new year began with the next new 

 moon. But when an exact and rigid measurement of 

 time is required, this form of year is simply perplexing. 

 The three main types existing down to our own day of the 

 luni-solar year are the Chinese, the Hindoo, and the 

 Jewish years, and each of these is treated by Dr. Schram 

 in turn. 



With the Chinese, as in the case of almost every luni- 

 solar year, every month begins with the new moon, and 

 the first month is that in which the sun is in Pisces, the 

 second that in the course of which it enters Aries, and so 

 on. But if the sun in the course of a lunar month does 

 not enter into a new zodiacal sign, it is regarded as an 

 intercalary month, and receives the number of the previous 

 month, with a mark of distinction. In this way months 

 of 29 and 30 days succeed each other, but there is no 

 fixed rule for this succession, nor for the place of the 

 intercalary month of the year, nor for the succession of 

 the intercalary years, and as the commencement of all the 

 months and years have to be astronomically calculated, 

 the whole year is somewhat uncertain and fluctuating, for 

 a few minutes, or even seconds, may alter the beginning 

 of a month by a day, and cause a difference in the inter- 

 calation of a month. It is difficult, too, to say according 

 to what tables the astronomical data in the more ancient 

 periods were calculated, so that it would be a matter of 

 much uncertainty to transfer a date into another chrono- 

 logical system, if it were not for the circumstance that the 

 Chinese from the most remote antiquity employed a cycle 

 of 60 days for reckoning the days, much as we employ 

 the week, without regard to the movements of the sun or 

 moon. The uncertainty of the year which prevents the 

 fixing of a precise day two or three years hence has ren- 

 dered the calendar an indispensable vade mecum. The 

 compilation of the calendar has thus become a work of 

 vast importance, which the State has taken on itself 

 and committed to the care of an Imperial mathematical 

 tribunal, presided over by a royal prince. When the work 

 is periodically completed it is presented with great pomp 

 to the members of the Imperial family and to the mem- 

 bers of the Government. The years are counted among 

 themselves in two ways, employed simultaneously. The 

 official year is the fourth, fifth, or as the case may be, of 

 the reign of the Emperor, although even this is subject 

 to alteration ; while there is also a series of cycles of 60 

 years each, every individual year having a distinguishing 

 name of its own. These years are named on a system 

 universal in Eastern Asia, which is based on a combina- 

 tion of one name from ten Kan or " roots," with one from 

 twelve Chi or "branches.'' This peculiar method of form- 

 ing a cycle by the combination of two smaller cycles is found 



among the Japanese, Manchus, Mongols, and Thibetans, 

 all of whom use the 60-year cycle formed from the cycles 

 of 10 and 12 years ; also among the Aztecs a cycle of 52 

 years, formed from one of 4 and 1 3 years, is found, 

 which led Humboldt to believe in an infusion of Asiatic 

 ideas in Mexico. The years are more rarely given in a 

 12-year cycle, each having the name of some animal ; 

 this is also universal in Eastern Asia. 



The luni-solar year amongst the Hindoos was based on 

 a sidereal solar year, the twelve months of which, though 

 of unequal lengths, were of fixed duration down to the 

 minutest fraction of time. Thus the solar month Chaitra 

 was 30 days, 20 hours, 21 minutes. 2 seconds, and 36 

 thirds. The day, however, had 60, not 24 hours. The 

 year began with the new moon immediately preceding the 

 commencement of the solar year. But if two lunar months 

 began in the same solar month, the first was intercalated. 

 In case no lunar month fell in the solar month, then that 

 year would lose one of its ordinary months, but at some 

 other part of its course it would have two intercalary 

 months. Every month among the Hindoos has its proper 

 name. The new moons with which they commence are 

 calculated with great exactness and according to inflexible 

 rules, so that it is easier to go back than in the Chinese 

 system. Still there is a difficulty, on account of the 

 various systems employed at different early times. The 

 fact, too, that the day is the thirtieth part of the lunar 

 month, and thus shorter than the natural day, introduces 

 an element of doubt into calculations of this nature. 

 The years are reckoned from o ; the first year of the era 

 is o,'the second I, the third 2, and so on, so that the 

 number given to any one year is that of the preceding one. 

 The 60-year cycle is also employed, but it is not formed 

 from the combination of two cycles ; each year has its 

 own name. It is based on the course of Jupiter and con- 

 tains five revolutions of that planet : but as the twelfth 

 part of a revolution of Jupiter is only 361 days, I hour, 

 36 minutes, while the sidereal year contains 365 days, 15 

 hours, 31 minutes, 31 seconds, 6/3rds, a new re-arrange- 

 ment is from time to time necessary, and a year of the 

 cycle has to be periodically omitted. There are three 

 separate rules for calculating when this is to be done. As 

 eras are employed by the Hindoos for reckoning years, 

 the cycle is of less importance. These eras are them- 

 selves divided into cycles of varying lengths. The current 

 era is the Kali Yuga, or Iron Age ; 4985 years of it have 

 already passed, so that it is little younger than the era of 

 the creation ; but according to Hindoo notions it has still 

 a vast course to run, and it is an age of which not only 

 the beginning but also the end is precisely known. It is 

 to last in all 432,000 years, and the earlier periods run as 

 follows : — 



Kali Yuga, or Iron Age 

 Dvapara Yuga 



Treta Yuga, or Silver Age .. 

 Krita Yuga, or Golden Age 



432,000 years 

 864,000 ,, 

 1,296,000 ,, 

 I,72S,000 ,, 



These four form a so-called Maha Yuga, or Great Age, 

 of 4,320,000 years. Of these Maha Yugas there are 71, 

 giving 306,720,000 years, plus a twilight of 1,728,000, give 



! 308,448,000 years, being the length of a patriarchate. 



I There are fourteen of these patriarchates, or 4,318,272,000 

 years, which, with a dawn of i,/2S,ooo years, give 

 4,320,000,000 years, being a kalpa or aeon of Hindoo 



I chronology. But the ages extend beyond this, for an aeon, 

 or kalpa, is only one day of Brahma ; his night is of the 



I same length, aiid 360 such days and nights form a year of 



\ his life, which lasts 100 of these years. The present age 



[ is the Kali Yuga of the 28th Great Age of the 7th patri- 

 an hate of the first aeon of the second half of the life of 

 Brahma, who is therefore 155,521,972,848,985 years old at 

 present. But Brahma's whole life is only a wink of Siva's 



': eye ! 



Another form of the luni-solar year is that of the Jews. 



