Mahābhārata & Rāmāyaṇa · Bāla Kāṇḍa, c. 1st–3rd c. CE
nakṣatramālām aparām asṛjat krodhamūrchitaḥ / dakṣiṇāṃ diśam āsthāya munimadhye mahāyaśāḥ // sṛṣṭvā nakṣatravaṃśaṃ ca krodhena kaluṣīkṛtaḥ /
CE references R_1,059.021 and the first pāda of R_1,059.022 = vulgate Bāla Kāṇḍa 60.
Girt with his sages forth he went, / And southward in the firmament / New wreathed stars prepared to set / In many a sparkling coronet. — Ralph T. H. Griffith (1870-74)
In the same Triśaṅku episode Viśvāmitra creates, besides the southern seven ṛṣis, 'another NAKṢATRAMĀLĀ (garland/necklace of asterisms)' and 'a NAKṢATRAVAṂŚA (lineage of asterisms)', both stationed in the southern quarter and, per verse 30, outside the Vaiśvānara road. Nakṣatramālā is elsewhere in the Rāmāyaṇa a simple simile-word for a string of stars (e.g. R_3,050.026, R_4,014.008), but here it is a created, permanent sky-object, and nakṣatravaṃśa occurs nowhere else in either epic. Recorded as a collective sky-group name rather than a star. No identification is possible.
Rāmāyaṇa 1.59.21-22 (Critical Edition, Bāla Kāṇḍa) = Griffith Book I Canto LX · text · translation