2300 bc. This is one of the reasons that some people claim the high antiquity
and originality of Indian astronomy. There is also an attempt at deciphering
some of the Indus scripts as the names ofnaks.atra. Such attempts are not utterly
impossible, but we must remember the difference between the naks.atraas a well-
defined coordinate system and the naks.atra as a star or a group of stars in
general.
According to the jyotis.aveda ̄n.gathe sun’s northern course (uttara ̄yan.a) begins
at its entry into the first point of the naks.atraDhanis.t.ha ̄, which, therefore, was
regarded as the winter solstice. Since the jyotis.aveda ̄n.gaused the equally spaced
27 naks.atrasystem, it turns out that the vernal equinox was assumed to be at
Bharan.ı ̄ 10°, which is 23°20¢distant from the first point of As ́vinı ̄ which, in the
later period, was equated with the first point (mes.a ̄di, i.e. “the beginning of
Aries”) of the ecliptic longitude. If this difference were accepted as the amount
of the precession, and if we could admit that the accurate observation was made
in the jyotis.aveda ̄n.gaperiod, the text might be dated about 1,600 years before
the time when Indian naks.atra coordinate system was fixed. This would put
the date of the jyotis.aveda ̄n.gain about 1300 bc. But here I should remind the
reader of what I already said about Kr.ttika ̄. What we can say about the date is
only relative.
Thenaks.atra system played a very important role in some aspects of Indian
culture, i.e., calendar making, astrology and ritual.
2.2Naks.atrain calendar and astrology
The lunar month was named after the naks.atrawhere the full moon is located.
Thus, for instance, Caitra is the month during which the full moon is stationed
in Citra ̄. The relation of the naks.atrasand the month names is shown in table
18.1. This naming system must have been one of the reasons that the sidereal
(nirayan.a) position of the Sun and the Moon was more important than their
tropical (sa ̄yana) position. In this way the relation of month names to seasons
could not but be sacrificed by the effect of the precession of equinoxes.
Thenaks.atrasplayed the central role in the earlier period of Indian astrology,
namely, the period before the introduction of horoscopic astrology from the west.
Predictions were made according to the naks.atraswhere the moon is located. To
eachnaks.atraa deity from the Indian pantheon was assigned, for example, Agni
to Kr.ttika ̄ and Praja ̄pati to Rohin. ̄, etc. (see table 18.1). Thus ı naks.atraworship
became an important part of Indian rituals. Since little attention was paid to the
position of planets nor to the solar position, I would call this type of astrology
“lunar astrology” in contrast to horoscopic astrology where the planetary posi-
tion against the background of the zodiacal signs is more important. Among
the texts preserving this old lunar astrology are the S ́a ̄rdu ̄ lakarn.a ̄vada ̄naand
theSu ̄ ryapannattiwhich we have mentioned above, and the Paris ́is.t.aof the
Atharvaveda.
calendar, astrology, and astronomy 379