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Aldebaran
Aldebaran · α Tauri · Taurus
names 12languages 11 Aldebaran α TauHIP 21421mag 0.87
In the classical tradition this is रोहिणी Rohiṇī, attested in 13 texts.
The names
vernacular 1 · tribal 8 · borrowed 3
| Name | Language | Meaning | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| ರೋಹಿಣಿ Rōhiṇi | Kannada Karnataka (epigraphic: Mysuru, Maṇḍya, Tumakūru, Chāmarājanagara districts) | Attested in dated Kannada stone inscriptions across six and a half centuries — the earliest of 1032 CE (Moon with Aldebaran, Nanjangūḍu), the last of 1679 CE — recording the Moon, Saturn or an occultation at the star as the timing detail of a grant. Epigraphy, not lexicography: the star's name as village record-keepers actually wrote it, with a date astronomy can verify. | borrowed |
| Bhori | Kolami Kolam villages of Yavatmal and Chandrapur districts, Vidarbha, Maharashtra, and adjoining Adilabad, Telangana | 'a bird' Seen with two eggs beside it. Five of ten villages. | tribal |
| Pati | Korku Melghat, Amravati district, Maharashtra, and adjoining Betul and Khandwa districts, Madhya Pradesh | 'the husband' Head of the family group the Korku see around Aldebaran. | tribal |
| രോഹിണി rōhiṇi | Malayalam Kerala (Malabar, Cochin, Travancore) | 'the red one' Aṣṭamirōhiṇi, the eighth lunar day falling in Rohiṇi in the month Ciṅṅam, is Kṛṣṇa's birthday and a fast day in Kerala. | borrowed |
| Lodo pazo adongpa | Mara (Lakher) the Lakher country, southern Lushai Hills (now southern Mizoram) and the Chin Hills | About ten stars representing men catching rats in a lodo — the small fenced rubbish dump beside every Lakher jhum house. | tribal |
| Rohini | Marathi Bombay Presidency (Deccan and Konkan) | thunder in Rohiṇī portends a Boterun — seventy-two days without rain; lightning from a clear sky in the same asterism causes Rohini-tap, 'the burning heat of Rohiṇī' | borrowed |
| Khiangte Zâwng-zîm | Mizo (Lushai) the Lushai Hills, Assam (now Mizoram) | Khiangte is the name of a Lushai clan, given at the immediately preceding headword. | tribal |
| jarom ipilkiŋ | Mundari Chota Nagpur plateau, Ranchi district, Jharkhand | the two egg stars The two eggs left in the dove's nest. Hoffmann remarks that there are never more than two eggs in a dove's nest, which is why the dual is right. | tribal |
| putam ipil | Mundari Chota Nagpur plateau, Ranchi district, Jharkhand | the dove star The dove flushed off her nest by the ploughman's mallet, which alighted a little way off to wait until the enemy had gone. | tribal |
| kukkur-ən-a-arreʼ-tuj-ən | Sora the Sora country of the Ganjam and Koraput hills, Odisha and northern Andhra | — | tribal |
| బండిరిక్క baṇḍi-rikka | Telugu Telugu country (Madras Presidency: Coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema, Telangana) | the cart star Named from the V of the Hyades, seen as a bullock cart. | vernacular |
| Takaru Kalitpicho | Teressa Teressa island, Nicobars | The second element is the general word for 'star'. | tribal |
Sources
- Epigraphia Carnatica III (Mysore), Nanjangūḍu nos. 164 & 165 (23 Oct 1032 CE), and six further records to 1679 CE, as compiled and verified in B. S. Shylaja & Geetha Kydala Ganesha, 'Conjunction of planets – historical records of India', Current Science 120(8) (2021), 1399–1400, Table 1 link
- M.N. Vahia, Ganesh Halkare, Kishore Menon and Harini Calamur, 'The astronomy of two Indian tribes: the Banjaras and the Kolams', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 17(1), 65-84 (2014), Table 2, p. 71 link
- M.N. Vahia, Ganesh Halkare and Purushottam Dahedar, 'Astronomy of the Korku tribe of India', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 19(2), 216-232 (2016), Table 2, p. 221 link
- Gundert, A Malayalam and English Dictionary (1872), s.v. രോഹം rōham, p. 889 (sub-entry രോഹിണി) link
- N.E. Parry, The Lakhers (London: Macmillan, 1932), p. 496–497 link
- R. E. Enthoven, The Folklore of Bombay (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924), p. 78 link
- J. Herbert Lorrain, Dictionary of the Lushai Language, Bibliotheca Indica Work No. 261 (Calcutta: The Asiatic Society, 1940), s.v. Khiangte Zâwng-zîm, p. 263 link
- Hoffmann, Encyclopaedia Mundarica, vol. VII, s.v. ipil, cols. 1919-1925 link
- G.V. Ramamurti, Sora-English Dictionary (Delhi: Manager of Publications, 1938), s.v. kuk'kur-ən-a-'arreʼ-'tuj-ən, p. 146 link
- Brown, C. P., A Telugu-English Dictionary, new ed., thoroughly revised and brought up to date (Madras: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1903), s.v. బండి banḍi, p. 864 link
- M.N. Vahia, Ganesh Halkare, S.A. Awaradi and Kishore Menon, 'In situ studies of astronomy of the Nicobarese tribe of Nicobar Islands', Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology, 6, 1014-1039 (2018), Table 3, pp. 1026-1027 link