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called upon the fact that there is a legend (Maitreyiya Brāhmaṇa iii, 230.11) that the 28th nakṣatra, Abhijit, dropped out but Taittiriya Brāhmaṇa (1.5.2.3) marks it as a new comer. Abhijit is mentioned as a fallen star in Mahābhārata (iii, 232.2) also. It therefore suggests that Mahabharata belongs to the Brahmanic period as also Jaina system of 28 nakṣatras does. However it cannot be ascertained as to how far the Jaina school of astronomy had been independently flourishing parallel to Vedanga Jyotișa till it gained over the latter in the post-Vedānga pre-Siddhantic period. The possibility of such a tradition is, of course, evident from the preservation of Jaina continuity of 24 Tirthankaras (ford-makers) with Lord Mahavira as the last one of the second round,17 and from the diversity of three different schools of ancient Indian astronomy i.e. Lagadha, Videha and Gandharva.18
Consequently it may be inferred that Mahābhārata belongs to a period earlier than first millenium B.C. and some later interpolations in the text should not be confused with which however, on the other hand, might be related to a different school of astronomy of this period which can be ascertained only when the different schools viz. Lagadha, Videha, and Gandharva etc. are properly unearthed. Several important results have been obtained from our investigations into the field of Jaina Astronomy20 belonging to post-Vedānga pre-Siddhantic period and compared with Jaina astronomy an analytical study of Mahābharata is still in progress.
The authors are extremely grateful to Dr. Bhatnagar, Director, Nehru Planetorium, Bombay and Shri R. N. Doshi for their keen interest in our research in Jaina Astronomy.
[ January 1979 ]
References
1 Vaidya, R. V. (1969), Bharatiya Jyotisa Sastra of S. B. Dixit, Part I, pp. 107128 (Eng. translation) New Delhi, the Manager of Publications, Civil Lines.
2 Pandey, V. C. (1975), 'Astronomical Observations Quite Dependable', Chandigarh, The Tribune (An English daily newspaper), dated 30th Sept., 1975.
3 Lishk, S. S. & Sharma, S, D. (1974), 'Post-Vedanga Pre-Siddhantic Indian Astronomy, Paper presented at Summer School on History of Science, organised by Indian National Sciences Academy, at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi (Sept. 2-11, 1974).
4 Kaye, G. R. (1924) Memoires of Archaeological Survey of India, No. 18; Hindu Astronomy, pp. 14-22, Calcutta, Calcutta University Press.
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