Beginnings of Indian Astronomy with Reference to a Parallel Development in China Asko Parpola ABSTRACT Llypotheses of « Mesopotamian origin for the Vedic and Chinese star calendars are unfounded. The Yangshao culture burials discovered at Puyang in 1987 sug- gest that the beginnings of Chinese astronomy go back to the late fourth millen- niumpcr. The instructive similarities between the Chinese and Indian luni-solar calendrical astronomy and cosmology therefore with great likelihood result from convergent parallel development and not from diffusion 1 INTRODUCTION what follows, | propose that the first Indian stellar ce ted to the quadrant stars, was created by Early Harappans around 300 nt, and that the heligcal rise of Akdebaran at vernal equinox marked the new year The grid-pattern town of Rahman Dheri was oriented to the cardinal directions, detined by observing the place of the sunrise at the horizon throughout the year, and by geometrical means, as evidenced by the motif of intersecting circles, Laely Harappan seals and painted pottery suggest that the sun end the centre of the four directions symbolized reval power indar, perhaps restric A short sunimary ofthis paper, entitled “Beginningsof Indian and Chinese Calendrical Ast. omy,” vas presented at the 224191 Annual Meeting a! the American Oriental Society in Portland Oregon, 17 Marea 2074, Ldodicatethisstdy to my elder orother’ Thuappetian (luppetan} in Pan: jal, Kerala, he eminent Malayalam playwright and graphic artist Sr Mutlathuksa‘hl Mamaanat Subramanian Nampuitity, who on his Sith birthday 4 March 2075 "saa too fall moons” and ceived a hundrostold unction (axibkiscka). Barn 16 February rag under the Visakha naksata which detines the birthalay, he the eldest son of the ate Jainvinisa Samavesia authority, my gure Brahmastt M, ME. [ii Ravi Narpttiri HISHORY OF SELENE EN SOUTH ASLA (2013)22 BEGINNINGS OF INDIAN ASTRONOMY Mature Harappans probably had astronomical observatories like their Chinese contemporaries. They made stable stone pedestals likely intended for the gnomon and possibly used water to make the ground lovel, Around 24oo uct, Indus astronomers lunarized the carlier heliacal calendar, concluding, the stellar position of the sun from the full mo N's conjunction with the opposing asterism, Stellar oppositions were established with the help of eér- cumpolar stars, which assumed ideological importance: Ursa Major became the Seven Sages, and the teadiast pole star (alpha Draconis} symbol for the king Harappan star-gazers also adjusted their calendar to the precession by making the Ploiades the new year star. Native Dravidian names of stars, asterisms and planets preserved in Old Tamil texts can be read in the logo-syllabie Indus script, where the most common Dravidian word for ‘star, min, is expressed with the picture of its homonya mia ‘fish! Among the Dravidian star names ending in that are attested in Old Tamil i ‘nosth star’; this compound has a counterpart in the Indus script, where a pictogram resembling the “three-branched fig tree” motif of Harappan painted pottery occurs several times immediately before the plain ‘tish’ sign, A ‘north’ is enfin ‘banyan tig,’ the mighty tree with rope-like air-roots from which it has got its name (ef. aufuni’rope’). This Dravidian hom- is cate-n homonym of ‘onymy explains two conceptions of Puranic cosmology, the banyan as the tree of the northern direction and the idea that starsand planets are tied to the pole star with invisible “ropes of wind”. As carly as in Reve .aq, reference is made te stars being “fixed above” and to a banyan tree held up in the sky by King, Varuna The same hymn mentions Sunahsepa, a sacrificial human victim who was repla- cording to & legend narrated in the royal consecration of the Veda. SunahSepa ‘Dog's tail’ is originally an ancient cing in this role the firstborn son of @ king a Gracco-Aryan name of a circumpolar asterism, apparently corresponding te the tail of a large heavenly crocodile (sisiemdra literally ‘baby-killer’) mentioned as containing the pole star in Taiftiiua Avanyoka 2,19 and in Purana texts. The latter conception can be associated with a Harappan crocodile cult that survives up to the present day in Gujarat and thal in Bengal has been connected with the sacri fice of first-born babies. By a curious coincidence the ancient Chinese too were imagining an immense heavenly alligator in the sky, apparently since Neolithic times, HISHORY OF SCENEL IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21ASKO PARPOLA 23 2. REPUTING THE DERIVATION OF VEDIC ASTRONOMY 100 BCP PROM MESOPOTAMIA he relationship between the Indian,t Chinese, and Mesopotamian’ calen- T dars has been much debated! Recently, John C. Didier has asserted that Indians adapted the twelve Babylonian zodiacal si alter about 1100 ct, wherealter the calendar went to China sometime between goo and goorcr to become the 28hisi> Didier’s scheme accommodates the dates, of the earliest attestations of the three fi unacceptable for a number of reasons detailed in this paper. Indeed, given the shortcomings of Didier’s work? it would hardly merit serious consideration if Didier could not take as his basis? David Pingree’s “hypothesis that essential elements of Vedie astronomy including the naksatra calendar owe their origin te influence of astronomical knowledge received from Babylonia around 1vencr David Pingree (1933-2005) was one of the foremost experts of both Mes potamian and Indian astronomy, a top scientist who could read both cuneitorm and Sanskrit texts, He has demonstrated that Indian mathematica! astronomy, first codified in Lagadha’s Rk-recension of the Jyotisa-vedaiiga (perhaps as early 5 quo 0¢1), is based on transmission of Mesopotamian astronomical and astrolo- gical tradition to northwestern India when it was part of the Achaemenid empire 515-326 vcr)” But when itcomes to the carly Vedic texts, “written [sie] over 2 period of several hundred years, beginning shortly before woo wcr (the hymns in mrndala | of the Rgreda) and extending for some time alter that date”? the evidence is far from convincing, let alone "virtually unassailable” "> Actually, Pingree himself gns into the 27 or aSaaksa y developed systems involved, but is iginally was of the same opinion 1 A-consenient summary of the basie dia 6 See Pankenier sor: 106-7 & 194464 and of Indian astronomy is hillievat 195% On the http: //vww lebih. edu/-aepo/Retuse Vodiedata concerning thewaksatss, Weber8ea Didier Naar box) remains fundamental on post-Vedie Indian as: 7 Dikier ano: Fan with n tronomy Pingrve 1978. & Pingree 2007: 43 2 Thebasicworsen Chinese astronomyhas 9 See Pingroe 1689: 1990 2007! 4 been Needham 193g, now fundamentally up- Pingree & Morrissey 1389; Hanger & Pingree dated by Pankenier 2013 (kindly maceavailable 19ys: 72-73, to me in page proofs by the author shortly be 10” Pingroe 1974) 98; and elsewher fore this paper wentio press; ankenier’scatier 11. Vedie texts were compas and handed papers which are retorted loin she present pa- down orally, and Vedic Indians did not read ot pr have been inclucied in this book in revised write: alter the Indus script had vanished by form) about 1700 HCE, writing first came to India with, 5 Neonvenient summary of Mesopotamian the Achaemenids fet e., Karttunen whe 2 s/a recent handbook is yo:Salomon 198s 40-14) 12 Pingree 19895 sstronomy is Rogers Hunger & Pingree 199 ‘sew Neeulhamy 1959: 184, 252-25 13 Didier 2009: |, 5 Didier 2009 1: 98 & 106-1 Pingree, see also Fal HISEORY OF SCIENCE IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21-78)24 BEGINNINGS OF INDIAN ASTRONOMY The earliest Indian texts which are known — the Vedas, the Brah- manas, and the Upanisads ~ are seldom concerned with any but the most obvious of astronomical phenomena; ... One may point to the statement thal the year consistsof 360 daysasa possible trace of Baby lonian influence in the Rgveda, but there is little else which lends it- self toa similar interpretation. It has often been proposed, of course, that the list of the twenty-eight naksatras ... is borrowed from Meso- polamia, But no cuneiform tablet yet deciphered presents a parallel; the hypothesis cannot be accepted in the total absence of corroborat- ive evidence."4 Still in 1978, while giving a short systematic account of Vedic astronomy, Pingree was of the opinion that the earliest “intrusion of new [astronomical] theories. from the West” was that of the fifth century wer45 1 ater, however, Pingree assumed an carlier wave of transmissions influencing the early Vedic tradition The transmissions ... seem to have occurred essentially at the very end of the second or in the first half of the last millennium nct In a period somewhat earlier than this we know of intercourse between Vedic Indians and Mesopotamia from the famous Mitanni material. Such contact could have continued into the fast millennium: either overland, through Iran, or by sea; both routes had been used in Harappan times and were later followed in the Achaemenid period.” However, there is no evidence of any contact between Vedic Indians and Meso- polamia during this time, and the earliest more likely evidence pointing to sea trade between Mesopotamia and the lower Indus country (which lay outside the Vedie sphere) is from the seventh century vcr” The most generally accepted hy pothesis concerning the Mitanni Aryans is that they sepasated {rom Proto-Indo- Aryan speakers in Central Asia and that they did not come from Indias!® they almost certainly came, via northern Iran, to Syria from the “Oxus Civilization” or the “Bactria and Margigna Archaeological Complex (BMAC),” which had ar chacologically attested contacts with Syria during the first hall of the second mil- lennium uct and very likely a Proto-Indo-Aryan speaking superstratum.? The idea of a year of 360 days or 720 days and nights, attested in the Rezwda (16q.n1) and the Athiartnceda (AVS 4,354), results rather naturally from 12 Soler 14 Pingree 1963 15 Pingree 1978: 5 18 See Burrow 1973) Kactiunen 1983, ty Sev Parpola 2012 and a012 [20r 16 Pingre further references, 1p See Karthunen 1989: 22-44 HISHORY OF SCENEL IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21ASKO PARPOLA months of approximately jo days, and needs not to have come from Mesopot amia, at least not around 1uno ner as suggested by Pingree”- iL might have come to India {rom Mesopotamia in Ilarappan times, but could as well have been in- vented independently The same applies to two other similarities with wut. aris that Pingree finds TS 1.4.14; KB 19,2) (once during a five-year cycle: 5 x 360 + 30 = 1830 days, which divided by five gives an average of 366 days for a solar year, about 3/4 of a day longer than the actual solar year), and of the observation of the solstices and significant?" the idea of adding; an intercalary 13th month (see RV 1, equinoxes from the change of sun’s rising point along the eastern horizon: the sun “stands still” before going north for six months and before going south for six months (KB 1,3 The earliest systematic star catalogue preserved from Mesopotamia is con= tained in the so-called “Three Stars Fach’ tablets, the oldest surviving examples of which date from around 1200 Hct, They list in all 36 stars, three for each of the twelve months of the year, one from each of the “three paths/ ways,” presented as circular and concentric in so-called ‘astrolabes,’ the (innermost) “path of (the water god) La,” the (middle) “the path of (the sky god) Anu” and the (outmost) ppath of (the wind god) Linlil”, These paths are supposed to represent, respect ively, the southern sky, the equator and the northern sky, but the divisions are astronomically incorrect, and the lists contain also planets; “these lists include the va state that their heliacal risings were used in a calendrical system” 23 The next important astronomical cuneiform text is the ane that Pingree thinks has influenced carly Vedic astronomy, called from its first words MLL.API (plough star’) and according to its astronomical data compiled around, toon rere! Because it is important to have an idea of this text as @ whole in onder to judge Pingree’s hypothesis, I quote its condensed characterization by jest records of several larming-calendar constellations, and they clearly John Rogers, in whose paper one can find the slar lists (wilh translations of the names) and star maps?> The starlists are direct descendants of the Three Stars Fach lists, in cluding the same stars, the same purposes, and some of the same de- scriptions. But they had been reworked on the basis of accurate obser 20 Pingeoe so8s! 441-442 Hisingon the north sideor thesouth sideot de 21 Blows, 442-344 exsi) 22 The “northern” and “southern” course 25 Rogers ryg8 6-47; see Hanger & Pine cof the sun can in principle beinteypected in bse giee 1949 50-5; ways: fiom one solstice to the other (sunrise Hunger & Pingnoe 1989 soe Hanger & mowing. trom one extremity on the horizon ko Pingree the other}, or from one equinox to another (stn Rogers 1998! HISEORY OF SCIENCE IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21-78)26 BEGINNINGS OF INDIAN ASTRONOMY Vations around to00 BC, and are much more extensive and system- atic and accurate astronomically. They record more constellations, including, most circumpolar ones for the first time; the new ones in~ clude more of the zodiacal figures, and several portrails of deities, but also more depicting farming activities and animals. ... The lists on the first tablet are L. Catalogue of'stars’in the 3 Ways: 71 constellations, stars, and plan ets (lable 3). This catalogue includes all the ‘stars’ in the earlier lists (Table 2} (except Bir) and all the ‘Stars’ in the following lists of MUL.APIN (except for & few single stars). I. Dates of heliacal rising IIL. Pairs of constellations which rise and set simultaneously IV. Time intervals between dates of heliacal risings. Y. Pairs of constellations which are simultaneously at the zenith and at the horizon. VI. The path of the Moon and the planets, ‘The gods who sland in the path of the Moon, through whose regions the Moon in the course ‘ofa month passes and whom he touches: The Pleiades, the Bull of Heaven ... faltogether 18 names|’ ... this list contains most of the zodiacal constellations ... they are not strictly organized into the 12 signs, and some others intrude. Note that the Pleiades and Taurus were named first; they marked the spring equinox before 2200 wer The main lists an the second tablet are VIL Solar calendar, with dates when the Sun isal the cardinal points VIII. The planets and the durations of their solar conjunctions IX, Stellar risings and planetary positions for predicting weather and dictating leap years fintercalary months) X. Telling time by length of the gnomon shadow XI. Length of night watches through the year, by water clock, and rising, and setting of the Moon. XII Omensconnected with appearance of stars, planets, 2comets (wet Urtei) and winds (though not with the zodiac) A missing third tablet ... was probably just an optional appendix ot link to other texts, containing omens, The fact that the oldest anksatia lists start with the Pleiades, like the sixth list of MUL Arts, is ne evidence for the latier’s influence on the former, as Pingree HISHORY OF SCENEL IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21ASKD PARPOLA suggests? rather, it shows that both lists go back toa tradition originating in the third millennium, as noted by Rogers (see note 25 above), especially since the Vedic texts specifically connect the Pleiades with due east (SBM 2,1,2,3-4: “the Krttikas never swerve from the east the context of this passage is discussed in detail below) That both MUL.ariN and the Brahmana texts connect the lunar mansions with deities can equally well reflect Mesopotamian influence of Hlarappan times, for already the Sumerians associated their deities with heavenly bodies, and the Ln dian deities connected with the naksatras differ from those mentioned in the MLL.APIN, a8 Pingree duly notes: The MUr-APty lists 48 stars in the path of the moon, so around save wer the ms determining the twelve solar months had rot yet consolidated. This docs not square with the fact that on the basis of their names, the naksatras originally numbered 24, obviously corresponding, to the 24 half-months of the year. Vedic texts lay stress on the parallellism of three time cycles each split into luminous and dark halves: (1) the nyehthemeron consisting of the day and and the night, (2) the month consisting of the ‘white half’ (Sukla- paksa) of crescent moon and the ‘black halt” (kysna-paksa) of decreasing moon, and (3) the year consisting of the auspicious ‘northern course’ (ufturil Babylonian zodiae of 12 constellat jus) of the sun, and the ominous ‘Southern course’ (daksfiuaysia) of the sun Three naksatms of this originally solar calendar were cach split into two to provide the moon with a lodge for each of the 27 nights of the sidereal lunar month (27d 7h 43m}, That the split asterisms correspond to single constellations in thet aris list does not prove that theaaksatras were divided into two alter the asterisms were first borrowed ay such from Babylonia. Pingree quotes this as the closest link between the two lists* but himself notes that “against the significance of this is the fact that three other Mesopotamian constellations are cach paralleled by two separate naksatras.” ws, the Indian astronomers “selected stars that by no means could be said to lie in the path of the Moon. This indicates that they did not require thal the Moon actually touch the constellation, as wut.arty had”? What actually mattered to the Indian astronomers way, as pointed oul by ean Filliozal, that the aksaénes formed pairs cof stars that were 180 opposite to cach other (Fig. 1)” to achieve this, they se- lected even relatively small stars in preference to more luminous ones Pingree steesses that while there are just a couple of stray references to stars later inclucted in the naksafracalendar in the latest books of the Rec, composed around 100 wer, the full system appears only in subsequent texts some time ingree also notes an important difference: in the case of eight wks 6 Pingree 1Sy- g40-ga1 4 Her, 440—440 Heri. 44 4 Filliazat 1963, Thi HISEORY OF SCIENCE IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21-78)8 BEGINNINGS OF INDIAN ASTRONOMY Figure 1: Naksatras as opposing pairsofasterisms, After Filliozat 1962: 95 afterwards. He clearly implies that these attestations reflect the evolution of the swksutra calendar. Pingree ignores the fact that the Rgvedic Aryans were not the first Indo-Aryan speaker's in the Indus Valley. While the oldest parts of the Reoedatwhich do not refer to the naksafras) mostly reflect the religion and culture that the Rgvedic Aryans had before and during, their arrival, the latest books already anticipate the deep influence exerted upon them by the carlier arrived Indo-Aryan immigrants. These in their turn also had not arrived into a vacuum void of people, bul to the Indus Valley shorlly before inhabited by Harappans estimated tv have numbered one million ¥ Since the publication of @ seminal paper by Jan Heesterman in 1y62 it has boon widely recognized that the ‘classical’ Vedic ritual codified in the Brshmanas and Srautasitras was preceded by a more violentand Sexually more explicit ‘pre- classical’ ritual, Fossils of this pre-classical’ ritual have survived in Vedic texts in the form of rites associated with military sodalitics whose members were called oniitya, in rites connected with royalty (rafasuy ya, asvamtedha), and in cc- remonies of the maltderata day. The miehtontia concludes year-long rites and cel ebrates one of the turning points of the year 41 The estimate is from Kenneth K_ R. strongly suggested by che fact that the Iranians Kennedy 1995 {personal commamication). That of Pre-Klame times did not havea comparabl the Aryans did not bring the aalsaéra calendar star calendar; see Panaino 2013 with them when they came to South asia is 3 Most scholars have connected the # HISHORY OF SCENEL IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21ASKO PARPOLA 29 It is very significant that the ritual context in which the Yajurvedic Samhitas and Brahmanas list the naksat nis is the building of an elaborate fire altar (agai- with a large number of baked bricks. Such a fire altar is a necessary part ofa year-long rite, and the completed fire allar is praised on the final mialaeais day (cf., eg, PB 5,4). There are many variants of Vedic fire altars, one common type having five layers and 10.800 bricks, The fire altar isan image of the creator god Projapati (identified with the sac the year (hich has yo x 30 = 10.800 ‘moments, one day-and-night having, 30 ‘moments’ and there are 3o days ina month), The waksatras and the full and new moon are connected with specific ‘pebbles’ Sarkar) laid down as “bricks in two rows around the centre of the uppermost layer The building, of fire altars is described in detail in Vedie Sulvasuitras, which codify a fairly advanced geomet- tical tradition*! These is no reference to this tradition or to the briek-built fire altars in the Ryrvds, and it is out of the question that, in the relatively short time that Separates the Ryvvdaand the Yajurvedic Sambhitas, the nomadic Aryans of the Ryzeda should have created such a tradition. Rather, il makes sense to derive this tradition from the Harappans, who during much of the third millennium lived in large cities elaborately built of millions of bricks %9 The planets figure prominently in the Mur.arrs. If this text really influenced carly Vedic astronomy, why are the planets apparently nol at all mentioned in the Ryveds, and it is extremely diflicult to find references to them even in later Vedie texts? iter all, the planets differ [rom all other heavenly bodies through their independent movement, and at times belong to the brightest phenomena iver} and his body, ic. the cosmos and ate with the winter or summer solstice (see {See Raw 1957: 15}, and hese have been con: Rolland 38-60), and indeed in several al with the plundering expositions at thy Vedic tx mate and the muddle day — r9Fkyne(Hleesterman agfaiy themighaentcam bs cf the year arly denote the solstices, wither linkel with the great festival However, a number of facts suggest that erie of Darga, the godldess of war and victory, el ginally the malonate celebrated the autumnal ebrated at the end of the rain v around squinos {see Parpola xgo4a: 205). Foronething, the autumnal equinox, which has traditional the Pleiades constitute the ftst asterism of the been one af the main thmes to start a warring a 20}. Secondly, whih séraliss, marking thusthe beginning expedition (see Parpela of the year, and several of the individual star the malerita concludes the vear-long saeitie, names of thisasterism relate to rain (see Weber the mic-pointot the year is thet! 162i I, 301, Y68: Scherer 1939) 117) Secondly, eg, Hillebeandls 1899! 157, and one characteristic ation of the maiioratiday is denotes the “vernal equinox’ ia’ many Indian the sounding of different mesical instruments. languages (ee lurner 166: 653 no. 11982) and Rolland 197%: 73-761, s0 that “all manner of} _iscelebrated today as such in many’ parts oF In- voices (he, music) resound” (srrteiew dt) cla (see Brighens 2073}, 15 7,59,3; P8 53.20). Accurding ww IB 18.42 34 See Staal 198% 1, ayd-ay5. Figeae & this takes placein the rainy season prinysfsareT table sa, ‘eaadant, which lasts omaboutthe middle 34 See Kulkarni 198; 1987; Sen & Bag 1983, of July tothe middleor September. The TB pass Michaels 2938, soe speaks of sites connected with the regu 43 See Kulkarni Sa: 98 lar plundering tourset Kurt and Paneala tribes HISEORY OF SCIENCE IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21-78)3 BEGINNINGS OF INDIAN ASTRONOMY. of the night sky, They cannot have failed to attract the attention of carly astio- nomers. From the oracle bones and the chronicle called Bamboo Annalswe know that as early as 1576 wer, Chinese astronomers were closely observing planet ary movements, and that later in the second millennium wee dynastic transitions were justilied with reference to unusually dense clusters of all the five planets visible to the naked eye.” | suspect that the Vedic aversion to mention planets is probably due to the important position they and astrology in general had in the religion that prevailed in the Indus Valley before the arrival af the Rgvedic Aryans, Yet some proper names reveal that the planets were not unknown. Perhaps the clearest case is, significantly, connected with the ‘pre-classical’ rites of the Bralunana 24,18,1, the date Rudra}, had Budha as their leader (stfiap als (who were the /38,5-7 mention Saumayana as the patvonym of this vratyas, According to Pafien adherents of ‘the God,’ ic Sfoka verses quoted in PB 2 Budha ¥ Buatha means wise’ and itis the later Sanskrit name of the planct Mer cury, while Soma denotes not only the sacred drink of Vedic Aryans but also the ‘moon,’ One of the best-known astral myths in classical India (told in many Purana texts and referred to in the Mahibiimta) concerns the birth of Planet Mercury, Soma (‘the moon’) robs Tara (‘the Star’), the lawful wite of Brhaspati, i, planet Jupiter, and engenders this splendid son to whom he gives the name Budha, The myth and its textual history have been studied in detail by Wil- libald Kirfel® The epics and Puranas are, of course, post-Vedic, but they go Many of Buddhism’s carly persons have astral proper names. Astral he ‘proto-epic’ gatlia and slok verses quoted in Brahmana texts and associated with the vratyas and the non. Brahmanical country of Magadha® Tara Is an important goddess in Buddhism, which arose in Magadha. Many of Buddhism’s early peesons have astral proper names. Astral names are very rare in older Vedic texts, although the Grhyasutras preseribe giving a baby a secret name derived from the birth star, Besides, Law texts recommend that an Aryan should not marry a gitl whose name isderived froma constellation, just as one should avoid a girl bearing the name ofa low caste or slave (see Manu 8-9) Allthis suggests that while the Vedic Aryans had a certain aversion against astral back to non-Rgvedic traditions manifested in tMagadha 4 See Pankenier oclically came into contact with the moon fs 37 See Horsch 196 Kintel 19522 82-89). In my opinion the myths 5 Sec Kiriel 1952, Kirtelspeculatesthatthe originally relates to the changeover from heli- myth may have come fiom Mesopotamia and aca’ to lunisolar calendar at an early phase of that lara might bethe bright star Spica in Virgo, Indian astronomy, when Lara would have been the matsitr Cie, In Mesopotamia, Virgo was thenew sear star Rohini (see below and Parpola a manifestation of the Mather goddess, was in goa: 269). Near Fastern astronomy and astrology eonniee- 3g See Horse 19665 01-448. ted with fupiter as well as Mercury and pert= HISHORY OF SCENEL IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21ASKD PARPOLA 3 ore beyond the use of an astral calendar, it was important among pre-and non- Vedic Indo-Aryans, who probably had inherited it in India from the descendants of the Indus Civilization 3. THE PARALLEL DEVELOPMENT OF ASTRONOMY IN CHINA An astronomers determined the seasons by observing the position of the sun on its heavenly path (the ecliptic}. In }gypta" and in the Near Fast un til about 1100 ncr, this was done by observing the heliacal risings of stars near the ecliptic just before sunrise: The great dilliculty with this method of obser- vation, in which the attention concentrates on the horizon and the ecliptic, is that the time of observation is very brief and the star difficult to see on account of the brilliance of the sun and atmospheric disturbances on the horizon. The Chinese and Indian astronomers avoided this ditliculty by adopting a different method of observation, based on the fact that when the moon is full, itis exactly opposite the sun; this could be deduced from the rise of the full moon on the eastern horizon at the moment when the sun sets on the western horizon.t# In China as well as in India," the lunar asterisms were chosen so that they form. pairs which stand more or less exactly opposite to cach other (Fig. 1)-!7 From the conjunction of the {ull moon with a specitic asterism one knew that the sun was in conjunction with the opposite marking ster Joseph Needham, in the third volume of his celebrated Science aind Cie in Chins, noted that, the common origin of the three chief systems [of lunar calendar] (Chinese, Indian and Arab) can hardly be doubted £ but the problem ‘of which was the oldest remains. ‘That of the mand=i ['mansions, 40 See Parpols 199 planet Ves in the Fast or in the West during 1 Seo Parker 1978; twenty-one years [see van der Waenden 1978) 2 “Heliacal rising” denotes the moment unger & Pingree 1599: when a constellation frst bosomes visible rising See Needham 19 jv the dawn. In the "Thee Sars bach” tab lets compiled in the Middle Babylonian perio! itis clearly stated thatthe heliacalrisings wer Nectham 1959 Fitiozat ‘sex in a calendrieal system (see Rogers syyS 1y62. 350 and see Fi rsj,ancalso in theater aris theheliacalyisings 47. Agvorling to Daviel Pankealer (personal are among the most important topics dealt cominunication 2099), thls ole! view is aow with (See above}. The earliest astronomical text considered "very doubttul, especially since th from Mesopotamia, the Yenus Tablet of Am- Chinese misaduga, which constitutes Tablet 6 oF th omen collection Enéma Anu Enlil and dates trecalendarsclected even small starsin onder 16 from theOd Babylonian period and most prob obtain opposition, which in my opinion speaks ably around 1yooncr, records observations of in lavoret the old hypothesis the bist appearance and disappearance ob th vary sorealy insize”, Jean File 2) noted that thecseators of the nals ORY OF SCIENCE IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21-78)BEGINNINGS DF INDIAN ASTRONOMY ie,, the Arab calendar, which is clearly derived trom the Indian one| isnot a compelitor....16 In his footnote ¢ Necdham however made the following reservation ness of course one should lake the view that every civilisation us ing a primarily lunar calendar inevitably needed a system of lunar mansions, so that independent invention occurred. This may be te able astronomically but hardly historically or ethnographically+" Itshould be noted, however, that the Chinese and Indian calendars are luni-solar, a purely lunar calendar {based on the observation of the moon’s phases) is out of step with the seasons, as is exemplified by the circulation of the Muslim month of Ramadan around the solar year. Interestingly, a purely lunar calendar was used scr, when the Babylonian luni-solar calendar was adopted in Assyria until 1 during the reign of King A&ur-bel-kala Recent archaeological discoveries made in China and their interpretation by specialists of Chinese astronomy," as well as the research of the Vedic and Harappan cultures reported below, do strongly suggest that the Chinese and Indian luner calendars developed independently of each other. The Chinese calendar starts with the starChio’ Horn, ic, the bright starSpica (alpha Vinginis, the nuksatra Cifrt of the Indian ealendar): according to Duke Huan (707 HCH), when the Dragon’s Horn first rose in the evening above the eastern horizon with the first full moon of the spring, it was the time to conduct the great rain sacrifice, celebrated to induce the Dragon Spirit at this new year festival, and there is abundant evidence for the worship of the Dragon {ic., the Chinese alligator) in the Farly Bronze Age and indeed Neolithic times in China ® By contrast, the Indian calendar begins with the nufsatn Krttikah i, the Pleiades {Gta ete Lauri}, which are important figures in early Indian mythology (see below). Yet the fact that the tivo calendrical systems in spite of their probably dillerent origin became so similar makes it likely that they evolved in the same way. This paper is mainly about the beginnings of Indian astronomy, but 8 Needham 1959 the beginnings of sophisticated astronomical 49 Hen, lootnovec servation iy China are comparatively late 5p letters 2013 and {li} sch imported traditions avout read 3 | am most gratete| to David Panken: ily hase sepplanted existing Chinese saditions ier for his expert help with regard to the even in the absence af congutest oF religious Chinese astronomy ang its dexelopment, He conversion. Recent aychaeologieal discoveries rot only has sent me many publications, but faye shown that Bezokl’s and Needham’s as- also made helpful comments including the fole stimptions about the beginnings of Chinese as lowing (20 Oct 2012}. “The assumption that anomy ace plainly wrong” (see Pankenier in sential clements of Chinese astronomy muist press) have diffused into China from the West sbased See Pankenter 2014: 38-8 con the longstanding misconception that) HISHORY OF SCENEL IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21ASKO PARPOLA 33 acquaintance with the evolution of the Chinese parallel helps understanding and evaluating my proposals concerning the Indian evidence. The fully developed Chinese stellar calendar comprizes 28 asterisms, called hisi (also ranscribedsieow and in modem Pinyin xix) ‘mansion, thus providing approximately one constellation for cach day of the moon's monthly cycle while the moon takes 29.53 days to complete its phasic cycle from full to full or new to new (the lunation or synodic month), it takes only 27-33 days to return to the same place among the stars (the siderea month). These periods arv always out of step but 28 wasa very con- venient average The diferent lunar periods were reconciled with each other and the solar year by regulating the month length and with intercalations. The complete hisia system* is found in Chinese texts dated to the last three centuries wer.55 Out of the 28 isiu, 23 are attested in a text that may date from S5oncr, and Sina text dated goo-zuoncr.* But as pointed out by David Panken- ier, even successful demonstration that some names of asterisms, which later came to be incorporated among the 2& lodges (originally lunar, not solar), actually occur in much carlier texts, cannot establish the existence of the entire SYSTEM of 28 lodges al that carly date More important is the evidence for an carly use of quadrantal hisiu, whose di mensions approximate the length of the seasons The 2Wjisiu are divided into four heavenly ‘palaces’ of seven asterisms each: © the palace of the “Blue Dragon” (éslnang feng) in the east # the palace of the “Vermilion Bird” (cli sive) in the south, * the palace of the “White Tiger” ua in) in the west, and * the palace of the “Black Tortoise” fistiau zu) in the north Oracle bones belonging to the Lime of the Shang dynasty king Wu Ting (0339 aadipcr) mention (2) the “Bird star” (iso fising), identified with the “Red Bind” = the 25th hsiu, ising (alpha Hydeae, central to the southern palace of "Vermilion Bird” = chi nine), (2) the “Fire star” (tuo hsing), identified with Antares (alpha Scorpii) = the 4th & gthiisiu (lang & xin) central to the eastern palace 53 Neodhanag 54 Heri, 234-297, table 2 the map inf aga, hig. gt andl HISEORY OF SCIENCE IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21-78)ot BEGINNINGS OF INDIAN ASTRONOMY (3) an important unidentified star probably pronounced shang (4) the “Great star” (er hsing). As Needham says, Chu Kho-Chen plausibly iniers from these names that the scheme of divicing the heavens along the equatorial circle into four main palaces ... was growing up already at this time ARCHAPOLOGICAL DISCOVERIPS ‘One great archaeological discovery throwing new light on the history of Chinese astronomy was made in 1978 in excavations at Leidugun, the cemetery place for the Zeng kingdom in the Sui-xian (Sui-zhou) county, Hubei province, [ere Marquis Yi” (or "Duke Yi”) was buried around 433 wr in tomb no. 1 of Leidu: gun with more than 7ooo grave goods. These included a lacquered wooden clothing box. On the cover of the box the names of the 28 constellations are writen in seal script around the large seal script character dow Ursa Major’ that occupies the centre of the cover, The oval circle of the 28 hia is lanked on the left side by a large image of tiger and on the right side by a large image of dragon (Chinese alligator; see Fig.2). These two animals have been identi- fied with the “White Tiger” of the western palace and the “Blue Dragon” of the eastern palace" Given this parallel, an even more dramatic discovery was made at Puyang, Xishuipo county, Henan province, in the 1987 excavations of a Yangsheo culture burial site. In the lite tomb M5 deted to around ooo scr, the corpse was ori ented along the norti-south axis, fect to the north, head to the south. The corpse was flanked by two large mosaic images made with mussel shells, that on the western side depicting e tiger, that on the eastern side depicting a dragon or al- ligator. A third image on the northern side of the corpse consisted of a mosaic Wiangle and two human tibias, interpreted to depict Lrsa Major (Fig. 3 The 25th, 5th, rath and sth isi cach one central to its palace (equatorial quadiant), are all quite clearly mentioned in a passage of the “Historical Clase sie” (Shu Ching) dated between Sov and goo eer. Hore they are connected with shadow lengths of the gnomon, the sun stick 58 Neodlham s950: 2 Gal wks, 3y Pankenier (pers. comm. ora}notes that 61 Seo Pankenier 200, in his new book (2014) he has shown that “bv 45-46; 2cuib: 305-406; 201% yap. Sew alse of the lodges, Fast Aligner’ ancl ‘West Aligner’ — Pankenier {personal communication 2013. “I inscribost on the lid, previously comprised lett discovered that the head o* the acolytes kel snd right sidesofa singleasterismDing corres- elon aligned roughly east-west in fet points ponding to the Syuare of Pegasus, Therefore, ta the azimuth oF winter solstice sunrise at prior to 43aucr, there would anly have been 27 Puyang. See sidebar discussion on p. 337 oF es Pankener 201% HISHORY OF SCENEL IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21ASKO PARPOLA 3536 BEGINNINGS OF INDIAN ASTRONOMY The day of medium length and the (culmination of the) star Nine [alpha Iydrac| (serve to} adjust the middle of the spring. ~.. The day of greatest length and the (culmination of the) star Huo [alpha Scorpii] (serve to) fix the middle of the summer. ... The night of me dium length and the (culmination of the} star Hsii [Xu beta Aquasii) Gorve to adjust the middle of the autumn. ... The night of the greatest length and the (culmination of the) star Mao [Pleiades| (serve to) fix the mide ofthe winter. The year has 366 days, The four seasons i are regulated by means of intercalary months (ja yi Needham comments At first sight [these four hi seem to be associated here with the wrong seasons. .., in the early part of the -2nd millennium [Ising (Niao) and Hsti were solstitial isi, while Lang & Hsin (fluo) and Mao were equinoctial ones, But this applies of course to the moment of solar conjunction, when the stars would be invisible. One of the basic observations of the old Chinese astronomers was that the qua ters of the diurnal rotation correspond every three months with the quadrants of the annual revolution. Thus the fisia which culminates a6 p.m. at the winter solstice (in this case Mao) could be identitied as that in which the sun would stand at noon of the following spring, equinox, and so on successively all through the yearly round. This procedure was entirely in character for ancient Chinese astronomy, which solved its sidero-solar problems by deducing the positions of invisible bodies from those of visible ones, all being firmly held ina polar equatorial coordinate network The apparent exactness of this passage has long offered to scholars an irresistible invitation to determine its date by the precession of equinoxes. Thus]. B. Biot 1862: 634 | wasable to show that the four dosiv mentioned would have occupied the equinoctial and solstitial points (0, go, 180 and 2 about the year -24oo, Indeed, there is not much escape from this conclusion. Needham was not yet aware of the dramatic archaeological discoveries men- tioned above and therefore concluded In view of all that we now know about ancient Chinese history, it seems very unlikely that the data in our text could refer to a time 62, Needham 1954: 243, quoting the transla- 19959: 448 tion of Leopold deSaussuressee also Pankenier 64. Needham 195 HISHORY OF SCENEL IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21ASKO PARPOLA Figure 4: Heavenly Fmperor in his carriage consisting of Ursa Majer, Relief from Woriang-t7e in orthem China, 147 ¢F Atte Jeremias 109% 128, AbD. 1p, based on Chavannes rwoy! pl. LXIX earlier than about -1500 at the most generous estimate ... But the pos- sibility remains open that the text is indeed the remnant of a very adition, not Chinese at all, but Babylonian 4 ancient observational The constellations forming opposing pairs of the lunar calendar are never both visible at the same time, but the position of the stars below the horizon could be defined by means of the pole star and the circumpolar stars, especially Lisa Major, which never rise or Sel. The Mesopotamian origin of the Chinese and Indian calendars, suspected by Needham, is hardly likely, because the op- position of the sun and the full moon was utilized only at a late phase of Meso- polamian astronomy, and not as the basis of the regular calendar: circumpolar 2igpu starsare recorded for the first time in the Lt, Arisabout i000 ner, and they were used for the determination of time intervals of lunar eclipses and related phenomena‘ The Chinese astronomers observed the circumpolar stars and systematically recorded their upper and lower transits of the meridian (the great circle of the celestial sphere passing through the pole star and the observer's zenith)" The rotation of Ursa Major functioned as a celestial clock marking the hours of the night as well as the seasons. “Pheasant-Cap Master” (between quo nce & 2001) states When the handle of the Dipper points to thecast (at dawn), iLisspring to all the world, When ... south (ic., up), itis summer... when west, [Lis autumn ... when north (ie, down}, iLis winter. As the handle of the Dipper rotates above, so allairs are set below... In “Grand Seribe’s Records” (late second century ner), again, we tead 64 Meri 240. HISEORY OF SCIENCE IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21-78)38 BEGINNINGS OF INDIAN ASTRONOMY The Dipperis the Lord-on-Highdiscarriage (big. 4]. Itrevalvesabout the centre, visiting and regulating each of the four seasons. Ht divides yin and yang, establishes the four seasons... The circumpolar stars indeed play a dominant role in Chinese astronomy and cosmology. In addition to the four palaces defined by the equinoctial and solsti- tial points, the Chinese distinguished a fifth, central “Palace of Purple lenuity,” which was the celestial archetype cosmically empowering the Chinese mperor Around soo pcr Confucius equates the King with the Pole Star ‘The Master said: To conduct the government by virtue may be com- pared to the Northern Asterism: it occupies its place, while all other stars revolve around it Inscriptionel evidence for this heavenly prototype being used for political le- gitimation comes from the end of the second millennium cr, when the Shang, dynasty was overthrown by the Zhou In secking [caven’s blessing on the new dynasty the Zhou King Wa conducted the most sacred of inaugural state sacrilices at a location called the ‘Ilell of Heaven’ Gish), a reference to ML Sung, the ‘Central Peak’ (zhongyue) oraxis mndiwhich rises impressively trom the yellow carth plain just southeast of Luovang. This location was associated with the pole of the heavens where the celestial deity dwelt and about which all the heavenly minions tisnguai) revolved. When the notion ofa ‘central Kingdom’ (chong yuo) is first made explicit in carly Western Zhou inscriptions, we recognize this as a continuation of the Shang concept that the heart of their domain was the centre of the universe, as well as the physical centre of the world. Thus, in the earliest Zhou inscriptio 1 record of state worship of Heaven reference is made to surveying the four cardinal directions from the vantage point of theaxis mundi, indicating that one of the first official acts of the Zhou king was to establish ceremonially the legitimacy of ‘Zhou authority over the four quarters?” Following Mircea bliade?! and Paul Wheatley? David Pankenier convin: ingly argues that the concept of astral-terrestrial correspondence between the 65 Seo Rogers 1908: Hunger & Pins 4a: 288, agree 19gor 3, 68-70, 84-04, 155. 197-108. 66 See Needham 1959" 25 2idted, see Pankenier 20030, 1955s ray, ltsnslated Pankenier HISHORY OF SCENEL IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21ASKO PARPOLA 39 archaic kingship and the north pole or Northern Culmen’ ej) - the davelling place of the High God (di) ~ in China goes back to the Bronze Age and even to the Neolithic. Iver since the earliest dynastic state Xia (rom 2000 nc1), palatial structures and royal tombs remain uniformly quadrilateral and cardinally ori ented? The usual presumption is that solar calendar was created because agricultur- alists needed it However, Pankenier notes, this casy assumption has often been questioned. Farmers genevally find the signs of nature to be a safer indication of the season than a civil calendar. The latter is probably an invention that followed upon urbanization, not least as @ tool of social control?* rom this conclusion [now turn to the evidence for the beginnings of astronomy in the India 4. THE EARLIEST ASTRONOMY IN INDIA Urrmaation in the Indus Valley began in carnest with the Larly Harappan Kot Diji culture dated to about y200-2600 ner. ‘One of its first towns is Rahman Dheri in the former Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan, now renamed as Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa, The streets and buildings of Rahman Dheri are already oriented ac- cording to the cardinal directions, the grid. pattern being clearly visible in the air pha- tograph of the town73 A town with the rid pattern does not result from a gradual growth but implies strong regulating au- thority, like the use of standardized brick size (wilh 1:2°5 ralip in the Farly Harap- pan period, and the most effective 1:2:4 ra- tio in the Mature Harappan period): it also implies a more of less simultaneous con- struction of the whole town, settling a large number of people who arc allotted house plots,and enables the use of wheeled traltie in the town (ox-carts appearing with the ahman Dheri from their After aro ph. Reproduced & Personal communication 2012, See Durrani 1988: 210, pL = Hig. 5 73 Pankenier syosa: 14. 93% 200,18: 2 ey ORY OF SCIENCE IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21-78)4o BEGINNINGS OF INDIAN ASTRONOMY Figure 6 [stration of geometrical sealsin Greater Indus Valley during the farly and (*) Mature Harappan periods (@ 3on-2000 per). Atter Lesugi 20m: 473, tig. 7. Reproxluced courtesy at Akinori Lest Kot Diji culture); pre-planned level streets are also a precondition for such sophisticated water engineering as the claborate drainage system of the Mature Harappan city of Mohenjo-daro”® Akinori Cesugi has shown that the spread! of the Kot Diji culture all over the Indus Valley is connected with the spread of a new type of slamp seal, which continues 10 exist in the following Hatappan peviod (Vig, 6177 The basic figure in these Kot Diji seals consists of “concentric circles,” usually four of them placed into the four corners of a Square or cross-shaped seal. A common variant has in addition a fifth figure of concentric circles in the centre of the seal (Lig,.7). This, seal type appears to be first attested at Mehrgarh in the piedmont area at the mouth of the Bolan Pass, which connects the highlands of Baluchistan with the plains of the Indus Valley This new type of seal ~ an important instrument of administration ~ that Ce- sugi has recognized to accompany the spread of the Kot Diji culture in my opin Jon reflects the importance that the four cardinal directions and the centre have started to play in the cosmology end political ideology of the Early Harappans At Rahman Dheri, we have @ seal where concentric circles are surrounded by 78 See Ratnagar 1991: 89-95 HISHORY OF SCIENCE IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013)BEGINNINGS OF INDIAN ASTRONOMY rays” (big, 8), on the basis of which the concentric circles have astral or (rather) solar symbolism. Painted bowls from Mehrgarh VI-VII {about 3200-2600 61), in particular one where the field is divided into four squares occupied by sun-like circular images surrounded by “rays” (Fig.9}, even more clearly suggest a cos mology based on the yearly course of the sun, divided into four quadtants by the equinoctial and solstitial points, which also define the four cardinal directions Such a cosmology is undoubtedly shared by many other seals with geometvic motifs, particularly those depicting the cross and svastika, but while Such seals are found also in contemporary lranian seals and can be just copies of western. models, those with four oF five sets of concentric circles are likely to be a creation of the Larly Harappan culture’ and with great probability reflect its dominant ideology The earliest Indian texts in which we can seek possible reminiscences of qreda and the Afharwveds, These two hymn collections com- Harappan idcoloygy are the oldest Vedic texts, the & dating from the late second millennium net monly mention fourand sometimes five directions of space (Sanskrit is, pradis- or asi). The four directions are rarely specitied, but they undoubtedly are the four main directions, as in RV 7,72,5. When five points of the compass are men- tioned, the centre is the fifth dircetion (see miadityatah in RV 10,42,1). In the slightly later Yajurvedic Samhitas (e.4g,, MS 2,8,9; 12,8; TS 5,5,8:7.4,15; VS 10,10 14)and Brahmanes (¢.g,, SB 9.4.,10}, the fifth point is the zenith, normally called sd with Brhaspati (the Vedic pre- briiatsdikthe high region, consistently associa decessor of the Hindu god Brahma who in classical Sanskrit texts occupies the centre), Besides the four and five directions, the Aiarenzeds several times (AVS Jolt; 4.202; 10,7,35) 13.9.1) speaks of six directions, which include the ‘fixed 78. necklace (Sb 97% in the Louvre) from Iranian seals in Suse 2100 wer (Parpola ‘comiprizing many picces made of healed andl yoy 445); Laursen (200: 1291 has some fr sgvzed steatite and bearing the motif of con- ther evidence endorsing this hypothesis, The centric eitcles was excavated at usa IVB(2340-lrania i question have their back sic ct}; ithas been considered tobean exotic i crossing lines into Four fields Import at Sus. [ts central picee is identical each ot which has a ‘star’ in the middle, and with the eroseshaped Kot Diji type seals hays thismebitcan be seen to have a Kos Di parallel Ing four sets of concentric circles this sug interestingly, the uninscribed that i comes fron’ the Ladus Valley. [his lens see Fg.g here round Diltmun ses ests Uifeation of a Kot (jh spe seal an Suse is an teresting for the problem of origin of the Gull riptand Harp Iype seals which have Indus pan iconography (bison with manger) ane boss with a single groove en the reverse, but dite from the square Harappan seals of the Ines alley throwgh their round shape, Lhave pre viously suggested that the creators of the Gull Type seal adopted the distinctive roxind shap HISHORY OF SCENEL IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21 ‘swith mostly Mesopotamia= inspired mots, which replace Gult Hype seals adkl two dots-in-crele on both sides fof thee grooves that now intersect the reverse side in the middie. Thus, while the Dilmun seals seem to Tose most Harappan features of oth ‘originally Kot Dijcrelatest motif of four sets of ‘concentric circles absent in the Gull [ype seals their predecessors, they appear lo introASKO PAKPOLA 43 an Dheri with the mobo produced courtesy of IA Figure &: Seal fo» round concentric circles", After Du son Faiz Mohammad style grey ware trom Mehagarh Pakistan. Alter C. Jarrige 0, Reproduced HISEORY OF SCIENCE IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21-78)44 BEGINNINGS OF INDIAN ASTRONOMY ik) or the region’ (dlirwa dik} or centse, and the ‘upwards direction’ (anf zenith? One ritual connected with the dir ections of space is crucially import ant for understanding. their ideolo- ical significance. This is the ‘mount- ing of the regions’ Wigowastiupanan), Which is an essential part of the Vedic royal consecration (rajasitya). In this, rite also called Varina-sora as it is connected with God Varuna, the ‘di- vine king’ ~ the king at his consec- ration dons the farpi garment or amented with applicated figures of hiswyas, Le, ritual fireplaces equated with the stars (this will be discussed in more detail below). This royal robe of Varuna almost certainly goes back to the trefoil-ornamented ‘sky garment’ of the Harappan ‘priest-king’ (big, 10) modelled on Mesopotamian proto ygyre an Satuelte of *PoeseKing” trom types®* Then the king makesa step in Viohenjo-daro, wearing “Sky Garment” d cach of the tive dircstions,eherewith | SINa Waly Navarra ands ascending the zenith: “trom the qua ters he goes to the heaven” (MS 4ofo4: 54,3); for “the heaven is the quarters of space tis igo loka)” (MS 4.4.4: 54.1-2). The Satapatho-Brstinaaa (5.4.4.8) explains: “Itis the seasons, the year, that he [the adiscwryn priest] thereby makes him [the king] ascend; and having ascended the seasons, the year, he is high, high above everything here.” At the same time he wins the quarters of space or the seasons, thus mastering the whole of the universe in respect to space as well as time the whole isarticulated on the number five; the universe is divided into four parts with, as its centre, the filth, highest quarter (zenith), which encompasses the whole ... Thus by performing the filth step the sacrificer appropriates the whole universe" 7a See Mevissen 2001: 4 Bull of Heaven, the latter having a fragment fo Soe Poapola 185; 2orab: 13. The Near ary counterpart iy Moenjo-daro tsce Marpola aster models of the Indus ‘Prest-King’s) 1985) Joak comprize both the garments of gods 81 Heesterman 1957. 04. See also, idem and kings wilh stardlecorations (soe Oppen- 104-105; Wessels Mevissen 2001 4 avi n-3 heim regu), andl trefosalecorated states oF th HISHORY OF SCENEL IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21ASKO PARPOLA 45 In the parallel consecration ceremony of the royal vajapeya ritual, also called after the horse Brhaspati-sava, the ascent to zenith is made even more conc re race, the victorious King dons thefirpys garment and (lollowed by his wite) with the help of a ladder ascends the sacrificial post, and when reaching its top de clores: “We have reached the sun/heaven, we have become immortal,” seating himself thereafter on the throne placed at the foot of the pillar’? In the Mahabhorota, the zenith is stated to be the king of the directions (14a3.a0 isin sudict ... raja). In Uhe epic Yudhisthira, the eldest of the five Pandava brothers, aspires to perform the masts, fully conscious that only cifllyr asain sare 10 a king of the whole world is entitled to it 21,55 5 aiohare rajasuyans mevtakratuay 2,12,36 yas en sarees a1). In the ayrd section of the epic called Digoi tions’ Yudhisthira’s four younger brothers conquer the four cardinal dire tions, and the agth section called Rajsitya describes Yudhigthira’s royal con secration. The victorious king has the sun as his model (see also the pop- ular royal name of classical times, Viraniaditya): it rises in the east creat- ing light and expelling darkness and goes through all the regions (see MS 4otjag: SBM 410, 35,3), east in the morning, south at noon, west in the even= ing and north (supposedly) in the night cordingly called ‘four- cornered’ (eatule-siakti) the directions are his corners (SBM 14,3,1,17). The sun defines these four directions through his daily as well as his yearly course through the equinoxes and solstices (see JB 2,26): the sun is the year JB 2,28) Ibis the sun that the gods anointed on the royal throne, and he who knows, this sits on the royal throne having be- ‘come the sun (see JB 2,25-26)59 Connecting the ruler with the sun and the centre of the four directions defined by the sun's daily and yearly course, important in Vedic and epic royal ideology, thus seems to have ort ginated in the Karly Harappan cul- ture. That it prevailed also in the Indus Civilization is suggested by the so-called “Prato-Siva” seal trom tame sa vind a rajas! ‘conquest of the dire, The sun is al Moheajo-dato (big.11), Here an an- thropomorphic person wearing. the horns of the water buffalo is seated on 82 Sve 15 1.7.9; TB 3,472 Bodh 14,1 Steiner 2004: 91-37, Figure 11: The seal M-yog from Mohenjodare with “Proto-Siva "After CISL. 38a, Reproduced covtrtesy of AS 84 On the great royal unetion on the throne and the victories of the kings who hase per formed it, see also ABS 2 ORY OF SCIENCE IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21-78)46 BEGINNINGS OF INDIAN ASTRONOMY a throne, which is a major symbol of royal authority in Vedic culture *! Sir John Marshall, who labelled the figure “Proto-Siva,” suggested that he is three-faced like many later Indian images of Siva"> This suggestion has been both accep- ted by some and doubted by athers. | prefer the alternative explanation ex pressed by several scholars, including Marshall himsell,*7 that the “Proto-Siva” may equally well have four faces, the one on the back left invisible, lke Sivan the shape of caluenukhe-Hhiga symbolizing the axis mundi or the Hindu God Brahma, whom Indian architectural texts Connect with the centre The four faces of “Proto-Siva” looking into the four directions are in all ikeli- hood related to the fourmale animals depicted on either side of the "Proto-Siva,” arranged so as to form a rectangle: elephant above tiger on the lelt, and thino- coros above water butlalo on the right. Marshall had already suggested their connection with the four directions.” In later Indian tradition, the four quarters of the world are often conceived and depicted as being upheld by four directional elephants (ig-gaja,ditisnaga)" But the abacus around the Lion capital of Asoka’ 84 SeeSB 128,445 TB a2. 85 Marshall agqis 52-35. On the later in tions, noting that the elephant isthe vehicle of Inara as the guardian of the east and she wa: ages, soe Coomarasivamy 1927: too with at, ter bualo the vehicle of Yama as the guard 86 Fag. bv W. Kirfel in his book Die drei ian ofthe south, The water buflale coud stand fige Gotti, 1948. for the autumnal equines, around which In- dlians have traditionally sac the Godless. rected with the vernal equinox, as apparently criginally in China. In the “Protossiva” 87 See Gonda 1965: 20. nenting onthe image of the fo the eighth-centinry Cat ‘muha Mahadeva temple at Suthara (Nachna} iced butfaloes to The tiger may hawe been con: in the Vindhys mountains, Stella. Xramrisch {9542 207 on Hig. 108) noes: “The tour faces of Siva comprise his tolal manifestation, in the four dliections. [he fitth face of Siva is net shovwn. Ibis known to face upivarel where the pillar of the Finga raises to its dome shape [The ‘itth face, Ising, ss ontologieally the face of ‘the coming intr manitestation’ trancendlental Siva | Sy Acconing to the Bhagsvata-Purana {4818 Brahma seated on the lotus that came ‘out of Visna’s navel, stared looking in all the directions and created himself tour faces, one for each direction. In other Poranic accounts Brahma rormeriy had five heads, but Siva for his thevce form Bhairava cut oat she itty head, specified as the head! of a tiger, horse or donkey. see Dange 1986: I, 19899. go Marshall 19315 3 m1. Berta Volehok Gogo) and Alf Hilteboitel (1g78 776-9) agnesal with the connection of the four’ beasts oF the “Proto-Siva” seal with the four cardinal direc HISHORY OF SCENEL IN SOUTH Asta 1 (2013) 2 the tiger is depicted as opposing the buffalo, ‘whieh iss natal enemy’ in the nature; the Proto-Flamite iconography, the lionjess) is the ‘opponent of the wild Bul, and these to an: imals tigare also an the prinespal motif ef the Akkadian royal seals, the ‘contest’ which has been borrower! into the Harappan iconography from the Near Fast (See Parpela avrab: 287 424. Ina Harappan-style cylinger seal sup- posed to come trom Mesopotamia, a staiding hero mastering tigers isdepicted next lnasentea rman with but Hors who is sursounceat by vwaler-butialoes, fishes and snakes, as if these two deities presented the rising and seting sn, oF the croiva prince andi the roling king in fates Indian ideology fs devs, $23. In Ine ddan pocts, dark sainclouds are compared 40 theolephant (see Kalas, Moghiatia}, which may sland for the summer solstice, This leaves the fnoceros tor the winter solstice. 1 See Kaldass, Raglecwmse 77/78 & Meghna 1g; see als the Sanchi slaps 2 plASKD PARPOLA 4 pillar at Sarnath (¢. 250 ncr) has four different animals: lion, elephant, bull and horse. There are several interpretations for them, but “most common is the idea that they represent the guardians of the quarters, dikpala” 2? V.S, Agrawala links ion with east, elephant with south, bull with west and horse with norths and matches these four animals with the four animals on the “Proto-Siva” seal! Tour animals are associated with the four heavenly palaces in China: Bhuc Dragon with cast, Red Bird with south, White Tiger with west and Black Tor toise with north, Bul the palaces of spring and autumn were so named on the basis of lunar, aot solar, conjunctions of the marking, stars so the opposites count for solar conjuntions: the White Tiger would stand for the vast and the sun at the vernal equinox, and so forth. rom the fact that the constellations, Taurus, Leo and Scorpius are mentioned in Babylonian astronomical texts with Sumerian names (U1.GL.As.NA ‘bull of the Sky,’ MULLR.GL.LA ‘lion or lioness,’ MEL.CIR.148 ‘scorpion,’ the pretixed wc, ‘Star’ being a semantic classifier of as- tral names), it has been concluded that these constellations existed already in the third millennium, most likely already around yov0 wer when these constel lations plus Aquarius marked the solstitial and equinoctial points!" It does not seem far-fetched to assume that the four animals depicted on the ’Proto-Siva”” seal do in fact represent the sun at the equinoctial and solstitial points as well as the associated Seasons and directions of space The karly Harappan town of Rahman Dheri was oriented according to the cardinal dircctions already around 3000 wcr. One of the principal ways'to find ‘out due cast is to observe the points where the sun rises in the horizon through- tout the year, and to mark the point of the vernal equinox. Holger Wanzke has studied the axes of the buildings and strwets in Mohenjo-daro and found out that they diverge one to two degrees clockwise from the cardinal points; according to him, this orientation would match perfectly the setling of the star Aldebaran in the west against the horizon of the Kirthar mountains °7 In the 1999-2001 excavations of the Late Neolithic town at Xiangfe, Taos Shanxi Province of China, archacologists discovered what has with great prob- ability been identified as a solar observation platform, dated to ¢ 2100 8cr. It was originally “a curved rammed-carth wall, facing, east-southeast, perched atop lar topped by fourclephants facing the four 143). Agmwala (igb4: 29-4 & 60-69) «tions and the solar wheel above them, illus- has collected a lot of material allowing various trates exp. in Dehjia 1996 68; identifications 92 Falk 2006: 14 4 Agrawala 1964: 60 10.2. 9 Agrawala 1964: 2, Thesamefouranim= 93 See Needham 193g 249, quoted! above als are depicted om rstand century Buddhist on p36, stapa sites in 511 Lanka, and generally connee- gi See van der Where agpS 6734 Rogers teal with the directions as follows: elephant E, 19984 bull 5, borse Wane ion N foe Smith rit! ay Wanzke 198 Wy has; Falk 237) Wessels-Mevissen 3 HISEORY OF SCIENCE IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21-78)48 BEGINNINGS OF INDIAN ASTRONOMY three concentric rammed-carth terraces. The curved wall was perforated by nar- row slits forming an array of twelve pillars” The Indian astronomers Mayank Vahia and Srikumar Menon have examined a peculiar circular stone structure near the acropolis of the Ilarappan city of Dholavira in Kutch, Gujarat, and sug gested that it may have been an astronomical observatory. It would be more or loss contemporaneous with its Chinese parallel in Taosi2”* Another way to find out the directions of space is by means of the gnomon or sun-stick, the oldest astronomical instrument, [t consists of a Straight peg erected at right angles to a level base, perpendicular to the horizon, By recording, the length and the direction of the peyy’s shadow every day of the year one can define the hours of the day, and from measurements made at noon one can find out the ‘mm gives the rules for linding the solstices and equinoxes. The k cardinal directions as follows Having fixed a peg on level ground and having drawn a cirele around it by means of a rope that has the same length as the pew (and is attached to it}, he fixes two pegs at the two points where the shadow of the tip of the peg falls on the line (of the circle}, that (line joining these two new pegs} (is) the east(-west line), After adding to the rope its length and making two loops fat its either end), he fixes the loops at the two pegs marking the east-west line, Stretching the rope (draw a circle around cach of the pegs) and fix a peg south and north in the middle (area where these two large circles meet). That (line joining these new pegs) is the north(-south} line? Ernest Mackay has recorded ten pedestals from Mohenjo-daro, “invariably carefully made” "? He slates that “the exact purpose of these stands is problem atical, but... some of them may, in fact, be bases of fiigas’," phallus, which in Hinduism hasa round stand representing the you vulva’ or Lv,, images of Siva's more detail Pankenier & al with Pigs in a0 Kat Tanker: ier (persona) communication, 2131 notes that ln chapter one on laos! of his forthcoming bbook (2014), he also mentions 3 similarly pul posed! ebservation plattorm from the Langu culture frougaly same date} Soe kny south ot Tosi, near prescatdlay Hangzhou. He adds) tox Pankenier personal communication Ruggles & Ghe77i published in Svience (15, 2013) observes that “there is an exact Chinese pet2yyl the site af Chankillo in Porat parallel to this method in the pre-imperial text which is strikingly similar in conception to Artiticer’s Recon Kao gag j Tost, but about 2000 years later. This shows 402 Mackay 1958: [ngit-at the fall of too easily asstiming diffusion 103 Herp. 401 gg Walia & Menon 2011 HISHORY OF SCENEL IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21ASKO PAKPOLA 49 Figure 12: Finely polished stone pedestal fiom Mohenje-darn,cevorated with ‘rofl’ Figutes andl very probably meant for gnoman (sun-stick}. After Parpola 1985: hyo. ‘womb’) of the Goddess. Mackay observes that though nofifiga stones have been found fixed to these stands, their absence can be explained by assuming that they were of wood. Yet he has qualms about this explanation, because in the histor ical period “the liiiga is invariably made of stone.” This, however, is not true. As have pointed out, in Orissa, for example, pillars expressly identified as Siva’s Jifiga are made of wood, and later myths of Siva’s flaming fiiiga ean be connec- ted with cultic burning of wooden pillars. [rom the Indus Civilization we have both realisticand stylized itgasas well as depiction of human sexual intercourse, evidence of a [larappanfiriga cult!" However, I would like toargue that the above-mentioned stands were primar- ily made for wooden gnomons (which might have had a phallic connotation). For a gnomon it is imperative for the ground to be as level as possible, and for the peg, to be as straight, sable and orthogonal as possible. In the sauieSulonsitita (7-4) we lind a statement that nothing is more level than the (surlace of still stand ing) water, and that the peg should be made of the particularly stable core part of old, hard-wooded acacia tree (klindin which is without any “wounds” #°5 My conviction that these stands from Mohenjo-Daro are gnomon bases is du to the tog See Parpola tyy as 28+ HISEORY OF SCIENCE IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21-78)5 BEGINNINGS OF INDIAN ASTRONOMY extra care in making the bottom quite flat and in securing the stability and up- right position of the shaft inserted in the round depression in its middle by wo dowel-holes. One stand (Lig. 13}, made of dark red stone, is also decorated at regular intervals with the trefoil motif which in Mesopotamia and in the Indus, Valley almost certainly had an astral significance." Baudhtyana-Sulry method of constructing an oriented square and thus of defining the car- dinal and intermediate directions by using @ gnomon and a cord with marked midpoint (Fig.13).° produces a pattern of “intersecting, ni deseribes a EAST This Circles,” which is an important _mo- til on Mature Harappan painted pot g tery,""* a motif which can be traced back to Parly Harappan times; for instance chrome boxes of the Nal culture of Bal "9 It scoms significant that intersecting circles” is a favourite mo- tif of [larappan bathroom floors!" and “bath tubs,” such as the one wilh 11m, diameter from Kot Diji (Fig 1g)° 1 it is found on the poly- uchistan, Construetion of an oriented s suspect that this is connected with the necessity of levelling the ground for the gnomon by means of water using a gnomon and a con! with marked mid point described in the Beudliign Atter Kulkarni 98 20, Hie On the stony surface, made water-level, or upon hard plaster, made level, there draw an even circle, of a radius equal to any required number of the digits of the gnomon The expert (astronomer) should first level the ground perfectly by means of levelling instruments or water, [He should then pick up a gnomon, 106 See Parp nny From R.A. Khan 2964: ph. 39 n0.14 107 Bows 1 ce Kul dha. tans). Burgess 18h karat aghp: 19-24 os See Dumareay 1965 ng Nilskantha’s: Mantsyittayncand og. See Hargreaves 89 ansl.K. Vi. Sarma; see Subbarayappa & Sarma rhe A lange surface has survived! at Balas ghia. Pankenier (personal communication kot in Sincihy illustrates! in Chakrabarti 1909 notes: “This Is also stipulated in Ar 1544 Haygmentary file from Moneajo-Dars in Ufeer’s Record, plus plumb line Ly establish Keniwer 1998 109 Tig, 11 HISHORY OF SCENEL IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21 verticalitsASKO PAKPOLA 51 Figure 14: “Intersecting circles" on the bottom of a Harappan “bath tub (diameter 1. m) from Kol Dif. After Khan 1964: pl ayar4. Reproduced courtesy of DAME. The intersecting ares also produce lenticular figures called “fish” (nalsia, Hine) in later astronomical texts describing this method of finding out the cardinal and intermediate directions™™+ From [arappa a corresponding, pottery figure has four fish in the lenticular sections.°> Hish” is also a motif of Harappan painted pottery from Early Harappan times, starting with Mehrgarh VI, Nal polychrome, and Rahman Dheri, down to Mature Harappan times® Fish constituted a significant part of the Harap- pan diel, bul there were certainly other reasons as well that made il an important symbol, Fish increase rapidly, have a phallic shape, and are the principal anim- als living in water that is vital for life and vegetation. Jor all these reasons they have remained auspicious symbols of fertility in South Asia, and are in Hinduism, emblems of the water god Varuna and the love god Kama"? ish’ pictograms, depicting cither plain fish as such, or fish provided with various diacritical markings, are among, the most frequently occurring, signs of the Indus script. The pictorial meaning ‘lish’ is certified by several depictions. of the ‘lish’ sign in the mouth of a tish-cating crocodile in I lasappan art” The Indus script undoubtedly belongs to the logo-syllabic writing systems together hy See 5-6; see Burgess 116 Parpola rojas 192-093, Hg. Soe: so8-an; Subbaravappa &eSarma 19h 117 Hera 184-190. ng See Kenoye as 18 Heng 180 fig 10.1 HISEORY OF SCIENCE IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21-78)52 BEGINNINGS OF INDIAN ASTRONOMY with all other seripts in existence when it was created around 2600 wer; this is clear from the number of graphemes, which is around 4oo, significantly higher than in syllabic or alphabetic scripts, in which it is around 10 and less than 50 respectively. In logo-syllabic scripts the signs can function either as ‘word! signs, denoting the concept that the sign depicts {in this case fish’) o as ‘syllabic’ signs, expressing the sound shape that the word expressing the pictorial meaning had. in the language underlying the script. In the Sumerian script, for example, the sig depicting ‘arrow’ could mean the word ‘arrow,’ ar its homonyms {7 ‘rib’ and fi'life’ The fish are often elaborately carved on Harappan seal stamps, and at Ivast in this context the ‘fishy’ signs probably have some meaning other than. “fish, for the Mesopotamian seal inscriptions never speak of fish. For historical reasons, it is likely that the Indus people spoke a Dravidian language"? From its distribution throughout the language family, the principal Dravidian word for ‘fish’ can be reconstructed for Proto-Dravidian as ‘win? post-Vedie Sanskrit has ming: fish’ asa loanword from Dravidian. It was homo- phone with “wfir'star’" Long and short vowels can alternate within Dravidian roots (see “kau ‘eye’ and “kay ‘to see’),!?* so itis likely that both words are deriv- atives of the Proto-Dravidian root “aij ‘to flash, shine, glitter’ 729 Who that has seen the phosphorescence flashing from every move ment of the fish in tropical seas or lagoons at night, can doubt the appropriateness of denoting the fish that dart and sparkle through the waters, as well as the stars the sparkle in the midnight sky, by rig The Drseidian languages, nowadays one million, most likely spoke a Dravidian lan= mainly spoken ia southern ang central India, guage. An adeitional reason to believe this ‘constitute thesecond largest language family in is that archaenlogical evidence suggests that South Asia after the Inco-lranian languages of the Neobithie and Chaleotithie cultures of cent the Indo-turogean language tamily that have ral and southern India ultimately came trom spread all over northern South Asia since the the Farly-and Mature Harappan cultares ( fall ofthe Indes Civilization in thecatly second Parpola 1gysa zorza: 8). The millenniumisct: One Dravidian language heave Dravidian languages spoken today allony a pa lly influences by Baluchi, Biahuly is spoken al reconstruction of their commen sour iy Baluchistan andl southern Indus Valley-evenProvo-Dravidhan both phenemically and gram today, and the existence of a Dravidian lan matically (see Krishamut 2009) and fexicall guage in the Panjab during the second millens {soe Burton & Fmyeneat: 1083 = DEDR) nium ner can be dediaed from the Dravidian loanionds wdeniified in the language ot th soe and in Increasing numbers Hom later Vedic texts, The thied largest language group inSouth Asia the Austro-Asiatic langages.an cent of the pop: lation, and chicily in the castera parts of the spoken by only about one pe subcontinent, having their linguistic relatives in South-Fast Asia. On these grounds the Harp. pan people, estimated to have numbered about HISHORY OF SCENEL IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21 10 DEDR 4885; Krishnamurti 200% 1 21 DEDR 48p6. Krishnamurt (2005 reconstructs “iff see next note a2 Krishnamurti (2001: 324-344) explains this variation by assuming a Prot-Dravidian laryngeal “H, which had derivative and caus ative functions, but was lost in all but a few wonds, such as Old Lamil paki ‘ten, where isa voiceless glottal continuant 123 DEDR 3835ASKO PARPOLA 53 ‘one and the same word - viz,,a word signilying that which glows or sparkles2*4 The earliest surviving Dravidian literature was composed in Old Tamil du ing, the first five or six centuries cr; it has preserved much genuinely Dravidian, tradition > Paripatal (16,36-38) records the conception that the stars are fish swimming in the waters of night sky; this relatively late Old lamil text has been more subject to north Indian/ Indo-Aryan influence, ascan be seen also from this its comparison of the river Vaiyai with its ytin to the heavenly Ganges (in Sanskrit ‘heavenly Ganges’ is the name for the ecliptic, the course which the planets travel through the sky}. Mature Harappan painted pottery from Ami combines ‘Star’ and ‘lish’ motifs suggesting that the Indus people associated the two concepts)? Farly writing systems strived for economy in trying to eliminate unnecessary signs, and the double meaning of the ‘fish’ signs is reinforced by the absence of a star-like sign from the Indus script, though @ star symbol did exist in Early Harappan times, in seal iconography (Fig. 8} as well as a motif of painted pot- tery.” continuing in this function also in Mature and Late Harappan pottery Lalike the Indus script, on the other hand, the cuneiform script did have a star pictogram, it denoted ‘sky’ (Sumerianan), ‘sky god An,’ as well as “god! (agit) It occurs very often in Mesopotamian seal inscriptions, because the ‘star’ Sign was used as a semantic indicator to label the following word as @ divine name, cks of human personal names, which and gods’ names were used as building bl were what the seal texts chiefly recorded The ‘star’ symbol was used in Mesopotamian art as well, being placed next toa god's head to indicate the divinity of the depicted figure. This Near Fastern convention is occasionally found in Ilarappan art, too: a star has been carved in the loops of the horned headdress of an Indus deity squatting in ‘yogic posture ona fragmentary seal stamp [rom Mohenjo-caro; the accompanying inscription contains two ‘fish’ signs®* This, together with the tradition of naming people alter stars, recorded in the name-giving, rules of the Vedic Grhyastitras,2 gives. reason to suspect that the ‘fish’ signs of the Indus script may stand for names, of stars, used as symbols for Harappan deities, or for divine or human proper names This hypothesis can be tested by attempting to read signs which are either prefixed to the ‘Tish’ signs as attributes fin accordance with the Dravidian syn tax), or combined with them as diacritical additions. To take an example of the Caldwell 1 ¥ see Hants, 7 See, 6 the goblet from M pola 1gyja: 183 with Fig. 105 128 fen, 4-985 with figs. 10.809 HISEORY OF SCIENCE IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21-78)54 BEGINNINGS DF INDIAN ASTRONOMY Figure 15:Seal H-y from Harappa with th wen fish’ & “sovon-star’ name ot Ursa Majer: After CISL: 186, Reproduced courtesy oF AS ign sequuence"7" 4 “ish” =Old Tamilelen latter first, one of the ‘fish’ signs has a rool-like addition above it. A Dravidian root denoting ‘thatched roof’ is "vey" which is acceptably close’ to “ning ‘black, which forms the first component of the compound m-iriin attested in carly Old Tamil Purendadtry 117) as the native name of the planet Saturn, liter: ally ‘black stax’ According to later Buddhist and Jaina texts, the planetary god Sani, the ‘slow” planet Saturn, has the turtle for his vehicle; the association is, likely to be an ancient one, for the Indus sign seems to express its message not only phonetically but also pictorially: the turtle symbolizing, Saturn is a walery animal, hence a kind of ‘fish,’ which is covered by a root-like shield.” The Indus script uses groups of vertical strokes (arranged in one or two rows) toexpress numerals, and three such numeral signs occur immediately before the plain ‘tish’ sign, forming stable compounds th it, All three compounds cornes- pond to native Old Tamil appellations of constellations, the two principal ones being ara-miia niin Lisa Major’ literally ‘(constellation consisting af) seven stars It is signi- Pleiades’ literally ‘(constellation consisting of) six stars’ and elit- ficant that the inscription of one unusually large and carefully carved seal trom Harappa consists of nothing but the two signs "7+ ‘fish’ (hig. 13), which yields the Proto-Dravidian readinggelu-mia. The seal may be a Harappan counterpart to nations, namurti 200% n8an8, 8,157; Krish 191 See Parpola HISHORY OF SCENEL IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21ASKO PARPOLA Mesopotamian seals, which mention the name of the individual deities to whom they were donated as votive offerings The oldest Yajurvedic texts presctibe that a Brahmin should establish his sac- red fires in the spring, which is the first/beginning of the seasons, like the fire god Agni is the foremost of the gods (always going in their front) and the Brah- min is the foremost (social class) of the human beings; 2 Rajanya (belonging, to the second social class) should establish his fires in the summer, and a Vaisya (belonging to the third social class} in the autumn, .A Brahmin should establish his fires under the Pleiades (kr1tskil), for the Pleiades belong, to Agni, and the Brahmin (the priestly class) belongs to Agni who is the priest of the szods). The Pleiades are seven, there are seven ‘breaths’ in the head, and the Pleiades are the head of the creator god Prajapati and Agni (who eats the offerings) is his mouth (nukhan: ‘mouth, face, entrance, lorepart, beginning’) The Sat Bralunana (2, ), while similarly recommending, the Pleiades as the asterism under which the sacted fires should be set up, adds that originally the Pleiades were the wives of the Seven Sages, but are now precluded from intercourse with their husbands, as the Seven Sages rise in the north, but the Pleiades in the cast. Now the Pleiades have Agni as their mate, and it is with Aji thet they have intexcourse, In most references of the early Vedic texts, Agni is the god of the eastern direction.) and as such the rising sun In this context, the Safapothu-Bratunaaa (2,1,2,3) states that the Pleiades “do not move away from the eastern quarter, whilst the other asterisms do move trom the eastern quartee”. Jean Filliozat (1962) has interpreted this to mean that while the cast is defined by the sun's rising above the horizon in the east, due east or the cast par exevllence is defined by the sun’s double rising at the vernal equinox the sun rises into the northern hemisphere as well. The dictum, “the Pleiades de not forsake the castern direction,” iscited also in Baudhayana’s Srintesitne (25,5) This is the earliest Vedic text to deal with the methods of orientation €. 7o0Kc); it prescribes that the measuring (of the sacrificia! hut with the eastward-oriented beam) is to be done on the appearance of the Pleiades in the horizon In the same context, the Sataputlio-Bratinnans (2,1,2,4) also explicitly states that the Seven Sages (snyal) were in former times called Bears (ksal)” The word 132 The Old Lamil text Porjsital (16,4698) antediluvian kings and who were represented compares an earthly river sith is fish (ov7a) in the art as halt man halt fish, [have som to the heavenly Ganges (ecliptic) with its stars pared them to the Indian "Seven Sages” (0 (7a, showing that the stars were conceived tothe stars of Lass Major}; acconding to the Mal be fish (uid sivimming in the waters of aight Hifeatali95,1-34), the Seven Sages were on the sky. The Babylonians also saw in the sky a arkwith Manu, thertirst manandancestore the heavenly accan and heavenly vers in which human race, all being thassaxed from the flood heavenly fish are swimming (see eremias giyy (See Parpola x9yga: 190) 60), Ihe Sumeriansabsospokent “wen sages” 143 See MS 1.59, KS 81, 1B 14,268 Sumerian alga), who were supposed to Mevissen 2000 5 HISEORY OF SCIENCE IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21-78)56 BEGINNINGS OF LYDIAN ASTRONOMY rkst- which in Sanskrit means both ‘bear’ and ’star’ occurs already in f 24,10, which asks: “Where have gone in the daytime those bears/Stars which are seen in the night as fixed high up?” Pspecially as this verse belongs to the Sunahsepa hymna (to bediscussed below, pp. 60 fF.) itis fairly certain that the stars of Lrsa Major are meant here: in Graeco-Arvan antiquity the stars of Lisa Major wek fipictog) followed by three were originally conceived as a mother bear (Gi bear cubs" The appellation sapto rsauah‘Seven Sages’ was almost exclusively current since the Atl Sage, Seer, holy man’ (which may come from the extinct language of the Oxus civilization or BMAC™) was obviously influenced by the inherited Indo-Aryan term, which resembles the new name phonetically. But the semantic content of the new name undoubtedly goes back to conceptions that prevailed in pre-Vedic India” The Seven Sages (s yall) are considered to be the ancestors of the Brahmanical clans since the Reovda (sew RV 4) as the ‘Seven Sacrificee’’ of yore (sapla holy), with whom Manu (the first man) periormed the first sacrifice to the gods" According lo the Maiiabharata (3,43), ancient saints shine with a light of their own acquired by their merits, standing ablaze on their own hearths (isu): these lights are seen as the stars from the carth below, looking tiny like oil flames because of the distance, This eoncep- tion can be traced to carly: Vedie texts, for while dealing with the piling of the fire altar the Taiftiviya-Samhita (5,4,1,7-4) states: “He puts down the constellation bricks; these are the lights of the sky; verily he wins them, the Naksatras are the lights of the doers of good deeds...” The Mail ayaa Samhita (1,8,6) is most expli- cit inconnecting the Stars with ancient sactiicers?™ In the Vedic ritual, the word in(7na in the strict sense denotes the fireplaces of seven priests officiating in a Soma sacrifice; six of them are built in a row in the sitting hall, one is outside the hall on the border of the sacrificial area. A very similar row of seven fireplaces has been excavated on a ceremonial platform in the acropolis of the Harappan 2,8), and are probably the same ing SeeScherer i533 E1177 time, fest, former, previews, ancient, super 196 See Lubotsky 2001; Parpola saab ga lo, eminent” cf Telugu mine "hrs, tormer: previous, front’; Tamil sma 1 Ie esi“sage’ is an Oxus wond, Sanskrit ‘the trst boing, God, Siva, saint, Athal, thy In the sense of “sage” is likely to reflect Buddha, chiet, elder brother, muzadr ‘prec the corresponding Harappan term. Aecord- — cessors, ancestors, the ancients, chiet ministers nthe lami) tradition, particularly powerful (DEDR 5020}, ch also in, “hits “(to Bet Hest nong IheSeven Sages is Vasistha(theanly ane inv age, rank or place, ol, sean, anelent, Hrs nog the Seven Sages who shill has a wile}, best” (EDI 4ose & 4954). Ihe homephoneus lies! in Tamil Vile Gee Biardesw 2004. Dravidian root “ratih= to be angry, iitated) “hs “prosporouts sage’ (rom * Symbolic feeding, of a baby to a crocodile identified with Siva continues in Bengali religion 57 J tablet from Dholavira in Kutch, Gujarat suggests that the Harappans offered human children in sacrifice to a crocodile god (Fig. 16) A unique crocodile culthas been preserved until our times in 50 tribal villages of southern Gujarat. In order to get offspring and fulfilment of other wishes, these tribals have an image of crocodile or 2 pair of them made of wood by the priest, who instals the image horizontally upon a wooden pillar which goes through the back part or the middle of the body (Fig, 17). The image is then con- secrated in a marriage ceremony and worshipped by daubing it with vermilion 156 William Wand 1811, see Parpola anni: A big erosodile is made with earth near th he shrine of Siva, Its skin is made by some seeds 157 Mahapatea (1972: 142-193)ineludes the The mouth of the erocodile is made red by us follwing in his description of the third day of ing vermilien. baby made of earth is placed the Saiva festival of gsjan, celebrated in Bengal ear the mouth of the crocodile as if its eying athe end of theCaltia month “Insme places teat the baby. It is called the ‘Siser kumi” oF a crecodileassociatest with Siva is worshy ‘crocodile of Siva and itis worshipped HISHORY OF SCENEL IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21ASKD PARPOLA 61 Figure 14° Unpublished twvo-aced tablet from Dholavira, Kath, Gujarat, sig {lower picture} connected sith crocodilecult (upper picture). Attor Parpola zor: 1 fig. 48 iskelely AD). and offering it animal victims and strong drink, which are afterwards consumed by the worshippers" That this cult has survived more or less unchanged from Mature Harappan times is suggested by a broken painted pot from Ami IIL in Sindh, where two crocodiles are sct on poles (Lig. 18). The Pole Star 11 (2,19) speaks of a heavenly mighty crocodile (diye! sa The Taittiriya-Aran anvalt siswinaras), which has a tail Pucca) of four sections. Because the fore and hind legs are also mentioned among its body parts represented by stars, the word Sisnmn cannot here have the alternative meaning ‘dolphin, but must denote ‘crocodile. Literally the word sisnini means ‘baby killer which probably isnot justa folk etymology” The context where this heavenly crocodile is mentioned isthe worship of Brahma, which Vedic householder is supposed to perform by uttering a prayer at dusk while facing the region of the pole star (frum This prayer begins with the words a an asi, sila “You are firm, foundation of the firm,’ and ends with nawalt suluaiaraya ‘Obeisance bo nda. 158 Fischer ge Shah 19715 Prpola 20x19 See Parpola 2 2 160 Hen, 19-20, HISEORY OF SCIENCE IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21-78)62 BEGINNINGS OF INDIAN ASTRONOMY of a horizontal er uk, southern Gujarat. Atter pole, Tribal sanct 1: ph, Pune 18s Hoi Sindh, Pakistan. Quiveon, HISHORY OF SCIENCE IN SOUTH Asta T (2013) 20—ASKO PARPOLA 63 Sisukumare'"" Di the Sanskrit name of the pole-star, towards which the worshipper should turn x10 ‘tirm, fixed, stable, immutable, permanent, constant’ is when pronouncing this mantra. The oldest parts of the cosmographic descrip- tions of the Parane texts tell thal the God (Visnu) appearsin the sky in the shape ofa crocodile consisting of stars, andl that the pole star isin the tail of that cro codile” Thus the pol of the pole in the back part of the body of the cultic crocodile images in Gujarati ibal villages and in Ilarappan painted pol from Ami, In the sky the heavenly crocodile turns around with the pole star as its pivot, just like the tribal crocodile ‘star occupies in the sky the @ position comparable to that images are supposed ty be able to turn around on their poles. In favour of the Harappan origin of the concept of a heavenly crocodile speaks also the fact that con Indus tablets depicting a procession of animals the crocodile is not on the lower register with the other animals but in the upper register corresponding to the sky." In the Sunahsepa legend, King Hariscandra’s name denotes the ‘moon,’ and his thousand wives apparently stand for stars. Ilariscandra’s son has a name that is also used of the rising sun. Albrecht Weber suggested that the name Sunalsepa as well has an astral denotation.%4 It means literally ‘Dog's tail and corresponds exactly to Greek Kuvdaonpe and its Latin translation Canis onda ‘Dog's tail’ which describes the asterism of Lisa Minos (actually Kewooow- pis dipetos ‘Female bear with a dog's tail’) in the Greek and Roman tradition.1®° Sunahsepa is thus an astral term of Indo-Furopean origin for a cireumpolar con- stellation, which moreover has the concept of ‘tal’ in it?" it is very likely that the early Indo-Aryan speakers substituted this term of their own far the ori- ginal Horeppan-Dravidian name of the Draco constellation conceived to have the shape of a crocodile with the pole star in its tail.’ Immediately after the starry crocodile which has the pole star in its tail, the vin Soo alamo 9 vealed Dog's ‘ail,’ Sunahpuccha and Sunolangala {c,alsolortheother Sanskrit Higile- tail” and is many savants pale) texts, Kiel 1954: 67 & 260) in Indo-Aryan languages is likely to be of Dravid DED with Fig. 45, Dravidian words tr tal’ suchas Teng When Resede a076a8 mentions the bull and) Kuwi Jand the crocodile Dngacatal n origin. Burrow and Emeneaw fishy 1) have connected it with Central reconstructing “I as. the Jas the initial consonant, | | suggest that the Cent two dranghtanimals oF the Asvins’ chatiel, al Dravidian elymen ofginally began with the tw beasts may be connected with day and that the word is.a denwvative of th and night respectively, as the two ASviNs Prite-Dravidian Toot themselves are soften (see Parpola 2005). ded’ (EDR ayia}. * 1g Weber 1% languages merged with “2. (See Keishnamurt 183 In Parpola lapsus thas in most Davidian Soe Parpola 2onia: 38-39, HISEORY OF SCIENCE IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21-78)64 BEGINNINGS OF INDIAN ASTRONOMY Purana texts describe the crucial function of the pole star as the hub and upholder of the entire stellar system As the pole star revolves, it causes the moon, sun and other planets to turn also, and the lunar asterisms follow that revolving (pole star) in the manner of a wheel (turning eround the nave). The sun and the moon, the stars, the lunar asterisms along with the planets are all in fact bound to the polar star by cords consisting of an array of winds The planets, asterisms and stars all without exception go around their proper orbits as lied to the pole star by cords of wind. As many as there are stars, so many are there bands of wind; being all tied to the pole star they while revolving cause thal ¢pole star) turn around As the oil-pressers, going around, cause the wheel (of the oil-press) to Lurn, so the (heavenly) lights go around everywhere whirled by a wind. Like a wheel of firebrands they (the heavenly lights) move, set in motion by a whee! of wind. Because it conveys fev) the (heav- nly) lights, therefore that (wind) is known as ‘Forward-Carrying’ (pre-e David Pingree has dated this Puranic cosmology’ “to the middle of the last mil- lennium B.C. at the earliest’ His two criteria for this dating are the concepts of Meru (the central mountain) and Dhruva: Dhruva ny first appears in the prescriptions for the marriage ceremony given in the grhyasdtras, though there only as an unmoved star, not as one pole of the axis about which the other celestial bodies revolve” The Heacenty Fig Tie Yel the conception of pole star with ‘ropes’ issuing from it goes back to the In dus Civilization. One early attestation connected with itis found in a Rgvedie hymn, which refers to Sunahsepa in two of its verses (RV 1,24,22-19); the tradi- tion ascrifos to Sunahsepa the Rgvedic hymns 1,240, which he is supposed to “ and 23 tovh fy, 7h and 25 wet esa sages in’ other texts i mi fam yt! unksotntin’ the sollowing’ verse astributed to Bhartshari fod. Kosambl 1948. 97 0. 248) hl pha Bl ito ba HISHORY OF SCENEL IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21ASKO PARPOLA 65 have addressed to the gods while bound to the sacrificial stake in Hariscandia’s roval consecration, as a human victim to Varuna. RV 1,24,7 speaks of @ banyan tree (Fics bengalensis) in the sky:!7* ‘King, Varuna holds up the crown of the {heavenly banvan) tree in the botomless space; up is the basis of its (aerial roots) which hang down: may these beams of light (kefazah) be fixed on us!"73 The banyan tree, in Vedic Sanskrit mya védiia-‘downwards-grower, is characterized by its rope-like air roots falling down from its branches and eventually taking, foot around the original stem of the tree. In heavenly contexts, the word keld- usually denotes ‘beam of light’ (also ‘meteor’ or ‘comet’), but here the meaning, ‘aerial root’ of banyan is also implicd.!?! In the Rywvedic passaye at hand, the acral roots of the banyan correspond to beams of light that bring vital energy to living beings; see SB 2,3,3,7-8, where the rays (rast as ropes (sii) that both bring and take lite ) of the sun are cone 7. Now yonder burning (sun) doubtless is no other than Death, Ibis by the rays (or reins, thongs, resi) of that (sun) thal all these creatures are attached to the vital airs (breaths or life), and therefore the rays extend down to the vital airs. 8. And the breath of whomso ever he (the sun) wishes he takes and rises, and that one dies.,.279 According to the Puranic cosmology, the sun nourishes the moon and other heay cenly luminaries as well as gods, men, ancestors ete. with its rays (nsv).!7° The Vedic and Hindu texts repeatedly refer to a heavenly fig tree. This con. ception seems to be reflected on an Indus tablet (H-179), which depicts an an- Uhropomorphic deity inside o fig tree: at bottom, the fig tee is flanked on cither side by a star, which suggest a heavenly connection for the tree??? The Indus. seript in turn testifies to the Harappan origin of the conception of the pole star as acosmic banyan tree with ‘ropes’ issuing {rom it, A recurring sequence of Indus 1p2 According to AVS5,4,3, there isa pipal 173 Ryveln 4 tree fFieus as a seat of gods in the xunsyondissnn sti third heaven heretiom gash is ur upd baa Psy 16 An “elesnal assets troe etal sa which has its roots above, its branches bee 474 In Dravidian, such an association hasa low” is mentioned in Ka#l-Uparss 6,1 andl ings motivation’ Arent the rook et fall Brg 15,2, but th ear to be ads down, descend, there are both works meaning tations trom Tatra Aranwikr 141.5, which ‘aerial root of he banyan, falling roots ofa speaks just of “a toe gvksa) whieh has ts sols tre” fiat, ela (IEDR 34 o-thand fin lamil above, is branches below,” and this in turn is eifuemis meteor! an adaptation of RV 1.24.7 (see Emeneau i949), 475,Iranel Here the heavenly tree has been identified as 196 See V the banyan tree (Ficus Boguonsis = Ficus ite for ether paral dica) by, tater alla, Geldner 188; 1952) 1.25, 253-255) Coomaraswamy 1g38; Emeneat 1945; Bosel “ 7 see Parpola yoga: 244 yon. 65H, Renow ‘90: VILL ORY OF SCIENCE IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21-78)66 BEGINNINGS OF INDIAN ASTRONOMY Fignie 19: The sequence of signs depicting “tig wee” + “fish” in the Indus insesiption of the seal \Veqig from Mohenjo-dar. After CISL 1: so0, Reproduced courtesy of ASL. Being a modera seal impression, the text is wad! rightto-let, as was originally intended by the maker of the eriginal, laterally inverted stamp signs is “fig tree” + “fish” (Lig.19). The pictorial meaning “fig tree” assigned to the first sign in this sequence is based on its the similarity to the "three-branched fig” motit of Karly, Mature and Late Harappan painted pottery The sign se quence “tig” + “lish” has a counterpart in the Old Tamil compound ¢ Tamil catart ‘banyan tree’ and its cognates in other Dravidian languages (such as Malayalam oatam ‘bicus indica,’ Kannada owt ‘the banyan, Ficus indica,’ Tulu ‘the lange banyan tree’) have not been included in the Dravidian etymological dictionary (DFDR}, nor even in the Dramidian Forrocoings front hudo-Aran,™ being perhaps considered too obvious loans from Sanskrit ofa ‘banyan’ The Sanskrit word, however, is first attested rather late, from the epics onwards, and has a very good elymology in Proto-Dravidian “outa ‘rope, cord 178 See Parpola 1y9y: 254-236 with figs. from the Sanskrit root orf“ which is se 13asa6 ‘mantically plausible, but hardly’ acceptable in Py. Fmenean & Borrow 296 jew of the scanty’ attestation of the word in 180 DEDR 5220, Tedesco (147: go) fas Indo-Aryan languages (x lurter 1966: 654 ne proposed an Indo-Aryan Prakniic etymology 19212) tor (lexical) Sanskrit tyfa- ‘ropes desiving it HISHORY OF SCENEL IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21ASKO PARPOLA Rope-like air-roots are one of the most characteristic features of the banyan, Which is also called isitu-nanaar ‘rope- tree’ in Tamil (big.20)"" The ho: mophony with Proto-Dravidian % ‘north explains the Puranie ascrip- tion of the banyan to the northern dit- ection as its symbolic tree**8 The se- qquence “fig, tree” + “fish” thus yields the compound oate-min ‘north star,’ which in Old Tamil is the name of the tiny star Alcor in Lesa Major! ¥ min occurs many times as the symbol of conjugal fidelity (kerpu ort In the first canto of the Old Tamil epic Cilappatikaran, the groom points out the evte-mia to the bride in the wed: ding ceremony, and this is still the Tamil custom in South India and Sri Lanka’ According to the SB passage dis- sun). 2°5 with rope-like Ask: 67 The banyan tree (hicus bengalensis) cussed carlier, the Kritikas were formerly wives of the Seven Sages who shine in the sky as the stars of Ursa Major: the Sages divorced their wives after they had been seduced by Agni or Siva, Vasistha’s faithful wife Arundhati however could slay with her husband star Mizar = zeta Lrsae Majoris. banyan’ van wind, 2 Prakriti consideredt an Indo. form derived (ower “aha) from Sanskrit Py nthe svt the meaning the Aryan_nomads tumed (see Tedesco 1947: 91). Howe Sonskrit first encountered this “tee ia’ the. Indian subcontinent, and acioption of the tee's earlier native appellation would have been a nasual thing todo 82 DEDR 5218 185 Ln Purapic cosmology, four mountains arise inthe four carciinal directions around th golden Mount Mert ia the entre, and an th lop.at each mountain grows an enormous be different in each direction, The hee grow Arundhatr is the tiny star Alcor next to Vasistha’s ** Alcor is shown to the bride in the Vedie mar 9 the north is the banyan fig, called Purinavosrin3; Alte Puiranr yap 260 16}nyigraicnin other texts (see Kirfel 1920 1954) YH", 8 ele.) While homonymy coanests the banyan fg swith the nerh in. Dravidian, there is na such fingaistic association in Indo 84 Tamil wtemris not a trenstation loan from Sanskrit, tor the Sanskrit sougces do not havea term areaning “northern star 185 Eg in Purana 122.8, 186 See Parpola wo a: 247-24 187 The eariest attestation ofthis tradition mbethe aieklitaverse in RV-Khila 417.5 ORY OF SCIENCE IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21-78)68 BEGINNINGS OF INDIAN ASTRONOMY att 8 Ursa \. Major oy + Fa mur ese AL Wt Aeon Yn Pole ofthe ecliptic Figure 21° Circumpolar stars and the celestial pole. After Paspola 29940: 245, based on Liebert riage ceremony asa model to be emulated. Originally oite-nia ‘north stax’ prob ably denoted the nearby pole star. Actually, the old klila verse appearing as the last stanza of the marriage hymn RV 10,45 says justdlu oni “be constant faithful’) and in some Grhyasitras (PGS 1,8,19; SGS 4,17,9-4) and in Kalidasa’s Kvuinaroseinbiters (7,85), only the Pole Star is shown; GGS 2,3,8-12 has the Pole Star and Arundhati, while other stars as well, especially the Seven Sages, are mentioned in JGS 1,21; ASWGS 18,22; and HGS 1,22,142°9 In goou-ryooncr the pole star was Thuban (alpha Draconis), close to Lrsa Ma- jor In 278oncr, Thuban was only 0.6 distant from the heavenly Pole (Fig. 21) Thuban is the only star that could really be called ‘fixed’ (diiruzn) centre of the rotating heavens before our own Pole Star Polaris. For instance Hermann Jacobi concluded that even though the custom of showing the pole star in the marriage ritual is recorded as late as in the Grhyasutras, it must date from a much earlier ling to later explanations, th thiskhifisee Schettelowite 1906: 10.4) Pole Star is shwem to the bride fist because itis 188 RV-Khila 37 as RY 1085, 48h nant pty comeanexampleor maxi idly easier to see than the small star Alcor; it has be of gradual soeSchettelawitz, — instruction” (Sankara on LMS 11.8 and 12). HISHORY OF SCENEL IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21ASKO PARTOLA 6y time when there was a real pole star, ie, from the first half of the third millen- nium" The Hirmiyakesi-Grhyastifna prescribes that while showing the bride the pole star and/or Arundhat, the bridegroom should address the pole star with a long, mantia. On the basis of its contents, in particular the following, verses, it was. lly the king who spoke this mantra to the pole star, most probably in the royal consecration, “Varuna’s sacrifice” @runastay), although it is not extant in the mjasayatexts?" Then he worships the Pole Star with (the formula), ‘Firm dwelling’! firm origin, The firm one art thou, standing on the side of firmness Thou art the pillar of the stars; thus protect me against the adversary I know thee as the nave of the universe. May | become the nave of this country | know thee as the centre of the universe. May [ become the centre of this country I know thee as the string that holds the universe. May | became the string that holds this country | know thee as the pillar of the universe. May L become the pillar of this country J know thee as the navel of the universe, May I become as the navel of this country... Varuna is the divine King, and in this mantra the pole star is a symbol of roy- alty. All principal varieties of fig, trees (ayagrodia, ascattia, aduia are emphatically associated with kingship in AB 7,27~34, and the mightiest of them, the banyan tree, belongs to Varuna?’ Ibis King Varuna who accord ing to RV 1,24,20 holds the heavenly banyan tree in the sky, while the Puranas (c4g,, Visnu-Parnins 2,9) explain that the tars and planets not fall dewn from the gx Sevalo thehyma RV 19,73 ascribed & mad Dhruva and relates! to the royal outing 28 ya The Tove Star as the ‘ttm dwelling’ demands comparison with RV 8.41.9) “Fixed Biigism Is Varuna’s dwelling ast fv sida (there) he governs the seven, ORY OF SCIENCE IN SOUTH ASIA 1 (2013) 21-78)7 BEGINNINGS OF INDIAN ASTRONOMY sky, because they are bound to the pole star with invisible “ropes of wind,” un- doubtedly the imagined air-roots of the cosmic banyan tree. These concep tions follow naturally from the original Dravidian name of the pole star: ata-ratn “north star” = "banyan star” = “rope star.” ABBREVIATIONS AB Aitareya Baitonana Anthropology, University ASI Archaeological Survey of Inia ‘of Peshawar AgvOS — Aschiyana-Gritye-Siitma 1B Jie Bo Avs vena Sammie ICS Jat Grhya-Satm Bauchss . “Le Mahaveata: Contribution a Métude d'un situel solesnel sing, fe Philolagisc Rolland, Pierre. védique.” Neck Sustorisce Klasse, 1973 (3): 51-74, lomon, Richard. agg. fuidin Epigraphy. New York: Oxford Univ Scheftelowitz, Isidor, 1906. Die Apokruphen des Rgcwla (Khilini), Renmsgegeber and eurbvitet.Indische horschungen, 1. Breslau Verlag M. und I, Marcus, Scherer, Anton, 1933. Gestivanaen fui dem aadogeramnschen Velkorn, Indogermanische Bibliothek, 3:1. Heidelberg: Carl Winter- Lniversitatsverlag, Sen, SN. & ALK. Bog. 1983, The St 1 Katyayne aad Manas vet Text, Enelish Thavslation anid Commentary. 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