Mahabharata Quiz - 90

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Question – 90

Under what circumstances two consecutive Full Moons happen in the same star, say in Krittika as noticed before the Mahabharata war?

Answer:

This rare phenomenon can be pictorially depicted for better understanding.

This is the normal movement of the sun and the moon in clockwise direction.

The red circle is the ecliptic, the path of the sun which is in fact the orbit of the earth.

The dotted circle in blue is the orbit of the moon. It is inclined by 5 degrees to the ecliptic.

The sun and the moon move along the respective paths in clockwise direction as shown by an arrow mark.

The two orbits (lunar and ecliptic) cut each other at two points called nodes, which are known as Rahu and Ketu. The orbits are not stationary. They keep moving. As a result, the Rahu and Ketu keep moving – but in anti-clockwise direction. That is also shown by red arrow marks.

From Rahu to Ketu, the path of the moon will be above the ecliptic. From Ketu to Rahu the lunar path is below the ecliptic. This can be watched with the naked eye for over a phase when we see waxing moon rising in one corner of the west and ending up as Full moon in another corner of the east. Nowadays, with the help of apps, we can follow the moon crossing the Rahu or Ketu. In Mahabharata days, they observed with the naked eye.

Now look at this picture.

Something happened to the lunar path that it shifted from dotted blue to plain blue orbit.

The moon at ‘M’ has shifted to ‘M1’ which is in an altered orbit. That orbit cuts the ecliptic at R1 and not R.

R represents Rahu. Now Rahu has moved to R1. This is told by Karna that Rahu is moving towards the Sun. This dialogue is construed by many that eclipse is indicated.

But no, in normal course Rahu and Sun meet from opposite directions. Never can Rahu go clockwise, behind the sun. In this case it shifted towards the Sun, which is odd. This was observed by Karna by watching the sky.

Since moon has moved from M to M1, which is a forward position, it reached the sun to cause Amavasya early.

That also happened to be the same part of the sky the previous month.

That is how two Full Moons occurred in the same star consecutively for two months.

This is the simplest way to express what happened.

But how it happened is explained by the comet fall.

The thrust force of the falling debris caused the moon as well as the earth to lose their initial equilibrium which however was restored after some time.

The month after Margashira, the moon has taken a normal course.

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