The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c8.29.2

c8.29.2

2, 3), while in the present case the order is reversed and the Nakshatra, we are told, is named after the full moon. It is true that the lexicographers were, to a certain extent, compelled to adopt such a course, as they could not otherwise explain why *Agrahâyanî*, a term usually denoting a full-moon night, should have been given as a synonym for the Nakshatra of Mrigashiras by Amarsinha. But whatever their motive, we have now to see if their explanations, as well as the statement in Amara, are correct. Turning to Pânini we find no authority for this converse process. The word *Agrahâyanî* occurs in Pânini iv. 2, 22, which lays down the rule that the derivative names of months are formed from *Agrahâyanî* and *Ashwattha*, by the addition of *thak*,* as a necessary termination; and this gives us the words *Agrahâyanika* and *Ashwatthika* for the months of Mârgashîrsha and Âshvina. Now in the previous *sûtra* (iv. 2. 21) Pânini states that the names of the months are derived from the names of the full-moon days that occur in those months. It appears, therefore, that he understood *Agrahâyanî* to mean the full-moon and not the Nakshatra of Mrigashiras. The word *Agrahâyanî* occurs thrice in Pânini (iv. 2. 22; 3. 50; and v. 4. 110) and in all places it denotes the full-moon day. It is not, however, clear whether Pânini treated it as a word derived in the same manner as *Chaitrî*, &c.