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मृगवीथी Mṛgavīthī

the Deer-road · — · Libra/Scorpius (Jyeṣṭhā, Viśākhā, Maitra = Anurādhā)

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Attestations

Purāṇas · c. 3rd-5th c. CE

ज्येष्ठा विशाखा मैत्रञ्च मृगवीथी तथोच्यते।। १२४.५८ ।।

Jyeṣṭhā, Viśākhā and Maitra — that is called Mṛgavīthī. — Literal rendering by the compiler

Second vīthī of the southern (Vaiśvānara) mārga, Matsya 124.59. maitra = the asterism of Mitra, i.e. Anurādhā.

Matsya Purāṇa 124.59 · text · translation

Utpala's commentary · Utpala 966 CE; the authorities he quotes (Garga, Parāśara, Kāśyapa, Devala) are all pre-Varāhamihira, surviving only in citation

जारद्गव्यामिति। श्रवणात्प्रभृति त्रिभं नक्षत्रत्रयं श्रवणा धनिष्ठा शतभिषगिति जारद्गव्याम्। मृगाख्या त्रिभं तु मैत्राद्यम्। मैत्रमनुराधा तदाद्यं त्रिभं नक्षत्रत्रितयम्। अनुराधा ज्येष्ठा मूलमिति मृगाख्या। तुशब्दः पादपूरणे। हस्तो विशाखा त्वष्ट चित्रा। एतानि नक्षत्राण्यजा अजवीथी। अषाढाद्वयं पूर्वाषाढोत्तराषाढा चेति दहनवीथी। … [काश्यपः] मूलाद्या मृगवीथिका। … [पराशरः] मृगवीथी त्वाष्ट्रहस्तम्।

Transcribed from the Devanagari OCR of the printed edition at shloka_source_url (Achyuta Nand Jha ed., vol. 1) and checked word-for-word against two further independent scans of two different printed editions of the same commentary — Krishna Chandra Dvivedi's (https://archive.org/download/brihatsamhitawithbhattotpalavivrittipartidr.krishnachandradvivedi/Brihat%20Samhita%20%20with%20Bhattotpala%20Vivritti%20Part%20I%20-%20Dr.%20Krishna%20Chandra%20Dvivedi_djvu.txt) and A.V. Tripathi's (https://archive.org/download/JiUm_brihat-samhita-part-1-of-varaha-mihira-by-avadh-bihari-tripathi-saraswati-bhavan-granthamala/Brihat%20Samhita%20Part%201%20of%20Varaha%20Mihira%20by%20Avadh%20Bihari%20Tripathi%20-%20Saraswati%20Bhavan%20Granthamala_djvu.txt). Only glyph-level OCR artifacts that all three scans show to be artifacts (e.g. OCR रद्वव for रद्गव, श्व for श्च) have been normalised; every substantive reading is as scanned, and the two places where the scans genuinely differ are flagged in identification_notes.

See db_id 'tvashtra' for the rendering of the gloss. Kāśyapa: 'the Mṛga-vīthikā begins with Mūla.' Parāśara: 'the Mṛga-vīthī is Tvāṣṭra (Citrā) and Hasta.' — Literal rendering by the compiler

FIVE INDEPENDENT SCHEMES, four of them pre-Varāhamihira, are set side by side by Utpala in ch. 9 — this is the single densest surviving witness to the vīthī system, and the database's vīthī entries hitherto rest on the Purāṇas alone. (a) DEVALA and others: nine triads straight from Aśvinī, Nāgā to Dahanā. (b) KĀŚYAPA: the same triads, given asterism by asterism. (c) VARĀHAMIHIRA'S OWN (BS 9.2–3), which starts the Nāgā with Svātī instead of Aśvinī and gives the Go-vīthī four asterisms and the Dahanā two. (d) PARĀŚARA, differing again (Airāvatī four, Vṛṣabhā two, Mṛga-vīthī two, Ājī = Anurādhā/Viśākhā/Jyeṣṭhā, Vaiśvānarī = Mūla + the two Āṣāḍhās). (e) GARGA, close to Varāhamihira. Plus (f) the SAMĀSA-SAṂHITĀ, Varāhamihira's own lost epitome, agreeing with (c). Utpala explicitly notes the clash — 'atra varāhamihireṇa saha bhedaḥ', 'here there is a difference with Varāhamihira' — and Varāhamihira himself refuses to adjudicate at 9.7. TWO NEW NAME-FORMS: MṚGAVĪTHIKĀ (Kāśyapa, 'mūlādyā mṛgavīthikā') and MṚGĀKHYĀ, 'the Mṛga-named' (Varāhamihira BS 9.3 and Garga). Content: Varāhamihira, Garga and the Samāsa-saṃhitā make it the triad from Maitra (Anurādhā, Jyeṣṭhā, Mūla), which Utpala spells out; Devala and Kāśyapa make it the triad from Mūla; PARĀŚARA reduces it to two, Tvāṣṭra (Citrā) and Hasta — a wholly different part of the sky.

Utpala, Vivṛti on Bṛhat Saṃhitā 9.3–9.4, quoting Kāśyapa and Parāśara · text · translation

मृगवीथी Mṛgavīthī

Attestations

See also