1893.] A. F. R. Hoernle — The Weber Manuscripts, 15 
Of these twenty- eight nakshatras, oh Pushkarasarin, how many 
nakshatras occupy a period of 45 muhurtas ? Six ; they are these : — 
Rohinl, Punarvasu, Uttara Phalguni, Yisakha, Uttarasliadha, Uttara 
Bliadrapada. Five nakshatras take up 15 muhurtas, namely Ardra, 
Aslesha, Svati, Jyeshtha, S'atabhisha. One, Abhijit, occupies eight 
muhurtas. The remainder are nakshatras occupying 30 muhurtas. Of 
the nakshatras, situated in the East, Kritika is the first and Aslesha, 
the, last (counting from East to West). Of the nakshatras, situated in 
the South, Maglia is the first, and Yisakha, the last. Of the nakshatras, 
situated in the West, Anuradha is the first, and S'ravana, the last. Of 
the nakshatras, situated in the North, Dhanishtha is the first, and 
Bharani, the last. 
This work is clearly an astronomical treatise of a very ancient 
type. The most ancient astronomy of the Hindus was based on the 
lunar zodiac, comprising 27 (or afterwards 28) asterisms, the so-called 
nakshatras, the series of which commenced with Krittika or the Pleiades, 
and ended with Asvini and Bharani. This system obtained among 
them till the introduction of Greek astronomy into India, about the 
middle of the 2nd century A. D. (the time of Ptolemy). About that 
time the order of the nakshatra series, which was now no more in 
accordance with reality, was rectified, and the two last nakshatras were 
placed first, so that the series now commenced with Asvini (i. e., 
(3 and y in Aries). This new order is that found in all Indian astro- 
nomical works, subsequent to the Vedic period. 
Further : the older series, beginning with Krittika, consisted origi- 
nally only of 27 nakshatras. It was, apparently, only in the later 
stage of the Yedic period of the Brahmanas and Sutras, that a 28th 
nakshatra was added ; this was Abhijit, which was inserted as No. 20 in 
the original list. The first mention of Abhijit occurs in the Taittiriya 
Brahmana, and it formed already a part of the nakshatra series in the 
time of the grammarian Panini. 6 The latter’s date is probably at the 
end of the 3rd century B. 0. The earliest mention of the 28 naksha- 
tras in China (introduced by the Buddhists) is in the middle of 3rd 
century B. C. 7 
Accordingly we have roughly, as the termini a quo and ad quern 
for the composition of our treatise, the third century B. C. and the 
second century A. D. This is about the period of the last stage of the 
Yedic literature, viz., that of the Sutras. To this period, belong the two 
small astronomical treatises, the Nakshatra-kalpa and the Santi-kalpa, 
6 See Weber, Die Vedischen Nachrichten von den Naxatra, part II, pp. 279, 
307, 325. 
I See ibidem, part I, pp. 298, 300. 
