India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c13.10

c13.10

It is the latter phenomenon, *viz.* the recording of the Nakshatra Śravaṇa at the head of the list that is definitely alluded to in a passage of the *Mahābhārata* of considerable historical interest. Fleet discussed the epic evidence, *Śravaṇādīni ṛikshāṇi* (the Nakshatras begin with Śravaṇa, Aśvamedhaparva, 44.2) to show that 'the winter solstice had travelled westwards from the first point of Śravishṭhā (Dhanishṭhā), where it was placed by the astronomy which was preserved in the Jyotisha-Vedāṅga, and was in the preceding Nakshatra Śravaṇa (*J.R.A.S.*, 1916, p. 570). Prof. Keith carrying the discussion further admitted the correctness of Fleet's view and pointed out that the passage had been much earlier discussed by Hopkins with the same result in the *J.A.O.S.* for 1903 (*J.R.A.S.*, 1917, p. 133). It is, however, interesting to note that a passage in the Vanaparva refers to the Dhanishṭhādi reckoning of the stars (Vanaparva, 230.10) as done by Pāṇini.