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pears (Kuhú),* the day when the moon is quite round (Ráká), and the day when one digit is deficient (Anumati), are, all, seasons when gifts are meritorious.

The sun is in his northern declination in the months

Tapas, Tapasya, Madhu, Mádhava, Šukra, and Suchi; and in his southern, in those of Nabhas, Nabhasya, Isha, Úrja, Sahas, Sahasya.1

On the Lokáloka mountain, which I have formerly described to you, reside the four holy protectors of the world, or Sudháman and Sankhapád, † (the two

1 These are the names of the months which occur in the Vedas, and belong to a system now obsolete, as was noticed by Sir William Jones. Asiatic Researches, Vol. III., p. 258. According to the classification of the text, they correspond, severally, with the lunar months Mágha, Phalguna, Chaitra, Vaiśákha, Jyaishtha, Áshááha, or from December to June; and with Śrávana, Bhadrapada, Áświna, Kárttika, Ágraháyańa, and Pausha, from July to December. From this order of the two series of the months, as occurring in the Vedas, Mr. Colebrooke infers, upon astronomical computations, their date to be about fourteen centuries prior to the Christian era. ‡ Asiatic Researches, Vol. VII., p. 283. §

lation and tradition in support of the birth of the planets in the Nakshatras Ashádhá, &c." Rig-veda, Vol. IV., Preface, p. lxxxvii.

Mr. Hind's calculations, here referred to, if construed, as by Professor Whitney, with a discerning eye, will be seen, far from supporting Mr. Bentley's explanation of the planetary names, to explode it past all rehabilitating. See Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. VIII., pp. 84-93. See Goldstücker's Sanskrit Dictionary, under

*

+ This name is read, in several of my MSS., Sankhapȧ.

+

+

.

On the age of the Vedas, as derivable from astronomical data, see Archdeacon Pratt, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1862, pp. 49, 50; Professor Max Müller, Rig-veda, Vol. IV., Preface, pp. xiv-xxix; and, particularly, for a masterly treatment of the subject, a paper by Professor Whitney, some extracts from which will be found at the end of the present chapter.

§ Or Miscellaneous Essays, Vol. I, pp. 200-202; with which compare idem, pp. 107-110,

sons of Kardama ), and Hiranyaroman, and Ketumat. 1 Unaffected by the contrasts of existence, void of self

1 The Váyu* has the same names, but ascribes a different descent to the first, making Sudháman † the son of Viraja : Sankha

*

लोकपालाः स्थितास्तत्र लोकालोकस्य मध्यतः ।
चत्वारस्ते महात्मानस्तिष्ठन्त्या भूतसंप्लवात् ॥

सुधामा चैव वैराजः कार्दमः शङ्खपास्तथा ।
हिरण्यलोमा पार्जन्यः केतुमान्रजतञ्च यः ॥

Sankhapȧ and Hiranyaloman are, thus, the readings which I find; and yet the passages from the Váyu-purana quoted in notes + and $ to p. 263, infra, have Sankhapád and Hiranyaroman.

+ विरजस्यात्मजो विद्वान्सुधामा नाम विश्रुतः ।

सुधामा स्तुतो वैराजः प्राच्यां दिशि समाश्रितः ।
लोकपालः सुधर्मात्मा गौरीपुत्रः प्रतापवान् ॥

Sudháman is here called son of Viraja and Gauri, and Lokapála of the eastern quarter.

Elsewhere, self-consistently, the Vayu-puráña expresses itself as follows, regarding the paternity of Sudháman and Ketumat:

प्रजापतेर्विरजसः पूर्वस्यां दिशि विश्रुतम् ।

पुत्रं नाम्ना सुधामानं राजानं सोऽभ्यषेचयत् ॥
पश्चिमस्यां दिशि तथा रजसः पुत्रमच्युतम् ।
केतुमन्तं महात्मानं राजानं चाभ्यषेचयत् ॥

At p. 86, supra, I have changed Professor Wilson's “Viraja” to Vairája. But the father of the Lokapála Sudhanwan is there spoken of; and none of my MSS. gives any reading but Sudhanwan. Here, then, unless it is to be supposed that Vairája and Sudhanwan are, both of them, textual depravations, we have an irreconcileable discrepancy. In one place, the Lokapála of the east is Sudhanwan, son of Vairája - and Vairája is Sudháman, according to the Vayu-puráńa-; and, in another place, the corresponding Lokapála is Sudhaman, of whose origin the Vishnu-purána gives no information.

The passage of p. 86, just referred to, is thus worded :

पूर्वस्यां दिशि राजानं वैराजस्य प्रजापतेः ।

दिशः पालं सुधन्वानं राजानं सोऽभ्यषेचयत् ॥

On this the larger commentary observes: वैराजस्य ब्रह्मसूनोः पुत्रमिति शेषः । राजानं दीप्तिमन्तम् । सुधन्वानं राजानं क्षत्रियम् । तनयfafa mat atı Vairája is here said to be a son of Brahmá, i. e., a Manu.

ishness, active, and unencumbered by dependants, * they take charge of the spheres, themselves abiding on the four cardinal points of the Lokáloka mountain. On the north of Agastya, and south of the line of the Goat, exterior to the Vaiśwánara path, lies the

pád is the son of Kardama: the other two are the sons of Parjanya§ and Rajas, consistently with the origin ascribed to these Lokapálas in the patriarchal genealogies of that Puráňa.¶ (See Vol. I., p. 153, notes 1 and 2, and p. 155, notes 1 and 3.)

Furthermore, there can be little doubt as to the correctness of the reading Sudhanwan. Some of my MSS. have, in the first line of the stanza, instead of राजानं सुतं वै, the reading of the smaller commentary.

For the grandsons of the patriarch Vairája, among whom were Śatadyumna and Sudyumna, see Vol. I., p. 177.

“Śankhapada", the word in the original edition, I should have changed, at p. 86, supra, into Sankhapad. The Sanskrit is पुत्रं शङ्खपदम् . Nishparigraha is the original expression.

*

+ Ajavithi.

+

+

कर्दमस्य श्रुतिः पत्नी आत्रेय्यजनयत्सुतान् ।

पुत्रं शङ्खपदं चैव कन्यां काम्यां तथैव च ॥

Sankhapad is here said to be son of Kardama and Śruti. He had a sister Kamya. His mother was daughter of Atri.

$ हिरण्यरोमा पार्जन्यो मारीच्यामुदपद्यत ।
आभूतसंम्प्लवस्थायी लोकपालः स वै स्मृतः ॥

Hiranyaroman is here spoken of as having Parjanya and Márichí for his parents.

|| रजसो चाथ जनयन्मार्कण्डेयी यशखिनी ।

प्रतीच्यां दिशि राजानं केतुमन्तं प्रजापतिम् ॥

Here Ketumat is described as son of Rajas and Márkańdeyi, and as Prajapati of the occidental region.

The Matsya-purána declares:

लोकपालाः स्मृतास्तत्र लोकालोकस्य मध्यतः ।
चत्वारस्ते महात्मानस्तिष्ठन्त्या भूतसंप्लवम् ॥
सुधामात्रैव वैराजः कर्दमश्च प्रजापतिः ।
हिरण्यरोमा पार्जन्यः केतुमान्रजतश्च यः ॥

So read all my MSS.; and, if they are not corrupt, the second Lokapála is here said to be Kardama.

road of the Pitris.1 There dwell the great Rishis, the

1 Allusion is here made to some divisions of the celestial sphere which are not described in any other part of the text. The fullest, but still, in some respects, a confused and partly inaccurate, account is given in the Matsya Puráña;* but a more satisfactory

.

दक्षिणोत्तरमध्यानि तानि विद्याद्यथाक्रमम् ।
स्थानं जारद्गवं मध्ये तथैरावतमुत्तरम् ॥
वैश्वानरं दक्षिणतो निर्दिष्टमिह तत्त्वतः ।
नागवीथ्युत्तरा वीथी अजवीथी च दक्षिणे ॥
उभे अषाढे मूलं तु अजवीथ्युदयास्त्रयः ।
अभिजित्पूर्वजा स्वातिनागवीथ्युत्तरास्त्रयः ॥
अश्विनी कृत्तिका याम्या नागवीथ्युत्तरा स्मृता ।
रोहिण्याद्री मृगशिरो गजवीथिरिति स्मृता ॥
पुष्याश्लेषापुनर्वस्वो वीथी एरावती स्मृता ।
तिस्रस्तु वीथयो ह्येता उत्तरो मार्ग उच्यते ॥
पूर्वोत्तराथ फाल्गुन्यौ मघा चैवार्षभी भवेत् ।
पूर्वोत्तरे प्रोष्ठपदे गोवीथी रेवती स्मृता ॥
श्रवणश्च धनिष्ठा च वारुणं च जारद्गवो ।
एतास्तु वीथयस्तिस्रो मध्यमो मार्ग उच्यते ॥
हस्तश्चित्रा तथा स्वाती नागवीथिरिति स्मृता ।
विशाखा मैत्रमैन्द्रं च मृगवीथिरिहोच्यते ॥
मूलं पूर्वोत्तराषाढा वीथी वैश्वानरी भवेत् ।
स्मृतास्तिस्रस्तु वीथ्यस्ता मार्गो वै दक्षिणो बुधैः ॥

-

Such is the result of the collation of five MSS.; and they must all be corrupt, — with or without lines 4–6, which two of them omit, -- at least in placing Nágavíthí in the south as well as in the north, to the exclusion of Ajavithi. It can scarcely be doubted that lines 4-6 are an interpolation, inasmuch as, at variance with what follows, they make up Ajavithi, in the south, from the two Ashádhás, with Müla, and give Abhijit, Púrvajá (Aświni?), and Swati as the asterisms of Nágavíthí. Abhijit, whose presence here, as an integral asterism, is noticeable, “in the modern Indian astronomy does not occupy an equal portion of the ecliptic with the other nakshatras, but is carved out of the contiguous divisions.” Colebrooke's Miscellaneous Essays, Vol. II.,p, 341.

On the assumption that Nágavithi, where inserted the second time, is an error for Ajavithi, the further contents of the passage just quoted may be thus represented:

offerers of oblations with fire, reverencing the Vedas,

description occurs in the comment on the Bhagavata, * there cited

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Nágavithi, &c., Árshabhí, &c., and Ajavíthí, &c., are stated to be northern, intermediate, and southern, respectively; constituting groups known as Airavata, Járadgava, and Vaiśwánara.

The Proshthapadás are the Bhadrapadás; Váruńa is Satabhishaj; Maitra, Anurádhá; and Aindra, Jyeshtha.

The word Punarvasú, implied in the ninth line of the Sanskrit extract, deserves passing notice. The special plural inflection there given to the compound of which it forms the last member shows that the word must have been regarded, by the writer of the Purána, as feminine. One may suggest, therefore, that he mistook the Vaidik Punarvasú, a masculine dual, for a feminine singular.

See, further, the second note at the end of the present chapter.

*

Where Sridhara expounds V., XXI., 7: and the same passage, with

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