History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c82.150

v6.c82.150

⁷³² नक्षत्रदेवता होता एताभिर्यज्ञकर्मणि । यजमानस्य शास्त्रज्ञैर्नाम नक्षत्रजं स्मृतम् ॥ वेदाङ्गज्योतिष verse 28 Western scholars usually ascribe the Vedāṅga Jyotiṣa to about 400 B. C For example, 'L' Inde classique' edited by Prof L. Renou and others, Tome II para 1711 assigns, after saying that the date is undetermined, 400 B C as its probable date. I should like to place it not later than 8th century B C for several reasons. If the observation referred to above (p 496) about kṛttikās were made about 12th century B C (14th century B.C. as some scholars hold) and if 400 or 300 B.C. was accepted as the date of the Vedāṅgajyotiṣa, it would have to be supposed that the writer of it either did not notice (or purposely ignored) the fact that winter solstice had shifted about 11 or 12 degrees from the originally observed position This is rather difficult to believe A difference of four or five degrees may not be dwelt *(Continued from last page)* upon. Besides, the facts that the Baudhāyana-śrauta-sūtra has a similar passage, that Kautilya follows the five year cycle and says that there is an intercalary month at the end of 2½ years and another intercalary month at the end of the cycle of five years ( II 2 on p 109 ) and the fact that the Mahābhārata ( Virāṭaparva 52 3-5 ) speaks of adding two intercalary months every five years rather suggest an earlier date for the Vedāṅga-Jyotiṣa Vide Swamikannu Pillai's 'Indian Ephemeris' vol I part I p 448 ff for discussion on the probability of the antiquity of the वेदाङ्गज्योतिष