ASTRONOMICAL LIGHT ON VEDIC CULTURE By R. V. VAIDYA, MLA, BT, Jyotirvidyaratas PRICE : Rs, 9.00 MAKARAND SAHITYA 361 Dr. D. N, ROAD, BOMBAY t@®R, V. VaiDya Finet IMPRESSION. Marck, 2964 Printed dy BOG Daawace at Karvatax Printiva Press, Karnatak House, Chira Bazar, Bombay 2 and Published ty P Vo GApGIL for Manaraso Sanitya,36l,Dr DN, Road, Flera Fountain, Bombay 1FOREWORD We have pleasure in placing in the handsof tearned readers this book which is likely to prove the first of its kind in the market. Prof. Vaidya, its author, has to his credit a rare combination of qualifications. He is an M. A. in Maths. and a Gr aduate of Sanskrit. He knows Astronomy—Oriental and Westhtn, ‘Theo- retical and Practical, both. His experience as the Superintendent of Observatory over a decade, has helped him in finding out the - hitherto lost system of Astronemy in Vedic Age. He hat? attempted to correlate the three main branches of Indology viz: Vedic Language, Astronomy and Sacrificial System, which is one of the salient features of the book. He has also attempted to trace the changes in Astronomi- cal and Sacrificial Systems in the Vedic age extending from the years 12000 B. C. to 3000 B. C. He has also attempted to show how Sanskrit words have lost their Vedic meanings during bygone Ages, and also how Christanity, Islam and Parsee religion can be found to have been influenced by the Vedic Culture. P. V. Gadgil, 361, Dr. D N. Road, Ist floor, Fort, Bombay-1 Bombay, Dated 21st March 1965ERRATA Page l6 Last three mes in the footnote, viz. “ ndtefa ana.” are to be regarded as a footnote on “ teal, ay, aaa, etc” occuring in line 20 on page 18 Page 18: The footnote 22 viz: “qa 9 Sqat- <= etc” tefers to the words “These five parts” in the top line on bage 19 Page 19 . The number 23 printed on “ These five parts” 1s to he read as 22” Page 22 - Delete the lire “Fer complete footnote see” under footnote No 24 Page 32 Delete the first two lines at the top viz: “we quote below etc.’ Page 33 Delete the footnote “*cf daruq anal ete.” Page 33 see Trsuparnaetc refers to ‘sagaiea am ””” on page 32 Page 33 Delete the first two lines at the tep, viz “sex figure ¥ ”PREFACE The Vedic religion and culture 1s supposed to consist mamly of the three branche, wiz Vedic literature, Sacnficial system and Astronomy While considenng the almanac controversy Cqavar) mall its aspects, 1t has come to our notice that its indecision was mamly been due to lack of coordinated knowledge of the early Vedic tradition about the three branches on the part of the participants in the controversy The study of Vedic passages which are put forth as their supports by vanous scholars interested in the almanac controversy, lias led us to the conclusion that the study of the three branches has continued for centuries quite dependently, without even suspecting that a correlation between them was considered an essential factor in theearly Age The following lines from the Vedangayyotssh declare in unequivocal terms that the Sacnficial system was evolved and vanous adjustments made to3t to sust the required system of time units and the Vedic passages were composed for being recited at the tume of performing sacrifices — a Raahaterg vege Aigars wT! ami areata a ony Aza aa ar Ul ecessary for a student of Vedic Tt was, therefore, very 1 d the Astronomical system of Saenficial system to understan! time units. Astudy of M Puranas his shown wa, oH etc, have lost # Smniti Age. * The following hints also prove that first subject of study 3 C1) orien st amy tyrerectt 3 a2) FATS Tahibharat, Br hmanic Works and of even of that Sanskrit words hike erg, ETH, SFT, Ty, heir onginal Vedic meaning during the 2 Astronomy was cons 3 Consecration of fire on a particular nakshatra 4 Naming the Deity for the first Nakshatra, and st was invartably the Sun References for any one of the above four should be sufficient to believe that a change in the nakshitra and sacrificial order had taken palce We can trace such changes night from Shravina to Revats which denotes a period of 12000 years The Vedic works have given lsts of stars and those of thar govern ing Deities and thts tsa sufficient proof to show that the Sages have recorded the alterations 1n the sacrificial order for a period of at least 13000 years. Areference from MB shows that God Bratima had firststarted the time cycle from the star Dhaashtha Ccf whore wa anm atiiia t) Reords shov that all previous stars had their turn of being an Eastem star36 ASTRONOMICAL LIGHT MAROM OF THAE on MEN HE_ cu a fs og, 4 49° go ze a Sia dF go ad fe. ae, “ae, Dy Sa Bg Be ate 2 * te On gM gh Oa eee » BRAMHA'S AHORATRA paneer > 0005 Sy, #3 EQUIVALENTTO 2 oo 2g ecw 4 |\ one commtare cvees OF Dee ace Ti LASTERLY ROINT 5 2 asad = PE000yEsAS= 29 YUESS Aenea) OR 27000 1 tATWARSATRAS OR=24000 a (MANE) THE CELESTIAL EQUATOR ORHORIZON: © The aebealal ale fradied Trough aod nahkiaha minor, whieh meses exactly nm the Last. 2 the Suns coryunciion nium an Lasterdy rong nahvalrer Chter mina Mt badstin €ach agel yuga) 3. Me Laat wad thesepore, o varweble atyechon 1, SEIRAVANA (a7) ( Vishnu was the Deity ) Before commencing any religious rite, we chant the follow- ing Gacq every day: “wag: Beis aaa sadamet aa. Tt fa Wear Saat" All words in iis Mantra ave very significant. It reminds us of our position in the infinite line of time. It shows thata fresh calculation started in the period of §a%qa Manu and in theRISE Of STARS IN THE EAST AND THEIR DATES 37 broad Kalpa period of Sammg The second half of Brahma’s day had commenced The system started on fayzq ( Vishnu’s feet or the star of am) Thts system was introduced under the orders of God Vishnu. We quote below three references to prove that Shravana was observed io bz an Eastern star and that @ phonty was given tout by the Vedic Rishis (1) The geaqa gives the following verse: afer gy Praeat zat, Ceara feted guar ge a The East has been determined by the the rise of the four stars of which q1is one This 1s said to be the “ Ageold tradition ” (2) cf “ wana aie eat Grito “-M B. The sam formed the the first star of the Nakshatra cycle. (3) “searmaterat are” “ Vishwanutra 1s said to have introduced new system of time units by carrying sqm to the East. . The system of time units ( whatever :t may have been )and referred to in the above mantra is said to have been imtroduced on Rrqrz C3 e. qu stat and under the orders of God Vishnu. The saqu may have attained an” almost Easterly” positon in the year 13000 B C 2, CHITRA (frat) Apassagefrom Ta Brah describing how the Asuras named Kala Kan) performed sacnficeson Arar ( under the advice of God Indra }and attained the Divine part (74) Two of the Asuras flew to heaven and ‘becamea pair of Divine Dogs”-(" aqua, aifet arnaazan) Chitra ts said to have been an Eastern star according to the abovequoted verse Even the followmg Imes from Vedic literature speak of the importance of the star — (1) ‘am ae man bema wa. (2) ¢ atria qaca ada Rrarerod 3 ayat” (3)' 0.) Bataaa aa’ 3. PHAEGUNI wey (gal and sea) Both the stars had their turn of being the first naksharta8 ASTRONOMICAL LIGHT in Starting a Samvatsara and sacrifice, We quote below some references in support of our statement ; C1) “qa a erat at wap” Here qa means the “ first, * (2) a sala aaah aagRA aa Tapa ads arate W aden a uaa ga ae ya a AL I-38 “ Asyama was the Sun God governing the Parva Phalgun, one who desires to get the fame of being called a‘ qt’ a (chart table ) should consecrate on the P. Phalgum (agit cart ataredias ena aa ay ana ay TAN seen anata Wen 3 sam abe Sreate7 g@a Cz aaaentaaray sta vata |e Trea aah ema ia sacar tah aftaqieda Wa ay 1-8 4./MAGHA (at) A Ime from Rik. Sam (4556) read along with two others quoted under ‘fiz ’abovesakes us suspect that Magha was once tn prominence and.that gx (the Sun God) was the govermng Datty The kne ‘agit q a aver gemial agi qr JR a ua agfa—” and the position of gs just before that of ggeig in the following hst 6£ names of Sun God suppsrt our SUSPLCION * gea'a exif onfeeafa grife qaemwa ante” The Ine runs thus att miter agegz} ap ge aca aafaeladt aega aba we gett Fy aria et at a reag 5, PUSHYA (ger) ‘The following lines from the Rck Sam and the Tar Br are sufficient to prove that (aq had once become the first star and that the Sun God received the name of ggeqft in that Age. Ttis to be noted that Bohaspat: hke Shukra, was the sacrificial Deity in the form of the San and in later years one of the planets m ine system tecewed {he name (1) ager saa seat Reta aranyg-8 ar 204 (2) geet ma gaat ad oa aetna @ 3-6 1 We quote belay a number of ines from the Rik, Sam which show beyond doubt that eg was a synonym of the Sun GodRISE OF STARS IN THE EAST AND THEIR DATES 39 Rik. Sam, (§ 8.1 29) (1) satan mm sagged war (1) sparen af aan a agent (ui) seam. geal g¢ Ae eae (iv) spa ee fier ate a ary The Tar Br quotes in 1 25) the followng according to which ail of them are synonyms of the Sun God Tere ent rial arent spat geerena aaa en arteay | Sage Vamadeva praises the Sun (Jod 1n the following way Bagger Sea Wom ay oR Read an caged aera Teed ere at decd tt ra sala U apy cele’ According to Ta: Br the g¢eyfa wanted to obtam the most exalted position ( or highest honour } ~ geeraat erraae t mecca Rae t 6 PUNARVASU (gxiq ) The following memorable, ines from the Ta Br clearly suggest that the Prajapats had ordered the discontinuance of the commencing of the sacrifice on yy and to start it on qadg “Faq 4 aa satan Ut aqneaStRT tt ata aa Ter | ST GaetTR | ae der ata aE a gu ar at atiare eng ta gadetelianeete | gaa ata aQTad | at ae ay 9-9-3 7. KRITTIKA ( aft B.C.) We do not get a more definite ‘statement about any other star than the afar It was regarded as the first star of rhe Devine half because it xose evactly in the East * “ate 4 aaa wel Reed afta ae Uae chine” aa aT Another verve mentions the first and last stars of each of the two halves of the zodiac — Fite sear Bane ae ah agar aqua aa olor oA pe gene 41 Readers are requested to note that Us 13 atuall, he fat The pe rograde motion of the Equincacs has definitely the effect of crealan, an Umpressaot thatthe Earth was curungit aa Danterly daecuen what vaso reverse to the one usually secn aa means “Remora. Can vy mean the Earth *?40 ASTRONOMICAL LIGHT 8. ROHINI ( afevit) (in the East ) The discussion on page 22 alone 13 quite enough to show that the Prayapati redistributed the stars among the g’s and sr@v’s who accepted the division The following Lines from a story about Rohim sisters and given by the Maha Bharata in the arf (ch 339) show that m some Age the Rolum had disappeared from sight ( seq amr, ya } and from the year 2100 B C.it crossed the Equator and entered the Divine half — vftfog evict g Ofer east al Fash ota BR aserg at ra MS th aa asia ag 8 aaa TE aa are fan oe eae eT we ag SU aflame at aan waked dion aa Ga GE Gea aa Ue tl Tan gaaer gimnikta ar aera aRahts va oa aP gerd 099 Il The words uffefe etc. m the above verse refer to the system which was initially started by sen from the star afer and was later on replaced by fray and a new system introduced- “fatten sada” We can thus see that all the stars tight from Dhamstha to Rohini bad they tum in becomung an Eastern star and having the honour of staring the sacrifice (aq) and the year ( qqaz } an different Ages —— ® Scholars of Astronomy can easly know that [Rohums nse in the Fast amust’ hax e occurred after that of the Krittla,SECTION V VEDIC DEITIES & NAKSHATRAS 1, Vedic Deities Th our opimton, in the earhest Vedic Age, the Deities and Gods @q as they were called, were very few im number, The fater Aryans used to call them as sar@aa ( Poncpal Dertes). The first and the foremost was the yeux or gat or Almighty, m whose honour we chant the famous garg every day. He was later on believed to have delegated hus triple functions to three subordinate Deities called the fgfa: ( Trinty ), They were : 1. The Ged of Creahon or nat, 3a, TH, etc. 2. The God of Protection or ®a:, ARI. and so on. 3. The God of Desiructton ot 35, 24M, Ait etc. PRINCIPAL GODS & DEITIES IN THE VEDIC AGE Even today while following the Vedic and Post-Vedie tradition, we worship Gods (%ar } and Deites (ae ) and offer oblations to them. They are addressed as “ Prnapal Deities’, (cf sata) = They are about 3312n number. It 1s our feeling that in the early period of the Vedic Age, the Gods were very few and then Detttes were limited in number. These were symbolised and represented by Stars, Planets or Natural Elements. The pnautsye man had only one God - The Alnughty, known as the q@tit, wanaa, A7At,and Soon. He was symbolised by the letter “OM" (94). As time rolled on the sages evoly ed three conceptions about the “ommpatent and the ommuscient” tile all-pennduag Great Sot Dor the “arr 7 (the net-bam). He came to be hnown ag the Tnnity * ( fet ) comprising the three mam Gods aim (God of Creaion), fay (God of Life) and n@a (God of Destructon) Then came the tun of Fue Elements to be hnown as Gods. They were tech i) arrange Cn} eed emee A (nu) cient fie ANE, oe42 ASTRONOMICAL LIGHT 1g, Pa, Gt meaning Heaven, represented by th @ sky. 2 smite Space. 3 gfadt Earth 4 aqqgoray Wind 3 oan Water Later on, we come across hymns which show that the sages evolved another class of Gods to be known a3 2aqi or Deities. ‘The first three ® of them were the Agm ( afr) ( Fire}, Vayu (ag ) or Wind and Surya or Savita ( gitar), theSun, Attenwards the number anpears to have been increased to seven. * It 13 our helief that Agni occupied the first postion ( yxy) n the hst of Deities This word has now come to mean as “The mouth’ Butat is our belief that the Vedic Rishis used the word ‘aa? defimtely to denote “the first place.’ The following jines from the Vedic literature will go to support our view 1 gat ya samt aE zat «Citas the Vasant which 1s the first of the seasons.) 2 ga a a ae aa Gea) Cit 1s the Phalgum Pauruma which denoted the first night of the year ) 3 gat aaa acai ([tis the “ Kntnkas” whieh occupy the first place in the ist of stars } 4 ofa Raarga, also algata x (Agni is the first of Gods. ) (ef afaa Saament Gey ga cere ei sea ta ] 5 laa eitaa ’ (The Divine damsels headed by Urvasht ) The following Mantra which we chant on the occasion of wearing the‘ holy thread shows that the name Agm comes just after the Omkar { 3) and before the hist of 8 other Derties aint aaaadt seit oft Sehaadr san armegdizadt spat ate agiad sah The following line eft qaitt efit gegt clearly shows that the Harker Rishis had eelected Agni as the first Deity. He was ve Sages fell anal Ye WH RA a? aE ont onid saxo ait seria seeVEDIC DEITIES AND NAKSHATRAS 43, not the “ messenger’ or “a carnter of oblations” m that Age. Ie was to be worshipped and placed in the “East.” ® We next come to an Age when the Rishts appear to have evolved ten Deities to control the ten directions as has been shown in the next table. The Brahma occupied the zenith permanently, the Ananta (The Infinite), the Nadw, and the 4 nocturnal Deities took the 4 positions of the bisectors of Cardinal angles (S E, SW, etc.) These directions were called the same or aft Cthe Auxhary or Subsiciary directions } During the last stage of the Vedic Age, we find the Deities being represented. by eight planets which are called the fizagi_ or Rory (Elephants) guarding the directions. These lists are regarded as traditionally correct. ‘These have helped us in verifying as to why a particular planet could have been allotted a particular sign Eight Directions Controlling Elephants 1 Praachs ( East ) Indra | Sun 2 Agneya (S Ey Agnt Venus 3 awachi (South) Yama Mars 4 NawrhrutyacS W ) Norhruti Rahu 5 Prateechi ( West} Varuna Satum 6& Vayavya(N W3 Vayu Moon 2? Udichi ( North ) Kubera Mercury 8 Ishanya(N E.) Tshana Jupiter Jt will be interesting to note that the names of the four car dinal directions indicate the Sun’s position im the sky, viz that in front (ara), lowest (erarf), at the back (air) and lnghest (xia) and those of the subsidiary directionsare ‘denved epithets’ from the names of the Deues) E.g anita from aft”, aaecr ‘from arg and so on THE SUN Gods Vishnu and Indra were represented by tho Sun from the earhest Vedic Age. As tame went on, the Moon also came to be wee Tad Suet44 ASTRONOMICAL LIGHT given an equal ymportance Qne was the creator of the day and the other of seasons * He appears to have received different names like ofa, aR, TN, De, gels, wz,as Ages passed by Each tme a fresh star began to make 1ts appearance exactly im the East, a change in the sacrificial system used to be made, and the Sun God who commenced the year received a fresh name. He was known as am, 7q etc according to his different positions near aneasterly msg star. The Tautareya, the Aitareya and the Shatapatha Brahmana give lists of Nakshatras with ther Deities, 16 of which are definitely names of the Sun God The following hist gives the names of the Sun God along awith the Nakshatra which he used to govern m a particular Age ' No Name Star No | Name Star 1) aeroreg | watts 49 | etn 7 2 | ag alee 10 | gems aan 3 | ra Ain Ls | eee waa 4 | Fe aia, (12 | x amt 5 | ma aaa B | am SIT 6 | aa Frat 4 | sama Tit 7 | al ( aRRRaT zalta, fraraoth, . ‘ ; mal gird, etc. 9 | Directional (fens) Lords of Sdirections 10 | Sacniicral = ( aaeerat ) Uo | Remonal . ( eta) iz | Water ¢ eat } 13 | Forest area id Herbs (arate )| Fra, 42, ae 15. | Beasts (utr) Cow, Bulloch etc 16 | Birds (8-30) j Te set, ete, 17} Insects (ax) I, AER46 ASTROAOMICAL LIGHT Class | Name of the class | Deites 18 | Village , (ata) | Ofone’s own village 19 | Locality , (eee ) |, ones own locality 20 | Ilouse ,, arava)‘, one’s own resdential 21 | Feelings ores re place derties (aaeam ) | agg, Ban seu, aca 22 | Ments 4, (ante) | td, dizz, ete 93 |Sages ., (Ccaftqar) |) Seven famous sages 4 |Manes , (fer) Forefathers 95 | Celebration,, (aetaqr ) ibe particular 26 | Family . (getam ) | § deity under consideration 27 (| Action» Camtan ) Six more classes of deities could be added to make the number 33 The following lists of De:tes which occur in Vedic lines appear to be those of a later ongin.— (1) atten, aif, amt, aa, fig, enaia, TY, ad & edie (1) am, @y.a, 2 alr, ag .a7 & ata (in) aa, ofa, an, BA, ae, aey, ee, fa, aera & saat Deities like epi3=#t, defintely belong to a later Age of 4,000 BC The dual dees like amstl, amamer efix etc. appear to have been the parrs of deittes controlling the same one partici lar direction, one of them during the Divine day of six months and the other during the mght I VEDIC NAKSHATRAS { Ther names and controlling Deities and Clusters of Stars} We are convinced that the Vedic nakshatras were not exactly the same clusters of stars, a3 are known to us today. Even the natnes of naksatras are changed. It appears that the Vedic Rushis mamed the stars mostly according to ther shapes, resembling the parts of a human body or those of beasts {ke the deer ¢ antelope }, the ox, the goat and so on, eg the naksatra Hasta (geq ) appears to have receryerl this name because of the cluster resembling the fingertips of a palm (cer)VEDIC DEITICs AND NAXSIIATRAS 47 ‘The head of an antelope (amid), the ag (or two arms} and soon It has been attempted to find out a probable explanation as to why a particular star may have been so named In the following list the Vedic naksatras have heen given im a bold type and the stars comprising them have been mentioned m accordance with the nomenclature used by the Modem Star Atlas The modern naksatra names have been given in a bracket. The name of each Naksatra Deity has been given in the last column The Vethe works differ amongst themselves regarding the number of stars in a cluster and regarding the gender in which each naksa tra name is used For instance the auqafia mentions afte in the singular, wafig and gq in the masc smg, qf and agua arc used in a short vowel form, aq in place of sim and amg (plural) m place of sh (a femme singular form ) S No Nakshatras The Deity The name appears to have been 1 Jags given because of their resemblance with a paw of horses yoked to the Suns chanot and driven by the Charioteer aad (aft) « Bg r ARTES 2 law, aawlt, ae 35 39 and 41 Anes ay 3 lage €s ¥ and 63 Ares) aman So called because of their Scythe-} attr like shape. It means a cutting tTrachine. 4 {ae It was so named because itis Ot or red It was dso so called because, after a lapse of about 13 000 years smce at was recorded te have disappeared” Sram shi Kowas tga ten eredteally | aT nsing in the heaven. (Taunior Aldeber ran) Itisoneof the five stars formung a cart-like cluster popularly known 47 SeeM B,Vanaparva Ch Qonitty twang verses 8 and9 See page 40 for these Verses43 ASTRONOWICAL LIGHT S No | Nakshatras The Deity 10 pal way fre fra as Git yee, which was “ pterced through ” by the Satum and Mars about 6,000 years ago In some Age, 1t was also called a ‘red horse’ (ait ) A cluster of stars above the head of the Orion @ Onon It 1s situated at the head of an antelope-shaped cluster. The two arm-shaped cluster m the GEMINI group (1 Gemini) It means either * wet or moist’ because of its position in the Milky way (2axerm ) or at may mean “one having a relation to wz So named because rt again altamed the exalted position of the star Agr which was controlled by ag People also believed that they brought wealth to a sacnficer again, if he discards sacrifice on the star It consists of two stars, Castor and Polluxe eis yet to be confirmed af this was the same as the yey (8 -Cancri) of today (ya sam It must have been a cluster of stars (aren ) resembling a snake “ah” There are anumber of such stars which are named SERPENS"” even today im the star map am It is a cluster of 6 stars, the most (a1) promment of them being the «— LEO Nis aygh A group of two parsof stars popularly | 12. leper known as the gr and zea 48 G1) arma gat On) ar reg aaa va eee eS Seat ay ar |VEDIC DEITIES ND N AKSHATRAS 49 aL-i Nahkshatras The Deity ea = The palm like cluster (See the map ) [ arar faa (SPICA) wa figa 4 VIRCO ara et = ARCTURUS It» bnght R AI lie a pearl a BOOTES ag femaya Libra (a single star) (fiat (Dual form) -Two branches of starry} zit wa} tree appear to pass through them. They were (2 & B) frevat (Plural) (uB andy} ea Plural (emu) meamng one coming after (qa)| FA 3a = Meamng =the elder of the Rolum|& (Eri) sisters This is also very red like the Aldeberran faa (ovo stars-perhaps E& 8) The mean | fig ing of the word 15 jomed together fey . SCORPIT - Meaning 1s clear 7 XSCORPIE Ti means the root of the starry tree extending to the SPICA and ARCTURUS on one hand and) ssutht to a DELPHINI on the other anaer Group of 2 pats of stars which arel mazar well known today a CORONA Meanmgamamed or dis {pay am? abled part of the body (cf 4m wi) (ade fs ando) (qr) the modem Alpha ALTAIR wig An earlike cluster in the Aqualne|ag group {a 0 ¥ € randy) 4 qag 4 The Delphim: group or vary A cluster of densely sttuated stars m|qeT the Pisces group aR ENT mat A Aquart Rover The name of the deity suggests that it was ether hke a foot or leg ofa ram or was the first quarter of Brah50 ASTRONOMICAL LIGHT I 5.No, | Naksatras The Deity ma's day( since qa means qgy also) (agra) The name afé3fa also suggests the control of the group, by Ged Shiva who hasa snake round his girdle. jefz3fts The group 1s yet to be confirmed. The meaning of “diss” 35 not clear. 27, \tady = Onc brmging wealth TH 28 |afifiq, Meaning one who controls or con aay I quers all directionson alll sides (VEGA).Cle Gif SECTION VI IDENTIFICATION OF VEDIC DEITIES In section V, we have attempted to give a iist of Poncipal Vedic Dethes and that of Vedic Stars, along with the names of stars according to popular behef The next problem i to interpret the Vedic passages and hymns in the ight of our stand, viz that all the Vedic Deities were represented by stars, clusters, or constellations of stars and planets The following discussion, which has emerged as a result of further research will justify the correctness of our stand The search about the ongin of modern names of stars and constellations has revealed that while the constellations are known after their Greek or Latin names, some of the principal stars are known after ther Arabic names, whose meanings are unknown to us. Further search 1s necessary for understanding the meanings of these names and this is likely to bring to light additonal support for the correctness of our stand It has come to our notice that most of the modern names are the corrupt forms of the onginal Sansknt names of the stars These names clearly show that the stars and constellations were named according to the shapes suggested by them to the obser vers, I Prinerples of Research and of the Identifications of stars, Tn view of the difficulties of identification described above, the following prmciples have been formulated for our guidance 1 To aceptan English word as correct where 1t undoubt edly appears to be a corrupt form of an onginal Sansknt word, whichis likely to convey the meaning of a shape presented to an observer of a particular star, cluster or constellation 2 If the Star Atlas givesa meanmg different from the one found above, in the case of a particular word, to ignore the meaning, considenng ifs meamng to be the idea of an observer ina post Vedic Age.52 IDENTIFICATION OF VEDIC DEITIES (Examples CORONA = sim ore according to Vedic Sage, although it may have been 2 ‘CROWN’ to an observer in a Post Vedic Age. COMA = @q and not “hair” ARA = = aqq (asaw)} and not an ‘altar’ SCUTUM 1s aq (a mango ) and not a “shield” 3 Since, an error of transcription is likely to have occured, to try all possible changesin the letters of Cnglsh alphabet ag 0) The letter C may be an S, Sh, or K o) » H , HorE(The capital Greek letter of Eta) (2 Yoo, YorN(a mistaken Greek letter of Nu) Gv) > G » GJorN(A nustake for ‘Gamma’ } ) » F , ForG » ‘a Po, = PorR( » ‘Rho’) ” [Examples - HYADES = walt , but HYDRA = a REGULUS = aye , but VEGA may have been aim CETUS = fq, COMA=aa, CORONA my FORAX = atey] th 4 ifan English word gvesa meaning in agreement with me Shape required ina Particular case, we have to accept that ther ene ee father, to reserve this as a problem for rch as te Tecelved that meaning ow and way this word could have (Examples ~ SAGITTA = an amow, SAGITTARIUS = Archer, AQUILLA = Eagle, CYGNUS — Swan, and so on. *, ust oY Sanskrit name followed by the words qu, aid oF name of a cluster or a constellation of stars Presenting to ae, ee a eerver a shape of that name, e g Fata,IWENTIPICATION OF VEDIC DLITIES 53 6 ‘Toespect the place of every concerning Vedic Deity either exactly at the place indicated by the ww group or in its Vicumty. 7 Whale finding out a rational explanation for any Vedic Passage 1t must be noted that 2 constellation may have presented different shapes to different observers, in different Ages and at different places on the Earth, and then to try to find out the ime and place for the composition of that particular passage, 8. If two or more shapes on the starry sphere be found to agree with the descnption of any particular deity, all such cons tellations must be accepted as their positions at differnt stages of the Vedic Age. 9 Since Asuras were quem according to Amarkosh, we Should expect to get their postions also in the sumbar manner and thew shifting into or away from the Divine half should be interpreted as the Divine victory over them We now enumerate some examples of how the same one constellation presented different shapes. I ONE CONSTELLATION PRESENTING DIFFERENT SHAPES The following examples will be sufficient to prove our view that the same one particular constellation has presented differ ent shapes to different observers mm different Ages and in differ ent countes Cases of each such vanation will be found n the discussions under ‘ Interpretation, of Vedic Mantras THE GREAT BEAR The Astronemica! name for thus constellation 1s the “URSA MAJOR’ The present Indian name 1s the Saptarshis ( acti } The word URSA clearly admits of a number of versions and fortunately for us we do get supports for our stand in each case (1) URSA = sp7 (1 e,a Bear) The followmg lines from Rogveda clearly show that bear the seven - starred constellation was definitely named as the opt pat Prtart Toa ee Tal eGR -Rik $ 1 24 10, aadig aad Rat Rar Shatapatha, Br, 2 1 2PICEE aMATE FAL? ILIGENTO VAFTORGAT56 ASTRONOMICAL LIGHT at — Scorpi. The names * Arcturus, Centaurus, Sagittarus, are possible corrupt. forms 7of Sansknt words arfag, acre and alhaay respectively (2) The Omkar (3%) This symbol was suggested to them by this very constellation, when 1t may have occupied an inverted position Lines from the anqgiar lend a support to our view, that the gay was symbolised either by the Omkar or by a tree with its root above (ziqe } and branches downwards (era ora} extending wp to the constellation of Scorpio ( cf paca } (3) The tal cf a Scorpion - The shape 1s clear enough, and does not require any elucidation (4) The Peacock =~ The whole constellation of gat, Frat, Para, sawar, Sut, and ze does give an impression of a peacock. The naksahtra now known as Mool, was formerly called the apalgot (1. e the tail of a peacock ) (5) TheJar (orga or gaq)-- The clusters of eam, Sm, and We may have suggested the shape of a Jar, having, RET as the mouth, sautas the neck and 4s as the base. The Deities governing these portions were the Gur, @ and aat,"respectively (6) The God aapa — The figure is sufficient to convince a reader of this suggestion THE ALDEBERRAN (Robint Group} (1) Tt has suggested the shape of a horse(epq) The Star Map does give the name of ‘HYADES’ which is none other than the “gqfe ”, The Arabic word “ Al-deberran” also means “the Zebra” or a horse. This consists of seven stars, and tay hase been considered as the qgvq m some Age. (2) The Cart (azz) The ancient Hindu Astronomical works speak of the three or “being pierced through” by Saturn and the Mars, (3) lt was taken to be a Conch (ors) A clearer Caplination of this wall be found under the interpretation of the Manura“ rangi satrer ' TILE CONSTELLATION OF GEMINI The following star groups, appeanng in two parallel lnes: appear to have suggested the following stipes. BD ve A asl 40IDENTIFICATION OF VEDIC DEITICS a7 (1) 2,8, ¥,126 and (u) Nos, 71,6864, S7and € {1) The legs of a peacock. (2) The cars of a hare. (3) The horns of an antelope. (4) The arms of God Rudra ( az) AUDRA- KARTIKEYA & AGS = ol oS : 3 f aaa 7 rR aie ae a 9 SRION AIT | oe et VRIGA PAE @ [zion eh, i eX 3 lle We now proceed to show how the Vedic descriptions of various deities are the descnptions of shapes of constellations and clusters™ of stars actually observed by our Sages Ttis our belief that in the earher stages, when the whele human race was divided into two groups, the Suras (aq ) vocupying the Northern Hemusphere, and Asuras (1e non-Suras ) occupying the Southern half, there were two Deities equally honoured by both wiz, the agteg and appt According to the names of Deites given by Amarkosha, these can be classified into three groups - Bl tage zest to ay get aa — Bs ape 436 ASTRONOMICAL LIGHT (1) The ‘Federated Gods’ or mitam "Eg Adityas, Vasus Vishvedevas etc. (2) Those Deities which are represented by a very bright star situated m a constellation whose shape resembles that of a bitdora beast ‘These are designated as “one whose velucle { qq }or flag (eqq )1s a particular bud or beast”, Eg, gaan. are , Gitae , tat , area and so on (3) Those which are represented by asmglestar ~E.g, Vayu (arg) 1s represented by efi or Rrsat The positions of these Desties or Gods can be identified with those clusters which show an assocalion with thew “Power Goddesses” (a) who have dened thew names directly from those of the Gods Eg far, satel, aed, from fq, wa, and at respectively , Sunil, mai, Abad, set, and so on Saraswat: who as supposed to he nding a peacock can help one in identifying the position of amg, the Lyre (dtm) of ane can give a clue to find out the position of gay and soon (1) MAHADEVA This desty has received thousands of names during the last 15 000years, but the Amarkosha gives about 50, many of them are easily seen to be the names of constellations, which are known by those names or thetr equivalents even today We have based our conclusions on the nomenclature used by the Norton’s Star Atlas. We now attempt to show, how the names of Mahadeo are represented by different constellations. (1) a@r = Bootes. The meaning of the word, as given by the Atlas, 1s ‘the herdsman which is another name of the daty, viz aged oF TAFT, (u) geafr = Hercules. This 13 the name of that Giant who has supported the Carth Aman of grant lke strength 1s called af an Sanskrit, and this 1s also a name of God Shiva (m) gfyr = Ophiuchus. Its meanmg 1s given as the *snake-bearer” SQ aa ta xaeng ota weiter | wOuiarnna yam reIDENTIFICATION OF VEDIC DEITIES 9 (iv) anit = The Milky Way (or anagpiar) is clearly S¢en occupying the main position of his body, (v) sive ) = Coma Betnices, The Atlas gives amiat. [ ‘hair’ as the meaning of COMA. To our afta: J mind itis qq and BERNICES is afig:, The star Swati is as bright as the Moont, It was taken to be the Moon in the head af God Shiva, (vi) fier = a- Antares, The three stars comprising this cluster include the middle one which is red like fire, Hence, God Shiva was named f3ha5: having a “fiery eye” in the centre of his forehead, (vii) agree = Triangulum. It means “ terminating in the three cities,” (viii) steatte: =o-Antares. The middle star is red and the other two are bluish in colour. (iz) sd: = Corvus. This is a corrupt form of a. (x) am = Cancer. (xi) aaffsh, = Capricornus, justas the word CORONA is the corrupt form of ef or ston, or both. (xii) erga: = Serpens (Ceput and Cauda) together, the word CEPUT is the cormpt form of aq and CAUDA, that of qtar, It means one, having snakes about his girdle. (xii) vw or wg = Ardra or ¢-Gemini along with two parallel strips Sof stars, described before, xiv) afiaia = The Osion. It means, one wearing the skin of a deer. (xv) sy:5 = Sagitta, Its meaning is given as the arrow. There are four more star-clusters which appear like arrows; any of them could have represented the God MAHADEVA, (xvi) wae =aaa or God of Love, is named a3 aR: Gam: ( five-arrowed ) or geyeq, The constellation of SAGITTARUS, which literally means an archer, formerly represented the qzq who shot five arrows,* and then represented aeitq who destroyed the 53,“ aana eqaen stage an . 54,7 ati als 3 ers aaa Srdied + Pra Saar eer ae60 ASTRONOMICAL LIGHT former The star group “ ALTAIR” (=the ‘tear =arrow) 1s one arrow and the group “VULPE CULA” which us the corrupt form of “mepy ? 1s another arrow ‘ SCUTUM” which 1s the corrupt form of quis the 4th atrow This portion of the sky may have been designated as the aq (xv) ard = Sinus (The dog star or the Hunter as st 1s called (xvu) asqrg = Perseus which is clearly a ‘ broken axe.’ (xix) gpqs = The constellation of TAURUS ( sa) (xx) a2 =The constellation of ORION which may have been taken to be a ewe ( Drum } (xxi) sige = The constellation of CANIS MAJOR, which has the bnghtest star SIRTUS ( = +i) the ‘neck’ (2) GANAPATI (See Fig on page VI} The literal meamng of the word ts “the Governor of groups’ His oldest description 1s found in the aaqytd which has been composed by the sage nax According to him* the crescent with a star (apigefaa otaeg)* he" 1s said to be identified with agn, Sy a, 28, 74, and az, rz, and ag = He is said to be‘ blown up beihed (salet ), one having a crescent m hus forehead (saz) one having a mouth of an elephant (vat) one having fan like ears (zpf41 ) and so on. Hes also @rat Cone having two mothers ) *Note— According te another consideration, because Ganapati also 1s called «maz (1 &, one having Moon in lus forehead ), aftart (the same as att afiz )and amma (one havmg the mouth of an elephant) smasi (having an ear like a winnower) augfa or mmQe (Lord of groups), the constella tions of Corona, Bootes, Antares, Scormo together may have suggested to the Sages, the figure of an elephant’s head, car and trunk, and im the intial stages Ganapati and =Malndeva may hive been the same Deity (cf asraten nerd eae SS cf "eq ae ed fey eg oF ND vemtag af tf * The symbol of Omkar £ and > represented hum.IWENTITICATION OF VDC DLITILS 61 In our opimon, the constellation of aa, Fag, Frc, erara, wha, and qa, together correctly represented angi? Thus figure can be called a peacock also He was represented by other gtoups of stars by the Asuras. They perhaps were, the MUSCA (gus ), CARINA ( aftz), Reticulum (meaning a net, 1 ©. gat ) and so on. G3) GOD SKANDA or KARTIKEYA Vedic Literature and Puranas abound in stones about the orth of ea, and afitq He has received the followmg names —qoygg ( six-mothered ), aqefarg (conqueror of Tarak ), makiea (bom of ian ), ages (bom of ager), ts} (born of wat), tz (bom of a), Grdaga (one having the peacoch as the vehicle} and so on. In our opimon, as the Ages rolled by, some of the constellations which previously formed a part of agéy, gradually left the Sura half, and other clusters newly appeared This was taken tobe the “parting of authority * ta Gayanan and Shadanana God Shiva had eight wives (stars) two of whom Were given over to Gayanana and six others to Skanda Because, both these Gods received the control of star groups from Rudra, they were called the ‘sons of Rudra’or uz = The constelfation of CENTAURUS (naa ) which formerly belonged to the Asura half, entered the Sura half, and this event was interpreted as the conquenng of the avemt by Skanda, who thereby came to be known as the ara After about 12000 years, parts of the constellations of Taun Genunt and Aungac, which together gave an impression of a peacock (see the diagram given on page 52) represented the Skanda Thestar wi 1s called age The constellation of AURIGAL contains one pincpal star and six others He 1s also called enftq (son of Agm ) because Agmiis the Deity of alam (cf art eaeida afgzaa) Hes called a agg = This 1s clear from the shape of a peacock suggestible from the stars (4) PRAJAPATE Two different constellations were taken to represent the Prayapai One 1s deScnbed asa combmation of the clusters of* 's aaiy amatgrune? Fan Ae rede ATS se agua a Her |62 ASTRONOMICAL LICHT et, fal, fon, Sara and age ‘The second ss represented by the constellation of ORION (aa) ' (5) VARUNA We find the position of Varuna debmtely specified by the followmg mantra which we chant every day — magtargas wal ag fact | eT am,” The word ORION is clearly the corrupt form of Varuna (a7) This constellation consists of three curved Imes of stars resembling “Chile” The Amarkosha gives faq and fang as the syno nyms for gq The word aggappears to be the constellation of CETUS. ca) INDRA In our view, the constellation of Magha represented the Vedic Deity of Indra, who was generally repre-ented by the Equinoctial Sun He recewved the ntle of gaat” because of his association with this cluster The Phalgunt constellation which was known as apt or “represented the Divine Cows (aa sega) These cows are said to be lated when the Sun comes to Maghas { cf agg geqeratt ara 1) (7) KUBERA He 1s called the God of Wealth and the fnend of God Shiva (sq7raqar) He is called the @am (1 e Governor of a province from which the portion called ug has been snatched away) In our every day prayer, when we offer flowers at the end of our worship, we request lim to give us the sovereignty of the whole earth including that of fa who ure simply “members of a Federation” under lum (ef aanfia— aa 95 ror ga we aaa Gert agg | gaa Paria fet mez efi) Hes called the empar (1, e. God of au or a4} The Vedic worhs give the Lordship of the ‘ Ashadha' constella ton to fra ‘This constellation consists of a dozen second Talat runs oy Utrbrt ae Br ty sc apise tam pA = aA S83) ave ores usa Rik SoeIDENTIFICATION OF VEDC DEITIES 63 grade bright stars In our opimon, he was given the lordship of the whole of the region formerly under the control of God aq or H@R and that of the whole of Ashadha group from whuch the cluster called CORONA ( or sitet} was taken away, and that 1s why he came to be known as afrar and ayy Heys also called stag because the figure of Saguttarus ( Archer) was formerly that of a human body (8) MADANA ® (God of Love} The Amarkosha gives the following epithets - game ( Five arrowed), yeraqt (One having a bow of flowers) Havas (Having the flag of #471 e. crocodile) aay (Having a fish at the tal}, awa (Having no body) The star map mentions the following stars which are clearly the arrows referred to by the Ha (1) SCUTUM = aq( or mango ) (2 )SAGITTA ( meaning an atrow },(3) ALTAIR = (The ‘Teer or ‘ arrow), (4) VUL PECULA = ggage or eaiz_ The fifth one could not be wdentiied The constellation of SACITTARUS ( meaning 2 bow } 19 the aq The cluster of Delphim resembles a ‘fish ’ All these stars are seen in the Milky way, and they together give an umpression of a azz (oF crocodile } (9) NAGAS The whole sky appears to have a number of snakelike clusters The star map does give such constellations under the names (1) SERPENS (2) HYDRA, (3) DRACO There is a cluster called SERPENS (Ceput) [t as clearly the amay We also fd a SERPENS Caudaa or det The ATYDRA may be the mgzt and DRACO the @@ That ‘nagas’ were a deity can = proved bevond doubt by the fens, hnes— 1) alee para am tr 9) rt seater _ am (2) seria GATET ‘wie aia oem franz t 10 AGNI Agniwas the first Deity of the VedicSage>. (cf siftazam ga) His postion can beidentified eather with that of LIBRA+SCORPIO 60 Wher this portion of the shy passed into the D wine half the event was interpreted as the destruction of ga% or ¢ay and hence God Mahadeo recenved the epithet of # AE and ig?3 ASTRONOMICAL LICHT or with afte, df and a7" This double representation in the case of many of the Deities 15 sigmificant as shown later on Among the 34 synonyms of Agni as enumerated by Amarkosha the followmg are significant from our standpomt Agm 1s called the frarrt(e. having aplume) The star Pleaces loohs hike the plume of a peacock. Heis qq} (te. worshipped seven times). geaaig (A major Sun} The lines", usually uttered on the occasion of the S42q sacrifice, present before our eyes a clear picture of the Deity having association with the star Pleades, which is known as #81, aga or esi The seq or the com mMencemenit of a yearly sacrifice was associated with the rising of the star sft, exactly inthe East. The Agni was therefore called Aqreg Because the Mesha sign or the constellationof stars resembling a ram, commenced fromafaa, Agnicame tobeknown as iqee and Hqetx The Vedic Literature shows that the Vedic Sages used to perform penodic sacrifices of durations of 7,9 and 10 monthseach They were known as the gama, aavat and zr. Tt 1s on account of the seven monthly sacrifices that the Agni 1s called aq The star Pleades consists of a cluster of seven stars and 1s called the “ sq aantaia”, Since Agm 1s worshipped seven times dunng the day (arg) of 180 days and seven times darmg the night, the sacrifice had two heginmngs (q@ or yh) and hence Apmis aptly deseribed as qunff and fiatiy The year was divided mto four quarters, they used to perform four quarterly sacrifices and hence Agni appears to have recaved the name of ygun The star Knittrka, which was the begining pomt of Aq, gave the signal of the advent of the new year and Agent came to be known as ager He us called the daa The star popularly known as the Aldeberran or 2févit consists of seven stars, of which the prmewal star 1s very red The cluster 15 called HYADES which 1s clearly the corrupt form of ef The Arabic name “aldeberran” itself means The ZEBRA” or the horse ( tary = red horse) This cluster, therefore, formed a part of the constellation of Agm He 1s alsa 61 Yigera and ehGnet are names of Agm, The red star Tem situated an the horselike constellation of Rohm suggests the mame. 82 are Saat ets Arie | eer tera Fes wer RT Weare wah ademg 0 Byont geqe 63 grant argd at a¥ 8 ayang 3 Aa ema yg a aeIDENTIFICATION OF VEDIC DEITIES 65 called fia rerunding one of Agni’s position at the Sun's nse with faq in the East (11) BRAHMA He 1s said to be the controllmg deity of the star afife {L-LYRA). His wrfe, Goddess Sharada 1s sad to be fond of playing on a lyre oc LYRA. The vetucle“ of Brahma ts said to be the SWAN, The star map gives us a constellation of CYGNUS whose meaning 1s swan Just near this cluster is that of the “LYRA” and VEGA 1s the bnghtest star The star Vega, therefore, used to represent God Brahma in the earhker Vedic Age. His position ts sud to be at the bottom of a jar ( FaqeT g@ eq q@ag fastaat) but he always ocoupes the zentthal position ( cf ‘aeity Rat wget an ) (12) VISHNU He is generally represented by God Sun He has been mven the lordship of the star, Shravana Hes called the nysqq The constellation of Acquilla was, therefore, the representative of Vishnu, with two bright stars of seer as the principal stars (33) RUDRA-YAMA AND SHANI. Rudra is the later synonym of God Shiva It1s derived from Ardra He 18 said to have become a hunter (= = SIRIUS ) and shot an arrow to the deer which was the form taken up by soft The star Srtus 1s therefore the qq and aff both ‘The word CANIS 1s the corrupt form of afi Both of them are called “ @ 1 @ denyed from or bom of Rudra. (4) USHA or DAWN Vedic Literature abounds in hymns composed in the presse of Usha or dawn which usually attracted them for days together and it was an object of veneration The followang lines will show that am was an epithet of sy — 6. qa 65 we ty tise iret ae Greats AL-566 ASTRONOMICAL LIGHT 1 atrtad qe ate Rearend Sagat Rik. § 7755 uo aman etaieam Rrameavaranyel Rik. $ 7773 According to Amarkosha, afarmeans a beautsful wornan, and the list of its synonyms contains qudai aS One. This word has undergone corruption and we have today the word AURORA which 1s universally known to be a flood ght seen in the North Polar region We close the discussion by adding a list of names of other constellations which are probable corruptions of Sanskrit words shown agaist them A hist of Arabic names of stars may prove to be very useful to a prospective research scholar a Ara = an Horolocum = geal Anares = = aait (waaft) indus = & Apus = ang Nova = at Cassopea = eT Pleades = tlk Canes = % Perseus = Camelo = anmorgme Pavo = FH Pyetur = fa Caecum = Bem Phoewx = wet Canna = aftr Octans = wet Dorado = aRat (qaanra) Pyxis = ai Canopus = 40H Rehiculum = deel Fornax = — guiee Sextans = Oa Forax = mer Camelopardas = THAR Grus = Tucana = gr Gus THE STORY OF FOURTEEN JEWELS ‘We often chant the following verse which mentions 1¢ jewels having been ‘obtained by the Gods (ga ) who had a cons tant strugele with the Asuras ‘about thar share, The {mes run thus —IDENTIFICATION OF VEDIC DEITIES 6? oat dhe afters au aenittisa TT aRET geavnt wrk Barmy ara wager fia afag saiSaa argh warts agen sa Pg Ft are “~ According to the prevalent story which 1s not Vedie the Gods and Demons were engaged m the task of chuming the ocean The churning rod ( #47@= ) was the Meru and the rope was the snake VASUK] They quarrelied over the possession of the jewels which emerged from the ocean and ultimately Gods could obtam the possession of the 14 jewels enumerated in the above verse. (Itis to be noted that the list includes fag or poison. It 1s surprising that this 1s regarded as a jewel ) The story, which ss current in other Puranic works, 1s that in the beginning, a jar of poison [figga) came out and there was a very small quantty of nectar { 71) in its mouth Neither Gods nor Demons were prepared to accept the jar of poison God Shiva then placed the poison in his throat which became blue in colour and he was, thenceforth called ttezz These mythological stories have got some Astronomical meanng and it is our attempt to bnng to light the secrets or the mysterious meanings lying underneath these stories Our search for the ongin of namies of stars has helped usin finding out the truth, which is not known to the world and it 1s claimed that the secret will be known through this book for the firsi fume. Ttis our claim that the fourteen jewels are none other than 14 constellations of stars which came up above the honzon of polar region one by one as the Ages rolled by Each such constellation had one star of the first magnitude in it. These stars formerly belonged to the Southem henvsphere, the common boundary bemg the Equatorial horizon (the Sat or agnor possibly mg} The whole uruverse rotated about the axis of the Earth which always pomted out to the Pole or Meru ‘The list of modern names of stars which are Greek or Latin or Arabic and wiuch 1s the basis of our research work, shows beyond daubt that se sctels are suigle bright stars or clusters conaunng thent It 18 up to scholars to find out if there can be a better selection of stars mn disagreement with that of68 ASTRONOMICAL LIGHT ours. Wecould not get the Arabic dictionary, but it 1s our behef that when the meaning of Arabic names 1s known, it will Jend an additional support to our stand, te 66 THE JEWEL REPRESENTED BY A STAR OR A CONSTELLATION walt —The Amarkosha gives a list of synonyms for eit nm which the word sit occurs The star map gives a list of stars of first magnatude, of which the first 1s the SIRIUS. Cunously enough, this 1s the corrupt form of the word of Hence, af is SIRIUS, Frgn-According to amarkosha, this 1s the name of the jewel worn by God Vishnu on Ius chest. ‘This lotus-hke jewel is the bnght star of VEGA (etfifra) which 1s the seat of God Brahma. aftarra-This is thename ofa Divine tree We do see astarry treein the diagram It has five branches, the muddle branch has a first grade star, named edt wit. Itis called ARCTURUS which appears to bea corrupt form of aria. Hence, this branch along with edt is the uit. gu~The word ORION 1s the constellauion of ger ak (or au jisthefemmmeform of the word yt The bright star of 8B-ORION was aa am}-The star cluster of Ashvim whose controllmg deity was the afin ( the Divine Physicians ). rarer ~The stat RETELGEUSE 1s situated in the constella tion of Germunn It resembles a hare or ga This wasnaturally called a mars or agar ma -The constellation of Phalgum contain a number of bright stars papi’? eget and @j are, according to Amar kusha, synonyms atacra ~The constetlahon of Corvus adauts of another anterpretation It as popularly Imown as get ( denved from za) It1s easily seen to be the corrupt form of ser (a young one of an elephant.) A shape of an elephant with lus head at the bnght star of Aj can be easily umagined out. So fa with Corvus was the Divine Elephant. Tih Get wear ont We, oripToT TET ear10 u 13 id IDENTIRICATION OF VEDIC DEITIES 69 om ake -The bright stars of Vishakha and Anuradha together The star of Vishakha was called the gq (See Amarkosha) That which followed this were naturally called the eqm@n ‘Radha’ means a beantful woman These stars were the Divine damsels* ava Tada —The constellation of Magha was the seven headed horse. The principal star 1s known as REGULUS* Tacamng a horse. This consists of seven very bright stars fay-The star Jyestha, known asa-ANTARES It has been shown before, that this cluster gave the name of deta to God Shiva. eferg -We get this very exact name today It 1s the conste lation of ERIDANUS which 3s clearly its corrupt form. ga-The conch-hke cluster of Rohim may have been considered to be a jewel Thus posttion 1s venfiable wn the description of vanous objects descnbed in themantra for a@ ayga-is the frst grade star of FOMALHAUT situated just below the constellation of AQUARIUS or gq In our opmion the Sanskrit alphabet of +; has been transliterated as a Cor 1}+< Camstaken by f or h ) 67 “Repeat tei Amurhesh. 65. Itis our belef that Regulus is the comup form of Tz~ which means “ropelike, The consellauon has that shape.SECTION VIL CORRECT INTERPRETATION OF VEDIC MANTRAS, HYMNS AND STORIES It 1s now proposed to illustrate the correctness of our stand (vz that the Vedic Sages hved m the North Polar region for thousands of years, before the Age of the Shatapatha Taitureya Brahman works) by showing how the meamngs of a number of passages, hymns and stories, could be found to be clear, which are otherwise obscure or not appealing to reason ‘An attempt has been made to show that most of them are descriptions of scenesactually witnessed and of experiences of life actually lived by the Vedic Rishts They are not deecnptions of muracles or of self-concerved notions A few examples af each are being given below (A) Those which deserbe the posttiom of a Desty- 1, GODS BRAHMA, VISHNU AND OTHER DEITIES. (a) aamrts saeeaed pala eit sere Peart | (b) 99 aaatyarecaatt aR adianarairae ! Co} wari great GT TE No 1 ¢a) reminds one of a list of ped by our Vedic Sages God Brahma star Ablupt (VEGA), which at one time wu: almost zenthal position, The cluster of stars all around it was taken to bea lotus whose stem was connected with another asterism consisting of dragon-shaped stars This cluster 15 nowadays known as the DRACO This may have been the apet or &q on which lay the God Vishnu teferred to in 1(c) above. The ‘Rishis” were none other than the Saptarshis (Great Bear of today) The san are the serpent like clusters now designated as ‘ SERPENS’ in the Star Atlases today. One Gods and Desties worshtp- was represented by the sed 19 occupy anCORRECT INTERPRETATION 7 of them viz, “SERPENS CEPUT "is the aaa? = No 1 (bisa hymn chanted by us in honour of God Sun In our opmion, this refers to God Brahma who is clearly satd to be “seated ona seat of lotus” Carfisrereffiz ) and whose position has to be conceived as occupymg the central position of the cycles of diurnal rotation traced by the sun ( afiaqsenerséf aq ) Abhutt used to remam vinble contmucusly for six months during the Divine night. Butdunngthe day of 6 months, his position has to be umagined, and that 1s why this sdea has been giver in the hymn, 1 (b) 2 The PURUSHA (fa Ropizar aa) The Purusha was represented by the Omruscient UNIVERSE which includes everythmg This umiverse was actually seen as a revolving hemispencal dome of the sky and this motion was found to be ever continuous and non-stop ( eax} and nobody knew the beginning or the end = Tis idea has been recorded in the following Imes. (2) ERIK arg FER Cb) arena aren a german” —— serrate 3. THE DIVINE DOGS The following references from different Vedic works defin tely point to the fact that some stars came to be known as * dogs, " and two of them were very bright. Even today, the moden Star Atlases give stars known as the “ CANIS MAJOR” {1 ea bigger dog ) and “ CANISMINOR ” (a smaller dog ) The star SIRIUS ( 1q } 1s known as the Dog star There 13 no hanmif it be supposed that the foliowmg verses and passages are remmiscent of some astronomucal phenomena which were interpreted as the “ passage ” of dog stars in the Divine half as years rolled by = Ca) ai at saat wana] C1 e, guarding the Southem direc tion ) ager weet tret- Fuk. Sam. 10-14-11, Cb) gat Romer aareedend after Ra ay aeda RR Bares Er amaategaat 0’ Atharva Sam. 6, 80 Co)" aamiasraapey tl germ | at Ree qerpraary’ Tas. (a) tye anh & erent 2A” - Gar)72 ASTRONOMICAL LIGHT 4. THE STARRY PRAJAPATI The Tarttireya Brahman quotes the followmg Imes to descnbe the Starry Prayapati = at wala snot azn satis deadhig 0 gear waa Pra fae Sear era Gare os atauer afer Ut aftergen Ue 4 aay ae Tai Br 1522 “ This verily 1s the starry Prasapati The star Hasta 1s his hand Chrtra his head, Nishtya his heart, the twm stars af Vishakha Ins thighs and Anuradha the foat-stool to stand upon.” Tt will be interesting to note that a human figure could be imagined out of these astergms 5. THE DIVINE BOAT The boat-ke cluster of stars which we find situated m the Milky way and 1s designated as ‘ Nova’ in the Star Atlas, appears to have been an object of interest to Vedic Rishis. The followme lines from the Samintas cannot fail to draw the attention of a cntical reader suggesting to lim the idea that the words awa and a m them may have been the NOVA of today — (a) “fet a apna Geeavar BAU aarete ge Bat ge aaa W” Atharva Sam. 6952 and 544 (b)" Sjampatqamaet ” Rik 3am 106310 6 THE SAPTARSHIS In the later Vedic Age, our sages appear ta have recorded the high position of the Great Bear The following lines from different Vedic works clearly show that the stars now known as the aafis were ongially called the #4 or Bear Thus conste Uation appears to have occupied an almost zenithal position and the following lines clearly support our view — (a) ‘sed amigas ” Tandya Br 155 (b)* siiqagt RRcerare aaa” Rak, $ 12410 (Cc) ‘ epfigg 9 gual sence . Shatopatha Br 22.24CORRECT INTERPRETATION 73 7. THE SHANKHA (za ) The followine mantra is chanted at the ume of worship ping the Conch ( spa ) Tal aaa galt aq Baar ns cose a aM Tw Rl areeTe FAT er at hia SR ears ag SII The’ Conch ' 1s believed to beone of the 14 yewels (already described ) and which was obtained by Gods ( fffit e883) from the ocean (amtash) which was churned by the fez The aa 1s the conch shaped constellation of Rohm which contains five bnght stars and hence, 1t came to be known as qram=q ( made up of or created from five} on thataccount The clust er Of gaar whose governing deity 13 the Moon (azzqet 1s near theconch, and the ORION whichis the corrupt form of ae 1s at its side (gdtaw@iam) The first grade star of Aldeberran (ami) 1s behmd (gi) and the (avaamm ) € Milky way )1s in the front This conch 18 said to be ‘furml yheid by Vishnu (Sun ) (CE fiaga fea 8) CB) Mantras indicanag someastronomical condition 1. The advent of “Spring” The following lines composed m honour of God Ashvini clearly describe the astronormcal condition for the advent of Spring viz the heleal mse of the three starred cluster of Ashvint - (a) sega weenie soactem aga ce * Rik. S 10.347 Cb) Bergin fae give trace =| TART Trae oad eam 6 da qa tay Rik. Sam 1 9 47 All mantras wnitten in praise of God Ashvini or Nasatyas invariably mention the condition that the Ged comes nding in a chanot with three wheels or having three poled canopy, and carrying ag (1 & Spring) and appearing at dawn. The Vedas do not lack descnptions of popular conditions for the advent of Sprmg or rainy season. Eg The followng well known mantra 1s nothmg but the descnption of the Spnag season ~ “RR He ay eth Rha Rae aati AS str ll ?74 ASTRONOVICAL LIGHT The resident finds every thing around Inm having a sweet cool touch e g, cool breeze of ait, cool water, cool dust and so on Curiously enough this mantra ts chanted at the tune of offering honey (#4) toadeity The same is the case with the mantra airmenseita” which 1s composed im praise of zips deity but 1s chanted at the time of offermg curds (¢fr) 2. The advent of Rainy Season Itwas a behef that God Indra brought rams He 1s said to have received the name of qua because of lis arnval with the star yu, ‘a tat ae san ara” ‘The early nse of the cluster of aat was a sure sign of the advent of ramy season 3. The advent of the New Year A fresh annual sacrifice always started with the advent of a new year, both of which concded with the nse of Sun with an Eastem star, ‘(he Prayapati also started his control from this day, which used to be an equinoctial day The Sun, who was so far mywible and living with the Asuras (in the Pitn: half agtart) was to enter the Divine half (qm )and was hailed with hymns composed in his praise. This moment was a very unportant one and people, it seems, used to beat drums and ring bells to express their joy This idea appears im the following popular mantra which 1s chanted at the ume of worslupping 4 zai (bell) — AIA § Rar EAT OCTET A ETT or RaeE TIO, |t The nnging of bells was a kind of announcement that the old year was passing out (mma quai) and the Divine day or new j eat was conung m (anand geet) ‘This custom appears to have been relamed by Christians whofrmg bells im their Churches on 31st of December at midmght each year, saying nung the old year out, rng the new year im ” 4° The advent of a New Moon It 1s a special condition m the Polar region that the Moon 1s invisible for about a fortmght (which penod was called a genuy) after which she made her first appearance.CORRECT INTERPRETATION 75 This moment was naturally hailed with joy, since the residents were to get a contunuous keghted period (amar) for about a fortught, The moon did not always appear in the form of a ctescent, but im any and every phase, and that 1s why she 1s descnhbed as “sat sat aa” - aa Fat nahi semeber Agere | vent Set Raney seas tela, tt The word et stands for the “day of the Moon,” ay for the “ dawn like light created by the Moon," az means “‘the part’ and not “a share* 5, Creation of the UNIVERSE and TIME SS SEAL TRAST TAT TERT eT SATS Ut agatiqntraaeti Sarr tl arglaaita eee Feaer Pras att qalearal wer emgrreras Ra a eda ere? Rik Sam 10 190 This gives a description of how the ocean and earth came to existence Then the ‘space’ and ‘sky’ were taken to be scparate forms of Existence. Then the movements of the Sun and the Moon were abserved, and then, the long and short mghts and days making up a year were actually scen and recorded 6 SUN’S motion The diggs is full of mantras giving an idea as to how the Sun was “conceived” The following Imes, for example ara a prayer to Almighty that the God Sun may shower blessings and long life on us on all sides— aia ward, alien grea adnan, asarraceg, 0 aca gag werd fie at oa dmg u The Sun ts here described as being visible m all directions all raund Caéx ) and also going underneath (eau) This is clearly a description of the Sun's motion round and round while above the carth At anather place, he 1¢ described as a child playing a game of Inde and seek with another child (Moon) both of whom are playing along a road — qatae reeh errant Ree wea vite | Seamer Te ATT agaTTaTaT ga76 ASTRONOVICAL LIGHT One of them ( Moon )1s said to be “ descnbing ” mansions while the other ( Sun ) 1s known to create tg 3 1.€. Seasons or portion of a day 7 Measuring an nterval of time elapsed When a worshipper finds that there has been either a comm, 55108 OF an omission in the right performance of his worship he has to chant the following lines by way of appeal to God - TATA A RAAT | RON TEN BIT SUlaes BAT The “ Shrati ” says that a sumpleact of remembenng God Vishnu, : ¢ a simple utterance of Vishnu's name would be suffi cient to wipe off all his sins and omissions. This 2s something unbelievable. The words raga oraty wa are Very significant. The Vedic sense of the word wyq is “ deviation from or swerving away from.” The Shatapatha Brahmana for stance quotes the hnes “ dae 9 agai ore Ravage gfe. azaged—” The correct interpretation of these hnes would be as fellows— “ According to Shrutis, if one finds that he has gone astray from the time path while calculating lus position in the time line he should simply recount that the starting point 1s Vishnu’s feet (Le. star yar), from which the time cycle 1s bebeved to have been started, the difference un the postion of the equinox im the present tume from that in his time wall ammediately give bun anidea of the‘ penod of tume elansed ”. 8. Measuring 2 Year It has already been shown that Vedic Sages used to measure a year by performing a yearly snerifice in one attempt, or by perform the same in penodic sacrifices, two, three, four, five ot st durmg the Divine day and the same dumng the Divine night The following lines, which are chanted by Brahmuns on the occasion of a ceremomal dinner rermmds us of the Vedic system of performmg periodic sacnfices — agta sareraer vais a! gad sqaghar a Ae adtegit We do not agree with the popular interpretation of this MantraCORRECT INTERPRETATION 7 (C) Examples of “Misplaced” Mantras ‘We come across soores of examples in which a particular mantra 1s declared to have been composed by a particular Sage in honour of a particular deity, but is now made use of for a different occasion No reasons are given as to why this use 1s made. E g The mantra” “gai aan am ath” 1s composed by the Sage tegp, the deity beng uf 2qar (tortoise), the metre being @@a and 1s now bemg used for offering a seat (ara) to the deity concemed — (9) “gfe egar ger eh 29 Gegengart aaa ea AT BA oR ge aT” (1)The goddess of Earth has been requested to support the worshipper, just as she had supported different worlds and the deity herself was supported by God Vishnu himself Thus zefers to the ole story of haw God Vishnu drew the Earth up from out of the ocean and kept itup floating by assuming the form of a tortoise. This mantra is not found in the RigVeda Note (‘These lmes have been taken here to show that all mantras chanted on the occasion of daily religious ceremonies (faa aa} do not necessanly imecorporate early Vedic notions ) (2) Certain passages from Brahmana and Aranyaka works reveal that ther commentators have not understood the correct meanings of certam astronomical terms. In other words, it can besaid that they had lost the onginal Vedic sense dunng the Smnuo Age. As an example could be quoted the following lines from the Brihadaranyak, which ts taken as the main support by certam almanac makersin adopting a new defiraton of the word “ Tith.” “aq wae spit’ Teaat ae te seer iadiea ll afaite aa aTaehadt U ase TA CRT tee eat anifg ser agiina ad sea Wart oF Tf the traditional Veche meanings of terms occunng in this passage be 2ccepted, the sense of the passage wil) be clear They are — NO TA eee tert EN Ben oT ETAT2B ASTRONOMICAL LIGHT (1) gan. = ag = The pentod of stx months between the Vernal to Autumnal Equinox, Le. 21st March to 23rd Septem ber. Gx) Far = A panod of 12 days Cut) ah = A divine ‘ay’ is equivalent to 6 months and a human off 1s equivalent to 12 hours (av) ae = Commencement of the (divine) day, 1 @ the moment of vernal equinox Cv) gai = Fixed or constant. (v1) sparen = The penod of time dunng which the Sun and the Moon dwell together Such “ dwelling together” for a period of about 12 days, eccursa number of times during the tught of 6 months We now translate the above lines as follows — “Thus is the Prajapatis Samyatsar (as opposed to the Drane Samvatsar of 180 days). It consists of 16 Kalas (of 12 days each), lof which the mghts themselves constitute 15 * Kalas’ (ae aaa ca racazt ) The 16th Kala penod 1s devoted to the nourishment of herbs etc, and at the end of this perad the mormung occurs. The Samvatsar { gets filled ) increases and dunrushes only during the mghits —” It 18 to be noted that at least up to the date of Mahabharata wea °( Kala ) definttely was a tiie untt and not an angla The Prajapati's Samnvatsar 1, ¢ , a Samvatsat according to Prajapatr's System was a period of 192 days. (3) We chant the following lume to purty the body of the concerned deity’ ‘aitegeay canere a 4a” and whilesodomg we offer water, to wash different parts of the idol According to our opimon, the word sag should be taken at its literal mearung of ection or “ throwing away ” We can purtfy aur body only by throwmg away the impunties through five organs viz, the mouth, the eyes, organs of generation, nose, and rectum The sea 1s to wash these parts after the umpunties are thrown away €4) The following otantras give defimte indtcation of the Presentation of old Vedic tradition of saving help to deserving persons They used to perform five kinds of sacrifices, of which MCE sama Ty age wa dehaita sea ottCORRECT INTERPRETATION 79 one was termed the “Bytz 1. a sacnfice im honour of “ General Deitiesin the Universe ” This ts nothing but the offering of oblatons (help) to the meritomous and deserving persons (31 }m thesociety, who do not have any share under any special heading The following lines are worth considenng- (a) “fog ee Gareaaetredt «| tai a ghret aaa “camry oblations to those persons who wander about day and mght, in search of food ( af) ” Such persons being dependant upon others were naturally called gap, THT or afeqEy , since they used the food given by others for ther subsistence. The Amarkosha gives gpa! as the synonym for such persons and also for such others as take plea surein self praise. As time went on the word a% appears to have come tomean “a craw” and the af% meant to be offered Lo a aitgy came to be known as the apafe Ccrow's food ) Cb) The following Imes uttered on this oceasion are very significant, Raa sPPa ae Hees at a ary oRaeg wer As ee IL Here the ami ate desired to receive (and not eat ) the food (fe ) offered by the donor to aif those beggars who may have come in search of food from any of the directions belonging to God Indra, Varuna, Vayu, Yama, Nirrut and others (ec) Thedonor 1s prepared to offer an cblation even to those two Divine dogs who used to guard the South We find a reference to this m the following lines - faeage ond 2 emmara apt | Spear Gost seme Gate TT AT TN (5) The folowing mantra is chanted by Pandits who celebrate the death anniversary of a Saint of an Ascetic - RENELTEM Aan gee gi aoa aT d Aa a anew Rik Sam 2231 These lines are composed by the Sage attqar (the son of se) in honour of the Ashyvim Deity They haveto do nothing with VaetgaiteieweraT Tt | Sgr NT TTR TE UTI |80 ASTRONOMICAL LIGHT the ascetics. The word agar occurmg im them may have lod people to think that the passage refer to ‘ ascetics * (6) Wecome across another set of three deities, with whom are compared the ‘Manes’ ( far }, ther names are utter ed on the occasion of-the wg ceremony The words ‘ shame . ageneaereamr’ remind us of the oldest Vedic tradi tiott according to winch there were seven Sun Gods of whom qq, %, and af were ihe fwstthrea (Cf aerfy mata enfin) Later Ages appear to have increased the number of Deities, making 8 ags,* 11 @sand 12 enim. These three deities are supposed to represent the three generations of the departed souls A student of astronomy very well understands the fact oz justas, after about every 1000 yearsa fresh star would be seen nsing m the East, the star at the end of the Divine half would enter into the Pitn half and would be called a“ Pin” ‘The first one to be a Patri would be gg, the next one a, and the third one the any This 1s the reason why the number of 3gs as and afs was muliiphed According tathe Vedic works, aqis the controling Deity of the star stim, ex that of aa? and afett that of gay The three stars after become the fig’s appear tohavestll retained thew nght of bang respected as Gods, (D} SOME IMPORTANT SUKTAS Our Vedic Brahmins chant a number of hymns known as Sulctas in Pranse of Vedic Dates andthe Almighty The most widely known are (1) gage (a) dagen Gu) sta Cv) eas (vy) peed (oi) wage including frst It 1s now mtended to show that these Sultias contain mantras which defintely pomt to some astronomical conditions. We will take a few examples from each 1 THE PURUSHA SUKTA (ynam) A number of lines m itis Sukta clearly admit of an astronomical sense. ‘Lhe Almughty was known asthe Purusha’, His magwtude was ummeasurable. Hus representative was the Sur who was the Vedie representateve of Vishnu and Narayana also ‘The Sun used to be observed desenbing curcles of Tevolu- tion round the Earth and he was seen at some definite ‘highest 42 saiiagraae 9 Teserewertr aqreyeryy tears)CORRECT INTERPRETATION 81 alutude.’ The time used to be measured im terms of so many Samvatsars or yearly sacrifices It has already been shown, that 1000 was the biggest number conceived by them. Sun and Moon were the ‘eyes of the Universe, the Sun was the Divine eye and theMoon was an eye setforthe Asuras (Cf aext er ud a gralrt, ap taza etc.) The following Imes can now easily be mterpreted in the hght of the above-mentioned Vedic tradihon.— :) aeath ger aces aera frat Conall sides) aa (after encircling ) eqfiga zmge7 (stood at a height measurable by 10 angulas) According to very ancient Vedic tradition, glimpses of which are found m the later work (argu) the Sages used to draw a circle of one gq Ceubit) radius and fix a pole m the centre. The hetght of the Sun used ito be measured by means of a amy which would cast a shadow equal to one Hasta Cor 24 anguls) The mantra says that at the highest height, the length of the gnomon used to be only 10 anguls. This gives us a clue of finding the altitude, fx? be the altitude then tan x ~ Atanas = = z = 42 nearly This gives an angle of 23° which 1s very correct. (n) The ancent sages who are called eq or arg by the composer of this hymn were known to be performinga different land of saerifice for wiuch the 2as did not need any ammal ghee or cblation. They simply fastened to the pole the ‘Purusha’ Caaeaygurp,) For example see the follow ing lines — (a) sage aaa ar ares TERRES TT aT eoT A Fe (b aan gel seen fa tase ae ae a! Cc)" am ag aa aeraaiSient, ga Waa a a oY aati sent ere? (11) The number of complete cycles of revolutions round the honzon as observed by the sages was M7 This 3s possible only at some place whose latitude t &2;° This suggests that the wnter of this hymn may have fved an this lautude. amereitie & ag aber gar t ALO& ASTRONOMICAL LIGHT Trans —His rotations were seven groups of three times seven,.07% 3% 7 = 147, (av) The number of principal Deities were very few The writer of this hymn after comparmg the Umverse with a Divine body, he attempted to describe the control of several parts of thts Divine body by the Principal Deities as given in the following hines. This 1s nothing but the enumeration of Deihes— azat qqat SR. wat Gass gateenie oom mera) arr ante safer aftodt at, etc. CV) The fast tmes of this Sukia which are beleved to have been camposed im honour of God Vishnu can be easily interpreted as give below —~ “fil, altro cervaqed tas ge ago... ae aad...” Trans. Do see the prowess of Ged Vishnu The wise persons who keep a continued vigil ( keepmg awake) can see the highest position of God Vishnu for all time to come ( ger) (vi) The lines “ fio fraad” refers to the crossing of the Heavens by Vishnu ( Sun ) in three strides of 9 naksatras each Thuis refers to counting of time in three mstalments, the period to be measured by three aaaieq saenfices, Ht The ATHARVASHIRSH ¢ arr: ) This ts a hymn composer! by the Sage mx in honour of Ganapati The tinal descnphon apphes to Alnughiy But later on, the description of the Deity ag conceived by Manu (cf Untad ageted ) applies to the clusters of stars forming the con stellation of Scorpio The diagram will show that the inverse form of the cluster resembles the letter o# The trunh~hke constellatien of #g1 and ye together resembles theletter 9, The star Jyestha may have been conceived to be a crescent moon hav ing a star in the central part ( cf efigaftia dterp<), thus being the forehead of God Ganapat.. I The SAUR SURTA. ( diage) Thus 28 composed sn honour of God Sun, who received diffe- rent names m different Ages. Eg The ines — aGarea aateniie? and a Gra age afieng ott Rey ave] neaPe We Wan wea TAR als ga urea clearly show princpalCORRECT iNTERPRETATION 83 deihes, viz &, fra, er, aft, mA, AA and ay as different forms of the same God, the Sun. VI The BRAHMASUTRA ( nea) A Brahmin while weanng the holy thread (=jheta) makes the thread holy by turning fingers round and round, and saying that you are making “The already threefold thread threefold.” ( cf. Fapteag-faniiae Bia. ), The ongina mantra “ag sa sd geen,” which refers to the knowledge of Brahma by a Sage, 1s now made use of in the weanng of a thread which 1s a modified form of a holy sacrifiaal garment Caateitt)* This symbolzes the maga, which 1s nothing but the continuous thread of time created by Brahma and was Imown as the agqq = The Brahman utters the followmg words “Sha amd aaa afd Beran Ral aera Re aia aeeta This 13 in memory of the age-old custom of measuring the tme an terms of nine stars, each one getting a promunence after about every 1000 years, the zy or throwing in or the plotting of pomts im the time ine has to be made me tomes. The ding may have been represented by the constellation of ya (cf, a8 aa adh war), the sa by eifiy, the Serpents by amr, the eq by aq and soon. The fpitem of mme stars 1s the counting of 27 stars which would make up Brahma’s one cyele. V The TRISUPARNA ( Baw) This mantra 1s chanted on the occasion of public dmners to which a number of Brahmins are mvited. Itis our beltef that the words “smigert 98h Sia” may have led the writers of these mantras to pfescribe ther utterance on such occasions The ultimate object of one’s life was the attaumment of ag itself or at least reaching its core. The words spnataefiger im emg and wet tar im feat pout ty the same ulumate aun. The last words of these mantras viz, “agi aem agarantér” supports our view. The method of “ understanding the Brahma” was to measure his magnitude m three ways— (1) by undertaking the evening-cum morning sacrifice ( arama ), (2) Morning-cum noon sacrifice, or (3) simple evening sacrifice. The ferrt recalls 93 «The adatia is said to haye been born automatically along with the Prajapate in the old vedic age (of tata 1a AS saaaatg Fe FALL)