The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c8.55

c8.55

Corresponding to the winter solstice in Phâlguna, we thus have the asterism of Mṛigashiras or *Agrahâyaṇa* to commence the year from the vernal equinox, much after the same manner as the Kṛittikâs were said to be the mouth of the Nakshatras when the winter solstice fell in the month of Mâgha. The express statement in the Brâhmaṇas that the Phâlgunî full-moon commenced the year from, as I have previously shown, the winter solstice, is thus borne out by the tradition which we find treasured up in *Agrahâyaṇa*. Now if the vernal equinox was near the asterism of Mṛigashiras the autumnal equinox would be in Mûla. It has been ingeniously suggested by Bentley that this name signifying "root or origin" may have been given to the Nakshatra because it was once the first amongst the asterisms and he has actually given a list of the Nakshatras beginning with Mûla; but he does not appear to have used it except to show that when one of the twenty-eight Nakshatras was dropped the divisional Jyeshṭhâ and Mûla both began from the same fixed point in the heavens,—a position which gives him the vernal equinox in the beginning of the Zodiacal portion of the Kṛittikâs. I have already shown that we cannot suppose that the old Vedic priests made observations of imaginary lines in the heavens, and Bentley's explanation which entirely depends on the mathematical divisions of the Zodiac is not therefore satisfactory. Nor can I accept Prof. Whitney's suggestion that Mûla "may perhaps have been so named from its being considerably the lowest or farthest to the southward of the whole series of asterisms and hence capable of being looked upon as the root of all the asterisms"[*] I should rather suggest that Mûla was so called because its acronycal rising marked the commencement of the year at the time when the vernal equinox was near Mrigashiras and the winter solstice fell on the Phâgunî full-moon. Agrahâyana setting with the sun in the west and Mûla rising in the east then marked the beginning of the year, and this position of Mûla is likely to be especially noted as the heliacal rising and setting of a star, and so of Agrahâyana, is difficult to be accurately watched. The etymological meaning of Mûla may thus be said to supply a sort of corroborative evidence for placing the vernal equinox in Mrigashiras though, in absence of other strong grounds, it is of no better value than a similar conjecture of Bentley about the name Vishâkhâ, noticed in the last chapter.