Page 716 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

"
68 SAMAGI\A TILAK - 2 • VEDANG JYOTI~HA
ttikas, and B, in support of his interpretation, quotes the now
well known passage from the Shatapatha Brahmapa ( II, 1. 2.
1-3 ) which states that' The Krittikas never deviate from the east.'
But I fail to see the relevency of the quotation. Whether the K:ri-
ttikas were or were not then regarded as the eastern stars is not
the point at issue. We have, here, to see whether the supposed
reference to the eastern position of the Krittikas in the Vedanga
follows from the natural interpretation of the present verse; and
this question cannot, in my opinion, be answered in the affirmative.
S was, therefore, right in seeking for another explanation; but the
alternative proposed by him is not less objectionable. Taking
the word ~ in Jll~'l<i'iill~, in its technical sense viz., and as
denoting the part of the celestial zodiac in contact with eastern
horizon at particular time, he interprets the Verse so as to
give us a rule for finding the ~. from which the <i'ili may
then be subsequently determined. But one may fairly ask that
if the ascertainment of <i'ili be the real subject of the verse,
why is only a subsidiary and not the main rule given. Besides,
S has to change ~ into ~ and then taking ll understood
before ~ eventually to interpret it to mean ~ = 27. ~!+liTO{_
has again to be understood in the sense of ' the rising of
Shravi•htha .. ' Of course, S has given us a mathematical demon-
stration of the rule which he thus derives from the verse.
But a mathematical proof, howsoever rigorous it may be,
is of little value if the meaning proposed does not naturally
follow from the verse. Mr. Dikshit has not translated the first
half of the verse. But in several places of his book he has thrown
out certain suggestions regarding its meaning, which deserves
to be noticed. He has shown that before the introduction
of Rashis and along with it the twelve Lagnas, the number
of Lagnas was nine, each consisting of three Nak~hatras, ( pp. 97,
99 and 519 ). If so, one may interpret the verse as meaning that
' one should indicate the lagnas by the ( successive ) multiples
of three ( counted ) from Shravi~htha, ' without straining the
meaning of any word therein. But even this meaning is merely
conjectural; and in the absense of any further accurate information
about the number and meaning of lagnas in the pre-Rashi period
of Hindu astronomy, Mr. Dikshit was right in leaving this part
of the verse unexplained. The Vedanga rules were intended for
ordinary priests; and it is not reasonable to assume that they