Bhujanga

Authors: Shylaja, Susanne M Hoffmann

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Bhujaga on the celestial globe H001 in Jaipur, India

Bhujanga (भुजङ्ग), Serpent, is an Indian star name, found in the catalogue of stars (Ref). Since this is a southern star, it is not often cited by other classical texts from North India.

Concordance, Etymology, History

The word means a serpent. Sometimes it is also written as Bhujaga. It is usually referred to a large-sized king cobra variety.

Origin of Constellation

The star name is engraved as Bhujaga on the celestial globe H001 in Jaipur, India, as detailed in the online catalogue of Indian astronomical instruments. (Venketeshwara R Pai and Shylaja B S, 2019). The constellation is named Nauka (ship) which is a translation of the Greek Argo (Navis in Latin, "nautikos" from "naos" meaning "ship" in Greek); it is written as naukamuthih (image of the ship) on the Indian globe (Sarma, 2022).

The coordinates of the star are written as

व्यंगांशाद्बिः ५|५० द्विमितिः भुजङ्गो |

याम्यः सपादाब्धिरसैः  ६४ |१५ विभागैः ||

vyaṃgāṃśādbiḥ 5|50 dvimitiḥ bhujaṅgo |

yāmyaḥ sapādābdhirasaiḥ 64 |15 vibhāgaiḥ ||

which translates as

1/6th of a degree subtracted from six degrees [5|50] becomes one of the coordinates and the other coordinate of the star Bhujanga, which is along the south with second order brightness, is sixty four degrees along with quarter of a degree [64|15 S]

This agrees with Gamma Velorum (γ Vel).

Religion/ Tales/ Mythology

Bhujanga is a name found in many epics and puranas. However, which particular one is used in naming this star is not very clear.

References

• References (general)

Shylaja & Pai (2019)	Shylaja & Pai (2019). Āpa and Apāṃvatsa – enigmatic stars catalogued in Sūryasiddhānta, J. Astrophys. Astr 40:48 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12036-019-9614-1
Sarma, S R, 2022	Catalogue of Indian Astronomical Instruments (online)
	https://srsarma.in/catalogue.php