Wednesday, August 30, 2023

Mahabharata Quiz - 45

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Question - 45 

Is Ratha Saptami intended to remember the altered time of Uttarayana that forced Bhishma to lie on the arrow bed for 58 nights?

Answer:

Yes. The tithi- star alignment changed once for ever at that time and it continues till today. The first day of the 5-year Yuga, that was supposed to begin on Magha Shukla Pratipat started on Krishna Ekadasi of Pushya month.

There was no change in the position of the sun. It continued to turn northward in the star Uttaradhadha but the moon did not join that on the day after Amavasya as it used to be. It joined the sun four tithi-s earlier at Krishna Ekadasi.

This change being caused by a sudden change in the 2nd year, with the new year starting in Magha Shukla Ashtami, and Uttarayana happening at Magha Shukla Saptami, the sages decided to immortalize it into memory as an odd date of the Sun turning northward. That is remembered as Ratha Saptami – the Sun turning his chariot on an unseasonal date of Shukla Saptami.

Tithi Dvayam is a conditional feature of Ratha Saptami indicating similar Tithi Dvayam on the day Bhishma left. By its presence at sunrise, Saptami was the tithi of the day marking the change of direction of the chariot of the sun, but Ashtami should follow sometime soon. This must have been present on the day Bhishma left, for he cast off his body on the very day of Saptami when the sun’s chariot turned north with Rohini at sunrise, but Ashtami was running when he left the world.

The Ganesha moment exists in this context requiring us to find out what caused the unusual extension of a month when it should not have been. The Adhika Maasa in Magha that caused Bhishma to wait for the arrival of the Nija Maasa must be probed to identify the root cause of an anomaly that caused a change in the lunar days. That can be done by a systematic analysis of the events that unfolded after the end of the exile of the Pandava-s.

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