the three great celestial belts — northern, middle, southern · — · the three latitude-bands of the ecliptic, each subdivided into three vīthīs
Purāṇas · c. 3rd-5th c. CE
स्थानं जरद्गवं मध्ये तथैरावतमुत्तरम्। वैश्वानरं दक्षिणतो निर्दिष्टमिह तत्त्वतः।। १२४.५१ ।।
...the path (Márga) of the sun and other planets amongst the lunar asterisms is divided into three portions or Avasht́hánas, northern, southern, and central, called severally Airávata, Járadgava (Ajagava, Matsya P.), and Vaiswánara. — H.H. Wilson (1840; public domain), note 21 to VP 2.8
The framing structure of the whole system: Airāvata = the northern belt, Jaradgava = the middle, Vaiśvānara = the southern; each contains three vīthīs, three nakṣatras apiece, 27 in all. This is what makes Viṣṇu P. 2.8.85 coherent — the Pitṛyāṇa can be both 'south of Ajavīthī' and 'outside the Vaiśvānara path' because Ajavīthī is a sub-road of the Vaiśvānara belt. Vaiśvānara-patha is thus a real, textually attested Purāṇic sky-region name.
Matsya Purāṇa 124.52; Vaiśvānara-patha also at Viṣṇu Purāṇa 2.8.85 and Vāyu Purāṇa 50.208 ·
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translationUtpala's commentary · Utpala 966 CE; the Parāśara quoted is a pre-Varāhamihira (pre-6th c. CE) authority whose work survives only in citation
अथ शुक्रचारो व्याख्यायते। तस्य च नव वीथयस्त्रयो मार्गा उदङ्मध्यदक्षिणा। वातव्याडवैश्वानरास्त्रयो मार्गभेदाः षड् मण्डलानि भवन्ति। ... तथा च पराशरः— आद्यरोहितदारुणविरोचनोर्ध्वदण्डतीक्ष्णान्येतानि षण्मण्डलानि। तत्र भरण्यादीनि चत्वारि चतुर्नक्षत्राणि। ज्येष्ठाद्ये द्वे पञ्चनक्षत्रे। आद्यमेव मण्डलचतुष्टयं वातमाहुस्तीक्ष्णं व्याडमार्गम्। ऊर्ध्वदण्डं वैश्वानरमृते श्रवणात्।
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. The two halves are from two places in ch. 9 (the chapter opening and the commentary on v. 22), joined here by ellipsis. The Samāsa-saṃhitā line भरणीरौद्रमघाऽनिलशक्रधनिष्ठादिसम्प्रवृत्तेषु is a COMPOSITE of two damaged scans and is not verbatim from any single one: Krishna Chandra Dvivedi's reads भरणीरोद्रमघाऽनिटशक्रधनिप्ठादिसम्प्रवृत्तेषु, Achyuta Nand Jha's भरणीरीद्रमघाऽनिलशक्रधनिष्ठादिसम्मवृत्तेषु; each supplies exactly what the other loses. Flagged as a reconstruction. Also, the words ज्येष्ठाद्ये द्वे पञ्चनक्षत्रे in the Parāśara maṇḍala passage follow A.V. Tripathi's scan (ज्येष्ठादये दे); Achyuta Nand Jha's reads ज्येष्ठाय द्वे and Krishna Chandra Dvivedi's ज्येष्ठा द्वे.
'Now the Śukra-cāra is expounded. Venus has nine vīthīs; the three mārgas are northern, middle and southern; the three mārga-divisions are Vāta, Vyāḍa and Vaiśvānara; and there are six maṇḍalas.' ... 'And so Parāśara: Ādya, Rohita, Dāruṇa, Virocana, Ūrdhvadaṇḍa, Tīkṣṇa — these are the six maṇḍalas. Of these, the four beginning with Bharaṇī are of four asterisms each; the two beginning with Jyeṣṭhā are of five asterisms. The first group of four maṇḍalas they call Vāta; the Tīkṣṇa, the Vyāḍa-road; the Ūrdhvadaṇḍa, Vaiśvānara — excepting Śravaṇa.' — Literal rendering by the compiler
VARIANT NAME-SET, NEW TO THE DATABASE. The database records the three mārgas only under the Purāṇic names Airāvata / Jaradgava / Vaiśvānara (Matsya 124.52). Utpala opens his commentary on Bṛhat Saṃhitā ch. 9 with a different trio: 'its nine vīthīs, three mārgas — northern, middle and southern — are the three mārga-divisions Vāta, Vyāḍa and Vaiśvānara; and there are six maṇḍalas.' Vyāḍa means 'serpent' (so Krishna Chandra Dvivedi's editorial footnote ad loc., which cross-refers to Parāśara's words in the ṭīkā on 9.22), i.e. Vyāḍa is a synonym of Nāga. Utpala's source is the Parāśara passage he quotes on BS 9.22, given as the shloka here: there Parāśara applies Vāta, Vyāḍa-mārga and Vaiśvānara to Venus's six maṇḍalas rather than to the vīthī-triads, so the two systems have been conflated in the opening sentence. All three scanned editions read वातव्याडवैश्वानरा identically. Airāvata is here demoted to a single vīthī-name (Airāvatī), not a mārga-name — a real doctrinal difference from the Purāṇas.
Utpala, Vivṛti on Bṛhat Saṃhitā 9 (opening) and on 9.22, quoting Parāśara ·
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