Mahabharata Quiz - 89

 Click here for the previous question

Question: 89

Can you sequence the events in a nutshell showing the difference in moon’s phase and appearance?

Answer:

The sequence is this:

# It was Krishna paksha (waning phase) in the lunar month of Karthika.

# On the evening of Pushya star, a shower of meteors was experienced by the people of Hastinapura. The running tithi was Krishna Shashthi.

# When people watched the moon that night, it appeared like Krishna Saptami with a reduced size of the moon. Whereas it should have been Krishna Shashthi.

# They also noticed a fresh mark on the plain region of the lunar disc where normally no marks are seen.

# The phases in the next days showed the moon going from Saptami to Ashtami, to Navami, Dasami, Ekadasi and Dwadasi.

# By the time of the next tithi, that is, Trayodasi, the moon completely disappeared from the sky indicating the onset of Amavasya.

# The star of that day was Vishakha while in normal course it should have been Jyeshtha – a star after Vishakha.

# Now the waxing phase starts which is called Margashira month. People were anxiously watching the growing phase of the moon.

# Usually, the growing phase will be bright as seen from Bharat because the plain regions will appear bright first. But they could see no brightness of the lunar disc.

# The mark that earlier appeared is not seen, but the entire disc appeared fiery red with the regular marks not seen.

# The phases were moving very fast with kshaya tithi often.

# The Fullmoon which ought to appear on Mrigashira star appeared earlier, on Karttika.

# Only the previous month of Karthika, the Full Moon appeared in Krittika star. But again, in Margashira month, the Full Moon appeared in Krittika star.

# So, for two consecutive months Full Moon appeared in Krittika star which is impossible happen.

If people consider Margashira as Margashira, it is not so because it was Karthika because the Full Moon occurred in Karttika (once again)

So, the inference is that a full lunar month has gone unaccounted for by this.

Click here for the next question