History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c82.159.4

v6.c82.159.4

Another reason for discounting the theories of Biot, Weber and Whitney may also be advanced viz the researches of Tilak in his 'Orion' (particularly pp. 61-95) and of Prof. Jacobi have at least made this clear that the Kṛttikā series is not the oldest arrangement of the nakṣatras known to Indians, but that the Indians had once an older arrangement, which placed Mṛgaśīrṣa at the vernal equinox. Those who are interested in these somewhat novel and rather barren controversies raised by Biot, Weber and others may read Weber's 'der vedischen Nachrichten von den Naksatras', two volumes, I. A. vol. 23 pp. 154-159 (Jacobi on the 'date of the Ṛgveda'), pp. 238-249 (Buhler's note on Jacobi's theory and Tilak's Orion, I. A. pp. 85-100 (Thibaut on 'antiquity of Vedic civilization') and pp. 361-369 (Whitney), I. A. 48 pp. 95-97. The word 'nakṣatra' is derived by Yāska⁷³⁶ from the root 'naks' meaning 'to go', while the Śatapatha Br. (II 1. 2. 17-18) and Tai Br. II 7 18 derive it as from *na* plus *kṣatra* and Pāṇini (VI 3 75) accepts this derivation. The word 'nakṣatra' (m) is applied even to the Sun in Ṛg. VI. 67. 6. Tai. Br. teaches how one is to mark the nakṣatra on which one has to perform a religious act, viz. he should mark about dawn and before the first rays light the sky the part of the sky where the nakṣatra appears and when the sun appears the nakṣatra would be to the west of the sun, at which time he should perform what he has to do.