The mountain-range that lies most to the north* (in Bharata-varsha) is called Śringavat (the horned), from its having three principal elevations (horns or peaks), one to the north, one to the south, and one in the centre. The last is called the equinoctial; for the sun arrives there in the middle of the two seasons of spring and autumn, entering the equinoctial points in the first degree of Aries and of Libra, and making day and night of equal duration, or fifteen Muhúrtas each. When the sun, most excellent sage, is in the first degree of the lunar mansion Krittiká, and the moon is in the fourth of Visákhá; or when the sun is in the third degree of Viśákhá, and the moon is in the head of Krittiká, (these positions being contemporary with the equinoxes), that equinoctial season is holy1 (and is styled of calculation for larger cycles. Asiatic Researches, Vol. VIII., pp. 470, 471.† Reference is here made, apparently, though indistinctly, to those positions of the planets which indicate, according to Bentley, the formation of the lunar mansions, by Hindu astronomers, about 1424 B. C. Historical View of the Hindu Astronomy, pp. 3, 4. The Váyu and Linga Puránas specify the positions of the * Literally, 'to the north of Sweta': यः श्वेतस्योत्तरः शैलः शृङ्गवानिति विश्रुतः । For Sweta and Śŕingavat-or Sŕingin-vide pp. 114, 115, supra. † Or Miscellaneous Essays, Vol. I., pp. 106-108. Prior Section, LXI., 40-48: एतेष्वेव ग्रहाः सर्वे नक्षत्रेषु समुत्थिताः । the Mahávishuva or the great equinox). * At this time, other planets at the same time, or the end, according to the former,† शीतरश्मिः समुत्पन्नः कृत्तिकासु निशाकरः । A various reading of प्रवरस्तिष्ये क्षेत्रे समुत्थितः, in the first half of the fourth stanza, is प्रवरः पुष्यनक्षत्रसंभवः. The word kshetra, for nakshatra or riksha, is rare, at least in non-scientific Sanskrit writings. As will be seen, Professor Wilson took the positions, about to be enumerated, from the Linga-puráña, which is, here, fuller than the Váyu. In the same chapter with this quotation we read, Śl. 16–20: * अस्मिन्मन्वन्तरे चैव ग्रहा वैमानिकाः स्मृताः । The substance of these lines I shall recur to presently. This parenthesis is taken from the commentaries. I have corrected the Translator's "Mahavishubha". + एतेष्वेव ग्रहाः पूर्वं नक्षत्रेषु समुत्थिताः । विवस्वानदितेः पुत्रः सूर्यो वै चाक्षुषे ऽन्तरे । offerings are to be presented to the gods and to the of the Chakshusha Manwantara. At that time the sun was in विषिमान्धर्मपुत्रस्तु सोमो विश्वावसुस्तथा । So read, concurrently, all the five MSS. of the Váyu-puráña within my reach, except as to the latter half of the third stanza. No mention is here made of the positions of Budha and Ketu; and Ráhu, rightly or wrongly, is placed in Revati. Furthermore, it may be that Tishya is corrupted from some other name. Not one of my MSS. gives प्रवरस्तिष्ये क्षेत्रे clearly; and yet, on collation, they appear to point to this reading, that of some copies of the Linga-purána. One would have expected Magha or Pitryá, and in the plural. I may add, that I do not find it stated in the Vdyu-purana, as Professor Wilson alleges, that the positions laid down in the preceding passage are referred to the "end" of the Chákshusha Patriarchate. Did this “end” originate from a hasty glance at the words चाक्षुषे ऽन्तरे? That the passage just cited has suffered excision may be suggested by the ensuing stanzas, which precede it, in the Váyu-puráña, by a short interval : अस्मिन्मन्वन्तरे चैव ग्रहा वैमानिकाः स्मृताः । Comparing these two extracts, we learn that the sun, &c. have the manes, and gifts are to be made to the Brahmans, by serious persons; for such donations are productive of happiness. Liberality at the equinoxes is always advantageous to the donor; and day and night, seconds, minutes, and hours, intercalary months,† the day of Viśákhá; the moon, in Krittiká; Venus, in Pushya; Jupiter, in Púrvaphálguní; Mars, in Ashádhá; § Śani,|| in Revati; Budha, in Dhanishthá; Ketu, ¶ in Áśleshá; and Ráhu, in Bharaní.** There same origin assigned them in the current Patriarchate, the Vaivaswata, as in that which came immediately before it, the Chákshusha. The Sun sprang from Aditi; the Moon, from Dharma; Śukra, from Bhrigu; Bŕihaspati or Brihattejas, from Angiras; Budha, from an unnamed Rishi; Lohitánga or Lohitádhipa (Angáraka), from the will of some Prajapati; and Swarbhánu (Ráhu), from Simhiká. Budha is unnoticed in the first extract; and Saura (Sani), in the second. Supplementarily to these particulars, the Linga-puráňa, as adduced in my third note in p. 256, specifies Soma as sire of Budha, makes Vikesi mother of Lohitárchis (Angáraka), names the Sun and Sanjná as the parents of Sauri (Śani), and calls Sikhin (Ketu) son of Mrityu. * These three terms are to represent कलाकाष्ठाक्षणाः. † Adhimása. In two MSS. I find ardhamása, ‘half month', 'fortnight'. + I find what looks like its older name, Tishya, save in one MS. of the Linga-puráňa. § Read Púrváshádhá. There are two Ashádhás, as there are two Bhádrapadás, and two Phalgunis. For the original Saura or Sauri of the Váyu-purána and the Linga, respectively. Substituted, by the Translator, for the less usual Śikhin, the word in the Linga-purána. ** Professor Whitney, premising the Chakshusha Manwantara, ob serves: "There is something unaccountably strange in the Puranic de finition of the positions of Mercury and Venus at this important epoch. How Mercury can be, even by a Hindu cosmogonist, placed in Śravishťhá when Venus is put in Pushya, at least 146° 40′ distant from him; or how either can receive such location when the sun is made to stand in Viśákhá, at least 93° 20' from Venus, and at least 80° from Mercury, it is hard enough to see. The furthest distance from the sun actually attained by Venus is about 48°; by Mercury, 29°; so that they can full moon (Paurúamásí), the day of conjunction (Amávásyá), when the moon rises invisible, the day when it is first seen (Siníválí), the day when it first disapare differences between some of these and the positions cited by Bentley; but most of them are the same. He considers them to have been observations of the occultations of the moon by the planets, in the respective lunar mansions, 1424-5 B. C. According to the Vayu, these positions or origins of the planets are from the Vedas: अषाढादिखिह पूर्वसु समुत्पन्ना इति श्रुतिः । * The Linga, less accurately, perhaps, reads fa a:; referring it to the works of law. † never actually be more than 77° apart: nor are the greatest elongations of the two planets, as determined by the modern Hindu astronomy, very different from these. It looks as if the defined positions of the planets at the Great Equinox were mere guess-work, and the work, too, of a very unlearned and blundering guesser, rather than found by retrospective calculation. The putting of the moon's modes, also, in Bharani and Áśleshá-or, at the utmost, only 106° 40' apart-is a yet grosser error of the same character." Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. VIII., p. 90, foot-note. * For the reading, in my MSS., of this line, hypermetrical, and also absurd, as here presented, see the extract, p. 258, supra, note, from the Váyu-purána. The position of Mars, and that only, seems to be there credited to the Śruti; as, in the Linga-purána,— p. 257, supra, note,— to the Smriti. † Mr. Bentley writes: "For determining the time of the formation of the Lunar Mansions, we have other observations to mention that will be found to be still more accurate, as they can be depended on to the very year; and these are of the planets. [Then follows a legend.] The observations here alluded to are supposed to have been occultations of the planets by the Moon, in the respective Lunar Mansions from which they are named: they refer us to the year 1424-5 B. C.," &c. &c. A Historical View of the Hindu Astronomy, &c., pp. 3, 4. Professor Max Müller asserts that "the coincidence between the legend quoted by Bentley and the astronomical facts determined by Mr. Hind is a real one. Bentley, it is true, does not give his authority; but Professor Wilson, in a note to his translation of the Vishnu-puráňa, speaks distinctly of the legend as occurring in the Vayu- and Linga-puránas; and he mentions that these Puráúas appeal to the authority of reve |