18S0.] 



Dr. G. Tliibaut — On iJie Suryr/prrfjmpti. 



187 



half a field or civyardhakshetra, occupying one field and a half. There is 

 no S2:iecial name for the extent of Abhijit. 



In connexion with this division of the nakshatras into different classes 

 according to the space they occupy or tl\e time during which they are in 

 conjunction with the moon, tliere is another one referring to the time of 

 the day or the night at which they enter into conjunction. This classifica- 

 tion is, however, connected with considerable difficulties. It is nowhere 

 clearly stated on the conjunctions of what particular month this 

 division is based ; that such a statement ought to have been given, appears 

 from the consideration that the periodical month during which the moon 



27 



passes through all nakshatras comprises 27 days plus — days, and that there- 

 fore in the second, third, fourth, etc. months the times at which the moon 

 enters into conjunction with the single nakshatras will all differ from the 

 times of the first month. If for instance the moon at the beginning of 

 the first month enters into conjunction with Abhijit in the early morningj 

 she will at the beginning of the second month again enter into conjunction 

 27 , 



with it 9 — muhurtas later, that is, in the cafternoou and so on. Other 

 67 



difficulties will appear from the following detailed reproduction of the 

 Siirj'aprajnapti's account concerning this point. The nakshatras are either 

 " purvabhaga" i. e., such as enter into conjunction with the moon during 

 the forenoon ; or " paschadbhaga" i. e., such as enter into conjunction dur- 

 ing the afternoon or " naktambhaga" i. e., such as enter into conjunction 

 during the night or " ubhayabhaga" which term will be explained further 

 on. The nakshatras of the two first classes are tlie samakshetras, those of 

 the third class the apardhakshetras, those of the fourth class the dvyardhak- 

 shetras. It certainly does not appear why the samakshetras should enter 

 into conjunction with the moon during the day only and the apardhakshe- 

 tras during the night only ; in reality there is no connexion between the 

 extent of a nakshatra and the time when tlie moon enters into it. Let us, 

 however, follow the detailed statements about each single nakshatra. The 

 first aphorism of the Suryaprajuapti appears to be " Abhijit and S'ravana 

 are paschadbhaga samakshetra." To this the coiumentator rightly objects 



27 



that Abhijit is neither samakshetra, since it occupies only 9 — muhiirtas of 



the moon's periodical revolution, nor paschadbhaga, since at the beginning 

 of the yuga the moon enters into conjunction with it in the early morning. 

 At the same time he tries to obviate these objections by remarking that 

 Abliijit is called samakshetra and paschildbhaga, because it is always con- 

 nected with S'ravana to which botli these attributes rightly belong, or that 

 it may be called paschadbhaga witli a view to conjunctions other than the 



