Abhijit

Authors: Susanne M Hoffmann

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Abhijit, the 28th nakshatra, as depicted in the drawing by Jones (1794)

The 28th nakshatra is typically identified with the area around Vega; here mapped to the Stellarium star chart (SMH for WGSN 2025;Shylaja, 2026).

Abhijit nakshatra in Tirupperunthurai (Athmanathaswamy temple) near Aranthangi, India, 10th century CE. (SMH 2025). There is no image drawn but the lettres in the old language Tamil spell out the name of the constellation.

Abhijit (अभिजित), Victorious, is an Indian name, used by the Indian Vedic tradition. Most of these names are roughly 3000 years old. They pre-date Hinduism but were taken over by it.

Etymology and History

Name Variants

• Abhijit
• Vidibha

Origin of Constellation

Abhijit means "The Victorious One". The depiction in temples typically shows a group of three stars, one of them is interpreted as Vega (α Lyrae) itself. As this is the fifth brightest star in the night sky, the other stars most be much fainter; perhaps it is associated with the two stars η, θ Lyrae that are typically referred to as "double star" in ancient time (not in the modern sense of the term) and β and γ Lyrae. Generally the name is associated with the lone star Vega, confirmed by the coordinates in star catalogues (Venketeswara R Pai and Shylaja, 2016)

In our animated GIF to display the position of Abhijit, the nakshatras śravaṇa and Dhaniṣṭhā happen to be at the edge of the map. This way, it becomes obvious that Abhijit is really far north, away from the line of the other asterisms.

The pictorial representation based on the drawing prepared / presented by Jones (1794) does not provide a clear picture of the scale.

Among the two temple engravings, the stone lintel has only 27 stars. There is an incomplete drawing between the last (Revatī) and the first (Aśvinī) which may be for Abhijit, although it does not fit into the sequence. The drawing presented here is barely readable with only the letter ji identifiable. The silver arch has a pattern similar to the drawing represented in Jones (1794), again not fitting in to the sequence.

Most of the texts list the 28 lunar mansions to include Abhijit. However, around 1500 BCE it was dropped from the list for astronomical calculations to fix the nakṣatra of the day (Abhyankar, 1991). This was a consequence of realization that the orbital period of the moon is 27 days and a small fraction (and not 28).

Stars within the Constellation Area

id	Label	IAU design.	description	Vmag
1	Vega	HIP 91262	Inside the hull	0.03
2	Sulafat	HIP 93194	Inside the hull	3.25
3	Sheliak	HIP 92420	Inside the hull	3.42
4	NAME del Lyr Cluster	NAME del Lyr Cluster	Inside the hull	3.8
5	δ 2 Lyrae	HIP 92791	Inside the hull	4.3
6	κ Lyrae	HIP 89826	Inside the hull	4.34
7	ζ 1 Lyrae	HIP 91971	Inside the hull	4.36
8	θ Lyrae	HIP 94713	Constellation lines (Vertex)	4.38
9	Aladfar	HIP 94481	Inside the hull	4.398
10	λ Lyrae	HIP 93279	Constellation lines (Vertex)	4.93
11	* eps01 Lyr A	HIP 91919	Inside the hull	4.991
12	ν 2 Lyrae	HIP 92405	Inside the hull	5.226
13	* eps02 Lyr A	HIP 91926	Inside the hull	5.23
14	ι Lyrae	HIP 93903	Inside the hull	5.253
15	-	HR 7162	Inside the hull	5.277
16	* eps02 Lyr B	HIP 91926	Inside the hull	5.35
17	-	HIP 91235	Inside the hull	5.41
18	δ 1 Lyrae	HIP 92728	Inside the hull	5.573
19	ζ 2 Lyrae	HIP 91973	Inside the hull	5.585
20	V542 Lyr	HIP 93104	Inside the hull	5.883
21	ν 1 Lyrae	HIP 92398	Inside the hull	5.91
22	-	HIP 89156	Constellation lines (Vertex)	5.97
23	-	HIP 92833	Inside the hull	6.03
24	Xihe	HIP 91852	Inside the hull	6.037
25	-	HIP 93354	Inside the hull	6.038
26	XY Lyr	HIP 91373	Inside the hull	6.05
27	* eps01 Lyr B	HIP 91919	Inside the hull	6.062
28	-	HIP 92551	Inside the hull	6.082
29	-	HIP 91119	Inside the hull	6.088
30	-	HIP 93437	Inside the hull	6.381
31	-	HIP 93210	Inside the hull	6.403
32	-	HIP 91820	Inside the hull	6.44
33	-	HIP 91707	Inside the hull	6.473
34	-	HIP 91552	Inside the hull	6.489
35	-	HIP 95056	Constellation lines (Vertex)	6.8
36	-	HIP 90720	Constellation lines (Vertex)	6.99

Transfer and Transformation of the Constellation

• 
  Abhijit nakṣatra in Tirupperunthurai (Athmanathaswamy temple) near Aranthangi, India, 10th century CE. (SMH 2025). There is no image drawn but one letter (ji) in the old language Tamil spell out the name of the constellation.
• 
  Abhijit as reconstructed by Jones (1794)

Mythology

mnemonic tales and cultural significance

References

• References (general)
• Abhyankar, K D, 1991, Misidentification of Some nakṣatras, Indian Journal of the History of Science, vol 26, p1
• https://insa.nic.in/(S(bsi2o0qzbhb5twodd2ir5e04))/writereaddata/UpLoadedFiles/IJHS/Vol26_1_1_KDAbhyankar.pdf
• Jones
• Shylaja, B S, 2026, Nakṣatras – names, patterns and identification, (submitted to IJHS)
• Venketeswara R Pai and Shylaja B S, 2016, Measurement of coordinates of nakṣatras in Indian Astronomy, Current Science, Vol 111, no 9, p1551