Artic Home of the Aryans by Lokamanya Bal ... - Mandhata Global

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above, evidently an artificial division, and one, who reads carefully
the description of these sacrifices, cannot fail to be struck by the fact
that we have here a series of night-sacrifices from two to a hundred
nights, or if we include the Ati-râtra in this series, we have practically
a set of hundred nightly Soma sacrifices, though, according to the
principle of division adopted, some may fall under the head of Ahîna
and some under that of Sattras.
Now an important question in connection with these Sattras is
why they alone should be designated “night-sacrifices” (râtri-kratus),
or “night-sessions” (râtri-sattras)? and why their number should be
one hundred? or, in other words, why there are no night-sattras of
longer duration than one hundred nights? The Mîmâmsakas answer
the first part of the question by asking us to believe that the word
“night” (râtrih) is really used to denote a day in the denomination of
these sacrifices (Shabara on Jaimini VIII, 1, 17). The word dvi-râtra
according to this theory means two days’ sacrifice, and shata-râtra a
hundred days’ sacrifice. This, explanation appears very good at the
first sight, and as a matter of fact it has been accepted by all writers
on the sacrificial ceremonies. In support of it, we may also cite the
fact that as the moon was the measurer of time in ancient days, the
night was then naturally more marked then the day, and instead of
saying “so many days” men often spoke of “so many nights,” much in
the same way as we now use the word “fort-night.” This is no doubt
good so far as it goes; but the question is why should there be no
Soma sacrifices of a longer duration than one hundred nights? and,
why a gap, a serious gap, is left in the series of Soma sacrifices after
one hundred nights Sattra until we come to the annual Sattra of 360
days? Admitting that “night” means “day,” we have Soma sacrifices
lasting from 1 to 100 days; and if so where was the harm to complete
the series until the yearly Sattra of 360 days was reached? So far as I
know, no writer on sacrificial ceremonies has attempted to answer
this question satisfactorily. Of course adopting the