The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c10.13

c10.13

It may, however, be asked if there is any evidence to show that *Agrayana* was used to denote a star in the Vedic works. That Amara, and long before him Pāṇini, understood *Agrahāyaṇī*, if not *Agrahāyaṇa*, to mean the Nakshatra of Mrigashiras is undoubted; and I think we might fairly infer therefrom that the meaning given by these writers must have come down to them traditionally. Every *ayana* must begin with some Nakshatra, and it is quite natural to suppose that *Agrayaṇa* must have gradually come to denote the star that rose with the first *ayana*. But I have not been able to find out a passage where *Agrayaṇa* is used in the Vedic works to expressly denote the constellation of Mrigashiras. I may, however, refer to the Taittiriya Sanhitā (vi. 4. 11. 1.) wherein the vessels (*grahas*) used for sacrificial purposes are mentioned as beginning with *Agrayaṇa* and considering the fact that two other vessels are named, as the words themselves denote, after the planets Shukra and Manthin,* we might suppose that *Agrayaṇa* came to be included in the list, not as the name of a deity, for it was not such a name, but as denoting, the star which commenced the year, or the half-year. The word *graha* which in the sacrificial literature denotes vessel has been used in later astronomical works to denote the planets, the number of which, including the sun and the moon, is fixed at nine, the same as the number of the vessels used for sacrificial purposes. It is not, therefore, improbable that *Agrahāyaṇī* or *Agrahāyaṇa* of the later writers was a transformation of *Agrayaṇa*, and that Mrigashiras, was so called in old times for sacrificial purposes. When the *Agrayaṇeṣṭis* lost their primary meaning, *Agrayaṇa* or *Agrahā-* yana naturally came to to be used more to denote the month when the sacrifice was performed than the Nakshatra at the beginning of the ayana, thus giving rise to the speculations previously discussed. But in whatever way we may explain the disappearance of Agrayana in the sense of Mrigashiras in the oldest Vedic works, the fact that in the days of Amara and long before him of Panini Agrahayani was used to denote the constellation of Orion remains unshaken, and we may safely infer therefrom that the meaning given by them was a traditional one.