The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c9.4.2

c9.4.2

In short it is the antelope's head in the same way as it is the head of Orion. But besides being open to the objection that this gives us the head and not the form of an antelope's head, the explanation presupposes that the whole of the antelope is in the heavens; and if Ārdrā be correctly identified with the star in the right shoulder of Orion we shall have also to include this star in the four feet of the antelope. The old Vedic works, however, seem to lay down that it was the head of the antelope and not the antelope itself, that was transplanted to the heavens. Referring to the legend of Rudra piercing Prajāpati, Sāyaṇa in his commentary on the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa (ii. 1. 2. 8) * observes that he, the terrible form created by the gods, "cut off Prajâpati's head by the arrow," and "the arrow and the head both jumped up to the heavens and are there stationed." The Aitareya Brâhmaṇa (iii. 33) gives the same story and there too Pashuman or Bhûtavan is said to have pierced Prajâpati with an arrow. But it does not distinctly say whether it was the head or the body that was pierced by him though in the Shatapatha Brâhmaṇa Mṛigashiras is described as the head of Prajâpati. The tradition of piercing the head does not, however, occur in this form in the Rigveda, though in Rig. x. 61. 5-7 this story of Prajâpati is alluded to. But in many places where Indra is mentioned as killing Vṛitra we are told that he cut off the head of his enemy (i. 52. 10; iv. 18. 9; viii. 6. 7) and in Rig.