[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Religion and philosophy](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion) › [The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.keith-1925) › v1.c19.s10 # The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c19.s10: § 10. Constellations and Time Periods The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c19.s10 - **Language:** English ### § 10. Constellations and Time Periods ### [v1.c19.s10.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.keith-1925.v1.c19.s10.1) There is a certain curious paucity of evidence of worship of constellations other than the sun and the moon, especially in its connexion with Soma,⁹ and the planets seem to have attracted little notice. Whether we believe or not that they were known to the Vedic Indians, at any rate it is obvious that they received no direct worship in the period of the Rigveda, and it is not until the close of the Vedic ritual that we have enumerations of them such as that of the Baudhāyana Dharma Sūtra,¹⁰ which gives in a late passage sun, moon, Aṅgāraka, Budha, Bṛhaspati, Çukra, Çanaiçcara, Rāhu and Ketu. Planetary influences, signified in the term Grahas, ‘seizers’, applied to the planets, seem not to have troubled the imagination of the early Indians.¹ ### [v1.c19.s10.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.keith-1925.v1.c19.s10.2) ⁹ See above, Chap. 8, §§ 2–5, 8; Chap. 9, § 3. ### [v1.c19.s10.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.keith-1925.v1.c19.s10.3) ¹⁰ ii. 5. 9. 9. A Kāṭhaka frag. (Caland, \*Brāhmaṇa- en Sūtra-Aanwinsten\*, pp. 8, 29) has sun, Çukra, Bṛhaspati, Budha, Arka, Saura, Rāhu, and Ketu. ### [v1.c19.s10.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.keith-1925.v1.c19.s10.4) ¹ Possibly they are meant in HGS. i. 3. 10. 4, where Çāka may be connected with the mysterious Çakadhūma of the Atharvaveda (vi. 128; SBE. xlii. 160, 532 ff.). ### [v1.c19.s10.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.keith-1925.v1.c19.s10.5) The Nakṣatras figure early in the myths of Soma and his marriage with them which is recorded in the later Saṁhitās and Brāhmaṇas, and in the ritual they receive occasional offerings, but appear to be of little religious consequence.² The same consideration applies to the seasons, months and half months, the days and nights, and the year,³ or even the night of new moon, that is when the moon is invisible, or the night of full moon, or the period when the moon first appears (\*amāvāsyā\*, \*paurṇamāsī\*, \*darça\*), though the latter three entities are honoured by Atharvan hymns.⁴ More personality is accorded to the moon phases, Anumati, Sinīvālī, Rākā, and Kuhū, which have already been denoted,⁵ and still more to Ekāṣṭakā, a lunar day near the beginning of the year, which is celebrated as being the daughter of Prajāpati, and the mother of Indra.⁶ Such importance, however, as this or any other of the Aṣṭakās,⁷ lunar days in the middle of the fortnight of declining moonlight, may possess, is doubtless really due to connexion with the offerings then made to the Fathers, whose connexion with the moon was doubtless strongly felt, since it is accepted as a dogma in the Upaniṣads. ### [v1.c19.s10.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.keith-1925.v1.c19.s10.6) ² See above, Chap. 10, § 3. For the domestic ritual, see ÇGS. i. 25. 5 f.; ii. 14. 8; PGS. iii. 2. 3; GGS. ii. 8. 12. Images of the Nakṣatras are alleged to be referred to in ÇGS. iv. 18. 5, but dubiously. Cf. AV. xix. 7, 8, and Nakṣatrakalpa. ### [v1.c19.s10.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.keith-1925.v1.c19.s10.7) ³ Offerings for the lunar day (\*tithi\*) of birth, ÇGS. i. 25. 5 f.; GGS. ii. 8. 12. ### [v1.c19.s10.8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.keith-1925.v1.c19.s10.8) ⁴ AV. vii. 79–81. ### [v1.c19.s10.9](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.keith-1925.v1.c19.s10.9) ⁵ AV. vii. 20, 46, 48, 47. ### [v1.c19.s10.10](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.keith-1925.v1.c19.s10.10) ⁶ AV. iii. 10; Weber, IS. xvii. 218 ff.; TS. iv. 3. 11; HGS. ii. 5. 14. 1 ff. Cf. Āgrahāyaṇī, as new year day, PGS. iii. 2; HGS. ii. 7. 17. 1 ff. ### [v1.c19.s10.11](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.keith-1925.v1.c19.s10.11) ⁷ Cf. ÇGS. iii. 12 ff.; AGS. ii. 4; GGS. iii. 10; PGS. iii. 3. ### [v1.c19.s10.12](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.keith-1925.v1.c19.s10.12) In the domestic ritual we find the pole star,⁸ Dhruva, accorded a measure of respect, and similar honour is paid to the Seven Seers,⁹ that is the Great Bear, and Arundhatī. The Seven Seers already receive in the Rigveda the credit of having in a time of trouble secured for Purukutsa’s wife a son, Trasadasyu, but in their case we have unquestionably to do with the conception of the souls of the dead entering into the stars. They are said to have settled in heaven to practice asceticism, and with the five Adhvaryus to guard the hidden footprint of the bird, and their relation with the seven Hotṛs on earth is obvious, whether it be that of prototypes or derivatives. The suggestion¹⁰ that the five Adhvaryus denote the planets, because of the similarity of their movements to and fro may be deemed most implausible. Mysterious are the five Bulls who stand in the middle of the sky;¹¹ it is certain from the terminology that they are not the planets, and we may best suppose that they are the stars of some asterism, seen there by the Indian mind. ### [v1.c19.s10.13](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.keith-1925.v1.c19.s10.13) ⁸ HGS. i. 7. 22. 14 f.; cf. AGS. i. 7. 22; BLGS. i. 19. ### [v1.c19.s10.14](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.keith-1925.v1.c19.s10.14) ⁹ Seven Ṛkṣas ‘bears’, RV. i. 24. 10; identified with Seven Ṛṣis, ÇB. ii. 1. 2. 4. For the Seers, ÇB. xiii. 8. 1. 9; JUB. iv. 26. 12 (middle of the sky); RV. iv. 42. 8; x. 109. 4; iii. 7. 7 (seven Vipras); vi. 22. 2; x. 35. 10 (Hotṛs); TA. i. 11. 2; HGS. i. 7. 22. 14; BhGS. i. 19. Cf. A. C. Das, \*Rig-Vedic India\*, i. 375 ff. ### [v1.c19.s10.15](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.keith-1925.v1.c19.s10.15) ¹⁰ Hillebrandt, \*Ved. Myth.\* iii. 423. ### [v1.c19.s10.16](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.keith-1925.v1.c19.s10.16) ¹¹ RV. i. 105. 10. The constellation Çarkara, Dolphin (\*çiṁçumāra\*), appears in JB. iii. 194; cf. TA. ii. 19. 3. For the constellations in AB. iii. 33, see above, Chap. 9, § 10. ### [v1.c19.s10.17](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.keith-1925.v1.c19.s10.17) Hillebrandt¹ suggests that the pole star is to be found not merely in the Dhruva of the domestic ritual, but in the Aghnya to whose head the Açvins are said to fasten one wheel of their chariot, while the other encircles the heaven, comparing the view of later times that the sun, moon, and stars are fastened to the pole star. An alternative view makes the inviolable one the sun, and it is clear that to assume the pole star in the absence of any other hint of its existence in the Rigveda is unwise. He treats Etaça,² who is usually regarded merely as the steed of the sun, as the morning and evening star, comparing him to the later Aruṇa, who does not certainly appear in the Vedic literature. Other efforts have been made to discover the Pleiades³ and the Milky Way⁴ as well as other stars in various mythological figures, but without marked plausibility. ### [v1.c19.s10.18](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.keith-1925.v1.c19.s10.18) ¹ \*Ved. Myth.\* iii. 384; RV. i. 30. 19. ### [v1.c19.s10.19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.keith-1925.v1.c19.s10.19) ² \*Ved. Myth. (Kl. Ausg.)\*, p. 183; contrast p. 98; \*Ved. Myth.\* iii. 281-4. It has been suggested that Aruṇa, not Varuṇa, is mentioned among the Mitanni gods, but implausibly. ### [v1.c19.s10.20](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.keith-1925.v1.c19.s10.20) ³ The Maruts, Hillebrandt, \*Ved. Myth.\* iii. 321, n. 1. ### [v1.c19.s10.21](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.keith-1925.v1.c19.s10.21) ⁴ Sarasvatī as the Milky Way, Hillebrandt, \*Ved. Myth.\* i. 382 f., but see iii. 377 f. ## Linked texts (15) - [Atharvavedasaṃhitā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.samhita.atharva.6.128) — Atharvan & Aṅgiras, Sanskrit - [Hiraṇyakeśigṛhyasūtra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.vedanga.kalpa.grhya.hiranyakesi.1.3.10.4) — Hiraṇyakeśin, Sanskrit - [Śāṅkhāyanagṛhyasūtra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.vedanga.kalpa.grhya.sankhayana.1.25.5) — Śāṅkhāyana, Sanskrit - [Gobhilagṛhyasūtra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.vedanga.kalpa.grhya.gobhila.2.8.12) — Gobhila, Sanskrit - [Pāraskaragṛhyasūtra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.vedanga.kalpa.grhya.paraskara.3.2.3) — Pāraskara, Sanskrit - [Ṛgvedasaṃhitā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.samhita.rg.1.24.10) — Sanskrit - [Baudhāyanadharmasūtra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.vedanga.kalpa.dharma.baudhayana.2.5.9.9) — Baudhāyana, Sanskrit - [Baudhāyanagṛhyasūtra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.vedanga.kalpa.grhya.baudhayana.1.19) — Baudhāyana, Sanskrit - [Taittirīyasaṃhitā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.samhita.krsnayajur*taittiriya.4.3.11) — Sanskrit - [Jaiminīyopaniṣadbrāhmaṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.brahmana.jaiminiya_upanisad.4.26.12) — Sanskrit - [Bhāradvājagṛhyasūtra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.vedanga.kalpa.grhya.bharadvaja.1.19) — Sanskrit - [Śatapathabrāhmaṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.brahmana.satapatha.2.1.2.4) — Yājñavalkya & Śāṇḍilya (Vedic teacher), Sanskrit - [Jaiminīyabrāhmaṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.brahmana.jaiminiya) — Sanskrit - [Āśvalāyanagṛhyasūtra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.vedanga.kalpa.grhya.asvalayana) — Āśvalāyana, Sanskrit - [Taittirīyāraṇyaka](https://indike.org/pramana/in.veda.aranyaka.taittiriya) — Sanskrit --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.keith-1925.v1.c19.s10](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.religion.keith-1925.v1.c19.s10) · Pramāṇa