India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c13.11

c13.11

The important question to be discussed in this connection is the determining of the time when the transition of the winter solstice from Dhanishṭhā to Śravaṇa took place. This would naturally mark the lower limit of Pāṇini's date, since in his enumeration of stars (IV.3.34) he put Dhanishṭhā at the head of the list. It may be mentioned in this connection that the *Mahābhārata* attributes to Viśvāmitra the new arrangement of asterisms by substituting Śravaṇa for Dhanishṭhā. Prof. Keith taking Viśvāmitra as an astronomical reformer takes that reform to have consisted in putting Śravaṇa at the beginning of the asterisms in place of Dhanishṭhā (*J.R.A.S.*, 1917, p. 39).