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GRIHYA-SUTRA OF GOBHILA.
sacrifice he celebrates the first half (of the month), with that of the full-moon sacrifice the second.
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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).
II. Now on what day it becomes full
12. 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. Sutra ro with Sûtras 2 and 3, and Sûtra 8 with Sutra 4.
10. The first of the three times is that mentioned in Sûtra 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 ('âvartane yadâ sandhih parvapratipador bhavet,' &c.). If sandhyâ were that, we should expect that the same word would occupy a similar position in the definition of amâvâsyâ. 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 (Sûtra 2), or to astamitoditâ (scil. paurnamâsî, Sutra 10), exactly in the same way as in the Brahmana passages quoted above (note on § 3) pârvâ 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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