Nakshatra

File:Nakshatras.jpg

In the Atharvaveda (Shaunakiya recension, hymn 19.7) a list of 27 stars or asterisms is given, many of them corresponding to the later nakshatras:

{{cite book

|translator=Griffith, R.T.H. |translator-link=Ralph T. H. Griffith

|year=1895

|title=Hymns of the Atharva Veda

}}

:Original text via

{{cite web

|title=Gretil

|publisher=University of Goettingen

|url=http://fiindolo.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil.htm#Veda

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120202232942/http://fiindolo.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil.htm

|archive-date=2012-02-02

}}

:from

{{cite book

|editor-first=Chatia |editor-last=Orlandi

|year=1991

|title=Gli inni dell Atharvaveda (Saunaka)

|type=trasliteration

|place=Pisa, IT

}}

:collated with the edition of

{{cite book

|editor1=Roth, R.

|editor2=Whitney, W.D.

|year=1856

|title=Atharva Veda Sanhita

|place=Berlin, DE

}}

{{efn|

From Griffith (1895) Hymns of the Atharva Veda:

1   citrā́ṇi sākáṃ diví rocanā́ni sarīsr̥pā́ṇi bhúvane javā́ni

:: turmíśaṃ sumatím ichámāno áhāni gīrbhíḥ saparyāmi nā́kam

2   suhávam agne kŕ̥ttikā róhiṇī cā́stu bhadráṃ mr̥gáśiraḥ śám ārdrā́

:: púnarvasū sūnŕ̥tā cā́ru púṣyo bhānúr āśleṣā́ áyanaṃ maghā́ me

3   púṇyaṃ pū́rvā phálgunyau cā́tra hástaś citrā́ śivā́ svātí sukhó me astu

:: rā́dhe viśā́khe suhávānurādhā́ jyéṣṭhā sunákṣatram áriṣṭa mū́lam

4   ánnaṃ pū́rvā rāsatāṃ me aṣādhā́ ū́rjaṃ devy úttarā ā́ vahantu

:: abhijín me rāsatāṃ púṇyam evá śrávaṇaḥ śráviṣṭhāḥ kurvatāṃ supuṣṭím

5   ā́ me mahác chatábhiṣag várīya ā́ me dvayā́ próṣṭhapadā suśárma

:: ā́ revátī cāśvayújau bhágaṃ ma ā́ me rayíṃ bháraṇya ā́ vahantu

}}{{columns-list|colwidth=18em|

1. Ashwini
2. Bharani
3. Kṛttikā (the Pleiades)
4. Rohinī (Aldebaran)
5. Mrigashīrsha
6. Ārdrā (Betelgeuse)
7. Punarvasu (Castor and Pollux)
8. Pushya
9. Asleshā
10. Maghā (Regulus)
11. Purva Phalguni
12. Uttara Phalguni (Denebola)
13. Hasta
14. Chitrā (Spica)
15. Svāti (Arcturus)
16. Vishākhā
17. Anurādhā
18. Jyeshthā
19. Mūla
20. Purva Ashadha
21. Uttara Ashadha
22. Shravana
23. Dhanishta
24. Satabhishak (Sadachbia)
25. Purva Bhadrapada
26. Uttara Bhadrapada
27. Revati

}}

This 27-day cycle has been taken to mean a particular group of stars. This has to do with the periodicity with which the Moon travels past the specific star fields called nakshatras. Hence, the stars are more like numbers on a clock, through which the hands of time (the moon) pass. This concept is described by J. Mercay (2012) in connection with Surya Siddhanta.

{{cite book

|author=Mercay, Jessie

|year=2012

|title=Fundamentals of Mamuni Mayans Vaastu Shastras: Building architecture of Sthapatya Veda and traditional Indian architecture

|publisher=AUM Science and Technology publishers

}}

File:Nakshatras.jpg

{{See also|List of Nakshatras}}

{{See also|Astronomical basis of the Hindu calendar#nakshatra}}

In Hindu astronomy, there was an older tradition of 28 Nakshatras which were used as celestial markers in the heavens. When these were mapped into equal divisions of the ecliptic, a division of 27 portions was adopted since that resulted in a clearer definition of each portion (i.e. segment) subtending 13° 20′ (as opposed to 12° {{frac|51|3|7}}′ in the case of 28 segments). In the process, the Nakshatra Abhijit was left out without a portion.

{{cite book

|first=Ebenezer |last=Burgess

|year=1858

|title=Translation of the Surya Siddhantha, a Textbook of Hindu Astronomy

|publisher=The American Oriental Society

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jpE7AAAAcAAJ

}}

{{rp|p=179}} However, the Abhijit nakshatra becomes important while deciding on the timing of an auspicious event. The Surya Siddhantha concisely specifies the coordinates of the twenty-seven Nakshatras.{{rp|p=211}}

It is noted above that with the older tradition of 28 Nakshatras each equal segment would subtend 12.85 degrees or 12° 51′. But the 28 Nakshatra were chosen at a time when the Vedic month was recognised as having exactly 30 days. In India and China the original 28 lunar mansions were not equal. Weixing Nui provides a list of the extent of the original 28 Nakshatras expressed in Muhurtas (with one Muhurta = 48 minutes of arc). Hindu texts note there were 16 Nakshatras of 30 Muhurtas, 6 of 45 Muhurtas, 5 of 15 Muhurtas and one of 6 Muhurtas.

The 28 mansions of the 360° lunar zodiac total 831 Muhurtas or 27.7 days. This is sometimes described as an inaccurate estimate of our modern sidereal period of 27.3 days, but using the ancient Indian calendar with Vedic months of 30 days and a daily movement of the Moon of 13 degrees, this early designation of a sidereal month of 831 Muhurtas or 27.7 days is very precise.{{efn|

The exact figure should be nearer 27.692308 days but 27.7 is near enough.

}}

{{cite book

|first1=Nui |last1=Weixing

|first2=Jiang |last2=Xiaoyuan

|title=Astronomy in the Sutras translated into Chinese

}}

{{full citation needed|date=January 2019}}

Later some Indian savants dropped the Nakshatra named Abhijit to reduce the number of divisions to 27, but the Chinese retained all of their original 28 lunar mansions. These were grouped into four equal quarters which would have been fundamentally disrupted if it had been decided to reduce the number of divisions to 27.

Irrespective of the reason why ancient early Indian astronomers followed a Vedic calendar of exactly 12 months of 30 days it was this calendar and not a modern calendar of 365 days that they used for the astronomical calculations for the number of days taken for the Moon to complete one sidereal cycle of 360°. This is why initially they named 28 Nakshatras on their lunar zodiac.

{{cite journal

|author=Jones, H.

|date=September 2018

|title=The Origin of the 28 Naksatras in Early Indian Astronomy and Astrology

|journal=Indian Journal of History of Science

|volume=53 |issue=3 |pages=317–324

|doi=10.16943/ijhs/2018/v53i3/49463 |doi-access=free

|bibcode=2018InJHS..53..317J

}}

The following list of nakshatras gives the corresponding regions of sky, per Basham (1954).

{{cite book

|first=Arthur Llewellyn |last=Basham

|year=1954

|title=The Wonder that was India

|section=Appendix II: Astronomy

|publisher=Rupa

|place=Calcutta, IN

|page=[https://archive.org/details/dli.bengal.10689.12501/page/n514 490]

|url=https://archive.org/details/dli.bengal.10689.12501

}}

{{Contains special characters|Indic}}

{{unreferenced section|date=June 2018}}

Each of the 27 Nakshatras cover 13° 20’ of the ecliptic each. Each Nakshatra is also divided into quarters or padas of 3° 20’, and the below table lists the appropriate starting sound to name the child. The 27 nakshatras, each with 4 padas, give 108, which is the number of beads in a japa mala, representing all the elements (ansh) of Vishnu:

• Astronomical basis of the Hindu calendar
• List of Natchathara temples
• Navagraha
• Panchangam

Nakshatra is one of the five elements of a Pañcāṅga. The other four elements:

• Tithi
• Nityayoga
• Karana
• Vāra

{{reflist|group=note}}

{{notelist}}

{{reflist|25em}}

• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rss4M6Z6koo&list=PLYNax2xNHwV2r5_Ca4JeJM2zFhvwTHRry&index=2 Ahargana - The Astronomy of the Hindu Calendar: Nakshatra] Explains Nakshatras by means of astronomical simulations created using Stellarium.

{{Jyotish Vidya|Dhanishta = Dhanishtha}}

{{Indian astronomy}}

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Category:Celestial goddesses