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Figures with no secure modern identification
unidentified — the source names the figure but not its stars · — · —
names 48languages 22
The names
vernacular 4 · folk 2 · tribal 42
| Name | Language | Meaning | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| Catlo (the larger stars); Katan (the smaller) | Andamanese North Andaman (Aka-Cari, Aka-Jeru) | a finely marked beetle; the common fire-fly The sun is the wife of the moon and the stars are their children; the big children are named for a beetle and the little ones for the firefly. | tribal |
| Longja pehnu (C); Longcha peli (M) | Ao Naga the Ao country, Naga Hills (now Nagaland) | Seen close beside the lunar disc, and said to be the soul of a mythical hero called Chungpichanglangba, who according to the Aos became a star after his death. | tribal |
| Barhai | Chhattisgarhi the Baiga chak and the surrounding country — Mandla, Baihar, Kawardha, Dindori and Rewa, in what was then the Central Provinces | 'the carpenter' | tribal |
| Chirai; Barewa Tura | Chhattisgarhi the Baiga chak and the surrounding country — Mandla, Baihar, Kawardha, Dindori and Rewa, in what was then the Central Provinces | 'the bird'; 'the boy who roasted it for supper' | tribal |
| Dhanu; Ban | Chhattisgarhi the Baiga chak and the surrounding country — Mandla, Baihar, Kawardha, Dindori and Rewa, in what was then the Central Provinces | 'the bow'; 'the arrow' | tribal |
| Dhimar; Jhal; Machhri | Chhattisgarhi the Baiga chak and the surrounding country — Mandla, Baihar, Kawardha, Dindori and Rewa, in what was then the Central Provinces | 'the fisherman'; 'the net'; 'the fish' The Dhimar throws the Jhal to catch the Machhri. | tribal |
| Nangar | Chhattisgarhi the Baiga chak and the surrounding country — Mandla, Baihar, Kawardha, Dindori and Rewa, in what was then the Central Provinces | 'the plough' In the fuller story: Guru Mahadeo was ploughing when a phadki laughed at him and he threw her into the sky. The Nangar is Mahadeo's plough. | tribal |
| Tengra | Chhattisgarhi the Baiga chak and the surrounding country — Mandla, Baihar, Kawardha, Dindori and Rewa, in what was then the Central Provinces | 'the hoe' The hoe with which Mahadeo cleared his field. | tribal |
| phadki | Chhattisgarhi the Baiga chak and the surrounding country — Mandla, Baihar, Kawardha, Dindori and Rewa, in what was then the Central Provinces | a bird Once when Guru Mahadeo was ploughing, a phadki laughed at him and he threw her into the sky. There she is — and two eggs; but she is not sitting on them, for fear of Mahadeo. | tribal |
| the Tank (Elwin gives the English) | Chhattisgarhi the Baiga chak and the surrounding country — Mandla, Baihar, Kawardha, Dindori and Rewa, in what was then the Central Provinces | The star the Queen ran to drown herself in. | tribal |
| Askido·me | Garo the Garo Hills, Assam (now Meghalaya) | The cocks' feathers placed with the other offerings at the head of the corpse during the lying-in-state. | tribal |
| Do·sutat | Garo the Garo Hills, Assam (now Meghalaya) | 'fighting cocks' Two cocks tied to the feet of Susime's mother during the lying-in-state, which Susime ordered to fight as bulls are made to fight at funerals. | tribal |
| Ja·tokani | Garo the Garo Hills, Assam (now Meghalaya) | 'the walking-stick' The walking-stick of Susime's mother, which wept bitterly at her death; in recognition of its affection Susime promised it should always remain in the sky near her. | tribal |
| Mengo-ripe | Garo the Garo Hills, Assam (now Meghalaya) | 'the carrying of the cat' Children who, seeing their elders carry a pig slung on a pole to the sacrifice, caught a cat and carried it the same way; Susime was pleased and ordered a constellation to commemorate them. | tribal |
| Mirontek | Garo the Garo Hills, Assam (now Meghalaya) | The basket of rice from which the mourners at the funeral were fed. | tribal |
| Irukna Mara, Irukmara | Gondi Nagpur region: Chandrapur, Yavatmal, Gondia (Maharashtra), Adilabad (Telangana), Balaghat, Seoni, Mandla (Madhya Pradesh) | the mahua tree Its appearance at 3 a.m. marks the season for collecting mahua flowers (Madhuca longifolia). | tribal |
| Khala | Gondi Nagpur region: Chandrapur, Yavatmal, Gondia (Maharashtra), Adilabad (Telangana), Balaghat, Seoni, Mandla (Madhya Pradesh) | the grain-crushing circle The animal-powered threshing floor, where a bullock walks a circle round a centre post — a bright star at the centre with fainter ones around it. | tribal |
| Koropadera | Gondi Nagpur region: Chandrapur, Yavatmal, Gondia (Maharashtra), Adilabad (Telangana), Balaghat, Seoni, Mandla (Madhya Pradesh) | a tool used to make buttermilk A good omen. Recorded at Matharjun and listed in Table 6 as an item of its own, in one of fifteen villages. | tribal |
| (the stars as kine, the moon their shepherd) | Hindi Upper India (North-Western Provinces and Oudh) | Not a name but a cosmology, transmitted by women to children, and the closest thing in this material to a systematic non-Sanskritic picture of the night sky. | folk |
| 'lur-mangkara; mangkara | Khasi Khasi and Jaintia hills, Meghalaya | — | tribal |
| Gulika (also Mrityu Gulika) | Kodava Kodagu (Coorg) | Every Coorg house owed it an annual sacrifice — fowls, coconuts and a little brandy at a stone laid at the foot of a tree with milky juice. A second Gulika, Mṛtyu Gulika 'the Gulika of death', was worshipped where deaths in a family were frequent. | folk |
| Ture / Turre; Dukkar | Kolami Kolam villages of Yavatmal and Chandrapur districts, Vidarbha, Maharashtra, and adjoining Adilabad, Telangana | 'a pig' The sixth animal, appearing only in some villages and read in opposite senses: a bad monsoon at Landgi Pod, a good one at Chinchpod and moderate rain at Kakban. At Raipur a further animal, Tumali, is named in the same list and left unglossed. | tribal |
| Veka Potur | Kolami Kolam villages of Yavatmal and Chandrapur districts, Vidarbha, Maharashtra, and adjoining Adilabad, Telangana | 'the son of the morning' At Bhimnala the informants named the morning star Pele suka and then said that the star for waking up is a different one, Veka Potur. | tribal |
| mugrā (sense 2) | Kurukh Chota Nagpur plateau (Oraon country), Jharkhand | a mallet | tribal |
| Vani tara | Lambadi (Banjara) Banjara tandas of Vidarbha, Maharashtra (villages in the Nagpur–Amravati–Yavatmal region) | Named at Phulumari as one of three directional stars: Dhruv for north, Porya for east, and Vani tara overhead. | tribal |
| Latlang, Labeu | Mara (Lakher) the Lakher country, southern Lushai Hills (now southern Mizoram) and the Chin Hills | A man and his wife who loved each other so much that when she died he followed her to the land of the dead by deliberately desecrating the place of sacrifice, and the two of them then agreed to become stars. | tribal |
| Sahruatong | Mara (Lakher) the Lakher country, southern Lushai Hills (now southern Mizoram) and the Chin Hills | Three stars representing a threshing-floor that was being made when the great darkness fell. | tribal |
| ꯁꯖꯤꯛ sajik | Meitei (Manipuri) Manipur | — | tribal |
| Hrângkhupa sedâr parh, Hrângkhupa sedâr pharh | Mizo (Lushai) the Lushai Hills, Assam (now Mizoram) | — | tribal |
| Hrângkhupa sedâr tlawrh | Mizo (Lushai) the Lushai Hills, Assam (now Mizoram) | — | tribal |
| Si-archang | Mizo (Lushai) the Lushai Hills, Assam (now Mizoram) | archang is a cock's tail-feather | tribal |
| Si-chak-ai, Si-aia | Mizo (Lushai) the Lushai Hills, Assam (now Mizoram) | — | tribal |
| Si-kâwl-hrui | Mizo (Lushai) the Lushai Hills, Assam (now Mizoram) | — | tribal |
| Si-kâwl-hrût | Mizo (Lushai) the Lushai Hills, Assam (now Mizoram) | — | tribal |
| Si-raw-kuai | Mizo (Lushai) the Lushai Hills, Assam (now Mizoram) | — | tribal |
| Si-vawk-bâwm | Mizo (Lushai) the Lushai Hills, Assam (now Mizoram) | — | tribal |
| Sikeisen zîmtu | Mizo (Lushai) the Lushai Hills, Assam (now Mizoram) | — | tribal |
| Vawkte Hlâng-zâwn | Mizo (Lushai) the Lushai Hills, Assam (now Mizoram) | — | tribal |
| हाँसुले पाँड़ुले hã̄sule pã̄ṛule | Nepali Nepal, and the Nepali-speaking Darjeeling and Sikkim hills | At the adjective hã̄sule, 'having a ring or collar — e.g. of an animal with a ring of white fur round its throat'. | vernacular |
| स्वय् नगु svay nagu | Newar (Nepal Bhasa) the Kathmandu valley | Manandhar glosses it 'a particular constellation of stars' and no more. | vernacular |
| Holagi, Hilagoi | Pardhi fourteen Pardhi villages of the Amravati and Yeotmal districts, Vidarbha, Maharashtra, surveyed 2016-2018 | the Ring Dove, Streptopelia decaocto decaocto The paper places it only as somewhere in the Pleiades-Taurus-Auriga region. | tribal |
| Kaemaiya | Santali Santal Parganas, Jharkhand / adjoining Bengal and Odisha | — | tribal |
| Sin boṅga reak hopon ko (the sun-god's children) | Santali Santal Parganas, Jharkhand / adjoining Bengal and Odisha | Cosmological frame rather than a star name: the sun-god is male, his wife is the moon, and the stars are their children. | tribal |
| ثَوابِتَ sawābita | Sindhi Sind (Bombay Presidency); Mewaram's dictionary is not dialect-marked | — | vernacular |
| තරු·වැළ taru·væḷa | Sinhala Sri Lanka | 'string of stars' | vernacular |
| Chukkamusti | Telugu Vizagapatam Agency hills (Konda Dora) | star-… The office, not the object: among the hill Konda Doras the Chukkamusti fixes the day and the hour of a wedding. | tribal |
| Sukka | Telugu Telugu country (Uppu Yerukala / Korava) | star One of the intiperu (house/sept names) given by Uppu Yerukalas; the list also contains Bandi 'cart' and Thoka 'tail'. | tribal |
| Keirt | Toda Nilgiri hills, Tamil Nadu | Feared above all after childbirth; its evil influence is keirtpudrtviti, and the whole seclusion-hut procedure is designed to avert it. Said to be always near the sun, and never in the same part of the sky as the Pleiades. | tribal |
Sources
- Radcliffe-Brown, The Andaman Islanders (1922), ch. IV, p. 141 link
- J.P. Mills, The Ao Nagas (London: Macmillan, 1926), p. 302 link
- Verrier Elwin, The Baiga (London: John Murray, 1939), p. 335 link
- Verrier Elwin, The Baiga (London: John Murray, 1939), p. 334 link
- Major A. Playfair, The Garos (London: David Nutt, 1909), p. 86 link
- Vahia & Halkare, 'Aspects of Gond Astronomy', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage 16(1), 29-44 (2013); preprint arXiv:1306.2416 link
- Vahia & Halkare, 'Aspects of Gond Astronomy', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage 16(1), 29-44 (2013); preprint arXiv:1306.2416, Matharjun village account, p. 35, and Table 6, p. 40 link
- W. Crooke, 'Kine as Stars', North Indian Notes and Queries, vol. IV (1894-95), note 279 link
- Nissor Singh, Khasi-English Dictionary (1906), s.v. 'lur-mangkara, p. 120; s.v. Mangkara, p. 127 link
- Rice, Mysore and Coorg: A Gazetteer, vol. III (Bangalore, 1878), 'Gulika', p. 263; also Richter, Gazetteer of Coorg (1870), pp. 165–167 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 row 12, p. 71, and Appendix 1.2.6 (Landgi Pod), p. 82 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), Appendix 1.2.8 (Bhimnala), p. 83 link
- Grignard, An Oraon-English Dictionary (1924), s.v. mugrā, sense 2 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), Appendix 1.1.2 (Phulumari), p. 78 link
- N.E. Parry, The Lakhers (London: Macmillan, 1932), p. 496 link
- N.E. Parry, The Lakhers (London: Macmillan, 1932), p. 497 link
- H. Surmangol Sharma, Learners' Manipuri-English Dictionary (Imphal, 2006), s.v. sajik, p. 189 link
- J. Herbert Lorrain, Dictionary of the Lushai Language, Bibliotheca Indica Work No. 261 (Calcutta: The Asiatic Society, 1940), s.v. Hrângkhupa sedâr parh, p. 179 link
- J. Herbert Lorrain, Dictionary of the Lushai Language, Bibliotheca Indica Work No. 261 (Calcutta: The Asiatic Society, 1940), s.v. Hrângkhupa sedâr tlawrh, p. 179 link
- J. Herbert Lorrain, Dictionary of the Lushai Language, Bibliotheca Indica Work No. 261 (Calcutta: The Asiatic Society, 1940), s.v. Si-archang, p. 417 link
- J. Herbert Lorrain, Dictionary of the Lushai Language, Bibliotheca Indica Work No. 261 (Calcutta: The Asiatic Society, 1940), s.v. Si-chak-ai, p. 417 link
- J. Herbert Lorrain, Dictionary of the Lushai Language, Bibliotheca Indica Work No. 261 (Calcutta: The Asiatic Society, 1940), s.v. Si-kâwl-hrui, p. 417 link
- J. Herbert Lorrain, Dictionary of the Lushai Language, Bibliotheca Indica Work No. 261 (Calcutta: The Asiatic Society, 1940), s.v. Si-kâwl-hrût, p. 417 link
- J. Herbert Lorrain, Dictionary of the Lushai Language, Bibliotheca Indica Work No. 261 (Calcutta: The Asiatic Society, 1940), s.v. Si-raw-kuai, p. 419 link
- J. Herbert Lorrain, Dictionary of the Lushai Language, Bibliotheca Indica Work No. 261 (Calcutta: The Asiatic Society, 1940), s.v. Si-vawk-bâwm, p. 419 link
- J. Herbert Lorrain, Dictionary of the Lushai Language, Bibliotheca Indica Work No. 261 (Calcutta: The Asiatic Society, 1940), s.v. Sikeisen zîmtu, p. 417 link
- J. Herbert Lorrain, Dictionary of the Lushai Language, Bibliotheca Indica Work No. 261 (Calcutta: The Asiatic Society, 1940), s.v. Vawkte Hlâng-zâwn, p. 547 link
- R. L. Turner, A Comparative and Etymological Dictionary of the Nepali Language (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1931), s.v. हाँसुले पाँड़ुले, p. 634 link
- Thakur Lal Manandhar, Newari-English Dictionary: Modern Language of Kathmandu Valley (Delhi: Agam Kala Prakashan, 1986), s.v. स्वय् नगु, p. 271 link
- Ganesh Halkare, Purushottam Dahedar, Wayne Orchiston and M.N. Vahia, 'Astronomy of the Pardhi tribe of central India', Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 22(1), 179-194 (2019), Table 5, pp. 184-185 link
- Campbell, A Santali-English Dictionary (1899), s.v. Kaemaiya, p. 289 link
- Bodding, A Santal Dictionary, vol. V (1936), s.v. Sin boṅga, p. 283 link
- Parmanand Mewaram, A Sindhi-English Dictionary (Hyderabad, Sind: The Sind Juvenile Co-operative Society, 1910), s.v. ثَوابِتَ, p. 122 link
- Carter, A Sinhalese-English Dictionary (Colombo, 1924), s.v. තරු·වැළ taru·væḷa, p. 253 link
- Thurston, E. (assisted by K. Rangachari), Castes and Tribes of Southern India (Madras: Government Press, 1909), vol. III, article 'Konda Dora', p. 352 link
- Thurston, E. (assisted by K. Rangachari), Castes and Tribes of Southern India (Madras: Government Press, 1909), vol. III, article 'Korava (Yerukala)', p. 452 link
- Rivers, The Todas (1906), pp. 593-594 (and ch. XIV, pp. 269, 326) link