ancient Rishis
prepared their calendar mainly for sacrificial purposes, and
the performance of various sacrifices facilitated, in its turn,
the keeping up of the calendar. Offerings were made every
morning and evening, on every new and full moon, and at
the commencement of every season and ayana. t When
this course of sacrifices was thus completed, it was naturally
found that the year also had run its course, and the sacri-
fice and the year, therefore, seem to have early become
synonymous terms. There are many passages in the
Bnihmanas and Sanhilas, where Samvatsara and Yajna are
declared to be convertible terms,! and no other theory has
yet been suggested on which this may be accounted for. I
am therefore inclined to believe that the Vedic Rishis kept
up their calendar by performing the corresponding round
of sacrifices on the sacred fire that constantly burnt in their
houses, like the fire of the Parsi priest in modern times.
The numerous sacrificial details, which we find so fully
described in the Bnihmanas, might be later innovations,
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