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9.6.1.2.2
The Yajurveda Calendar |
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The Yajurveda is a kind of practical prayer book used by certain sacrificial priests. It dates from no later than 600 B.C. |
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The Yajurveda gives the names of the 12 months and the names of the "lunar mansions" and their presiding deities. It discusses the ayanas, the two courses of the Sun, northerly from winter solstice to summer solstice and southerly back again. |
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9.6.1.2.2.1
The Nakshatra |
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A peculiar feature of Indian calendars in general is the nakshatra. The Indians developed at an early time the notion of charting the course of the Moon by noting the stars it passed on successive nights. These stars (or star clusters) were called nakshatras. Originally, 28 of them were recognized, but this number was later reduced to 27. |
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The Chinese also recognize a lunar zodiac of 28 Hsiu, as do the Arabs, who call these lunar mansions the Manzil. |
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The nakshatras were used to name the days in early Indian literature. If the moon was expected in the Magha nakshatra (the star alpha Leonis), for example, then that day was Magha day. This method is known from the Rig Veda. |
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The nakshatras do not lie at even distances from one another, however. Some are not even close to the plane of the Moon's orbit. Time reckoning by the nakshatra system is therefore difficult. In Vedanga Jyotisha times, an attempt was made to regularize the system by defining the limits of a nakshatra as 800 minutes of arc (13 degrees and 20 minutes of the ecliptic) and naming each nakshatra by the most prominent star (the Yogatara) within it. There is no scheme, however, that allows this system to work for all nakshatra. |
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Historically, the nakshatras start with Krttikas, the Pleiades. The great epic, the Mahabharata (ca. 400 B.C.) makes this placement, for example. Later, about A.D. 500, the Asvini (alpha or beta Arietis) was used as the junction star when precession brought the first point of Aries near that area. The custom of Asvinyadi was begun, which locks the nakshatras to a starting point in Asvini. Orthodox Indian calendar makers do not admit the continued precession of the equinoces, and this custom has created problems: Precession has moved their system some 23 days from its starting point. Asvinyadi, in effect, agrees to make the change caused by precession once, but never again. |
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In ancient times, Indians reckoned time by the paksha, or fortnight period of 15 days. A closing full moon day of a paksha was distinguished by the nakshatra where the full moon occurred. Thus, Phalguni Paurnamsi is the full moon that occurs near Uttara Phalguni (beta Leonis). |
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