Art. IV.—The Bṛhat-Saṇhitâ or, Complete System of Natural Astrology of Varâha-mihira.

H. Kern

doi:10.1017/S0035869X00016142

Art. IV.—The Bṛhat-Saṇhitâ or, Complete System of Natural Astrology of Varâha-mihira.

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011

H. Kern

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An aerial city in the north is detrimental to the court priest; one in the east, is so to the sovereign; one in the south, to the commander of the troops; one in the west, to the prince royal. A white one is pernicious to Brahmans, a crimson one to Kshatriyas, a yellow one to Vaiçyas, and a dusky one to Çûdras.

Type: Original Communications
Information: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , January 1873 , pp. 36 - 91

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00016142 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1807

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^{page 37 note 1} In the compound dasyubhayâtankanŗpahantrî a word like da kara is omitted by the poet.

^{page 37 note 2} This chapter is wanting in the MSS. of the commentary, and betrays a style different from our author's.

^{page 39 note 1} i.e., Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus.

^{page 39 note 2} The parallel passage in Bâdarâyana has:

^{page 39 note 3} Bâdarâyaņa:

^{page 39 note 4} Bâdarâyaņa:

^{page 40 note 1} Bâdarâyaņa:

^{page 40 note 2} Not , as the printed text has it, but is the true reading; cf. ch. xli. 12. The same word occurs in a passage from some Smŗti quoted by Nîlakaņţha in Mahâbhârata, xiii. 23, 21 (Bombay ed.):

^{page 41 note 1} The meaning is doubtful; the Comm. only says that Kalâya is a sasyam; at any rate it must be something different from kulattha.

^{page 41 note 2} About nishpâva the Comm. remarks:

^{page 41 note 3} e.g. from the pearl oyster.

^{page 41 note 4} i.e. the third, sixth, tenth and eleventh.

^{page 42 note 1} instead of ; cf. ch. xl. 13.

^{page 44 note 1} The general import of the myth appears to be, that the Sun, the source of light (Vishņu) bestows on heaven (Indra) his own ketu (i.e. ensign and first gleam of day), before which the spirits of darkness must needs vanish. The festival described in this chapter, like many other feasts at certain seasons, may be called a natural myth rendered plastic, dramatized. The eight-wheeled chariot is the day divided into eight yâmas.

^{page 44 note 2} The same myth is told in Mahâbhârata i. 63, 15, seqq. (Bombay ed.).

^{page 45 note 1} 1 cf. ch. 99, 6.

^{page 45 note 2} The r. dhava of the printed text is as doubtful as its rendering; the Comm. has vadha, certainly the word from which bâdhaka, explained as râjavŗksha and girimâla (see Böhtl. and Roth, Diet. i. v. bâdhaka), is derived.

^{page 47 note 1} Yogayâtrâ, ch. viii.

^{page 48 note 1} The first ornament seems to signify the first streak of red at dawn; the girdle belonging to Brahma, in his quality as Prajâpati and saṃvatsara, and to Çiva, in his quality as Time, is a symbol of the circle of Time.

^{page 48 note 2} The gift of Indra is, apparently, a symbol of the day divided into eight watches; Yama's is a symbol of rest, and at the same time something lustrous, because Yama is the lord of the dead and the genius of evening twilight.

^{page 48 note 3} Skanda, the “marching” god, and therefore called the Wargod, is the personification of the year in its course; hence his token is a ring, a circle.

^{page 49 note 1} A symbol of the cluster of asterisms, of course. The colour vaiḍûrya is, according to Utpala, “deep yellow,” nîlapîtakânti.

^{page 49 note 2} The Comm. gives no satisfactory explanation of the terms udvanç and nivança; he only says, udvançanâmâbharaṋarm and nivanç;am nâma.

^{page 49 note 3} That the king himself has to recite the prayers is not only stated by the Comm., but is also manifest from st. 56.

^{page 50 note 1} The v. r. has hala, “plough.”

^{page 50 note 2} The compound açubharahitaçabdam here denotes “without inauspicious sounds,” and not, as it grammatically does, “with sounds free from evil omens.” Grammar has been sacrificed to the exigencies of prosody; cf. ch. xix. 17 (trans.). The correct form of the compound would be açubhaçabdarahitam.

^{page 52 note 1} Utpala adds:

^{page 53 note 1} Comra. explains amṛtâ with guḍûcî.

^{page 53 note 2} Uncertain; Comm. says, anjanaṃ srotânjanaṃ prasiddham, çobhânjanaṃ vâ.

^{page 53 note 3} Utpala explains agnimanthâ with tarkârî, and çvetâ with girikarṇikâ.

^{page 53 note 4} Probably the same with pûrṇakoshṭhâ, a kind of Cyperus grass.

^{page 53 note 5} Synonymous with mahâçvtâ, according; to Utpala.

^{page 53 note 6} Comm. says only: yâvakaṃ yavaprakâraḥ.

^{page 55 note 1} In this instance gopîta is not well to be explained, but as another spelling for gopitta. The words pitta and pîta are certainly originally identical.

^{page 56 note 2} The Comm. has aṭṭa, “a turret, bastion,” instead of adri.

^{page 59 note 1} The Comm. has a remark touching the proper meaning of âyudha, in reference to the word praharaṇa occurring in stanza 19. He says: Nagnajit is the reputed author of a work on the art of painting; cf. ch. Iviii. 4.

^{page 60 note 1} Reading and translation are equally uncertain. The Comm. has and gives an explanation that is not wholly satisfactory: II Probably the is the same with the six Kûshmâṇḍas; cf. ch. xlviii. 71, footnote.

^{page 62 note 1} The r. variṇâṃ is certainly wrong; it should be changed into vârṇo.

^{page 64 note 1} Ṛgveda 7, 92. Instead of tne author may have written as the rules of Sandhi are not always observed before iti. Yet would be preferable.

^{page 64 note 2} Ṛgveda 10, 165.

^{page 64 note 3} Vâlakhilya 6, 4.

^{page 64 note 4} Utpala considers manovedaçirânsi to be a Dvandva: But such a mantra would needs require some defining word. Manoveda must be a Tatpurusha, and as manaḥ = manu, is “a spell,” and in so far synonymous with brahman, and as the Atharvaveda is also called brahmaveda, we may conclude that manoveda is one of the designations of that Veda.

^{page 65 note 1} Comm.

^{page 65 note 2} All MSS. have nâyaka, which the Comm. explains to be gḥhasvâmî. As the passage, so interpreted, is unintelligible, I suppose that the word nâyaka is to be taken in the acceptation of vinâyaka, although I am unable to adduce any other example of the word being thus used.

^{page 67 note 1} Properly, “motley as a peacock's tail.”

^{page 68 note 1} 1 Cf. ch. ix. 1–6.

^{page 69 note 1} Comm.

^{page 69 note 2} This stanza is quoted in Pancatantra i. st. 240. Cf. also ch. vi. 9; ix. 25. Comm.

^{page 69 note 3} Cf. ch. ix. 1.

^{page 70 note 1} Cf. ch. xxx. 25.

^{page 70 note 2} Cf. ch. xxx. 16.

^{page 70 note 3} Cf. ch. xxx. 11.

^{page 70 note 4} Cf. ch. xxviii. 16.

^{page 70 note 5} Cf. ch. xxx. 8.

^{page 71 note 1} The pushyasnânam agrees in its general features with the royal inauguration ceremony as prescribed in Aitareya-Brâahmaṇa viii. and Çatapatha-Br. v.; yet in the particulars there are important discrepancies.

^{page 71 note 2} Utpala takes pushyasânam to signify “the washing at (the conjunction of the Moon with) Pushya.” The period fixed upon for the ceremony is, indeed, the conjunction just named, but that is plainly done upon the principle of nomen omen. The original meaning is that of “auspicious washing,” for it was by no means necessary to perform the rite at Pushya, though it was the more common course. The wrong etymology is countenanced by these lines of Vṛddha-Garga's:

^{page 72 note 1} What kind of bird the vanjula is I cannot tell; a synonymous term is khadiracañcu.

^{page 72 note 2} According to the Comm. the çrika is the same as çrîkarṛa.

^{page 73 note 1} Comm.

^{page 74 note 1} The rendering is doubtful; Comm.:

^{page 75 note 1} The Comm. explains by ; of he only remarks: .

^{page 74 note 2} The original names of the plants have been retained in the translation, in order to show that the choice of those plants is based upon the principle of nomen omen. The place of several among them is not yet determined. The Comm. gives a paraphrase that is not without value:

^{page 76 note 1} St. 42 contains a superfluous repetition of the three preceding; yet the author may have found the stanza in his copy of Garga's work.

^{page 76 note 2} The Comm. adduces as examples: Jayarâja, Sinharâja, Bandhurâja, Vyâghrarâja.

^{page 77 note 1} In so much does the ceremony more resemble an anointment than a washing.

^{page 77 note 2} Amongst them the Pole-star.

^{page 77 note 3} Or Sanandana as noun proper.

^{page 77 note 4} Cf. the Var. rr.

^{page 78 note 1} Comm. About the six Anuvâka verses termed Kûshmâṛḍa, cf. Skr. Diet, of B. and R. i. v.; about Mahârauhiḍa, cf. i. v. rauhiḍa 1. c. What ḍcas are called Kuberahḍdaya and Samḍddhi is unknown to me.

^{page 78 note 2} Atharva-veda 1, 5, 1, sqq., and 1, 33, 1, sqq. It may be remarked that the former mantra has in our editions of the A.V. not three but four verses. An inaccuracy of the author's is that he indicates hiraḍyavarḍa, instead of hiraḍyavarḍâḍ.

^{page 78 note 3} Comm. i.e. commending himself to the protection of his guardian deity.

^{page 79 note 1} Vâjasaneyi-S. 24, 50–52.

^{page 80 note 1} Cf. Kathâsarit-Sâgara, ix. 54, 233:

^{page 81 note 1} In the text we should read as the Comro. has it.

^{page 82 note 1} Cf. the passage from Parâçara as quoted in the foot-note on st. 24.

^{page 83 note 1} The Comm. has anirvâḍi, and explains it by mḍtyu.

^{page 83 note 2} Comm. Cf. st. 6.

^{page 84 note 1} This chapter is probably spurious; see the remarks of the Comm. quoted in the Var. rr.

^{page 84 note 2} The passage in Parâqara which has obviously served as the model, runs thus:

^{page 85 note 1} Comm.

^{page 85 note 2} e.g. vibhîtaka, vetas.

^{page 85 note 3} Comm.

^{page 85 note 4} i.e. to be faced at.

^{page 85 note 4} Parâçara:

^{page 86 note 1} i.e. denoted by words of masculine gender.

^{page 87 note 1} To r. in the text , instead of

^{page 87 note 2} That nimitta must be understood to mean naimittika, appears not only from the Commentary, but also from the corresponding passage of Parâara's: . Remarkable in this passage is vâ after a compound, as if the component parts were separated.

^{page 88 note 1} Comm.

^{page 89 note 1} r. visḍkve, as one MS. of the Comm. has it, instead of vispḍkke.

^{page 90 note 1} The translation is doubtful; the corresponding1 passage in Parâçara has: . It is not clear what is meant, in this passage, with pîḍhamardaka; apparently a cushion.

^{page 90 note 2} It is most strange that in the foregoing stanza the word savya is used in the acceptation of “left,” but here of “right.” The former passage is an imitation of Parâçara's words: ; the latter passage has