DDK HistoryF.p65 - CSIR

250 NEED FOR A CALENDAR [8.2
commencement of any important process : ploughing, sowing,
harvest, threshing, &c.
It follows that brahminism must have had some peculiar
function in the early means of production, sane outstanding success
which gave it a grip upon society. Mere superstition cannot arise, unless
it has some deep productive roots, though it may survive by inertia.
One of these functions was a good calendar. It does not suffice here,
as in Europe, for the agriculturist to note the end of winter by natural
signs. The word for ‘ rain’ varsa also means ‘year’, so important is the
annual monsoon for India. The Indian farmer has to prepare his land
before the monsoon sets in. The sowing can only be done after the proper
rainy season begun, or the sprouts will die. The fields are best weeded
during the mid-monsoon break. If the harvest be brought in before
the last seasonal rain, there is every chance that grain will rot on the
threshing floor. Empirical observation says that the four-month rains
set in, break, and cease at approximately fixed times of the year. The real
difficulty lay in telling the time of the year accurately. The Egyptians
forecast their corresponding basic agricultural event, the annual flood
of the Nile, by its correlation with the heliacal rising of Sirius. The
Chinese solved their farmers’ problem by the 24 solar divisions of
the year which had little to do with the twelve lunar months into
which one more was intercalated during seven out of every nineteen
years. Something similar was needed for India, where the problem was
complicated, with poorer instruments of observation and the absence of
materials upon which long regords could be preserved.
The moon with its phases sufficed for primitive man’s simple
ritual, while the birds, beasts, and plants themselves furnished all
necessary information to food-gatherers. This left the indispensable
heritage of the lunar month, and prognostication by omens. The foodproducer’s
year is solar, which requires constant adjustment of the
lunar months. The urgent need for a working almanac lay at the root
of astronomy, algebra, the theory of numbers, all of which were
conspicuous Indian (specifically brahmin) achievements. The season
could then be foretold even when the sun and the moon obliterated
their starry background, or were invisible because of clouds.