India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c8.s15.t1.26

c8.s15.t1.26

II. *Nakshatra-Nāma*: (15) Pāṇini deals at length with names derived from stars (IV.3.34;36,37; VIII.3.100). The *Gṛihyasūtras* refers to the *nakshatra* name in addition to the personal name. According to Āpastamba the star name was kept a secret; Gobhila enjoins that the teacher was to give his pupil a *nakshatra* name which he used in bowing to him (*abhivādanīya nāma*, *Gobhila Gṛihya*, II.10.23-24). The *Gṛihyasūtras* of *Śāṅkhāyana*, *Khādira*, *Mānava* and *Hiraṇyakeśī* are also of the same opinion. Originally adopted as a secret name, the *nakshatra* name as being convenient to utter became later on as popular as the *gotra* name, *e.g.* Moggallāna Tissa in which the star name and the *Gotra* name are coupled.