गुप्त अभिलेख संग्रह (जे. एफ. फ्लीट - गुप्त सम्राटों एवं परवर्ती नरेशों के ऐतिहासिक पाषाण व ताम्रलेख)

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS; APPENDIX III. 161
APPENDIX III.
The Twelve-Year Cycle of Jupiter.
By Shankar Balkrishna Dikshit; Bombay Educational Department.
The names of the saṁvatsaras, or years, of the Twelve-Year Cycle of Jupiter,
are determined in accordance with the following rule in the Bṛihat-Saṁhitâ of Varâhamihira,
adhyâya viii. verse 1, — nakshatrêṇa sah=ôdayam upagachchhati yêna dêvapati-mantrî¹ |
tat-saṁjñaṁ vaktavyaṁ varshaṁ mâsa-kramêṇ=aiva ||, — "with whatever nakshatra
(Jupiter) the counsellor of (Indra) the lord of the gods attains (his) rising, the year is to
be spoken of (as) having the appellation of that (nakshatra), in accordance with the order
of the months."
Here, by the word udaya, 'rising,' we have to understand, not the daily rising of Jupi-
ter, but his heliacal rising. Jupiter becomes invisible for some days before and after
his conjunction with the sun. The sun's daily motion is faster than that of Jupiter. So,
when the sun in his course comes near Jupiter, the latter becomes invisible, on the west
side of the horizon; and he is then said to set. He remains from twenty-five to thirty-one
days in this state of invisibility. And, when he is left behind by the sun, he again becomes
visible, in the east; and then he is said to rise. Generally, in India, when the interval
between the daily settings or risings of the sun and Jupiter amounts to forty-four minutes
¹ The reading that I give, is from an old manuscript in my possession. But the commentator,
Utpala, explains the verse with the reading—nakshatrêṇa sah=ôdayam astaṁ vâ yêna yâti sura-
mantrî,—'with whatever nakshatra (Jupiter) the counsellor of the gods attains (his) rising or setting.'
It is curious that the text, in my manuscript copy, stands as given above. The copyists, however far
they might go wrong in ordinary transcribing, could not, unless intentionally, turn the letters mastaṁ
vâ yêna yâti sura, if they were original at all, into mupagachchhati yêna dêvapati. And Utpala him-
self gives the note—Ṛishiputr-âdibhiḥ udaya-nakshatra-mâsa-samjñâ-kramêṇa varshaṁ jñâtavyam
ity=uktam,—"it is said by Ṛishiputra and others, that the year is to be known according to the
order of the name of the month of the nakshatra of the rising (of Jupiter)." Also, all the other author-
ities, which I find giving the rule of naming the years of the cycle according to the risings of Jupiter,
make each year take its name from only the rising of the planet; not from its setting.—[The reading
in the text above, is the one adopted by Kern, in his edition of the Bṛihat-Saṁhitâ, p. 47. His
translation (Jour. R. As. Soc. N. S. Vol. V. p. 45) is—"each year (during which Jupiter completes a
twelfth part of his revolution) has to bear the name of the lunar mansion in which he rises; the years
follow each other in the same order as the lunar months." Both in his Various Readings, p. 6, and
in the note to his translation, he notices the reading sah=ôdayam astaṁ vâ yêna yâti sura-mantrî.
But he points out that "the comparison of the MSS leaves little doubt that this reading is a correc-
tion, suggested by the remark of Utpala, that, in case the planet should set in one and rise in another
nakshatra, only that name must be taken which agrees with the order of the month.—J. F. F.]