Indian Antiquary Vol 50

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 50

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ FEB., 1921
THE NAKSHATRAS AND PRECESSION.*
BY G. R. KAYE, F.R.A.B.: SIMLA. 1. Mr. S. B. DIKSHIT was not the first to formulate a connexion between the nakshatras and precession, but he did so in a very interesting and forcible manner. He used as his text the following passage from the Satapatha Brahmana:
"The other nakshatras (consist of) one, two, three or four, so that the Kțittikās are the
most numerous ..... And again, they do not move away from the eastern quarter,
while the other nakshatras do move from the eastern quarter.”1 Dikshit's argument was as follows: The nakshatra Krittika he equated with the Pleiades, and he calculated that the Pleiades were on the equator at about 3000 B.O., and concluded that the age of the Brahmaņa, or rather that portion of it in which the passage occurs, was about 3000 B.o.
His calculation may be accepted, but the point in his argument to which I wish to draw attention is the identification of Krittikê with the Pleiades (a) for the period of the text, and also (b) for the particular purpose of the text.
2. From the astronomical point of view the problem is one of precession. We term the plane in which the apparent motion of the sun takes place the plane of the ecliptic; and the apparent daily path of any 'star is in a plane parallel to the plene of the equator. At two moments in the apparent path of the sun it is also in the plane of the equator and these moments are termed the equinoxes. The positions of the line of equinoxes is not fixed, but changes with reference to the stors at the rate of about one degree in 70 years, or one nakshatra in somewhat less than a thousand years (about 933 years), or one sign id about 2200 years. At about 2300 B.C. the vernal equinox was roughly marked by the Pleiades; at A.D. 560 by 3 Piscium, the yogatârâ of Revati; and now it may be said roughly to be marked by Pegasi which is identified with the yogatârâ of Uttara Bhadrapada.
The motion in precession is 80 blow that it requires fairly accurate observations covering a considerable length of time to notice it. Dikshit did not, however, claim for the authors of the Satapatha Brahmara the discovery of precession, but simply that they had recorded a fairly accurate observation, namely that Kșittikê was then on the equator.
3. The question What were the nakshatras originally ? has never been satisfactorily answered. Indeed it may be said that no satisfactory attempt to answer the question has vet been made. The issue has been masked by the lengthy and learned discussions as to the relationship between the Arabic manazil, the Chinese Sieu, and the Hindu nakshatras. With this discussion we have no concern at present. It has led to no satisfactory conclusion and entailed a good deal of controversy, rather unnecessarily flavoured with acrimony.
The generally accepted theory is that the nakshatras were 27 or 28 constellations that roughly mapped out the ecliptic. The two ideas here embodied are almost irreconcilable, for the constellations selected often cannot be connected with the ecliptic without a great strain on the imaginetion. Also the identifications that have been accepted are based upon comparatively modern texts and ideas. They are sometimes vague and hardly explainable.
. Read before the First Oriental Conference held at Poona. i Satapatha Brāhmaṇa, II, 1, 32 The Bodhayana Srauta Sutra also records that the Krittikäs do not move from the cast.'
3 Indian Antiquary. xxiv, 1895, p. 245. 9 SIR W. JONES Works, IV, 71 1.: H. T. COLBROOKE arayı, il, 321 : A. WEB Ind. Stud, X, 213, do.: W. D. WHITNEY Oriental Studios, il, 341, &o.; Bior Sur l'ancienne autonomie chinoise; &e.