History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.t2.743

v4.c63.t2.743

¹⁷⁶³ आसन् मघासु मुनयः शासति पृथ्वीं युधिष्ठिरे नृपतौ। षड्द्विकपञ्चद्वियुतः शक-कालस्तस्य राज्ञश्च ॥ बृहत्संहिता 13.3. This is not a verse of Garga as some scholars assert. In 13. 2 Varāhamihira promises that he will dilate on the movements of the seven sages (*municāra*) according to the opinion of Vṛddhagarga. It appears that 13.3 is his *own* verse. Garga held the opinion that the Great Bear remained in one constellation for one hundred years. That is all. Utpala quotes the verse of Garga, but it is in the Anuṣṭubh metre. It was believed by the authors of the Purāṇas and even by such astronomers as Varāhamihira that the constellation of the Great Bear remained in each *nakṣatra* for a hundred years. Vide Bṛ. Saṁ. 13.4, Bhāgavata XII. 2. 27-28, Matsya 273. 40-44, Vāyu 99. 421-422, Viṣṇu IV. 24. 33. Mr. Velandi Gopal Aiyer in 'Chronology of Ancient India' (p. 75) holds that 'ṣaḍ-dvika-pañca-dvi' means 26 times 25 i. e. 650 years and that we should read 'śakyakāla' or 'śākyakāla' (p. 73) instead of 'śakakāla' in Bṛ. Saṁ. 13. 3 in order to correct the error of one mātrā in the 4th quarter of the verse. In this last he is in error; he forgets that, according to works on chandas-śāstra, a short syllable at the end of a pāda is deemed to be prosodially long (and therefore the last syllable in Bṛ. Saṁ. 13. 3 is long). Besides, he is not able to cite a single example to show why the usual rule of अङ्कानां वामतो गतिः should not be followed here also or that Varāhamihira elsewhere employs a similar method in a compound word.