II SUPERSTITIONS ABOUT NUMBERS 267 31 days 14 hours to 29 days 8 hours. Three of the months are less than the lunar month, and hence it is possible that two Sankrants or passages of the sun into a fresh sign may occasionally occur in the same lunar month. When this happens, following the same rule as before, the month to which the second Sankrant properly belongs, that is the one following that in which two Sankrānts occur, is called a Kshaya or eliminated month and is omitted from the calendar. Intercalary months occur generally in the 3rd, 5th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 16th and 18th years of a cycle of nineteen years, or seven times in nineteen years. It is found that in each successive cycle only one or two months are changed, so that the same month remains intercalary for several cycles of nineteen years and then gives way generally to one of the months preceding and rarely to the following month. Suppressed months occur at intervals varying from 19 to 141 years, and in a year when a suppressed month occurs there must always be one intercalary month and not infrequently there are two.1 This method of adjusting the solar and lunar years, though clumsy, is so far scientific that the solar and lunar years are made to agree without any artificial intercalation of days. It has, however, the great disadvantages of the frequent intercalary month, and also of the fact that the lunar months begin on different dates in the English solar calendar, varying by nearly twenty days. about It seems not improbable that the unlucky character of 12. Superthe number thirteen may have arisen from its being the stitions number of the intercalary month. Though the special numbers. superstition against sitting down thirteen to a meal is, no doubt, associated particularly with the Last Supper, the number is generally unlucky as a date and in other connections. And this is not only the case in Europe, but the Hindus, Persians and Parsis also consider thirteen an unlucky number; and the Muhammadans account for a similar superstition by saying that Muhammad was ill for the first thirteen days of the month Safar. Twelve, as being the number of the months in the lunar and solar years, is an auspicious number; thirteen would be one extra, and as being the intercalary 1 The Indian Calendar, Sewell and Dikshit, p. 28 and Table I. 13. The Hindu month would be here this year and missing next year. Hence it might be supposed that one of thirteen persons met together would be gone at their next meeting like the month. Similarly, the auspicious character of the number seven may be due to its being the total of the sun, moon and five planets, and of the days of the week named after them. And the number three may have been invested with mystic significance as representing the sun, moon and earth. In the Hindu Trinity Vishnu and Siva are the sun and moon, and Brahma, who created the earth, and has since remained quiescent, may have been the personified representative of the earth itself. The names of the Hindu months were selected from months, among those of the nakshatras, every second or third being taken and the most important constellations apparently chosen. The following statement shows the current names for the months, the nakshatras from which they are derived, and the constellations they represent: Thus if the Pleiades are reckoned as part of Taurus,1 eight zodiacal signs give their names to months as well as Orion, Pegasus and Aquila, while two months are included in Leo. It appears that in former times the year began with Pūs or December, as the month Margashir was also called Aghan or Agrahana, or 'That which went before,' that is 1 This seems to have been done by some ancient Indian astronomers. 269 II THE HINDU MONTHS But the renewal of vegeta the month before the new year. tion in the spring has exercised a very powerful effect on the primitive mind, being marked by the Holi festival in India," corresponding to the Carnival in Europe. The vernal equinox was thus perhaps selected as the most important FIG. 3.-The Hindu Ecliptic showing the relative position of Zodiacal Signs and Nakshatras. occasion and the best date for beginning the new year, which now commences in northern India with the new moon of Chait, immediately following the Holi festival, when the sun is in the sign of Mesha or Aries, At first the months appear to have travelled round the year, but subsequently they were fixed by ordaining that the month of Chait should begin with the new moon during the course of which the sun entered the sign Aries. The constellation Chitra, from 1 The Indian Calendar, p. 29. 1 14. The shatras. which the sign is named, is nearly opposite to this in the zodiac, as shown by the above figure.1 Consequently, the full moon, being nearly opposite the sun on the ecliptic, would be in the sign Chitra or near it. In southern India the months begin with the full moon, but in northern India with the new moon; it seems possible that the months were called after the nakshatra, of the full moon to distinguish them from the solar months which would be called after the sign of the zodiac in which the sun was. But no authoritative explanation seems to be available. Similarly, the nakshatras after which the other months are named, fall nearly opposite to them at the new moon, while the full moon would be in or near them. The periods during which the sun passes through each solar nak nakshatra are also recorded, and they are of course constant in date like the solar months. As there are twenty-seven nakshatras, the average time spent by the sun in each is about 13 days. These periods are well known to the people as they have the advantage of not varying in date like the lunar months, while over most of India the solar months are not used. The commencement of the various agricultural operations is dated by the solar nakshatras, and there are several proverbs about them in connection with the crops. The following are some examples: "If it does not rain in Pushya and Punarvasu Nakshatras the children of Nimār will go without food." 'Rain in Magha Nakshatra (end of August) is like food given by a mother,' because it is so beneficial. "If there is no wind in Mrigasiras (beginning of June), and no heat in Rohini (end of May), sell your ploughcattle and go and look for work." If it rains during Uttara (end of September) dogs will turn up their noses at grain,' because the harvest will be so abundant. "If it rains during Aslesha (first half of August) the wheat-stalks will be as stout as drum-sticks" (because the land will be well ploughed). 'If rain falls in Chitra or Swati Nakshatras (October) there won't be enough cotton for lamp-wicks.' 15. Lunar and days. was The lunar month was divided into two fortnights called fortnights paksha or wing. The period of the waxing moon known as sukla or sudi paksha, that is the light fortnight, 1 Taken from Brennand's Hindu Astronomy, p. 39. II DIVISIONS OF THE DAY 271 and that of the waning moon as krishna or budi paksha, that is the dark fortnight. Each lunar month was also divided into thirty equal periods, called tithis or lunar days. Since there are less than thirty days in the lunar month, a tithi does not correspond to an ordinary day, but begins and ends at odd hours of the day. Nevertheless the tithis are printed in all almanacs, and are used for the calculation of auspicious moments.1 of the day. The day is divided for ordinary purposes of measuring 16. time into eight pahars or watches, four of the day and four Divisions of the night; and into sixty gharis or periods of twenty-four minutes each. The pahars, however, are not of equal length. At the equinox the first and fourth pahar of the day and night each contain eight gharis, and the two middle ones. seven gharis. In summer the first and fourth pahars of the day contain nine gharis each, and the two middle ones eight each, while the first and fourth pahars of the night contain seven and the two middle ones six each. Thus in summer the four day pahars contain 13 hours 36 minutes and the night ones 10 hours 24 minutes. And in winter the exact opposite is the case, the night pahars being lengthened and the day ones shortened in precisely the same manner. No more unsatisfactory measure of time could well be devised. The termination of the second watch or do pahar always corresponds with midday and midnight respectively. The apparatus with which the hours were measured and announced consisted of a shallow metal pan, named from its office, gharial, and suspended so as to be easily struck with a wooden mallet by the ghariali. He measured the passing of a ghari by an empty thin brass cup or katori, perforated at the bottom, and placed on the surface of a large vessel filled with water, where nothing could disturb it; the water came through the small hole in the bottom of the cup and filled it, causing it to sink in the period of one ghari. the expiration of each ghari the gharial struck its number from one to nine with a mallet on a brass plate, and at the end of each pahar he struck a gujar or eight strokes to announce the fact, followed by one to four hollow-sounding 1 Barnett, Antiquities of India, p. 193. At |