History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.t2.771

v4.c63.t2.771

If we try to find out the *nakṣatra* on which the war began, we have one sure criterion in Śalya 34. 6 viz. that the war ended on Śravaṇa nakṣatra when Balarāma returned from pilgrimage. Now the moon cannot be in Śravaṇa at all in Mārgaśīrṣa dark half, but may be in it on the first or 2nd of the bright half of Pauṣa. So between the tithi and nakṣatra as disclosed by the Mahābhārata itself there is a slight discrepancy of a day or two. There is another way of looking at the data. Bhīṣma was waiting for uttarāyaṇa to begin and we know that he passed away on the 59th day after he was mortally wounded on the 10th day of the war. Therefore, a period of 67 days (58 nights of his lying on arrow-bed plus 9 nights of the battle when he slept on his usual bed) elapsed between the beginning of the war and the beginning of Uttarāyaṇa, which undoubtedly occurred in Māgha in that year (as Anuśāsana 167. 28 expressly states). The real difficulty is to find out the *tithi* of the commencement of Uttarāyaṇa. But if we accept the approximate tithi and nakṣatra (as stated above) of the end of the war (i. e. Mārgaśīrṣa amāvāsyā or 1st of Pauṣa and Śravaṇa nakṣatra), uttarāyaṇa began 49 days thereafter i. e. on or about the 4th of the dark half of Māgha. According to the Vedāṅgajyotiṣa, 4th of the dark half of Māgha is one of the tithis on which uttarāyaṇa may begin (vide Dikshit's work pp. 75, 91). How scholars accept one of the data and reject others is well illustrated here. Acc. to Śalya 34. 6 the war ended on Śravaṇa (and so should have begun when the moon was in Mṛgaśīrṣa). Acc. to the Bhāratasāvitrī the war began on Bharaṇī and on the 13th of the bright half of Mārgaśīrṣa and ended on Amāvāsyā (and therefore the nakṣatra was Mūla or Pūrvāṣāḍhā). Arjuniśra gives up the nakṣatras and sticks to the tithis. Mr. Karandikar gives up the express verse about Śravaṇa (and regards that whole chapter as an interpolation), he gives up the 13th tithi of the beginning of the war as given in the Bhāratasāvitrī, holds that the war began on 11th instead and sticks fast to the Bharaṇī nakṣatra given in the Bhāratasāvitrī. Dr. Daftari altogether changes the reading of Śalya 34. 6 by transposing the nakṣatras mentioned.