3 Vedic seasons or 6?

[George Thompson]

Hello Dean,

The Rigveda mentions three seasons [Rtus] several times.  In later Vedic
there is mention of five or six and perhaps seven seasons.  The six season
year was adopted in order to conform to the model of the twelve month
year.  For details, see the *Vedic Index* of Macdonell & Keith, on Rtu,
season.

Best wishes, as always,

George

On Fri, Apr 20, 2012 at 12:02 PM, Dean Michael Anderson <
eastwestcultural at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I ran across a reference in Upender Singh's A History of Ancient and
> Early Medieval India that refers to only 3 seasons in the Vedic ritual. I
> was only aware of the standard 6 season schema. In researching this I found
> a reference in the Jaiminiya Braahmana (III.I) that spoke of Prajapati
> creating 3 seasons associated with the 3 worlds. He then divided each of
> them in two to make 6 seasons.
>
> Did the Vedic people ever actually recognize only 3 seasons or is this
> theological reasoning to link the 6 seasons back to a 3-fold order? Is this
> discussed in greater depth anywhere?
>
> Best,
>
> Dean Anderson
>
>


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