Lexicons, Nirukta & Buddhist · c. 2nd–4th century CE
kṛttikā rohiṇī mṛgaśirā ārdrā punarvasuḥ puṣyaḥ aśleṣā maghā pūrvaphalgunī uttaraphalgunī hastā citrā svātī viśākhā anurādhā jyeṣṭhā mūlā pūrvāṣāḍhā uttarāṣāḍhā abhijit śravaṇā dhaniṣṭhā śatabhiṣā pūrvabhādrapadā uttarabhādrapadā revatī aśvinī bharaṇī / ity etāni bhoḥ puṣkarasārinn aṣṭāviṃśati-nakṣatrāṇi/
Literal rendering: 'Kṛttikā, Rohiṇī, Mṛgaśirā, Ārdrā, Punarvasu, Puṣya, Aśleṣā, Maghā, Pūrvaphalgunī, Uttaraphalgunī, Hastā, Citrā, Svātī, Viśākhā, Anurādhā, Jyeṣṭhā, Mūlā, Pūrvāṣāḍhā, Uttarāṣāḍhā, Abhijit, Śravaṇā, Dhaniṣṭhā, Śatabhiṣā, Pūrvabhādrapadā, Uttarabhādrapadā, Revatī, Aśvinī, Bharaṇī — these, sir Puṣkarasārin, are the twenty-eight nakshatras.' — Literal rendering by the compiler (no public-domain translation of this chapter exists; Cowell & Neil 1886 is an edition without translation)
The Buddhist canonical list, enumerated from Kṛttikā (not Aśvinī) and explicitly counted as 28 with Abhijit included — the same archaic starting-point as the Vedic lists on file. This is the frame for the star-count and figure data that the same chapter supplies for every asterism, and which is recorded on each nakshatra's own entry.
Śārdūlakarṇāvadāna (Divyāvadāna 33), nakṣatra-vaṃśa, p. 46 (Mukhopadhyaya ed.) ·
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translationChinese Buddhist witnesses · Xiuyao jing 759 CE (revised recension 764 CE); Modengqie jing (T1300) 230 CE; Shetoujian jing (T1301) c. 307 CE
星紀雖多，要者其唯二十有八：一名昴宿、二名為畢、三名為觜、四名為參、五名為井、六名為鬼、七名為柳、八名為星、九名為張、第十名翼、十一名軫、十二名角、十三名亢、十四名氐、十五名房、十六名心、十七名尾、十八名箕、十九名斗、二十名牛、二十一女、二十二虛、二十三危、二十四室、二十五壁、二十六奎、二十七婁、二十八胃，如是名為二十八宿。』蓮華實言：『如此宿者，為有幾星？形貌何類？為復幾時與月共俱？其所祭祀為用何等？何神主之？有何等姓？唯願仁者重為分別。
The Xiuyao jing's own 27-fold division, T21n1299 at T21.388b24–c06: 「凡天道二十七宿有闊有狹，皆以四足均分別…云何前合？奎、婁、胃、昴、畢、觜六宿為前合也。云何為並合？參、井、鬼、柳、星、張、翼、軫、角、亢、氐、房十二宿為並合。云何為隨合？心、尾、箕、斗、女、虛、危、室、壁九宿為隨合。」 — 6 + 12 + 9 = 27, with 牛 (Abhijit) absent. And the commentator's note at T21.394c17: 「唐用二十八宿，西國除牛宿，以其天主事之故。」
"Though the star-records are many, the essential ones are only twenty-eight: the first is named the Mao lodge, the second Bi, the third Zi, the fourth Shen, the fifth Jing, the sixth Gui, the seventh Liu, the eighth Xing, the ninth Zhang, the tenth Yi, the eleventh Zhen, the twelfth Jiao, the thirteenth Kang, the fourteenth Di, the fifteenth Fang, the sixteenth Xin, the seventeenth Wei, the eighteenth Ji, the nineteenth Dou, the twentieth Niu, the twenty-first Nü, the twenty-second Xu, the twenty-third Wei, the twenty-fourth Shi, the twenty-fifth Bi, the twenty-sixth Kui, the twenty-seventh Lou, the twenty-eighth Wei — these are called the twenty-eight lodges.' Puṣkarasārin said: 'As for these lodges, how many stars has each? Of what kind is its shape? For how long is it together with the moon? What is used for its sacrifice? What deity presides over it? What clan has it? I beg you, sir, to distinguish these for me again.'" — And from the Xiuyao jing: "The Tang uses twenty-eight lodges; the Western Country removes the Niu lodge, because the Lord of Heaven attends to it." — Literal rendering by the compiler
The Chinese Buddhist witnesses answer the 27-vs-28 question from both sides. T1300 (c. 230 CE) enumerates TWENTY-EIGHT lodges beginning at 昴 (Kṛttikā) and ending at 胃 (Bharaṇī) — the same archaic Kṛttikā-first order as the Sanskrit Śārdūlakarṇāvadāna list already in the database — and its questionnaire (how many stars? what shape? how long with the moon? what offering? what deity? what gotra?) is a point-for-point translation of the six data-fields of the Sanskrit nakṣatra-vaṃśa. The Xiuyao jing, 529 years later, keeps twenty-eight chapter-headings in its ch. 2 but runs TWENTY-SEVEN everywhere it actually computes: the zodiacal division into 12 palaces of nine 'feet' each omits Niu, and the conjunction rule quoted here divides the circle as 6 + 12 + 9 = 27 lodges with Niu absent. Yang Jingfeng's note at T21.394c17 makes the reason explicit: 「唐用二十八宿，西國除牛宿，以其天主事之故」 'The Tang uses twenty-eight lodges; the Western Country removes the Niu lodge, because the Lord of Heaven attends to it.' This is a dated (764 CE) outside statement that India had by then dropped Abhijit, and it gives the tradition's own reason.
Taishō T21n1300 fasc. 1 (T21.404b27–c09); T21n1299 fasc. 1 (T21.388b24–c06) and note at T21.394c17 ·
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