Mahabharata Quiz - 82

 Click here for the previous question

Question – 82

What other odd observation did Karna tell Krishna?

Answer:

Among the five astronomy observations, the second most bizarre one, other than the shift in the mark on the moon, is about the planet Mars. Karna said,

“The planet Angaāraka (Mars), wheeling, O slayer of Madhu, towards the constellation Jyeṣṭha, approacheth towards Anurādha, indicating a great slaughter of friends.” (MB: 5.141.8)

After Anusham (Anuradha), the star Jyeshtha comes. By having said that Mars wheeled towards Anuradha from Jyeshtha, a retrograde motion of the planet Mars is indicated. Almost all the Mahabharata researchers treated it as retrogression without realising the fact that it cannot.

Why it cannot?

Because the month was Kartika which means the Sun was in the sign of Scorpio. Anuradha and Jyeshtha are the stars located in Scorpio. The verse shows that Mars was also present in Scorpio. As per the rule of astronomy, Mars, an outer planet cannot retrograde in the sign where the sun is also located. The retrogression of Mars begins only away from Sun – that is when it transits 5^th, 6^th, 7^th, 8^th and the 9^th signs from the sun.

Retrogression can be explained by the following figure. The sun is in the centre. The blue dots are the locations of the earth, and the red ones are those of Mars. Note that Mars is on the side of the Sun and the earth.

The earth is in the inner circle and the Mars in outer circle. When they negotiate the curve, the earth in the inner circle will be ahead of Mars in the outer circle. The resultant positions are shown on the slide on our right. It shows that Mars seems to go backward as the earth takes the lead but ultimately takes a forward course. This phenomenon known as retrogression will happen when Mars is on the side of Sun and more so when it is in the same sign as the sun is.

In Kartika it was present with the Sun in Scorpio. So, it can never go retrograde at that time. But Karna noticed that it ‘wheeled’ backward towards Jyeshtha. This is impossible to happen in Nature, but it did happen following the comet-hit. Why?

Click here for the next question