Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s20.149

v1.c3.s20.149

The Nakṣatras and the Months.—In the Brāhmaṇas the Nakṣatra names are regularly used to denote dates. This is done in two ways. The name, if not already a feminine, may be turned into a feminine and compounded with pūrṇa-māsa, ‘the full moon,’ as in Tiṣyā-pūrṇamāsa, ‘the full moon in the Nakṣatra Tiṣya.’¹⁰³ Much more often, however, it is turned into a derivative adjective, used with paurṇamāsī, ‘the full moon (night),’ or with amāvāsyā, ‘the new moon (night),’ as in Phālgunī paurṇamāsī, ‘the full-moon night in the Nakṣatra Phālgunī’;¹⁰⁴ or, as is usual in the Sūtras, the Nakṣatra adjective alone is used to denote the full-moon night. The month itself is called by a name derived¹⁰⁵ from that of a Nakṣatra, but only Phālguna,¹⁰⁶ Caitra,¹⁰⁷ Vaiśākha,¹⁰⁸ Taiṣya,¹⁰⁹ Māgha¹¹⁰ occur in the Brāhmaṇas, the complete list later being Phālguna, Caitra, Vaiśākha, Jyaiṣṭha, Āṣāḍha, Śrāvaṇa, Prauṣṭhapada, Āśvayuja, Kārttika, Mārgaśīrṣa, Taiṣya, Māgha. Strictly speaking, these should be lunar months, but the use of a lunar year was clearly very restricted: we have seen that as early as the Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa there was a tendency to equate lunar months with the twelve months of thirty days which made up the solar year (see Māsa).