२५ रेवती

+++(ζ Piscium)+++

• “Classical astronomy identifies it with ζ Piscium. This is a really undistinguished star. So we cannot be sure if that is what was originally meant or a higher up star like β Andromedae was used. Narahari Achar holds that the goddess Pathyā Revatī mentioned in the Svastisūkta of the Atri-s implied this asterism. While this is not impossible we are not entirely sure of that especially given the undistinguished nature of the star identified with it.”
• “The constellation of Pisces while clearly discernable under dark skies is a dim one. This goes against the early H tendency to use bright asterisms to mark nakShatra-s even if they are far from the ecliptic. What were the stars defining revatI? The nakShatra-kalpa of the atharvan tradition holds say ekA revatI: hence, there was only one star in it. siddhAnta astronomy takes that to be zeta Piscium. While close to the ecliptic, at mag 5.2 that is really a faint start to have been the original. 2. We know that the preceding proShThapada literally meant the constellation of the feet of the stool. That makes it unambiguous that square of Pegasus was seen as a stool by the Arya-s, and revatI should be to the west of that. Hence, we suspect that originally revatI was probably beta Andromedae.”
• 2nd deity: “The next puzzling issue regarding revatI is the assignment of dual deities with it - puShTipatI pashupA. One of those is transparently named as pUShan. Who is the other one? Most likely it is the goddess pathyA revatI, whom the gopathabrAhmaNa of3 the AV holds to be the wide of the goat-riding pUShan, with the 2 being the guardians of paths, and in this case horses, cows and other domesticates+ food. … The aitareya brAhmaNa mentions the sun following the path laid our out pathyA (revatI). Given the solar connections of puShan, this coupling is most likely.”