Purāṇas · c. 3rd-5th c. CE
पुष्याश्लेषा पुनर्वस्वोर्वीथी चैरावती स्मृता।। १२४.५४ ।।
Puṣya, Āśleṣā and Punarvasu — that road is remembered as Airāvatī. — Literal rendering by the compiler (the 1916 public-domain Matsya OCR is too corrupt to quote here)
Third vīthī of the northern mārga. Matsya 124.55 states the three asterisms explicitly. Homonym caution: Airāvatī is also a river name in Matsya 114.21 and 115.19, and Airāvata elsewhere is Indra's elephant.
Utpala's commentary · Utpala 966 CE; the authorities he quotes (Garga, Parāśara, Kāśyapa, Devala) are all pre-Varāhamihira, 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 db_id 'varuna-shatabhishaj' for the rendering. — 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. For the Airāvatī: Devala, Kāśyapa, Varāhamihira, Garga and the Samāsa-saṃhitā all make it Punarvasu, Puṣya, Āśleṣā; PARĀŚARA alone gives it FOUR asterisms ('catvāri param airāvatī'), taking Maghā in as well and leaving the Vṛṣabhā with only the two Phalgunīs. Note that in the Purāṇic system Airāvata is the name of a whole MĀRGA; in all of Utpala's witnesses it is only a vīthī, and the mārga-names he gives are Vāta, Vyāḍa and Vaiśvānara.
Utpala, Vivṛti on Bṛhat Saṃhitā 9.4, quoting Parāśara (with Devala, Kāśyapa and Garga ad 9.1–9.4) ·
text ·
translation