Page 73 - Lokmanya Tilak Samagra (khand 2)

SAMAGRA ~- 2 • THE ORION
by him, - and especially in obtaining the initial long vowd as
Bbattoji and others have felt by taking it to be a Bahuvrihi
compound, he would have naturally noticed it himself. I there-
fore conclude that Pit)ini derived .igraM.y~i from AgrahaytllJLl,
as the name of a Nakthatra. In this case we can derive i'grahay~i
in a simple and easy manner-. For by Pa"Qini iv. 2. 3, .we get the
initial long vowel, when derivative words are formed from the
names of the Nakthatras to express time; we now want the feminine
suffix i, and though this. could have been obtained by "Pan. iv. 1.
15, yet for accentual purposes, it may be considered as provided
for by the inclusion of 1he word AgraM.ym;aa* in the Gauradi list
in Pan. iv. 1. 41. We can thus derive the word in the ordinary way,
and unless we have strong grounds to maintain that it was really
the full-moon night and not the Nakthatra, which commenced the
year, we shall not be justified in accepting unusual derivations and
1\
explanations of these words. It is true that the word Agrahdym;aa
as denoting a Nakthatra is now lost and Amarasinha only gives
Agralul.~i and not Agrahaym;aa as a synonym for the Nak,hatra
of Mrigashtras. But I shall presently show that Amarsinha is
not alone in misconceiving the meaning of these old words. The
theory that the Margashirtht full-moon was the first night of the
year, has been the source of many other errors in later literature;
but before examining these it was necessary to show how the
theory has distorted the natural meaning and derivation of the
very words oo .. which it appears to have been based. As remarked
above if there be any express or cogent authority to support the
theory we might connive at the etymological difficulties, but if it
be found that the theory is inconsistent with many other facts
or leads, as I shall presently show, to absurd results, the etymolo-
gical distortions would afford us an additional ground for reject-·
ing it.
We shall now examine in detail the theory that the full-moon
night in Margshtrtba was once the first night of the year. So far
as I am aware there is no e:~tpress authority for such a hypothesis
except the statement in ~e Bbagvad-Giti ( x. 35) where Krith"QS

• Doubts have been raised as to the exact fornt of the word men-
tioaed in the Gauddi list, aod Bhbu Dlxita goea •o f~r as to queation
whether the word was really included in the list by Plq.ini.