Lexicons, Nirukta & Buddhist · Amarakośa c. 6th century CE
समा धनिष्ठाः स्युः प्रोष्ठपदा भाद्रपदाः स्त्रियः ॥ १.३.२२० ॥ — cf. (IAST) śrāvaṇaḥ prauṣṭhapadaś ca varṣāḥ // kaz02.20.55
'The wing of Pegasus.' — Arthaśāstra: 'Śrāvaṇa and Prauṣṭhapada are the rains.' — H.T. Colebrooke (1808); the Arthaśāstra line rendered literally by the compiler
Older feminine form of Bhādrapadā, expressly equated with it. Colebrooke's gloss 'The wing of Pegasus' fixes the asterism on the Pegasus square. The archaic form underlies Kauṭilya's month-name Prauṣṭhapada (Arthaśāstra 2.20.55), confirming it was still standard when the Arthaśāstra's calendar was compiled; the Atharvaveda Nakṣatra Kalpa also uses Proṣṭhapadā rather than Bhādrapadā.
Utpala's commentary · Utpala 966 CE; Parāśara is a pre-Varāhamihira authority surviving only in citation
अथ मार्गास्त्रयो भवन्त्युत्तरमध्यमदक्षिणाः। पुनरेकैकशस्त्रिधा नव वीथय इत्याचक्षते। तत्रोत्तरे नागगजैरावत्यः। मध्ये वृषभगोजारद्गव्यः। दक्षिणे मृगाजदहनाः। तासां नागाऽऽग्नेययाम्यवायव्यानि। गजवीथी रोहिण्यादीनि त्रीणि। चत्वारि परमैरावती। वृषभा फल्गुन्यौ। गोवीथी प्राक्प्रोष्ठपदादीनि चत्वारि। श्रवणधनिष्ठावारुणानि जारद्गवी। मृगवीथी त्वाष्ट्रहस्तम्। आजी मैत्रमैन्द्राग्न्यधिपमैन्द्रम्। मूलमषाढाद्वयं च वैश्वानरीमितीच्छन्ति।
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 the full rendering under db_id 'varuna-shatabhishaj'. — Literal rendering by the compiler
'The earlier Proṣṭhapadā' = PŪRVA-BHĀDRAPADĀ, in the archaic Proṣṭhapadā form the database already records from the Amarakośa. Here it is carried by a pre-Varāhamihira authority: Parāśara's vīthī scheme quoted by Utpala on BS 9.4, 'govīthī prākproṣṭhapadādīni catvāri' — the Go-vīthī is the four beginning with Prākproṣṭhapadā. That is the same four-asterism Go-vīthī (Pūrva-Bhādrapadā, Uttara-Bhādrapadā, Revatī, Aśvinī) that Varāhamihira gives at BS 9.2 and the Samāsa-saṃhitā counts 'from Ekapāda', which cross-confirms both name-equations.
Pāṇini & Patañjali · c. 500–350 BCE (Pāṇini); Patañjali's comment c. 150 BCE
१.२.६० फल्गुनी-प्रोष्ठपदानां च नक्षत्रे ।
Devanāgarī from Sanskrit Wikisource, which prints the sūtra with an analytic hyphen. GRETIL's two IAST texts give 'phalgunī-proṣṭhapadānāṃ ca nakṣatre'. The related sūtras read: 4.2.35 महाराजप्रोष्ठपदात् ठञ् (GRETIL: mahārāja-proṣṭhapadāṭ ṭhañ) and 7.3.18 जे प्रोष्ठपदाणां (a Wikisource typo for प्रोष्ठपदानाम्; GRETIL correctly: je proṣṭhapadānām).
Of the stars phalguni and proshthapada, the forms may be either dual or plural. ... There are two pairs of stars of the name of phalguni and proshthapada, both being of feminine gender, and their logical number being dual. The present sutra ordains plural optionally. If phalguni and proshthapada are not names of asterisms they must have their proper number. — Śrīśa Chandra Vasu (1891)
The archaic name of the Bhādrapadā pair, and Pāṇini's only name for it — Bhādrapadā occurs nowhere in the Aṣṭādhyāyī. Pāṇini names Proṣṭhapadā in three separate sūtras of his own: 1.2.60 (paired with Phalgunī, and expressly marked nakṣatre, 'when it denotes an asterism'), 4.2.35 mahārāja-proṣṭhapadāṭ ṭhañ (deriving the month-name), and 7.3.18 je proṣṭhapadānām. It also appears at 5.4.120 in a list of bahuvrīhi finals, but there proṣṭhapada is probably the ordinary 'having feet like a bench/carp' from which the asterism name derives, so I do not count it. Patañjali comments on 1.2.60 with the forms 'udite pūrve proṣṭhapade, uditāḥ pūrvāḥ proṣṭhapadāḥ' ('the earlier two Proṣṭhapadās having risen' / 'the earlier Proṣṭhapadās having risen') — showing the asterism was already understood as a PAIR (pūrva/uttara) in the 2nd c. BCE — and on 7.3.10 (his numbering; = 7.3.18) with 'proṣṭhapadāsu jātaḥ proṣṭhapādaḥ brāhmaṇaḥ', 'a brahmin born under the Proṣṭhapadās'. That 1.2.60 is a rule about DUAL versus PLURAL for Phalgunī and Proṣṭhapadā is itself an astronomical datum: Pāṇini knew each as a group of stars that could be counted either way.
Mahābhārata & Rāmāyaṇa · Bāla Kāṇḍa c. 1st–3rd c. CE; MBh omen chapters c. 1st–4th c. CE
rājñaḥ putrā mahātmānaś catvāro jajñire pṛthak / guṇavanto 'nurūpāś ca rucyā proṣṭhapadopamāḥ //
CE reference R_1,017.010 = vulgate Bāla Kāṇḍa 18.16. Unlike the birth-horoscope verse two ślokas earlier, this one IS in the Critical Edition.
The high-souled monarch's consorts bore / At different times those glorious four, / Like to himself and virtuous, bright / As Proshthapadá's four-fold light. — Ralph T. H. Griffith (1870-74)
Two useful data. (a) Rāmāyaṇa 1.17.10 (Critical Edition — this one IS in the CE) compares Daśaratha's four sons to Proṣṭhapadā: 'handsome and worthy, in radiance LIKE THE PROṢṬHAPADĀS'. The point of the simile is number: four princes, four stars. Griffith footnotes 'One of the constellations, containing stars in the wing of Pegasus.' This four-star reading of the combined Pūrva- plus Uttara-Proṣṭhapadā (α, β, γ Pegasi + α Andromedae) is exactly the Pegasus square and is an early independent witness to it. (b) MBh 6.3.14 uses the pair form 'proṣṭhapade pūrve' / 'uttare' for Venus's transit, showing the eastern/western split already fixed. The database carries Proṣṭhapadā from the lexicons; these are earlier.
Rāmāyaṇa 1.17.10 (Critical Edition, Bāla Kāṇḍa) = Griffith Book I Canto XIX; Mahābhārata 6.3.14 (Critical Edition) ·
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