﻿OF THE IIIXDUS, &C. 283 



Phalguna, as correspoiuling with Sis'ira, tliat is M'ith 

 the dewy season. The text in question shall l)e 

 subjoined to tliis note, because it may serve to prove 

 that the VMa, from v/hirli it is extracted, (Apas- 

 TAMi3A*s copy of thc r^ajurv^da usually denominated 

 the wliite Yajush,) cannot be much older tlian the 

 observation of the cohires recorded by Paiia's'ara 

 (see As. Res. v. % p. e6'8 and 39^,) Avhicli must have 

 been made nearly 1391 years before the Christian 

 ?era (As. Res. v. 5. p. ^88.) According- to the Veda 

 the lunar Madhii and Madhava, or Chaitra and 

 Vaimc'ha, correspond with Vasanta or the spring. 

 Now the lunar Chaitra, here meant, is the primary 

 lunar month beginnivig from the conjunction which 

 precedes full moon in or near Chitra, and ending 

 with the conjunction which follows it. Vaimc'ha 

 does in hke manner extend from the conjunction 

 Avhich precedes full moon in or near Visac'hd to that 

 Y.'hich follows it. The five nacshatras, Hasta, Chi" 

 trd, Sivdii, Visdchd and A?iurad'hd, comprise ali* 

 the asterisms in which the full moons oi' Chaitra and 

 Vaisdclia can happen ; and these lunar months may 

 therefore fluctuate bttween thehrst degree o\' Uttara 

 Plialgum and the last of Jycshthd. Conseijuently 

 the season of Vasanta might begin at soonest when the 

 sun was in the middle of Ficrva Bhadrapada, or it 

 mio-ht end at latest when the sun was in the middle 

 o^ Mi'igasiras. It appears then, that the limits of 

 Vasanta are Pisces and Taurus ; that is iMlna and 

 Vrisha. (This corresponds Avith a text Avhich I 

 shall forthwith quote from a very ancient Hindu 

 author.) Now, if the place of the equinox did then 

 correspond with the position assigned by Para's'ara 

 to the colures, Vasanta might end at the soonest 

 seven or eight days after the equinox:, or at latest 

 thirty-eight or thirty-nine cUys ; and on a medium 

 (that is, when the full moon happened in the middle 

 o^ Chitra,) twenty-two or twenty-thr^e days after 

 the vernal equinox. This agrees exactly with the 



real 



