416 
G. Thibaut— Contributions'to the ' 
[No. 4, 
wTOifiTf^T ^ ^ ^rfWtw ii i ii 
I now shall point out some of Somakara’s manifestly mistaken ex¬ 
planations alluded to above (the full text of S. will be found in Prof. 
Weber’s edition). Y. 21 be explains as stating the length of a tithi; but 
then a tithi would consist of fifty-six nadikas only, which duration is 
much too short (it is of course well known that a tithi in consequence of 
hrasa actually may have that duration ; but the knowledge of tithi-vriddhi 
and tithi-hrasa with the reasons on which they depend, is foreign to the 
Jyotisha). Y. 13. According to Somakara’s explanation the words of this 
verse would imply that the length of the holy time at purnamasi which may 
be employed for sacrifices amounts to 138 nadikas in case of the parvan 
taking jfiace in a chaturansa nakshatra i. e., a nakshatra consisting of four 
parts. But according to all authorities, and their number is a very great 
one, that part of the parvan-time which is fit for the offering of the sacri¬ 
fice, includes only the fifteenth tithi of a paksha and three quarters of the 
immediately following pratipad, altogether seven quarters of a tithi, while 
138 nadikas exceed even two savana days by eighteen nadikas. Y. 14 
would, according to Somakara, imply that the last quarter of the fifteenth 
tithi of a paksha may be used for upavasa, i. e ., the initiatory rites preced¬ 
ing the performance of the sacrifice ; but all teachers are unanimous in 
assigning to upavasa only the three first quarters of panchadasi (noticed 
already by Prof. Weber, p. 54). Of v. 20 Somakara gives two wholly 
different explanations, both equally unsatisfactory and one stultifying the 
other ; the same observation is to be made regarding his interpretation of 
v. 25. And so throughout the whole commentary. Certainly S. has been 
unable to throw any light on the most obscure point in the Jyotisha, a point 
which I regret to say has remained obscure to me also, viz. the true mean¬ 
ing and purport of the ansas or parts which are said to belong to the 
nakshatras and according to the participation in which each individual 
nakshatra is either dvyansa or tryansa or chaturansa. S. understands these 
parts as meant to fix the length of that period at each parvan which admits 
of being occupied by the parvan-sacrifice and its preparations, but as we have 
seen above, the results to which this assumption leads him flatly contradict 
whatever is known about that point from other sources of undisputable 
authority. I for my part doubt if the ansas are in any way connected with 
the time taken up by the new and full moon oblations, all the more as not 
a. single word in the whole text of the Jyotisha directly points to such a 
conclusion (the only exception occurs in one of the verses, marked above v. 
6—which are found in the Rik-recension only; there we read the word 
