History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c82.111

v6.c82.111

There are Western scholars that deny the knowledge of the planets to the Vedic Indians. But Thibaut (Grundriss p. 6) and Kaye (p. 33) both concede that it is inconceivable that the Vedic Indians did not observe and distinguish at least the larger planets in early times, but they contend that the Vedic passages cited as proving knowledge of the planets on the part of Vedic Indians cannot be accepted as evidence of the record of observations about planets and that the mere mention of the number seven or five (about Ādityas in Ṛg. X. 72. 8-9 or oxen) cannot be relied upon. Both Thibaut and Kaye approach these problems with a peculiar mentality. Their criticism is mainly destructive and has a flavour of special pleading against things and ideas Indian. They hardly ever propose their own explanations of the disputed passages and when they rarely do they do not show how their explanations are more satisfactory than the ones they criticize. One typical case may be cited here. Almost all scholars agree that Kṛttikās are the same as Pleiades; but Kaye (Archaeological survey memoir No 18 p. 24 and I. A. vol. 50, p. 45) appears to doubt this, yet he has not the goodness to say positively what other cluster Kṛttikās stand for and why. The principal reason for the paucity of references to planets probably is that the cult of the worship of planets that we find well developed in Yāj. I. 295–308 had not yet arisen in Vedic times. At least Bṛhaspati (Jupiter) appears to be clearly meant in two Vedic verses, 'Bṛhaspati,⁷¹⁹ first appearing in the highest heaven of the great Luminary (the Sun), destroyed darkness &c.,' 'Bṛhaspati, when first appearing, rose in front of Tiṣya (Puṣya) constellation'. 'The seven⁷²⁰ priests guard the dear and fixed seat of the bird (Agni) along with the *five* adhvaryus; oxen, going eat, ageless, delight in the east, the gods follow the ordinances of gods' (Ṛg. III. 7. 7). Here the (five) oxen are taken to be the five planets. Similarly, 'He (Indra) filled heaven and earth and the mid-region; he superintends in various ways the five gods, the 49 gods (Maruts) at the proper seasons together with the thirty-four lights similar to his own but each according to the different ordinances governing each'⁷²¹ (Ṛg. X. 55. 3), 'these five oxen that stand in the midst of the great heaven' (Ṛg. I. 105. 10). Vena⁷²² may be taken to be the brilliant Venus in Ṛg. X.