dental or not is yet to be investigated. That the grahain some other contexts in
medical texts can be properly interpreted as a heavenly body complicates our
problem. In one passage of the Carakasam.hita ̄(3.3.4),grahais mentioned along
withnaks.atra, which means that grahahere is one of the heavenly bodies. It
should be remembered that in this context the Sun and the Moon are separately
enumerated and thus they are excluded from the group ofgrahas.
In three passages of the Sus ́rutasam.hita ̄(1.6.19, 1.32.4, and 6.39.266cd–
267ab) grahasas heavenly bodies are mentioned. Especially deserving attention
is the second passage, because here we find the word grahaalong with hora ̄in
the enumeration of bad omens (nimittas) leading to a patient’s death. The word
hora ̄is a phonetic transcription of the Greek word wrawhich denotes (1) a
spatial unit of half a zodiacal sign or (2) a temporal unit of the 24th part of a
day, or (3) the first astrological place (ascendant). In Sanskrit texts on astrology
this word became one of the basic technical terms.
This brief summary ofgrahasin medical texts would suffice to reveal the com-
plicated nature of Sanskrit texts. One and the same word was used in different
meanings according to the context, and new ideas were sometimes incorporated
into the older text. Even if we limit our topic to the grahasas heavenly bodies,
they are subject to a variety of meanings, as will be shown below.
3.2Grahasas planets
Semantic change The concept of graha (etymologically meaning “one which
seizes”) as a heavenly body experienced at least the following stages of
development.
1 A demon which eclipses the Sun and the Moon was called svarbha ̄nu and,
probably, graha.
2 The demon got the name Ra ̄hu and, somewhat later, the tail of the truncated
Ra ̄hu was called Ketu.
3 Five planets were regarded as grahas.
4 The Sun and the Moon joined the grahas, and a group of seven or nine grahas
was established, though without fixed order.
5 The week-day order of the seven grahasand the concept of the nine grahas
were established.
This process shows an interesting semantic change where the Sun and the
Moon, which were originally considered as “one which is seized” finally turned
to be “seizer” (graha). The chronological order of the stages 2 and 3 is difficult
to decide.
Eclipse demon Since a solar or lunar eclipse is one of the most conspicuous
heavenly phenomena, it is difficult to imagine that it escaped attention of the
calendar, astrology, and astronomy 381