the Milky Way (lit. 'sky-Ganges') · — · the galactic band
Purāṇas · c. 9th-10th c. CE
पृष्ठे त्वजवीथी आकाशगङ्गा चोदरत: ॥ ५ ॥
...and on the back of the Sisumara is the fore part of its right side, and in its womb is the celestial Ganges. — J.M. Sanyal (1930s; public domain). Note that Sanyal renders udarataḥ 'in its womb' and does not recognise Ajavīthī as a name.
In Bhāgavata 5.23.5 it lies on the belly (udara) of the Śiśumāra, placed among star-positions alongside Ajavīthī — that context makes the Milky Way reading secure. IMPORTANT CONTRAST: in Viṣṇu P. 2.9.12, 2.9.14 and 2.9.17 the same word means something else entirely — the celestial water that falls from a cloudless sky, a bath in which is 'divya snāna'. So the Milky-Way sense is specifically the Bhāgavata's. The Vāyu/Brahmāṇḍa/Matsya group does not use the word for the sky at all; its Milky Way term is chāyāpatha.
Bhāgavata Purāṇa 5.23.5 (Milky Way sense); contrast Viṣṇu Purāṇa 2.9.12, 2.9.14, 2.9.17 (celestial rain-water sense) ·
text ·
translationClassical kāvya · c. 4th-5th century CE
tenāvarodhapramadāsakhena vigāhanānena saridvarāṃ tām / ākāśagaṅgāratir apsarobhir vṛto marutvān anuyātalīlaḥ // Ragh_16.71
Literal rendering: 'As he plunged into that best of rivers with his harem-ladies for companions, Marutvan (Indra), who delights in the Akasaganga surrounded by apsarases, seemed to be copying his sport.' — Literal rendering by the compiler
Indra (marutvan) sporting with apsarases in the waters of the Akasaganga - the celestial river as a place in heaven. Already in the database from the Puranas; recorded here because Akasaganga is Kalidasa's commonest name for the sky-river (also Kumarasambhava 6.5) and because kavya usage is what fixed it in later Sanskrit.
Classical kāvya · c. 7th century CE
ubhauyadi vyomni pṛthakpravāhāvākāśagaṅgāpayasaḥ patetām / tenopamīyate tamālanīlamāmuktamuktālatamasya vakṣaḥ // mspv_3.8 //
IAST from GRETIL; word boundaries are unmarked in this e-text (see its file header).
Literal rendering: 'If the water of the Akasaganga were to fall in the sky in two separate streams, by that his chest - dark as tamala, with its loosed strings of pearls - might be likened.' — Literal rendering by the compiler
Magha's use is the most visual of all the celestial-river passages found: the comparison requires the Akasaganga's water to fall 'in the sky' (vyomni) in TWO SEPARATE STREAMS, which is how the poet renders the dark rift down the Milky Way - as the two strands of Krsna's pearl necklace against his dark chest. This is the closest anything in the survey comes to describing the actual appearance of the band.