Re: [INDOLOGY] Brahmā in early Vedic materials?

[Bill Mak]

Dear Jean,

Thank you for the Thibaut reference. It seems indeed easier to explain the differences using an accretive model. Especially since a sidereal month is 27.3 days, 27 may be a nice rounded number, and Abhijit was added later to account for the remainder. Furthermore, in the unequal nakṣatra system Abhijit was always made very small both in terms of measurement of arcs on the ecliptic and the duration traversed by the Moon. I am however cautious and I try to imagine in my head a pūrvapakṣa trying to explain how 28 could have become 27 instead!

Using VJ as a historical point of reference is not so easy. As Pingree and others have pointed out (Pingree, jyotiḥśāstra, 1981), there are evidences that there are layers of astronomical materials from different periods, and for other philological reasons he dated VJ to 400 B.C. Astronomically speaking, one finds in VJ the 27 nakṣatras beginning with Kṛttikā as in the Vedic saṃhitās. But then they were used not as constellations, but equal divisions of 13;20 deg on the ecliptic. More clues of this adaptation may be gleaned from Somākara’s Bhāṣya. Yano ("The Nakṣatra system of the Atharvaveda-Pariśiṣṭa", 2009) pointed out that the initial point of ecliptic coordinate in VJ was placed not at Kṛttikā or as later at Aśvnī, but rather in between at Bharaṇī 10 deg. So there is a handful of information to be disentangled.

Best regards,

Bill
  
-- 
Bill M. Mak

Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University
Yoshidahonmachi, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501
Japan
〒606-8501 京都市左京区吉田本町
京都大学人文科学研究所

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copies of my publications may be found at:
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> On Jun 24, 2019, at 1:56 AM, jmdelire via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
> 
> Dear Bill,
> 
> You must be right when saying that "the 28-nakṣatra system may also likely postdate the 27 one". Actually, the Vedāṅga-jyotiṣa (VJ), which has only 27 n., uses the beginning of n.Śravişţhā and the middle of n.Āśleşā as winter and summer solstices respectively, which places the astronomical data of the VJ around 1150 BC. The Gargasaṃhitā and the Paitāmahasiddhānta, summarized by Varāhamihira, are similar, but the jain works Jyotiṣakaraņḍa and Sūryaprajñapti replace n.Śravişţā by n.Śravaņa and add n.Abhijit (Vega) to the zodiac. On the other hand, the Sūryaprajñapti puts the winter solstice at the beginning of n.Abhijit, which makes a difference of 17,3° with the beginning of n. Śravişţhā (VJ), that is 1246 years after VJ (see G.Thibaut, « On the Sūryaprajñapti », JASB (1880), p.117).
> 
> Best,
> 
> Jean Michel Delire,
> Lecturer on Science and Civilization of India - Sanskrit Texts at the IHEB (University of Brussels)
> 
> 
> 
> Le 22.06.2019 11:05, Christophe Vielle via INDOLOGY a écrit :
>> Dear Bill, Maybe there is something in J. Gonda's work
>> Prajāpati's relations with Brahman, Bṛhaspati and Brahmā,
>> Amsterdam: North Holland Publishing Company, 1989 (Verhandelingen der
>> Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, Afd. Letterkunde)
>> http://www.dwc.knaw.nl/DL/publications/PU00010269.pdf [3]
>> Best wishes
>> Christophe
>>> Le 22 juin 2019 à 00:36, Bill Mak via INDOLOGY
>>> <indology at list.indology.info> a écrit :
>>> Dear colleagues,
>>> I wonder if anyone could point me to any recent research on the
>>> history of Brahmā as a deity in early Vedic (pre-Buddhist) sources.
>>> I am aware of Bailey’s The mythology of Brahmā, where he
>>> described his origin as the apotheosization of the brahmā priest in
>>> the śrauta sacrifice. I am also aware of Thieme’s very thorough
>>> study on the _Bráhman _in his _Kleine Schriften_ (Teil I), where
>>> the the original senses and etymology as in RV are discussed. I am
>>> however still somewhat puzzled about the presence of Brahmā as a
>>> deity in the early Vedic saṃhitās.
>>> This puzzle came about when I was going through the list of _
>>> nakṣatras_ in all the Vedic sources, which give either 27 or 28.
>>> The difference between 27 and 28 lies in the _nakṣatra_ _Abhijit_,
>>> which is always associated with Brahmā. If Brahmā has a late
>>> origin, it is likely then an interpolation, and the 28-nakṣatra
>>> system may also likely postdate the 27 one. But before I proceed on
>>> this line of analysis, I would appreciate it if anyone could
>>> enlighten me on Brahmā as an deity in the early Vedic sources,
>>> along with the most updated references on studies on the early Vedic
>>> deities.
>>> Best regards,
>>> Bill Mak
>>> -- Bill M. Mak
>>> Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University
>>> Yoshidahonmachi, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto
>>> Japan
>>> [from Oct 2019]
>>> Needham Research Institute,
>>> 8 Sylvester Road,
>>> Cambridge, U.K.
>>> copies of my publications may be found at:
>>> http://www.billmak.com [1]
>>> http://kyoto-u.academia.edu/BillMak [2]
>>> _______________________________________________
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>> –––––––––––––––––––
>> Christophe Vielle [4]
>> Louvain-la-Neuve
>> Links:
>> ------
>> [1] http://www.billmak.com/
>> [2] http://kyoto-u.academia.edu/BillMak
>> [3] http://www.dwc.knaw.nl/DL/publications/PU00010269.pdf
>> [4] https://uclouvain.be/en/directories/christophe.vielle
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