The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c8.48

c8.48

and interrupted the tradition of *Agrahâyaṇi* coming down to us intact. It is difficult to say how these etymological speculations originated. Perhaps the word *Agrahâyaṇika* was in course of time corrupted by nonuser into *Agrahâyaṇa* on the analogy of *Chaitra* and *Chaitrika*, and such corruption gave rise to these speculations, or it might be that the year locally commenced with Mârgaśîrsha in certain provinces, and attempts were made to find an authority for such custom in the etymological meaning of the word *Agrahâyaṇika*. It appears to me more probable, however, that the old tradition about the Nakshatra gradually got connected with the month which was named after it as in the case of Kârtika, whose first rank amongst months is suggested by Prof. Whitney "as due to the ancient position of the Kṛittikâs as the first among the lunar mansions "* This is very likely if, as shown below, the word *Agrahâyaṇi* was ever used to denote both the Nakshatra and the full-moon. But whatever the origin, the speculation was there safe under the authority and prestige of the Bhagavad Gîtâ, and Amarasinha, who appears to have been not wholly free from the influence of such theories, naturally put down *Agrahâyaṇi* instead of *Agrahâyaṇa*, as the name of the Mṛigashiras, especially as the latter word, *Agrahâyaṇa*, was not expressly mentioned by Pâṇini. Later lexicographers, who considered Amara and especially the Gîtâ to be above error, attempted to reconcile Amara's statement with the system of Pâṇini by unusual derivations, and astronomers appear to have vied with them in mathematically reconciling the real and the imaginary beginnings of the year! We must, therefore, set aside all these theories and go back to the purer times of Pâṇini, to determine what was the real name of the Nakshatra I have already shown that Pāṇini knew the word *Agrahāyaṇa* and also that he could not have understood it to mean the month of Mārgaśīrṣha. It is, therefore, evident that he used it as a derivative from Agrahāyaṇa in the sense of time as given in Pāṇini iv. 2. 3. If so, he considered *Agrahāyaṇa* to be a name of the Nakshatra of Mṛigashiras. Amarsinha's *Agrahāyaṇī* is, therefore, either an error or a feminine adjective for the *tārā* of Mṛigashiras meaning exactly the same thing as *Agrahāyaṇa*; thus *Agrahāyaṇa* = *Agrthāyaṇa* (Pan. v. 4. 38), *Agrahāyaṇa* + *ī* (Pan. iv. 1. 15) = *Agrahāyaṇī*.[^ *]