काव्यमीमांसा (महाकवि राजशेखर - कवि-रहस्य एवं देश-विभाग सटीक)

250 EXPLANATORY NOTES
Page. 95.
ll. 1–2. In this verse the figure विरोधाभास is shown by the
words अपूर्व etc.
*[ l. 5. एकं ज्योतिर्दृशो ( सूर्यशतक. 13 )
l. 10. MSS of विवेक read दशदिकूटपर्यन्त. ]
l. 11. स्थूललक्ष्य=one who cannot observe minutely.
*[ l. 14. Viveka reads द्विधा च दिव्यव्यवहारः ]
ll. 12–14. विवक्षापरतन्त्रा=depending on the desire of the speaker.
When an astronomer explains the position of directions, he takes
recourse to the position of heavenly bodies such as Citrā, Svātī,
Dhruva, etc. The direction east is decided by seeing the inter-
mediate distance between the two stars चित्रा and स्वाती.
Here the word चित्रास्वात्यन्तर denotes also the day on which the
sun’s position is between these two stars. That day is known as
विषुवान् when the day and night are equal. There are two such days
in a year and they are known as चैत्र or शारदसम्पात and रैवत or वसन्तसम्पात.
Only on these two days the sun’s position is exactly to the east
of the earth at the time of rising, and exact west at the time of
setting. In all the other days of the year the sun rises either to
the north or to the south in the eastern horizon and the day or
night is either longer or shorter according as it is either the
Summer Solstice or the Winter Solstice. People in ancient days
used to determine the correctness of the eastern direction by the
rise of the sun on the विषुवत् day when the sun rises between the चित्रा
and स्वाती constellations, or in other words, when he is in the last
degrees of the sign of Virgo. Kātyāyana and his commentator
Karkācārya, for instance, have adopted this method of चित्रास्वात्यन्तर
to determine the correctness of the eastern direction for the
Vedic rites.
cf: समे शङ्कं निखाय शङ्कुसम्मितया रज्वा मण्डलं परिलिख्य यत्र लेखयोः शङ्कप्रच्छाया
निपतति तत्र शङ्कं निहन्ति । सा प्राची । ( कात्यायनशुल्बसूत्र २.)
दक्षिणायने तु चित्रां यावदादित्य उपसर्पति । उदगयने स्वातीमिति । विषुवतीये त्वहनि