India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c8.s14.24

c8.s14.24

*Names of Months.* Some Vedic names of months as *Nabhasya, Sahasya, Tapasya* are implied in *sūtra*, IV.4.128. But the prevailing month-names were those derived from the names of *nakshatras*. Dr. A. B. Keith observes that the method of naming the months from the *nakshatra* names began in the *Brāhmaṇas*, while it is found regularly in the Epics and later (*Vedic Index*, II.162). He also points out that the name of the *nakshatra* in the *Brāhmaṇas* is more often turned into a derivative adjective and used with *Pūrṇamāsī* or *Amāvāsyā*, as in *Phālgunī Paurṇamāsī*, but it is more usual in the *sūtras* to use the *nakshatra* adjective alone to denote the full-moon night (*Vedic Index*, I.420). The *Ashṭādhyāyī* refers to the latter practice *e.g.* *Āgrahāyaṇī, Phālgunī, Śravaṇā, Kārttikī, Chaitrī*, etc. (IV.2.22-23) as names of *Paurṇamāsīs* in which the full moon is in conjunction with the lunar mansions called Phālgunī, Śravaṇa, Kṛittikā, Chitrā, *etc.* The months in which these *Paurṇamāsīs* occur are called after them (*Sāsmin Paurṇa-māsīti saṁjñāyām*, IV.2.21).