Month- Tithi-Nakshatra alignment for 58 days of Bhishma’s waiting period (Part 23: Mahabharata date).

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Bhishma said that he waited for 58 days to leave this earth, while Krishna mentioned 56 days. To know when exactly the first day of the 58-day period commenced, let me construct the tithi-star alignment from the known factor. The known factor is Magha Shukla Ashtami coinciding with Rohini when Bhishma left his mortal coils. To recap the verses discussed in Part 4, Uttarayana started after the completion of Saptami in Shukla Paksha of Magha (13-153-28) and the moon was in Rohini at the time of sunrise on that day (12-47-3).[1] From that day let me list out the days on the reverse till the first day. (Figure 1)

Fig 1: 58 days of Bhishma Nirvana with star-tithi

The biggest revelation of this reverse counting is that 58 or 56 day period did not begin on the 10th day of the war when Bhishma fell. It started from the beginning of the war. The number of days listed here pertains to solar risings (solar days). Bhagavad Gita was rendered on the 2^nd day in this table. Krishna having killed Bhishma on that day, the remaining days turned out to be only 56!

1. Points of synchronization:

1. The first day falls in Pushya month. This concurs with my derivation done in previous parts that the war started in Pushya month. It didn’t start in Margashira or in Kartika.

2. The Full-Moon occurred in the beginning of this list of days concurring with Drona’s mention of the lunar eclipse rising with horns pointing downwards.

3. The counting of Bhishma’s waiting period includes the entire war period. This is close to the count-down that started from the time of Gitopadesa that was interpreted from Krishna’s version in Part 22.

2. Points of non-synchronization.

1. Shukla Ekadasi, the traditional date of Gita Jayanti comes within the initial period of this data.

2. The 18 day war period doesn’t synchronize with the date after Shukla Ekadasi (Gita Jayanti).

3. Paurnami coincides with Mrigashirsha in the above table (Fig 1) whereas it should have been on Punarvasu.

The non-synchronisation is due to the variance of tithi-star alignment.

The moon makes 62 synodic revolutions and 67 star rounds in the 5 year Yuga. As a result the moon takes 1.028 tithi to cross a star.^[2]  The tithi exceeds the star such that the tithi and the star do not match. The 1^st day of the war is reproduced here from Fig 1 of Part 19 to show that Rohini coincided with Shukla Dwadasi (Figure 2), but in the hand-made list (Figure 1) Rohini coincided with Shukla Caturdasi!

              Fig 2: The first day of the war

The presence of two tithis seen in the above simulation is a case of Tithi Dvayam. This is to imply that there was tithi-solar day mismatch and star-solar day mismatch within the 58 day reverse data.

The re-aligned Tithi-nakshatra- month for the first few days covering the 18 day Mahabharata period is produced below. It perfectly concurs with Mahabharata version of Shravana nakshatra when Balarama returned. Shravana was at sun rise on the 19th day when the mace- fight took place. This re-alignment is done in Figure 3 by matching Rohini- Mrigashirsha with Shukla Dwadasi (S-12) –Trayodasi (S-13) as noticed in the simulator.

Fig 3: The war period synchronized with star-tithi

The above table incorporating the re-aligned tithi- nakshatra perfectly matches with the 3rd day Full moon (lunar eclipse), the fall of Bhishma on the 10th day (when he started lying down on the arrow bed) and the Gada Yuddha in Shravana that coincided with the end of Balarama’s pilgrimage.

On the day of Bhishma’s fall the star was Hasta that matches with the simulation though it shows Shashthi tithi still running then (Figure 4)

Fig 4: The day of fall of Bhishma

Earlier I pointed out 12 hour difference between the actual time at the end of the tithi (and the lunar eclipse) on the 3^rd day of the war and the simulated version, caused by an anomaly in the speed of moon. By that difference, it is theorized that Shashthi almost ended at the time of Bhishma’s fall, followed by Saptami.

 

1. The rationale of Krishna’s 56 days:

Starting from the day after Gitopadesa (when Krishna claimed he killed Bhishma) Bhishma lived for 56 days as per the table in Figure 1. A counter to this may be quoted from the verses uttered by Krishna at the cremation of Bhishma.^[3] The Goddess of river Bhagirathi (Ganga), the mother of Bhishma was grief stricken at the death of her son Bhishma. Krishna consoled her by telling that Bhishma was not killed by anyone! He remained alive till he decided to cast off his body. This seems to run contradictory to Krishna’s claim during Vishvarupa that it was he who killed Bhishma. Since Bhishma was invincible until he decided to write on his own his time of death, Krishna’s words make better sense that the countdown for Bhishma Nirvana started at the time of Vishvarupa. 

2. Bhishma’s 58 days:

• If we count from the first day of the war, Rohini was at sunrise. On the day of Uttarayana when Bhishma left it was again Rohini. In between only 54 stars had passed. Therefore Bhishma’s count was not star-based.
• If we count the tithis, there are 57 tithis starting from the night of Shukla Ekadasi, on the day of Gitopadesa till the night of Magha Shukla Saptami.
• If we count the tithis from the previous night when Pushya Shukla Dasami was running, there are 58 tithis. Starting the count from that time is justifiable on an important war-related activity.
• Bharani was the star of the day then. Bharani is very well known for doing war- commencement Homa (Rana yajna)!
• There is ample evidence in Tamil literature for symbolically starting the war on Bharani day by offering sacrifices to Pishaca (vampire) on that day. A separate literature called ‘Bharani’ literature is found in Tamil exclusively on war feats of the kings. The Chola King Kulottunga I’s Kalinga war was written as ‘Kalingatthu Bharani’ (The Bharani of Kalinga) in the form of a conversation among the vampires waiting for food, i.e. the bodies of the dead soldiers. Yet another popular Bharani in Tamil was on Daksha’s yajna, known as ‘Dakka Yāga Bharani’ (The Bharani of Daksha). This tradition, popular in the past must have been followed in any war including the Mahabharata war.^[4] The commencement of the war occurring closer to Bharani strengthens this view.  A huge battle such as the Bharata war must have been fixed on a day designated for starting with the war-yajna and that day is Bharani.
• Based on this, the re-aligned initial days of the war is shown in Figure 5.

Fig 5: The days before the war began

Bhishma as the chief Commander must have participated in Bharani Homa and was present in the war field right from the night of Shukla Dasami. Counting from that tithi, he slept in the war field for 58 tithis (till Magha Shukla Saptamī) enduring the hardships of the war field.

An overwhelming revelation is that the waiting period covered the entire war period.

The tithi-star-month alignment does not support 

the counting of Bhishma’s waiting period 

from the 10^th day of the war.

The next issue pertains to what happened after Krishna asked Bhishma to impart knowledge to the Pandavas. As per the time-line deciphered so for, 

* the coronation took place on Magha Shukla Dwitīya. 

* Krishna and the Pandavas met Bhishma on Magha Shukla Tritiya.

Only four days were left for the Uttarayana day designated by Bhishma himself.

For how many days Bhishma imparted the knowledge?

More importantly on which day Bhishma delivered the “Vishnu Sahasranama” – the thousand names of Vishnu that continues to be recited reverentially till date?

What are the evidences from the Mahabharata giving us the answers for these?

 

(To be continued)

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[1] Gita Press Edition

[2] No of synodic revolutions in 5 years = 62 (62 x 30 = 1860 tithi)

No of sidereal revolutions of the moon = 67 (67 x 27 = 1809 stars)

1809 stars = 1860 tithis, therefore 1 star = 1860 / 1809 = 1.028 tithi

[3]Mahabharata: 13- 154- 29 to 31

[4] Stealing the cattle as a prelude to attack a country and war dances were common throughout Bharatavarsha. They are incorporated as war traditions in the Tamil Grammar work called “Tol Kappiyam.” Bharani yajna was part of that tradition. Therefore it is presumed that Mahabharata war started with Bharani Yajna. Sacrifices were made at that yajna. Folklore in Tamil refers to Iravan, born to Ulupi and Arjuna as the person sacrificed at this yajna done before the war. However Mahabharata does not support this view but describes Iravan’s fight and his death on the 8^th day of the war.

The 4000 year old labyrinth in Russia looks like the Chakra Vyuha of Mahabharata.

 

The famous labyrinth near Kandalakshi in Kola Peninsula in Russia is a source of mystery to researchers. Diverse theories have been mooted that range from ritualistic purpose to navigational guide to seafarers, owing to the fact that similar labyrinths are found in the coastal region around the peninsula. The location is far north, lying inside the Arctic Circle.

The labyrinth that is dated at 2000 BCE is shown below.

Mysterious stone labyrinths on the Kola Peninsula. Source: Lori/Legoion-Media

The surprise element is that this looks similar to the Chakra Vyuha – the circular formation of military array employed by the Kauravas in the Mahabharata war in which Abhimanyu, the son of Arjuna was trapped and killed.

Though no one have an idea of how this formation looked like, I happened to see this formation in the walls of Halebid temple and am producing it here from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Halebid2.JPG .

The utility of this formation seems to work in two days. One can be kept safe in the middle from an attacker who would find it difficult to reach him though he could see him. The attacker, if not aware of the route runs the danger of getting trapped. That was how Abhimanyu was trapped.

The similar design of the labyrinth in Kola Peninsula makes me think that it could have been used to trap animals. Once an animal enters the labyrinth, it may be going round and round through the passages and may not know how to come out of it.

The date of the labyrinth in Kandalaksha coincided with the presence of the Sami people, known for hunting and reindeer herding. They might have used these labyrinths to trap the animals or keeping them from escape. But from where they got the exact replica of this design?

Its here I find this labyrinth as an additional evidence for Sami people’s connection with India in a remote past. They share  lot of cultural similarities with Indians, particularly the Tamil people, which can be read in my blog on Sami and Estonia connection with Tamils .

Wherever the Tamil presence is noticed in the past, there similar labyrinths are found. The tablet with the motif of the labyrinth shown below was recovered from the site of the Mycenaean palace supposed to have been destroyed in a fire in 1200 BCE. Though rectangular, the concept is the same.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NAMA_Tablette_1287.jpg

Similar rectangular labyrinth is found engraved in a silver coin found in Knossos, where Minotaur was housed. Its period was 400 BCE. It is shown below.

 

The myth of the Minotaur who was housed at the centre of this labyrinth might give further clues on the utility of the labyrinth at Kandalaksha. Either a tough animal was kept trapped there or some precious animal was kept safe from the predators.

Much older than these from the Minoan and Sami society, were the seals of Lothal that also exhibit similar but simple patterns of labyrinth.

The early Harappan (Lothal) coinciding with the Mahabharata time (3136 BCE) we find the Chakra Vyuha of Mahabharata the oldest of all the available designs of the labyrinths. From Mahabharata, we are able to further connect it with the design of the chamber of the Soma drinker. The Soma drinker was expected to confine himself within a chamber. Though the chamber does not look like a labyrinth, one has to go around and round to reach the middle chamber whose purpose was to keep the person (soma drinker) away from outside world and particularly away from sunlight! A reconstruction of such a model chamber has been attempted by scholars based on Susruta samhita.

Source article : The Soma Drinker of Ancient India - Kamla-Raj Enterprises

Similar purpose of keeping the Minotaur is found in the Mycenaean labyrinth. The Kandalaksha labyrinth also could have been used for a similar purpose of keeping their herd in safe custody.

Related articles from my blog:

Labyrinth of Minotaur

Tamil connection to Sami people  

*****

From

https://www.look4ward.co.uk/archeology/baffling-puzzle-prehistoric-russia-s-labyrinths/

The Baffling Puzzle Of Prehistoric Russia’s Labyrinths

 June 26, 2017

In early October 2014 the Kosmopoisk research expedition on the Kola Peninsula in northwest Russia, an area with five stone labyrinths, came to an end. Some of these archeological monuments date back to 2,000 B.C., meaning that they are older than the Egyptian pyramids. Traditional science links the labyrinths to northern peoples’ religious outlooks. However, one of Russia’s most well-known researchers of anomalous phenomena, Vadim Chernobrov, the director of Kosmopoisk, is convinced that the stone patterns served as landmarks for ancient mariners.

Where do these circles come from?

The most famous labyrinth above Russia’s polar circle can be reached by foot from the little town of Kandalakshi in the southern part of the Kola Peninsula, about 800 miles from Moscow. The path goes through a pine forest, with volunteers from a local ecological organization putting up signs so tourists do not get lost.

The ancient builders chose a perfectly round peninsula for the labyrinths. The stone roads are now almost completely covered with grass and moss. There is a plaque declaring that the archeological monument dates back to 2,000 B.C., the only reminder of the site’s place in antiquity.

These types of labyrinths, or Babylons, as scientists call them, are also found on the coasts of the White Sea and the Barents Sea, in Scandinavian countries and on the British islands. It is still not clear why they were built and scientists are divided on the issue. Some think that the labyrinths were used in shamanistic rituals, while others are convinced of Babylons’ utilitarian nature: they could have been traps for fish or orientation points for seafarers.

“The sailors had to place marks on safe plots of land,” says Chernobrov. “And it was even more important to indicate the place where they could push out from the coast towards the open sea. In antiquity, fearing storms, mariners tried to navigate along the coast, but in many places it made sense to shorten the route through straits, gulfs and the open sea. The labyrinths were points of a guiding thread, leading the navigators along the coast.

In order to prove their theory, members of the expedition used geometric constructions that determine how far the labyrinths could be seen from the sea. Chernobrov believes that the labyrinths were intentionally given a round form so that the pattern could be seen at a distance of several miles independently of the sun’s position during the entire polar day.

During the expedition researchers frequently noticed that the labyrinth is never found in the shade of cliffs or trees and that the sunlight always makes it stand out if observed against a gloomy landscape. It is even noticeable when covered with moss and lichen. Even in the winter, when covered by a thick layer of snow, the pattern can be seen clearly.

Kosmopoisk’s version of events is not considered mainstream in scientific circles. Most scientists believe that the Babylons were used by ancient peoples for religious rituals, such as when appealing to deities for an abundance of fish. The round patterns could have been guides into the kingdom of the dead or for detaining the soul of a deceased person so that it could not enter the world of the living.

Scientists say that the version about the labyrinths being beacons is not scientific. “Can an exponent of this theory name at least one historical reference in which a real mariner reported how the labyrinth helped him orient towards land?” asks Konstantin Kotkin, researcher at the Murmansk Region Local History Museum. “Most likely not. I am not familiar with these sources. And science is supported precisely by this type of information.”

There is another version in the documents describing the labyrinths. Since the Babylons were built next to the sea in places abundant with fish, they could have been used as traps. The fish could have been brought into the confused patterns with the flow of the tide and then might not have been able to find their way back as the water ebbed. However, this theory also has not received much recognition.

According to Kotkin, in order for ancient people to feed themselves in this manner, it would have been necessary to build an enormous number of labyrinths with one at each location where fishermen threw out their nets, which is difficult to imagine.

Another debatable question is the date of the labyrinths. Scientists in the middle of the 20th century estimated them to be 4,000 years old. Contemporary researchers, however, say that the stone patterns are much younger. They determine their age by the height of the lichen growing inside the labyrinths. Unfortunately, no one has any concrete proof.

“Science is incapable of unequivocally solving the problem of the age or the purpose of the labyrinths,” says Kotkin. “The monuments don’t tell us anything about themselves and it is very difficult to prove any of the theories. Therefore any one of them is as good as the other. It is important that the theories are supported by real facts. However, all in all, without a doubt the labyrinths are valuable archeological findings that demonstrate the uniqueness of the Russian North.”

Horoscopic prediction of vulnerability to Covid-19

Sharing the news that my research work aimed at deriving the horoscopic features that indicate vulnerability of people to catch the disease, Covid-19 can be read in the special edition of "Dr.B.V.Raman Memorial Number" dated January 2021. The Magazine can be downloaded from https://astrologicalmagazine.com/

Free download of the article here: 

https://www.academia.edu/46901914/COVID_19_indications_in_a_horoscope

Our observation in the past one year showed that the virus didn't attack all and sundry but seemed to have shown its presence in some without any symptoms but attacked a few severely. It is believed that by now a vast number of people would have got exposed to it but developed immunity. 

In this backdrop I had taken up this research to check from multiple angles,

* to zero in on the specific years of the 60-year calendar in use in India among the Hindus, that are supposed to witness a pandemic as per astrology

* to compare those years with the list of the years of pandemics in India in the past to cross-check the reliability of the findings 

* to deduce the vulnerability of India to get attacked by a pandemic in a year on the basis of the Solar Annual chart that continues to be in use in South India

* to deduce the vulnerability of India to the attack (of any pandemic) on the basis of the Indian Independence Chart 

A combined reading of all the above would give an overall assessment on whether India would be affected by a pandemic in any given year. 

From this is I am moving to the individual horosocpe.

Based on the case studies of those who contacted Covid -19 with different levels of affliction and a conceptual derivation of the astrological features to look for in a horoscope, based on the nature of Covid-19, I have derived the basic features in the horoscope that are indicative of the vulnerability to catch the disease.

This is not to scare the people but to forewarn the people so that those having the features - the critical ones given in the conclusion - must remain safe and secluded to avoid contact. Others can breath the air freely !

Wish you  all a disease-free life.

Related articles:

Coronavirus pandemic – detection and course astrologically explained.

Does Agnihotra Homa offer protection from Corona virus?