The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c8.50

c8.50

In support of this derivation, may be cited the fact that Mṛigashiras was once considered to be a feminine word. Mukuṭa and Bhānu Dikshita[^ †] both quote, Bopālita who gives the neuter and the feminine forms of Mṛigashiras. Rāmanātha in his Trikāṇḍa Viveka, gives a quotation from Rabhasa and another from a *Smṛiti* to the same effect.[^ ‡] If the word Mṛigashiras was thus ever used in the feminine gender, the feminine adjective *Agrahāyaṇī* might have been used as a synonym for the same, not because it was the name of the full-moon, but because the asterism was spoken of in the feminine gender. This may account for the fact why Amarasinha lays particular stress on this point.