Mahabharata Quiz - 78

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Question – 78

You said that Karna made five odd observations. One was the early occurrence of Gara Karana. What were the other odd observations?

Answer:

Of the five observations, two were purely astronomy- based but three were odd sightings. One such observation was explained in the previous question. Now let me take up the oddest of all – a reference to the changed appearance of the moon. Karna said that the sign on the moon shifted position!

Karṇa said, “somasya lakṣma vyāvṛttaṃ” (MB: 5.141.10)

The same verse is repeated by Vyasa to Dhritarashtra just before the war,

“vyāvṛttaṃ lakṣma somasya” (MB: 6.2.32)

The words are jumbled but they mean the same.

This being an important verse let me do a word for word translation:

vyāvṛttaṃ = to be distinguished, to become separated, to diverge from, to divide, to part with, to wind in different directions.

lakṣma = a mark, sign, stain, bad mark, blemish (neuter nominative, accusative, vocative, singular, stem: lakṣman)

somasya = of the moon (masculine, genitive, singular, stem: soma)

Overall meaning:

“The mark (sign) of the moon became separated or parted with.”

This observation looks bizarre, but it refers to some abnormality with reference to the features found on the lunar disc. Not a shred of evidence of an eclipse in this meaning, yet most researchers treated this as evidence for a lunar eclipse.

This observation was given by Karṇa during the waning phase of the lunar Kartika month. So, any lunar eclipse suggested by researchers must have occurred on Kartika Full Moon. Just before the Kartika Full Moon, Krishna left Upaplavya in the star of Revati. But there is no mention of an eclipse soon after he started anywhere in the continuing descriptions.  Whatever we have been reading right from the time Krishna left Upaplavya was about natural calamities pointing to a cosmic impact.

Scientifically speaking, atmospheric turbulence on the earth can make the lunar surface appear to shimmer for naked eye observation under extreme conditions experienced at that time. The dark marks on the lunar surface could have appeared blinking or shaky. But here the observation is different. A new spot or a sign was seen in the featureless region of the moon giving the impression that a pre-existing sign got separated and moved to a new location. The analysis of this odd observation gives mind-boggling revelations.

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