त्रिशङ्कु Triśaṅku

A Purāṇic sky-figure. The Bhāgavata makes an explicit observational claim: adyāpi divi dṛśyate, 'even today he is seen in the sky', hanging avākśirāḥ, head-downward — the very phrase used of the Śiśumāra at 5.23.5. The Crux/Southern Cross identification comes from later lexicography (Kittel's Kannada-English dictionary: 'a small southern constellation near the celestial pole containing Coalsack; the Southern Cross') and is not stated in any Purāṇa; treat as disputed. Other Purāṇic loci: Brahmāṇḍa 3.63.108, Vāyu 88.108-113, Viṣṇu Purāṇa 4.3.21.

Two separate passages of T21n1300, joined here with an ellipsis; the first at T21.401b22, the second at T21.403b28. The astronomical chapter that follows is spoken by this king.

CORROBORATES A NEGATIVE ALREADY ON FILE. The database records that in the Śārdūlakarṇāvadāna Triśaṅku is the mātaṅga (outcaste) king who recites the astronomy to the brahmin Puṣkarasārin — a person, not the star of the same name — and that no star-sense of Triśaṅku occurs in that text. The Chinese versions confirm it independently and phonetically: T1300 transcribes the king's name 帝勝伽 (Ti-sheng-qie = Triśaṅku) and renders the brahmin's name semantically as 蓮華實 'Lotus-fruit' (Puṣkarasārin); T1301 transcribes the brahmin's name 弗袈裟 and calls the king simply 摩登王, 'the Mātaṅga king'. Neither Chinese version gives Triśaṅku any celestial sense anywhere in the astronomical chapters, so the star-name Triśaṅku is not attested in this branch of the tradition at all.

CE references R_1,059.030 and R_1,059.031. Griffith and Dutt both number the chapter Bāla Kāṇḍa 60 (vulgate), one ahead of the Critical Edition's 59.

The Rāmāyaṇa is the primary source for Triśaṅku as a sky-figure — the database currently records him only from the Purāṇas. THREE distinct celestial data. (a) Bāla 1.59.20-31: after Indra throws him out of heaven, Viśvāmitra fixes him head-downward (avākśirāḥ) 'among those lights', and the gods concede that his stars shall stand in the sky 'OUTSIDE THE VAIŚVĀNARA PATH' (vaiśvānarapathād bahiḥ) — i.e. outside the middle/solar road, in the far south. (b) Yuddha 6.4.44: in Lakṣmaṇa's omen list, between Brahmarāśi and Viśākhā, 'Triśaṅku the rājarṣi, our Ikṣvāku forefather, shines spotless WITH HIS PUROHITA' — a two-object configuration (king + priest), which is the closest thing to a shape description anywhere in the epic. (c) Ayodhyā 2.36.10: at Rāma's exile 'Triśaṅku, Lohitāṅga (Mars), Bṛhaspati and Budha — all the grahas, cruel, having approached the Moon, stood still', i.e. Triśaṅku is listed AMONG THE GRAHAS, not among the nakṣatras — an anomalous classification worth flagging. Griffith's footnote to Yuddha IV: 'Tris'anku was raised to the skies to form a constellation in the southern hemisphere.' No identification is possible from the text; Gorresio's note (quoted by Griffith at Bāla LX) is the standard historical conjecture.