Lagadha: the Vedanga Jyotisha · Chapter 1 of 2

#The calendar of the sacrifice

#The oldest astronomical text

The Vedanga Jyotisha is the oldest surviving text of Indian astronomy. It is attributed to Lagadha. It belongs to the six Vedangas, the "limbs of the Veda" — phonetics, ritual, grammar, etymology, metre and astronomy — the auxiliary sciences needed to perform the Vedic rituals correctly. Astronomy's task among them was to fix the right time for the sacrifices.

#Two versions

The text survives in two recensions:

• one attached to the Rigveda, of 36 verses, ascribed to Lagadha, or to Shuchi following Lagadha;
• one attached to the Yajurveda, of 43 or 45 verses.

They share most of their content. English editions include R. Shama Shastry's (Mysore, 1936) and B. G. Tilak's study Vedic Chronology and Vedanga Jyotisha (1925).

#Praise of jyotisha

A famous verse of the text says that as the crest stands on the head of the peacock and the jewel on the head of the serpent, so jyotisha stands at the head of the sciences of the Vedangas. Astronomy, for Lagadha, is the crown of the auxiliary sciences, because without it the rites cannot be timed.

#The five-year cycle

The heart of the Vedanga Jyotisha is a five-year cycle (yuga) in which the Sun and Moon return to the same relative positions. In it, as summarised by the historian David Pingree:

So a year is 366 days, and two extra lunar months are added in five years to keep the lunar months in step with the seasons. The rules of the text tell the priest how to find, for any day in the cycle, the tithi and the nakshatra of the Moon, and the times of the new and full moons and the solstices.

The cycle is simple and not very accurate — a year of 366 days is about three-quarters of a day too long — but it served its purpose: a ritual calendar that could be computed by rule.

#The nakshatras from Krittika

The Vedanga Jyotisha divides the Moon's path into the 27 nakshatras, beginning — as all the Vedic lists do — with Krittika (the Pleiades), each one a twenty-seventh of the circle (13°20′ in later terms). Their presiding deities are the Vedic gods, the same that Varahamihira lists a thousand years later.

#What it does not contain

The Vedanga Jyotisha has:

• no planets as objects of calculation or meaning;
• no twelve signs of the zodiac;
• no horoscopes;
• no weekdays named after the planets.

All of these came later, with the arrival of Greek horoscopy in the early centuries CE. The Vedanga Jyotisha is pure calendar astronomy in the service of ritual.

#Summary

• The Vedanga Jyotisha, attributed to Lagadha, is the oldest Indian astronomical text; Rigveda (36 verses) and Yajurveda (43/45) versions.
• It praises jyotisha as the crest of the Vedangas.
• Its five-year cycle has 1,830 days, 62 lunar months and 1,860 tithis.
• It uses 27 nakshatras from Krittika; it has no planets, signs, horoscopes or weekdays.

#Exercises

1. What was the purpose of the Vedanga Jyotisha?
2. How many days and lunar months are in its five-year cycle?
3. Name four things it does not contain.

Answers: 1. To fix the right times for the Vedic sacrifices. 2. 1,830 days and 62 lunar months. 3. Planets, the twelve signs, horoscopes and planetary weekdays.