APPENDIX A
387
from 4000 B.C. to 2500 B.C. from the time when the Vernal equinox was in the asterism of Ardra to the time when it receded to the asterism of the Krittkias. The third or the Krittika period commences with the Vernal equinox in the asterism of the Krittikas and extends up to the period recorded in the Vedanga-Jyotisha, i.e., 2500 B.C. to 1400 B.C. and the fourth and last period of the old Sanskrit literature extends from 1400 B.C. to 500 B.C. or to the birth and rise of Buddhism which may be called the real-Pre Buddhistic period. It will thus be found that the antiquities of the Vedas can be traced up to a far remoter time than what Max Muller and other European scholars were willing to assign.
