Page 45 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

32 SAMAGRA TILAK - 2 • THE ORION

assign the beginning of the Nak!Jhatras to any random point in
the ecliptic. There thus remain two possible explanations viz.,
that the Kr,ittiUs coincided either with the winter solstice, or with
the vernal equinox. Now, considering the fact that the vernal
equinox is placed in the last quarter of Bharal)t in the Vedanga
Jyoti~ha it is more natural to presume that the vernal equinox
coincided with the Kri~tikAs at the time when the Taittirtya Sa~hita
was compiled. But we need not depend upon probabilities like
these, when there are other passages in the Taittinya Sa~hita and
Bnihmapa which serve to clearly define the position of the Krittikas
in those days.
In the Taittirtya Brahma11a ( i. 5. 2. 7 ) it is stated that " the
Nakh~tras are the houses of gods .. .the Nak~hatras of the Devas •
begin with the Krittikas and end with VisMkba, whereas the
Nak~hatras of Yama begin with the Anuradhas and end with the
Apa-Bbarap.ts. "* Prof. Max Muller appears to think that the
latter uoup is called the Nak~hatras of Yama because Yama
presides over the last of them.t But the explanation appears to
to be quite unsatisfactory; for on the same principle the first group
should have been called the Nak~hatras of lndragni, the presiding
deities of Visbakhi, the last in that group. I am therefore, disposed
to think that the principle of the division in this case is the same
as that followed in the case of the Devayana and the Pitriyana
discussed before. We have the express authority of the Sbatapatha
Brahmafia stating that the sun was to be considered as moving
amongst and protecting the Devas, )Vhen be turned to the north,
in the three seasons of spring, summer and rains. In other words
the hemisphere to the north of the equator was supposed to be
consecrated to the Devas and the southern one to the Pit~is. Now,
the sun moved amongst the Devas when he was in the northern
hemisJ;!here. The Devas, therefore, must tave their abode in that
hemisphere---ami as the NaktJhatras are said to be the houses of
the Devas, all the Nak..!)hatras in the northern hemisphere, from
the vernal to the autumnal equinox, would naturally be called the

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~: lfll'~ I ~ I ffi"1ir <i+f"'~'>tl~l I <irr;r ~~rfVI ~nfir ~
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t Pref. to \tig. Vol. JV, p. x:o:.