（8） Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies Vol. 68, No. 3, March 2020

Muhūrta in Gārgīyajyotiṣa

BILL. M. Mak

1. Introduction: Structure of proto-Garga in the Gārgīyajyotiṣa

Scholars have generally opined that the extant recension of the Gārgīyajyotiṣa (G1) contains materials dated to as early as the first century C.E., coinciding with the period of Indian as- tronomy we know very little about.1) The name Garga and astral works attributed to this au- thor were known to the Chinese before the sixth century C.E.2) The decipherment of this par- tially edited text by an international team of scholars has been ongoing since 2017.3) An unusual feature of G1 overlooked by previous scholars is that the first Aṅga, titled “Karmaguṇa” (“constituents of ritual acts”) has a different character when compared to the subsequent ones in terms of structure, format, and content. While a detailed analysis is possi- ble only when a complete critical edition of G1 is produced, some of the salient differences may be readily discerned based on our preliminary examination of the text (Table 1).

Table 1. Comparison of Aṅga 1 with other astronomical Aṅgas Aṅga 1 2–11

Structure With subsections Without subsections

Format Prose and verses Verse only

Content Lunar-nakṣatra astral lore Solar-zodiac planetary astral lore

Attribution Garga and Vṛddhagarga Garga

These differences indicate that the first Aṅga might have been originally a compila- tion of some much older materials. The occasional attribution to Vṛddhagarga beside Gar- ga was likely the author-editor’s attempt to disambiguate an older author from a contempo- rary one， both belonging to a Garga’s school of astronomy. In the introductory prose section of G1 under the subsection Sāṃvatsara-nirdeśa (i), four basic astrological time-related concepts are introduced:

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tathā laukikavaidikādhyātmikānām arthānāṃ karmaguṇānāṃ prayogakālasiddyarthaṃ tithinakṣatramuhūrtakaraṇānāṃ ca prayoktā | “[The astrologer/astronomer (sāṃvatsara)] thus ascertains the tithi, nakṣatra, muhūrta, and karaṇa for the success at the applicable time of the constituents of ritual acts, whose purposes are mundane, Vedic or supramundane.”

In the subsection titled “Paribhāṣa” (iii) of the same Aṅga, the importance of these four concepts is reiterated:

caturvyūhaṃ karmaguṇaṃ gargeṇoktaṃ yathāvidhi | tithinakṣatrakaraṇair muhūrtānāṃ ca saṃpadaḥ || (1.3.1) “The constituents of ritual acts are proclaimed by Garga to be of four varieties accordingly. The complete enumeration [of the four varieties are] tithis, nakṣatras, karaṇas, and muhūrtas.”

Aṅga 1 of G1 is subdivided into nine subsections (with only three explicitly numbered: iii, iv, ix. Table 2). The four astral topics mentioned in the preamble are treated in three sub- sections: (iv) Nakṣatrakarma, (v) Tithikarmaguṇāḥ, (vii) Muhūrtaguṇāḥ (including the top- ic of karaṇas). The decipherment of (v) Tithikarmaguṇāḥ, and (iv) Nakṣatrakarma in Mak 2018a and Mak 2018b reveal that these materials are considerably archaic and were sup- planted by other materials by the time of Varāhamihira in the sixth century; similar archaic astral materials are preserved in Buddhist sources such as the Śārdūlakarṇāvadāna and Amoghavajra’s Xiuyao jing as first suggested by Yano 1986. Mak 2018b further reveals that G1 contains materials of different sources and periods, with the example of both 27

Table 2. Structure of First Aṅga (cf. Mitchiner 1986, 105) Subsection Title Number of verses

[i] Sāṃvatsara-nirdeśa (cf BS Ch. 2) Prose + 5

[ii) Aṅga-samuddeśa 58

iii Paribhāṣā 13

iv Nakṣatrakarma (cf. BS Ch. 97 Nakṣatrakarmaguṇa) 96

[v] Tithikarmaguṇāḥ (cf. BS Ch. 98 Tithikarmaguṇa) 44

[vi] Grahakarmaguṇāḥ 18

[vii] Muhūrtaguṇāḥ (cf. BS Ch. 99 Karaṇaguṇa) 85

[viii] Prathamaḥ 15

ix Dvitīya āditas [prathamaḥ sargaḥ samāptaḥ] 30

― 1115 ― （10） Muhūrta in Gārgīyajyotiṣa (Mak) and 28 nakṣatra-systems found in different Aṅgas. In this paper, our focus will be the sub- section (vii) Muhūrtaguṇa. It may be noted that subsections such as (vi) Grahakarmaguṇaḥ and other subsections with miscellaneous topics (viii, ix) appear to be interpolated at a lat- er stage, since graha or “planet” is not mentioned among the four fundamental astral con- cepts. This observation corroborates with the striking fact that planets are not mentioned at all in either early Vedic sources, or in the oldest extant jyotiṣa treatise in the Vedic tradi- tion̶the Vedāṅgajyotiṣa.

2. Structure and Characteristics of Muhūrtaguṇa

2.1. Structure The subsection (vii) Muhūrtaguṇa contains 85 verses. The first 25 verses deal with karaṇas, an astral concept defined as a half of a tithi (1/30 of a synodic month). The re- maining 60 verses deal with various topics related to the muhūrta (Table 3). 2.2. Description of the muhūrtas In the Ṛgveda, the muhūrta appears to denote an unspecific short period of time.4) In the later Vedic texts, it is accepted as general knowledge that a day contains thirty muhūrtas, though their description varies.5) In the Muhūrtaguṇa of G1, the thirty muhūrtas consist of fifteen di- urnal and fifteen nocturnal ones (v. 27). Their names, though likely corrupt, are reminiscent to those found in the work of Parāśara,6) the Buddhist narrative Śārdūlakarṇāvadana (ŚKA),7) Agnipurāṇa (AP),8) and Ātharvaṇa jyotiṣa (AJ) 9) (Table 4). Although their relation cannot be clearly established due to the poor quality of the extant materials, they clearly share a com- mon, archaic origin. As a fixed time unit, a muhūrta is a thirtieth of a day (48 minutes), anal-

Table 3. Structure of Muhūrtaguṇa Verses Topic

1–25 Karaṇas

26–30 General description of increasing and decreasing muhūrtas

31–35 Metrology̶subdivision of a muhūrta

36–41 30 muhūrtas distinguished by their deities

42–44 Saṃcara- and dhruva-muhūrtas

45–54 Shadow length of the 15 muhūrtas on the equinoxes

55–85 Auspicious and inauspicious acts for the 30 muhūrtas

― 1116 ― Muhūrta in Gārgīyajyotiṣa (Mak) （11） ogous to a tithi being a thirtieth of a synodic month, and is the smallest among the four astral units. On the shortest day (kṣīṇa), i.e., the winter solstice, the text describes that there are only twelve diurnal muhūrtas (v. 30a), presupposing thus a day-night ratio of 12:18, similar to that found in a number of early sources10).

sarvāgreṇāpi saṅkhyātā muhūrtās triṃśati smṛtāḥ | divā pañcadaśocyante rātrau pañcadaśaiva tu ||27|| “If they are reckoned completely from the beginning [of a day to the next], thirty muhūrtas are known. In the day there are said to be fifteen diurnal, and in the night precisely fifteen as well.” ahno dvādaśasu kṣīṇāṃ muhūrtteṣv eva tiṣṭhate ||30a|| “In the day of the reduced type, there are only twelve muhūrtas.”

After giving the names of the thirty muhūrtas (Table 4), the text proceeds to describe the six movable (saṃcara) muhūrtas, which belong to the daytime on summer solstice, and to nighttime on winter solstice (vv. 42–45). On the equinoxes, the day and the night are equal, each consisting of 15 muhūrtas. In the three months between the equinoxes and the solstic- es, the day/night muhūrtas increase or decrease by one muhūrta per month, in a manner similar to one of the Babylonian zigzag schemes.11)

aindravāruṇabhāgyākhyaraudragāndharvadhānadāḥ | ṣaḍ ete saṃcarāḥ śeṣāś caturviṃśad dhruvāḥ smṛtāḥ ||42|| udaggato ’rka ṣaṇmāsās tadādīnarkamānajāḥ | kramād aindrādayaḥ ṣaṭsu saṃcarā dinavṛddhiṣu ||43|| etad eva viparyasthā aindryāntā dhanadādayaḥ | yāsthāpane rātrivṛddhau saṃcarāḥ ṣaḍdhruvādiṣu ||44|| evam ahnaś ca rātryaś ca hrāsavṛddhikrameṇa tu | muhūrtāṃs tarkayed vṛddhyā chāyāmātrikayogataḥ ||45|| “Aindra, Vāruṇa, Bhāgya, Raudra, Gāndharva, [and] Dhānadā: these six [muhūrtas] are known as “saṃcara,” the remaining twenty-four as “dhruva.” When the Sun moves northward during the six months (from winter to summer solstices), then arising from the measure of the strengthening (lit. not-weak) Sun in the order: Aindra, etc., the saṃcaras are [progressively distributed as daytime muhūrtas] among the six [months] of increasing daytime. The [muhūrtas] in reverse (i.e., from summer to winter solstices) when [the Sun is] weakening are precisely from Dhanadā, etc., ending with Aindra. The six saṃcaras are [each progressively distributed as nighttime muhūrtas] among the six [months, whose days] begin with the dhruva [muhūrtas] and of increasing nighttime. Thus are the days and nights by the steps of diminution and growth. One should consider the muhūrtas with growth by means of the shadow measure.”

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Table 4. Names of the thirty muhūrtas Day 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Garga Raudra Śveta Mitra Śārabhaṭa Sāvitra Viśvadeva Vairāja

Parāśara Raudra (Śveta) Maitra Sārabhaṭa Ātmasaha Vaiśvadeva ̶

ŚKA Samudra/ Śveta Samṛddha Śarapatha/ Atisamṛddhi/ Udgata Sumukha Caturojas Śatapatha Atisamṛddha

AP Raudra Maitra Śveta Sārabhaṭa Sāvitra Vairocana Jayadeva

AJ Raudra Śveta Maitra Śārabhaṭa Sāvitra Vairāja Viśvāvasu

8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Abhijit Rohiṇa Prabala Pitryaḥ Vijaya Udratha/ Vāruṇa Bhāgya Aindra

Abhijit Rohiṇī Indabala Jaya Pitryaḥ Bhāgya Varuṇa Nairṛta

Vajraka Rohita Bala Vijaya Sarvarasa Sundara Parābhaya

Abhijit Rāvaṇa Vijaya Nandin Varuṇa Saumya Bhava/ Bhaga

Abhijit Rauhiṅī Bala Vijaya Naiṛta Vāruṇa Saumya Bhagat

Night 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

Garga Raudra Dhanadā Bhāraṇa Anila Anala Rākṣasas

Parāśara Agnya Yāmya Gandharva Dhyānapada ̶ ̶ Rākṣasa

ŚKA Raudra Tārāvacara Saṃyama Sāmpraiyaka Ananta Gardabha Rākṣasa

23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Dānyadaivatyās Somya Brāhma Aṅgirās Pauṣṇa Vaiṣṇava Vāyavya Nairṛtam

Indra Āgneya Prājāpti Aśvinendra Brahmaguru Sāvitrī Vaiṣṇava Pauṣṇa

Avayava Brahmā Diti Arka Vidhamana Āgneya Ātapāgni Abhijit

The next section (vv. 45–54) describes the shadow lengths of the fifteen daytime muhūrtas. Similar presentation is found in the ŚKA. Since precisely fifteen day-time muhūrtas are de- fined here by their shadow length, we can only assume that they provide the gnomic mea- surements on the equinoxes.

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Notes

1) Geslani et al. 2017, 151; Shukla 1969, 101–3. 2) 伽力伽 jiālìjiā (MC. kae-lik-kae) in Daji jing 大集經, T(397)13.282b (585 C.E.); 竭伽 jiéjiā (MC. gjet-kae) in the Book of Sui 隋書 (629 C.E.). 3) Geslani et al. 2017, 154–5. Tentative ed. of text in this paper is based on mss. D and G. 4) RV III.53.8. 5) Śatapathabrāhmaṇa X 4.2.18, XII 3.2.5 give 15 diurnal and 15 nocturnal muhūrtas; Taittirīyabrāhmaṇa III 10.1 give two different sets of 30 muhūrtas for the two pakṣas. 6) Cited in bhaṭṭotpla’s commentary on Bṛhatsaṃhitā 98.3 (Tripāṭhī ed. p. 1040). 7) Mukhopadhyaya 1954, 54; Giebel 2015, 85–86. 8) Mukhopadhyaya 1967, 47. 9) Datta ed. 1.6–11. 10) Mahābhāṣya (I. p. 384 I. 18–19), Arthaśāstra 2.20.37–38, and Vedāṅgajyotiṣa (R)7/(Y)8. 11) Pingree 1963, 232, 1973, 4–5.

Bibliography

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Key words Garga, jyotiṣa, muhūrta (Research Fellow, Needham Research Institute, Cambridge, PhD)

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