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Canopus
Canopus · α Carinae · Carina
names 14languages 11 Canopus α CarHIP 30438mag -0.62
In the classical tradition this is अगस्त्य Agastya, attested in 13 texts.
The names
vernacular 3 · folk 1 · tribal 1 · borrowed 9
| Name | Language | Meaning | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| অগস্ত্য agastya | Bengali Bengal | the sage Agastya The entry carries into modern Bengali the Agastya-yātrā observance keyed to the star's heliacal rising in Bhādra. | borrowed |
| agast | Hindi Bihar (Bhojpuri- and Magahi-speaking districts); the couplet is ascribed to the peasant weather-prophet Ghāgh | vernacular contraction of Agastya Not a learned citation but a farmer's calendar marker: the heliacal rising of Canopus, paired with the flowering of kās grass, announces that the rains are over. This is the Sanskrit Agastya name doing agricultural work in a peasant couplet. | folk |
| ಅಗಸ್ತ್ಯ agastya | Kannada Karnataka (Mysore, Canara, Deccan) | — | borrowed |
| അഗസ്തി agasti | Malayalam Kerala (Malabar, Cochin, Travancore) | the sage Agastya | borrowed |
| Agastya | Marathi Bombay Presidency (Deccan and Konkan) | a heliacal-rising marker: every Brahman must worship it within seven days of its first appearance, on pain of seven months' pollution | borrowed |
| अगस्ति agasti | Marathi Maharashtra | — | borrowed |
| jilu-atiŋ ipil | Mundari Chota Nagpur plateau, Ranchi district, Jharkhand | the star under which the game grazes Deer are believed to graze only while this star is above the horizon — a hunter's star, from the days when the forests were denser and game was an important part of the daily food. | tribal |
| ଅଗସ୍ତି Agasti | Odia Odisha | the sage Agastya The seasonal function is the whole point of the Odia entry: the star rises in śarat, and because river water clears in śarat, Hindus take the rising of Agasti to be the CAUSE of the clearing. The companion entry ଅଗସ୍ତ୍ୟୋଦୟ (p. 75) dates it to the 7th of Bhādra and glosses it as the beginning of Indian autumn. | borrowed |
| ଲୋପାମୁଦ୍ରା Lopā mudrā | Odia Odisha | Lopāmudrā, wife of the sage Agastya Recorded twice: as a headword, and in the Canopus note at p. 4095 ('the small star to its south-east is Agastya's wife Lopāmudrā'). | borrowed |
| කළමුනිදුතරුව kaḷamunin̆du-taruva | Sinhala Sri Lanka | Attested in the classical poem Sasadāvata: the rising of this star is what makes turbid water run clear. That belief — Agastya's heliacal rising as the moment water purifies — is the same one Sanskrit attaches to Agastya, but here it is carried by a Sinhala word. | vernacular |
| அகத்தியன் akattiyaṉ | Tamil Tamil Nadu | Agastya (the sage), in Tamil form The Tamil form of Agastya, both the sage credited with the first Tamil grammar and the star of which he is the regent. The Lexicon's quotation is from the commentary on Paripāṭal and calls it plainly 'the star named Agastiyaṉ'. | borrowed |
| பொதியில் முனிவன் potiyil muṉivaṉ | Tamil Tamil Nadu (Potiyil/Podigai hills) | the sage of the Potiyil hill A TAMIL LOCALISATION of the Canopus-sage: Agastya named not by his Sanskrit name but by the southern Tamil mountain he is said to dwell on. The verse describes him cleaving the high ridge and reaching Gemini — the star's heliacal position in a datable sky-description. | vernacular |
| అగస్త్యనక్షత్రము agastya-nakṣatramu | Telugu Telugu country (Madras Presidency: Coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema, Telangana) | The heliacal rising (agastyōdayamu) is an almanac event in the Telugu country. | borrowed |
| سہيل suhail (corr. suhel) | Urdu Urdu, from Arabic | Arabic Suhayl, diminutive-form of sahl 'level, easy' The second-brightest star and, like Agastya, a low southern star whose heliacal rising is a season marker. It has entered Hindi verse: McGregor records सुहेल suhel as Avadhi for Canopus. | vernacular |
Sources
- Sailendra Biswas, Samsad Bengali-English Dictionary, 3rd ed., Calcutta: Sahitya Samsad, 2000 (DSAL digital ed.), s.v. অগস্ত্য agastya, p. 6 link
- G. A. Grierson, Bihar Peasant Life (Calcutta, 1885), §1091, p. 283 link
- Kittel, F., A Kannaḍa-English Dictionary (orig. Mangalore: Basel Mission, 1894); cited from the revised and enlarged edition, [Madras] University of Madras, 1968-71, as keyed for DSAL, s.v. ಅಗಸ್ತ್ಯ agastya, p. 12 link
- Gundert, A Malayalam and English Dictionary (1872), s.v. അഗസ്തി agasti, p. 6 link
- R. E. Enthoven, The Folklore of Bombay (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924), p. 67 link
- J. T. Molesworth, A Dictionary, Marathi and English, 2nd ed. rev. and enl. (Bombay: Bombay Education Society's Press, 1857), s.v. अगस्ति, p. 7 link
- Hoffmann, Encyclopaedia Mundarica, vol. VII, s.v. jilu-atiŋ ipil, col. 2065; the story at cols. 1920-1921 link
- G. C. Praharaj, Purnnachandra Ordia Bhashakosha: a lexicon of the Oriya language, Cuttack: Utkal Sahitya Press, 1931-1940 (DSAL digital ed.), s.v. ଅଗସ୍ତି Agasti, p. 74 link
- G. C. Praharaj, Purnnachandra Ordia Bhashakosha: a lexicon of the Oriya language, Cuttack: Utkal Sahitya Press, 1931-1940 (DSAL digital ed.), s.v. ଲୋପା ମୁଦ୍ରା Lopā mudrā, p. 7452 link
- Jayatilaka (ed.), A Dictionary of the Sinhalese Language (Royal Asiatic Society, Ceylon Branch, 1935– ), s.v. කළමුනිදුතරුව kaḷamunin̆du-taruva, p. 2536 link
- Tamil Lexicon (University of Madras, 1924-36), s.v. அகத்தியன் sense 2, vol. I p. 10; quoting the commentary on Paripāṭal 11, 11 link
- Paripāṭal 11, ll. 11-12 (by Nallantuvaṉār); Project Madurai e-text PM 0087 link
- Brown, C. P., A Telugu-English Dictionary, new ed., thoroughly revised and brought up to date (Madras: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1903), s.v. అగస్త్యుడు agastyuḍu, p. 24 link
- John T. Platts, A Dictionary of Urdu, Classical Hindi and English (London, 1884), s.v. suhail, p. 707 link