Mahabharata Quiz - 80

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Question – 80

What possibly Karna and Vyasa had seen as to say that the mark of the moon became separated or parted with?

Answer:

As seen from the earth, the Full moon has dark patches for nearly three-fourths of its surface. These dark patches are volcanic ‘seas’ that were formed during the early period of the formation of the moon. They have always remained the same. Any collision in that part is not detectable, but a powerful collision in the blank region on the lunar disc could create temporary marks formed by the scattered soil. That can be seen as a fresh mark on the face of the moon in the immediate aftermath of the collision.

The statement made by Karṇa and Vyasa - “somasya lakṣma vyāvṛttaṃ” (“The mark (sign) of the moon became separated or parted with”) goes to prove that the two had seen a fresh mark on the lunar disc on the night of Pushya. It is also possible that many had seen it, which is made out from the similar expression used by both Karna and Vyasa on different occasions. Vyasa could have repeated what everyone of that time must have been exclaiming anxiously.

On the night of Pushya, waning Shashthi tithi was running. On that evening the mishap had happened. The unexpected meteorite shower and accompanying events caused the people to watch the environment with fear and caution. By midnight, the waning Shashthi moon had risen which would appear as follows in normal times.

But the observers were shocked to see the dark mark shifted – this is what Karna and Vyasa said. This means a dark mark must have appeared on the usually blank surface that we see on our right in the above picture. We can identify region as in the following figure.

This is odd and that is why both have mentioned it as a ‘nimitta’ – a sudden unexplainable sighting which is likely to cause or indicate something bad. Generally, we find Vyasa repeating the odd events twice in the book of Mahabharata. This sighting is also repeated twice to stress the point that something indeed was noticed on the moon. 

This sighting made them keep looking up at the moon intensely and night after night. That is how they found that on the night of Trayodasi when the moon had to appear as a crescent in pre-dawn sky did not appear at all. The moon was missing even as early as Trayodasi when it must be seen lower in the eastern sky. That was the next shocking thing. But Karna seems to be well versed in astronomy that he foresaw the missing of the moon on Trayodasi by following the shift in the node, that is Rahu. Since the explanation about this is complex and lengthy, I request readers to read about it in my book. In this quiz section, let me move on to the next issue of loss of tithi.

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