the Milky Way (lit. 'the shadow-path') · — · the galactic band
Purāṇas · c. 3rd-5th c. CE
दिविच्छायापथो यस्तु अनुनक्षत्रमण्डलम् । दृश्यते भास्वरो रात्रौ देवी त्रिपथगा तु सा ।। ४७.२८ ।।
The shadow-path in the sky that runs along the circle of the nakṣatras, seen shining at night — she is the goddess Tripathagā. — Literal rendering by the compiler; no public-domain published translation of this verse was located
The clearest, least ambiguous Milky Way attestation in the whole Purāṇic corpus, and the term the Vāyu/Brahmāṇḍa/Matsya group actually uses: 'the shadow-path in the sky that runs ALONG THE CIRCLE OF THE NAKṢATRAS, seen shining at night — that is the goddess Tripathagā.' Three independent witnesses. The description (a luminous band following the asterism-circle, visible at night) admits no other referent.
Vāyu Purāṇa 47.28; Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa 1,18.29; Matsya Purāṇa 121.29 ·
text ·
translationClassical kāvya · c. 4th-5th century CE
वैदेहि पश्य्ऽ आमलयाद्विभक्तं मत्सेतुना फेनिलं अम्बुराशिं । छायापथेनेव शरत्प्रसन्नं आकाशं आविष्कृतचारुतारं । । १३.२ । ।
Devanagari from Sanskrit Wikisource, agreeing word-for-word with GRETIL. The odd 'पश्य्ऽ आ' is the e-text's way of writing paśya ā(malayāt).
Literal rendering: 'Vaidehi, look at the foaming ocean, parted by my causeway all the way from Malaya, like the autumn-clear sky with its lovely stars laid open by the chayapatha (the shadow-path, the Milky Way).' — Literal rendering by the compiler
The Milky Way sense is fixed by the simile itself: the foaming ocean divided by Rama's causeway is likened to the autumn-clear sky WITH ITS LOVELY STARS REVEALED (āviṣkṛta-cāru-tāram), divided by the chayapatha. A band that visibly bisects a star-filled sky can only be the Milky Way. The database already has chayapatha from the Puranas; this is the classic literary attestation, and the one the Sanskrit lexicographers most often cite.