The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c8.33.1

c8.33.1

The whole of this difficulty, however, vanishes, if we give up the notion, that the full-moon night in the month of Mârgashîrṣha might have commenced the year at one time and that the name of the Nakshatra as given by Amara must be derived from the name of the full-moon. There is no express authority in the Vedic works to support such a theory and a closer examination of Pâṇini's sûtras points to the same conclusion. Months in the Hindu calendar receive their names from the full-moon nights occuring in them; and the characteristics of a month are the same as those of the full-moon night after which it is named. If the full-moon night in Mârgashîrsha was, therefore, ever the new-year's night then the month itself would have come to be properly called the first month of the year. In other words the month of Mârgashîrsha would itself, in that case, be called Agrahâyana. Boehtlingk and Roth do interpret the word Agrahâyana in this way on the authority of Shabda-kalpa-druma and Târânâtha has done the same probably on the same authority, for none quotes any passage where the word is so used. Now if Agrahâyana ever meant the month of Mârgashîrsha the word would also assume the form Agrahâyana on the ground given above by Bhattoji ;* and we shall have Agrahâyana as another name of the month of Mârgashîrsha. The word occurs in the Gaurâdi list (Pan. iv. 1. 41), and therefore must be taken to have been known to Pânini. What did he understand it to mean?