History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.t2.766.3

v4.c63.t2.766.3

Daftari also holds, relying on Atharva Jyotiṣa, that the passage means ‘the moon was in Mūla’ (p. 27 para. 62–65 of his work ‘Astronomical method’ &c.). The explanation is ingenious but one fails to see why this round-about way was resorted to and why the text did not simply say ‘mūlanakṣatragaḥ somaḥ’, which violates no metrical requirements. In Anuśāsana parva (167. 26–28) Bhīṣma, while on the bed of darts, states:¹⁷⁷⁷ ‘the sun has turned (towards the north); 58 days have passed by since I laid myself down on this (arrow bed). This is the mild month of Māgha that is now current, three parts of it remain and this fortnight should be *śukla*’. Bhīṣma was struck down on the 10th day of the war; so 67 nights had passed from the day when the war began to the day in Māgha on which this was uttered. The difficulty is how to connect ‘tribhāgaśeṣaḥ’, whether as an adjective of ‘māsa’ or of ‘pakṣa’. If we take it in the first way, these words were uttered on 8th of Māgha śukla: if we take it as an adjective of ‘pakṣa’, then they will have to be taken as uttered on the 4th of the bright half or on the 4th of the dark half which may be regarded in its astrological effects as equal to *śuklapakṣa* (though the tithi itself is in the dark half). If the words were uttered on the 8th of Māgha śukla, the Bhārata war began on Kārtika amāvāsyā (which will be in consonance with Udyoga 142. 18 quoted in n. 1770). The passage in Anuśāsana (167. 26–28) is supported by two other passages.