Grihya Sutras

SR No.: 007685
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hermann Oldenberg
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1886
Total Pages: 2642
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 49 MB

Page 564

26
GRIHYA-SÛTRA OF GOBHILA.'
sacrifice he celebrates the first half of the month), with that of the full-moon sacrifice the second.
7. Full-moon is the greatest distance of sun and moon; new-moon is their nearest approach.
8. That day on which the moon is not seen, that he should take as the day of new-moon.
9. Sometimes he may also while (the moon) is (still) visible (accept it as the day of new-moon); for (already then the moon) has made its way.
10. The time of full-moon is reckoned in three ways: (when the full moon rises at) the meeting (of day and night), or when it rises after sunset, or when it stands high (in the sky at sunset).
11. Now on what day it becomes full12. The doctrine on this point has to be studied
7. Here begins a new exposition of the question of full and new moon which stands independently by the side of the former sections, and which Gobhila has not taken much care to weld together with them. Comp. Sätra ro with Sätras 2 and 3, and Satra 8 with Sätra 4.
10. The first of the three times is that mentioned in Sätra 2. It seems to me not very safe to interpret sandhyâ in that modern sense, in which sandhi is used, for instance, in the verse quoted by Mâdhava, Weber, Jyotisha 51, so that it designates the meeting-point of the bright and of the dark fortnight (kvartane yada sandhih par vapratipador bhavet,' &c.). If sandhyâ were that, we should expect that the same word would occupy a similar position in the definition of amâvâsya. I prefer, therefore, with the commentary, to understand sandhyâ in its ancient sense, as the time which divides day from night. Thus sandhyâ paurnamâsî, the full-moon day, on which the moon rises at the meeting of day and night, stands in opposition to uttarâ paurnamâsî (Sätra 2), or to astamitoditâ (scil. paurnamâsî, Sätra 10), exactly in the same way as in the Brâhmana passages quoted above (note on $ 3) pûrva paurnamâsî is opposed to uttarâ paurnamâsî. The second and third cases are those of the full moon rising (shortly) after sunset, and of the moon becoming full when standing high in the sky.
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