astronomy

[N. Ganesan]

What may be new to this old discussion is the data from the
Tamil side." TB 1,2,1,2 emphatically affirms, "The Pleiades,
forsooth, are the beginning of the calendrical asterisms"
[...] The nakshatra calender seems to have been compiled around
the time when Pleiades rose heliacally at the vernal equinox.
The time when the Pleiades was exactly in the equinoctial point
was c. 2240 BC, and it was the asterism closest to the equinoctial
point c. 2720-1760 BC. " (p. 204, Parpola, 1994).

Just like TB and othrs, the buddhist epic Manimekalai and shaivaite
saint Sambandhar in his Tevaram also talk about the Pleiades
being the first asterism. This Karttikai nakshatram is mentioned
several times much more than any other in CT and this being
the first nakshatram continues well into the 7th century.

Regards,
N. Ganesan


<<<
There will be a paper on these topics, with sky maps, by
Prof. N. Achar in EJVS (address below)  just before Christmas.
Until then, I hold my fire.

NB the discussion is more than a hundred years old, and scholars then
pointed out that the 'moon house' system is found with the ancient
Arabs (manzil) and Chinese (sieu, old 19th c. spelling)  as well.

MW.
>>>
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