Text
The same constellation associated with cardinal directions in Mesopotamian and the Vedic text. Pleiades is associated with the east and Ursa Maior with the north, both in Mul Apin and in a Vedic text, whose author was familiar with the associations made in Mul Apin.
Mul Apin 2.168-170:
If you are to observe the direction of the winds mar.gíd.da (= Ursa Maior) stands where the North wind rises, ku6 (= Piscis Austrinus) extends where the South wind rises, gír.tab (= Scorpius) extends where the West wind rises, šu.gi (= Perseus) and mul.mul (= Pleiades) stand where the East wind rises.
Śatapathabrāhmana 2.1, 2.3-4:
(Paraphrase:) One should not lay the sacred fire when the Sun is in Kṛttikās (= Pleiades) even though Agni is the god of that constellation, the guardian of the East. (Explanation:) The Pleiades are seven divine females who are married to Saptarṣis, the seven stars of Ursa Maior. But the Pleiades never swerve from the East, while the Saptarṣis always rise in the North. Because of their different locations the seven divine couples can never cohabit; and this is seen as most inauspicious.
Sources (list of abbreviations)
Mul Apin 2.168-170
Śatapathabrāhmana 2.1
Śatapathabrāhmana 2.3-4
Bibliography
| Pingree 1989, 444 | Pingree, David. “MUL.APIN and Vedic Astronomy.” In: Hermann Behrens, Darlene Loding and Martha T. Roth (eds.). DUMU-É-DUB-BA-BA. Studies in Honor of Åke W. Sjöberg. Occasional Publications of the Samuel Noah Kramer Fund 11. Philadelphia: Samuel Noah Kramer Fund 1989, 439-445. |
| Pingree 1998, 128 | Pingree, David. “Legacies in Astronomy and Celestial Omens.” In: S. Dalley (ed.). The Legacy of Mesopotamia. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1998, 125-137. |
Amar Annus
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