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@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:
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[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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