Satabhisa

A brief information (language, culture of origin)

Etymology and History

This is Lambda Aquraius, identified with Śatabhiṣa, (Śatabhiṣaj; Śatabhiṣak) the 24th star among the 27 identified to mark the movement of the moon. This system of marking the path of the moon (and the sun) has been prevalent for almost 5000 years since the epics and older texts on astronomy mention the 27 stars.

Mythology

The literal meaning of the word is ‘100 physicians’ – the origin is not known. Dikshit, 1981, (https://archive.org/details/BharatiyaJyotishSastra2, p346) notes that the word śata was misunderstood as 100 and so the asterism was jotted down as consisting of 100 stars. The earliest identification of 100 stars by Varahamihira of 7th century has been carried forward. The works prior to that refer to it as a single star as per the table in p344. Because of this misidentification it is sometimes referred to as śatatārā, (meaning 100 stars) also.

IAU Working Group Star Names

The name was discussed and approved by the IAU WGSN in 2024. As this star is already named ..., the WGSN chose ... (not to apply/ to apply the name to a neighbouring star/ to ...) in the IAU-CSN.

Reference

https://archive.org/details/BharatiyaJyotishSastra2 Sarma, S.R., 2023. A descriptive catalogue of Indian Astronomical Instruments MS https://srsarma.in/catalogue.php