Was the week-day concept conceived in Gunung Padang Structure (GPS) located on Mt. Suryavān? (Part 2)

Part 1: ‘Gunung Padang’ megalithic structure, an observation platform for Mt. Pushpitaka described in Vālmīki Rāmāyana

In Part 1of this series, the purpose of Gunung Padang Megalithic Structure (GPM) as an observation platform for Mt. Pushpitaka (Mt. Gede) was discussed based on the Ramayana verses. The surprising element in the Ramayana verses is the absence of mention of the incredible structure at GPM. The text does mention about  two mountains close to each other – Mt. Pushpitaka and Mt. Suryavān – near the equator but there is hardly any reference to the unique man-made structure at GPM that is now found to be in existence for more than 20,000 years. This makes me wonder whether we are missing out anything in understanding the verses properly. Though I proposed the feasibility of Mt. Gunung Nagara Padang as Mt. Suryavān, certain important evidences and inputs from Indic background make me think that GPM could have been Mt. Suryavān – the Mount of the Sun! This write-up focuses on those evidences. 

Javanese interest in astrology – astronomy

Not known to many is the connection between the people of Java and the people of Madurai in Tamilnadu in South India. A Sangam age verse in a text called “Madurai Kānci” dated around 3^rd  century BCE (on the basis of Māngulam and Arittāpatti inscriptions on the Pandyan King Nedumchezhiyan, the King extolled in Madurai Kānci ) refers to the visit of honey-complexioned Javanese to Madurai during a festival in the month of Chiṭṭirai (when the sun was in sidereal Aries).

Madurai Kānci – lines 475 to 481

Meaning: The honey-coloured “Sāvakar” (people of Java) offered flowers and incense to the scholarly people who know the past and the future and can judge the events on the earth and the sky.

The description refers to scholars who were engaged in astronomy related issues. Only astronomers of yore watched the sky and the earth to ascertain the way of Nature. The context is about the city life of Madurai and the astrologers residing in the city. They  were approached by the Javanese people, presumably to know or discuss about astronomy and astrology (which is based on astronomy but connects a result to astronomy events). Presence of astrologers in Madurai is further stated in the text but the specific reference to the Javanese  of meeting scholars of astronomy makes a surprise read. Offer of flower and incense continues to be a practice in Java (and throughout Sundaland) in worship and in paying reverence to others.

This verse gives an impression of presence of astrology – astronomy knowledge in Java in pre-common era, though there is absolutely no evidence of it in Java anytime in the last two millennia. What they probably learned or discussed with the astrologers of Madurai raise some interesting conjectures.

First of all, the time was the month of Chiṭṭirai (Aries) the time of equinox and peak summer in South India. A 7-day festival was going on at that time as per the text, which  continues to be celebrated even today for 10 days and stretching to a month (of Aries). Of particular relevance to Tamil connection was the knowledge of “Hora” that forms the basis of week days and the method of determination of the equinoctial day in another text (Nedunal Vādai) dedicated to the same king, Nedumchezhiyan. Java being a location in Shāka Dwīpa where the early Tamils including Skanda lived, regular communication between the Javanese and the Tamils seemed to have existed at least till 3^rd century BCE.

Did the week-day concept evolve in Gunung Padang?  

Today the 7-day week with similarity in the names of the days is used throughout the world. Though many ancient societies may lay a claim on following the week-days since antiquity, the concept of how the week-days have evolved exists only among the Tamil speakers of the Vedic society. The earliest written evidence is found in Tolkāppiyam, the grammar work of the 3^rd Sangam age that started 3500 years ago, that refers to “Hora” as the basis of time. Pronounced as “Orai” in Tamil this is based on the premise that the day and the night are divided into 12 equal parts of an hour each (24 equal parts in all) known as Hora-s  and named after seven planets.

They are distributed in the order as Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury and Moon, and are repeated in this order continuously and endlessly for ever, for ages!! The rationale of this line-up is found in Indic texts such as Surya Siddhānta, as the orbits of planets one below the other. Though this is not true in reality, this appears to be how it could have been perceived by the ancient society by naked eye observation.

Venus and Mercury were considered to be in lower orbits, because they don’t cross the sky and appear low. Moon was rightly perceived to be closer to the earth. From moon to Saturn these celestial entities were arranged in the order as observed and understood by them. That early society thought that these planets (sun and moon are also regarded as planets known as ‘Graha-s’ by the Vedic society even till this date) control each hora of the day one after another.

In a day the hora-s keep moving one after another for 24 horas. The enumeration starts from sunrise. The naming of the week days is done on the basis of the hora at sunrise. For example, if the sun hora is there at the time of sunrise, then the day is called as Sun’s Day – Sunday. If moon hora is present at the time of sunrise, the day is called as Monday. Like this other week days have been named.

In the table given below, the sequence of 24 Horas is shown between one sunrise and another. If a day begins with Sun hora (making it Sunday) then the 25^th hora that comes with the next sun rise is Moon hora which makes the next day Monday! Similarly, the next 25^th hora that comes with next sunrise makes Tuesday and like this other week days have been named. The table given below shows that the naming of the week days as Sunday, Monday, Tuesday etc can happen only if the day begins with (the 25^th hora) Sun hora, Moon hora, Mars hora, Mercury hora, Jupiter hora, Venus hora and Saturn hora respectively for the 7 days and get repeated endlessly.

Distribution of Hora in a week

The truth behind this series is that this works ONLY near the Equator or within the tropical zone (in close degrees to the equator) where every subsequent sun rise comes methodically at the 25^th hora! In other words, this concept of Hora could have been conceived by someone or a society that lived on or near the Equator and seen specific characteristics changing hour-wise (hora-wise) for full 24 hours of the day and also seen that a new sunrise begins at the 25^th hora.

Though this knowledge remains with the Tamil speakers in South India who continue to use it for predictive purposes, the practical observation and conception of this theory could not have happened in South India or in any latitudes in the north or the south owing to the fact that the 25^th hora doesn’t always coincide with the subsequent sunrise in certain months of the year. Looking around the places close to the current location of Tamil speakers (South India) to identify the probable region where the observation of the Hora-week-day concept could have evolved, only the GPM scores as an  ideal location for such observation.

Sun-rise at Gunung Padang (Photo courtesy: https://www.flickr.com/photos/tjetjep/15273339116/in/photostream/)

It’s location in Java (Shāka Dwīpa) where the ancestral Indic people (who have spoken Tamil or from whom Tamil emerged) and Skanda (who promoted Tamil through Sangam Assemblies) had lived and its location at 6-degree South of the equator with an ideal environment for watching sun-rise and sun’s sojourn through the sky, had enabled generations of people to not only keenly observe Nature but also observe changes in Nature’s energy with  every passing hour which they named after the seven planets.

The GPM offers an ideal location to observe the movement of the planets in the night sky too. The Ramayana reference to watching sun-rise and moon-rise behind the twin peaks (Gede and Pangrango) does not seem to convey a lazy past time of the pre-historic people but a way of life of a people whose grasp of Nature was far better than what we think of them as being capable.

It is highly probable that the week day concept evolved in Java (Shāka Dwīpa) with GPM as the center of evolution of the concept. From there the week-day concept was taken to India where the early Indic society moved with the arrival of Holocene and the Indian landmass becoming habitable with the spread of tropical heat. The residual presence of sky watchers and astrologers in Java having regular contact with the Tamil speakers of South India as late as the 3rd century BCE goes to prove the connection with Java in the past and presence of astrology- astronomy knowledge going back in time to pre-Holocene days when the earliest Tamil society developed under Skanda in Southern Madurai whose location was discussed in Part 1 of this series

(to be continued)

 

Conflict between Archaeo-astronomy and Astronomy reveals new understanding of the Equinoxes (My article in Firstpost)

This article published in a leading web magazine, Firstpost, establishes by means of Archaeo-astronomy of ancient monuments that there is no change in the alignment between the earth and the sun, thereby indicating that the earth's axis doesn't precess. The precession theory of astronomy shows that there is a continuous change in the alignment between the earth and the frame of reference lying outside the solar system. In the absence of axial precession of the earth shown by archeoastronomy, this could only mean that the entire solar system is precessing with the inmates (at least the earth) retaining a constant configuration with the sun. 

This revelation from archeoastronomy is a game-changing concept that is going to be the basis for future Nobel winning research on the Theory of Precession of the equinoxes. 

Conflict between Archaeo-astronomy and Astronomy reveals new understanding of the Equinoxes-World News , Firstpost

Come 21 March and people are seen thronging certain places of the world — one among them being the temple of Lord Padmanabha Swamy at Trivandrum! The purpose is to see the spectacle of the equinoctial sun passing through the mid-point of the tower, known as Gopura.

Every year the equinoctial days — in March and September — attract many pilgrims and tourists alike wanting to catch a glimpse of the direct solar-rays splash through the openings located one below the other at the middle of the Gopura of the temple.

Equinox is the day the sun shines over the equator twice a year as it is seen to move from north and south. This year the northward crossing of the equator, popularly known as Spring Equinox starts at 15:33 hours, Universal Time (UT) on 20 March. The date of Spring equinox oscillates between 20 and 21 March depending on the leap year adjustment. The unique sighting of the equinoctial sun at the middle of the Gopura is hailed as an archaeological wonder of the ancient builders, though not very ancient because this Gopura was built 400 years ago.

Not so recent is the temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia built in the 12th century whose central tower offers the fantastic sight of the sun touching its summit only on the days of the equinox. Back in time, four centuries before Angkor Wat was built, the Maya people had made the Temple of Kukulkan in the city of Chichen Itza that is also found to be aligned to the equinoctial sun. On both the equinoctial days, the shadow of the sun makes snake-like body from the head of the serpent carved at the bottom of the structure.

Another structure, the Stonehenge circle in Southern England, built farther back in time in stages between 3100 BCE and 1600 BCE was found aligned to the equinoxes when it was first reported by William Stukeley in his 1740 publication. The alignment continues to be seen even today, attracting a considerable crowd and a new evolving order of pagan worship.

Competing with the antiquity of the Stonehenge is the megalithic structure found on the island of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea — the Mnajdra temple complex. One of its structures has a central passage exactly on the way of the equinoctial sunlight and the two edges of the passage align with the two solstices. This structure is perhaps the most researched but has also left researchers most bewildered. Graham Hancock is of the opinion that it could have been built 12,000 years ago, in the earlier precession cycle, but the archaeological evidence do not place it beyond 5,000 years ago.

A number of other structures of lost civilisations are found to be exactly oriented to the equinoctial sun. Some of them have been documented by the NASA website, while many others are being unearthed by archaeo-astronomers. To mention some of them, the giant rock on top of a mountain in Machu Picchu of the Incas in Peru built in the 15th century, the Grianan of Aileach of Ireland built around the 6th-7th century and the Ahu Akivi statues of the Easter Island built in the 15th century are found positioned in such a way that they face the equinoctial sun.

Many churches in Europe, built centuries ago, are also seen to have openings in strategic places on the wall to allow the sun’s rays to fall on the altar exactly on the equinox days.

Such perfect alignment of these structures with the equinox of today is astounding and unbelievable as per current scientific understanding of a phenomenon called ‘precession of the equinoxes” that is attributed to the precession of the earth’s axis.

Current science on precession of the equinoxes

It is true that the sun’s position in the backdrop of the star-studded sky does not come back to the same position at the time of equinox (sun shining on the earth’s equator). The equinox of every succeeding year falls 20 minutes short of the previous year thereby causing a shortfall of one day every 72 years. By this time, the sun moves one degree in the sky. This backward movement of the equinoctial point is known as the precession of the equinox.

Continue to read HERE

Review of my book, "Mahabharata 3136 BCE" by Dr. Narayanan Bhattathiri

Yaskacharya, while explaining the Nirukta (Etymology/Semantic etymology) of VRtra and Indra (using the story where in VRtra is killed by Indra), identifies two groups of students in this regard: Historians (Aitihaasikom: i.e. those who believe that VRtra is an actually the son of Asura Tvashtra (i.e they consider the Itihasas (Epics) as history)) and Nairuktas (those who don’t harbor the above belief but rather consider the Epics as allegories and try to derive what they actually represent and the associated meanings.

Dr. Jayasree Saranathan is a staunch Historian in the above sense; and her monumental work, Mahabharata 3136 BCE is the culmination of years of effort to identify when the actual War took place. Of course, it is easy to establish 3136 BCE as the date of the war considering the temporal relation between it and beginning of Kaliyuga at the time of death of Sri Krishna. But this will remain a legend unless and until a connection can be made between some internal event in Mahabharata with a well proven external event. Meticulous research by Dr. Jayasree reveals that certain unnatural events (which can be caused by a comet striking the earth) noticed just before the war finds a parallel with well recognized temperature drop (which can be due to a comet strike)in the Holocene Period, occurring in 3136 BCE. This is an evidential connection not easy to refute. Of course she has suggested further radio dating studies which I am sure will support her contentions.

The work by Dr. Jayasree is a treatise too covering various aspects of Astronomy as well as Jyothisha; one can learn a lot about these subjects by studying this easy to understand book. It will be an asset to any library and deserves translation to all other Indian languages.

Dr. Narayanan Bhattathiri, MBBS DMRT MD PhD

Former Senior Research Fellow, International School of Dravidian Linguistics,

Former Professor of Radiotherapy, Pariyaram Medical College, Kannur Kerala,

Former Assoc. Prof., Regional Cancer Center, Trivandrum, Kerala

Review of my book, "Mahabharata 3136 BCE" by Mr. Chittarvu Sasun

The book Mahabharata 3136 BCE is truly a masterpiece and a delight to all those who are with history-astrology-logic-scientific bent of mind and interest!

There were so many concepts and information provided in this book is alien to me! Some tiny part of logical deductions, I thought is known to me. But this book showed me how much hollow it is and helped me build a completely new insight about:

A) Time concepts and relevance to current day calendars

B) Astrological thinking and interpretation of Mahabharata texts.

C) Scientific evidences in support of the interpretations made like comets, eclipses.

D) Archaeological observations in different parts of the nation and ages are stitched to build a convincing logic.

E) Software for astrology - JHora: I am convinced to bury all my thoughts to own a software like Parashara lite or SriJyothi Star! Incidentally, the creator PVR was my school days buddy! I, like many of my friends, used to amaze at this prodigy!

And many more salient features and unique approach marks the hallmark of this masterpiece! I feel lucky to own this book! With warm regards and many congratulations.

 

Chittarvu Sasun, M.Tech (IIT, Chennai)

General Manager & Associate Operating Head,

Honda R&D (India) Pvt. Ltd, Gurgaon.

Tamil New Year controversy - Part 1 (My arguments against New Year in Thai)

Regular and long time readers would have known that I have been consistently questioning the attempts by the DMK governments in the past to change Tamil New Year from Chitthirai to the month of Thai. One can see my talks and articles questioning the change of the New Year, in 2012 archives. Now with the installation of the DMK government in the State, the New Year controversy has come up after the Govt printed New Year wishes on the Ration products distributed for Thai Pongal. In this backdrop, my interview to the You Tube Channel Desiya Siragugal is telecast in three parts starting from today. 

In the 1st part, I am examining the evidences presented by Mr. Karunanidhi and Tamil scholars in support of Thai as the New Year and prove them to be wrong. I am also bringing out the true relevance of  "Pongal" and the genesis of  the three festivals - Bhogi, Pongal and Maattu Pongal - which were basically related to the cattle-breeding Yadava people having allegiance to Krishna. 

Published my new book, “Mahabharata 3136 BCE: Validation of the Traditional Date

I am glad to announce the release of my book. “Mahabharata 3136 BCE: Validation of the Traditional Date” on the occasion of the completion of birth centenary of my father today. This book dedicated to my father is released by our Ācārya swami, Sri U. Ve. Ko. Ka. Appan Praṇatārtiharācāriār Swāmi at his Tirumāḷigai near Sri Varadarāja Perumāl temple in Kāncipuram. The first copy is received by our Ācārya Swami Sri U. Ve. Ko. Ka. Appan Dāśarathi Swami.

I am privileged to get the manuscript read and fore-worded by three luminaries from three fields related to the Mahābhārata – astrology, religious literature and civilizational studies. I am indebted to Sri Niranjan Babu, the Chief Editor of The Astrological eMagazine and the son of the illustrious Dr. B. V. Raman for reading the manuscript and giving his valuable feedback. My gratitude finds no bounds for the foreword given by ‘Pravachana Ratna Mani’, Sri Dushyanth Sridhar. I am at a loss for words to express my gratefulness to Smt Sandhya Jain for proof-reading the text and giving her valuable thoughts about the book.

This book authenticates the year of the Mahābhārata war as 3136 BCE, embedded in the Text of the Mahābhārata as the 36^th year before Kṛṣṇa left on 3101 BCE when the current Time period of Kali Mahā Yuga began. It is important to validate this date to position the Mahābhārata in the Indic chronology to synchronize with the archaeological findings in Harappan settlements. The appearance of these settlements with advanced city planning and material culture could not have been sudden but a continuation of a pre-existing civilization. Mahābhārata offers the link to that pre-history.

This book of 18 chapters deals with the problems in dating, particularly with the use of astronomy simulators in the first Part where the issues around Kali Yuga date are settled textually and epigraphically. The second Part focuses on validating the date using the inputs on nimitta-s of terrestrial, atmospheric and celestial observations and syncing them with the traditional calendric references given in the text.

A surprise revelation of the systematic study of these inputs is the discovery of a cosmic impact, embedded in the GISP2 temperature graph of the Holocene - that makes the Mahābhārata a true historical document of mankind's first-ever eye-witness record of the crash of a fragmented comet on the earth and the moon simultaneously. The impact caused early Amāvāsyā on the 13^th tithi, that was perpetuated into memory as Bodhāyana Amāvāsyā and pushed the earth into a longer path causing a delay of Uttarāyaṇa, forcing Bhīṣma to wait on the arrow bed. The tithi-star alignment changed forever- the changed alignment  continuing even now- and is remembered as Ratha Saptamī. With so many tricky issues concealed in the Mahābhārata requiring us to follow Lord Gaṇeśa-moment every now and then, this book seeks to solve the incomprehensible verses to establish the date as the 36^th year before Kali Yuga began.

The decipherment continues to uncover the location of Kṛṣṇa’s Dwārakā and the causes for its loss. The focus then shifts to what happened to the remaining population of Dwārakā who fled the city after the deluge. The Epilogue gives the details of their settlements. The early Harappan regions being home to many Mahābhārata characters including the maternal ancestors of the Kuru-clan, the home of the son-in law of the Kaurava-s and animal motifs of the Harappan the same as those of the losers of the Mahābhārata war, the validation of the date of Mahābhārata gains significance by offering the hitherto unknown two phases of the Early Harappan, as pre-Mahābhārata and post-Mahābhārata, with the latter offering continuity to Mature Harappan with fresh settlements of the displaced people of the Dwārakā-flood, starting the Sarasvatī culture. 

The Epilogue further traces the second migration of the Dwārakā-people from the Sarasvatī region around 1500 BCE to Bet Dwārakā and to South India. Yet another migration from the Sindhu region to South India had taken place around 2000 years ago. The Epilogue also offers inputs from the Rāmāyana of Vālmīki on the autochthonous origin of the Yamnaya people in India in the 7^th millennium BCE.

The printed copy of this book running into 436 pages and priced at Rs. 475 (postal charges extra) can be obtained by sending an e-mail to jayasreebooks@gmail.com

The e-book is available at Amazon.com

https://www.amazon.in/dp/B09LS1WZ4X (India)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09LS1WZ4X (USA)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09LS1WZ4X (UK)

https://www.amazon.de/dp/B09LS1WZ4X (Germany)

https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B09LS1WZ4X (France)

https://www.amazon.es/dp/B09LS1WZ4X (Spain)

https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B09LS1WZ4X (Australia)

Readers can leave their comments, opinions and suggestions in the comment section of this blog.

My Master Class lecture on “Mahabharata Astrology”

I am glad to share the link to my Master Class lecture on “Mahabharata Astrology” delivered on 9^th October 2021, on the occasion of the 109^th Jayanti of Dr. B.V. Raman, organized by Raman & Rajeswari Research Foundation chaired by Bangalore Niranjan Babu, the son of Dr. B.V. Raman.

Starting with the basic classification of Astrology, I showed how all the planetary references in the Mahabharata, tagged as nimitta-s are part of Phala Bhaga of Jyothisha, that rejects any reference to the newly discovered planets, namely, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. This clarifies that any work on dating the Itihāsa-s, done by using these planets can be rejected outright at the outset.

Then I went on to show how all the planetary and the calendar references in the Mahabharata are aligned with Vedic astronomy and the Ashtānga system of Time. Some salient points are as follows:

(1) Only 27 functional stars at any point of time, and not 28.

(2) The 13^th tithi Amavasya was caused by a disturbance to the Z-axis of the Earth- Moon system by an extra-terrestrial impact making the moon to go on a shorter revolution, that is perpetuated into memory by the concept of Bodhāyana Amavasya.

(3) This disturbance had thrown off the earth from its X-Y axis temporarily, which caused it to take a longer path to reach the Uttarāyaṇa-point, making Bhishma to wait for his exit. This anomalous change in Time is remembered as Ratha Saptami.

(4) This also caused the earth to wobble more than normal before attaining its natural orientation that is detectable by unusual appearances of the sky reported by Vyāsa in the altered appearance of Arundhati-Vasishtha pair and the reverse movement of Dhruva and Mars.

My paper published on this cosmic impact in the Academia Letters (https://doi.org/10.20935/AL1385) brought me into contact with one of the reviewers of my paper, Prof. Joachim Seifert of Germany. He shared with me the graphs and the details of an extra-terrestrial impact already recorded in the Temperature chart of Holocene. The year was 3136 BCE, that I validated as the year of the Mahabharata war, that took place thirty-five years before the beginning of Kali Yuga, when Krishna left. 

The verses of the Mahabharata suggesting the impact that I shared with him convinced him further about the impact that he recognized it as the “Hastināpura Meteor Event”, the details of which are going to be published by him in his upcoming paper in a science journal. This event becoming the world’s first ever recorded eye-witness account – earlier than the Kaali impact of Sweden – the Mahabharata is set to come out of the tag of Mythology and as a true account that did take place in 3136 BCE, 35 years before Kali Yuga began.

From this I went on establishing the Vedic concept of the to-and-fro oscillation of the equinoxes -fundamental to understanding the lack of change in month-season combination - that is totally different from the ever-precessing equinoctial model of the west. This model rejects the axial precession of the earth – which is also revealed by the archaeo-astronomy of the ancient monuments of the world – and supports the precession of the entire solar system caused by the helical path of the sun as it surges ahead in the Universe. This path causes the sway of the sun for 27 degrees on either side of the sidereal Aries in lateral view from the earth. As a result, the seasons do not change much but oscillate around Caitra which we have retained as the standard configuration at all times in the past and even now.

In this limited movement of the equinoxes, there are only three pole stars identified by the Vedic sages. Abhijit that appears as a pole star in the western system of precession cycle has never been a pole star but only a zodiacal star. Similarly, Agastya can never be a pole star in the south as it lies outside the path of the limited oscillation. 

In this context I am explaining the crucial factor called the “Ayanāmśa”- the difference between the tropical position of the equinoctial sun from the sidereal position which is very much a part and parcel of horoscopy even today, but missing in western astronomy. The absence of this concept in the astronomy simulations shows absurd levels of addition of the ayanāmśa value, say, 35 to 45 degrees for 3067 BCE and 5561 BCE, 150 degrees for Bali’s time when the vernal equinox was said to be in Virgo and 180 degrees if one dates the Ramayana at 14,000 years ago. Were the Vedic sages so illogical in conceiving the ayanāmśa concept with such large deviations?

In a continuously precessing equinoctial system, there is no need for the ayanāmśa, but then the sages had proposed the use of ayanāmśa shows that the equinox was not continuously precessing. The ayanāmśa concept based on the oscillatory model of the equinoxes, ingrained in our more or less static state of month-seasons and incorporated in casting our horoscopes, must make us realize how irrelevant it is to use the western astronomy calculations that have no place for ayanāmśa correction.

In this context I have shown that it is not possible to extrapolate or approximate the rate of the ayanāmśa for the past. The only exception being the zero degree point of the sidereal Aries, which the sun crosses every 3600 years, where the super conjunction of all the planets (except Rahu) had taken place at the time of the departure of Krishna when Kali Maha Yuga began. That date (22^nd January 3101 BCE) is reproduced from Jhora for Vedic / Surya Siddhanta ayanāmśa, Lahiri ayanāmśa and Pushya Paksha ayanāmśa along with the simulation from the Stellarium astronomy software. Only the Vedic / Siddhāntic ayanāmśa shows the congregation. All credit to Sri. Vinay Jha who computed this from the ancient works.

I further went on to demonstrate how the eclipses and the planetary data found in our inscriptions do not match with the astronomy catalogue computations used in the astronomy simulators and in the Jhora astrology simulator. By 400 years ago, the position of both the sun and the moon had deviated. This had increased more by 1000 years ago. Prof. Vahia’s research also establishes that the NASA data does not concur with the eclipse sightings in India.

The cause can be traced to the inability to solve the n-body equations. Any eclipse should solve 4-body equations, involving the moon, the sun, the star in the backdrop and the latitude and longitude of the observer.

Mr. Nilesh Oak claimed in his book on the date of the Mahabharata that the makers of his software vouchsafed for the Proper motion of the stars in his simulator. That pertains to the single-body equation with no scope to solve the other problems that must have been addressed to make them appear in a particular configuration in the observer’s sky.

Similarly, Prof. Achar also addressed the single-body equation when he wrote in his 2014 paper that the motion of the slow-moving planet such as Saturn is enough to date the Mahabharata war. His rationale was that Saturn with 200 revolutions in a period of 5000 years compared to 60,000 revolutions of the moon in the same period, had less margin of error, but simulations show that the location of Jupiter, another slow-moving planet could not be correctly identified in the simulation in a very recent past, say, in 1601 CE, due to problems in getting the precession rate of the day accurately.

Though he agreed that eclipses cannot be simulated correctly for periods 5000 years ago, he did not seem to realize the mismatch within the four bodies – the sun, the moon, the background star and the earth in the event of an eclipse not simulated correctly. At best he thought that the simulators concur with the astronomy catalogues, but of what use they have for Vedic astronomy calculations?

Compared to any combination, the Kali Yuga congregation is a 10-body problem which can be solved only in the limited equinoctial model at the point of the zero ayanāmśa, at the beginning of sidereal Aries.

Unable to reproduce the Kali Yuga date, the colonial writers rejected it as fabricated. Fleet even rejected the Janamejaya inscription that incorporates 8-body equation on the pretext that the date is impossible. As one coming from a background that believes that the earth was created only 5000 years ago, he could not accept the prospect of advanced dynasties in India at that time. Why should we inherit a colonial obsession and reject the history of Janamejaya, the second king of Kali Yuga?

Our time scale is such that we have 9-body equations concurring at every moment of Time. They are not reproduceable at a later date due to limitations in calculating the precession rate and the current limited knowledge of the equinoctial movement. The sages who handed down the knowledge of the limited equinoctial movement did not give us any formula for calculating precession at any point of time. They wanted us to watch the shadow of the sun regularly to calculate the deviation and adjust it as ayanāmśa. For now, it is Lahiri ayanāmśa but at the beginning of sidereal Aries, it was zero ayanāmśa. Fortunately, this point happened to see the Kali yuga conjunction on 3101 BCE. Thirty-five years before that, the Mahabharata war had taken place (3136 BCE).

 

Paper-back edition of my book, “Oral cancer -Astrological Prediction and Remedies”

Following the publication of my e-book on the astrological prediction of oral cancer, I am happy to bring out the paper-back edition now (248 pages). 

I can be contacted through the comment section here or by direct message in my twitter page (@jayasartn) for the purchase of this book or by sending a request with the postal address to jayasreebooks@gmail.com

The book is priced at Rs.250 and available only within India. 

Sample page

Health-chart by do-it-yourself model 

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https://www.amazon.in/dp/B099NHBVPJ  (India)

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My Peer-reviewed paper on the cosmic-impact during Krishna’s peace mission in the traditional year of Mahabharata war (3136 BCE) published: The date vindicated by Science.

 The date of the Mahabharata war is centred around three research questions:

                        I.           Why did Bhishma, an adept in calculation of Time that he exhibited in deriving the exact duration of Pandavas’ exile, fail to know the date of Uttarayana (winter solstice) at the time of his fall forcing him to wait for more than a month?

                      II.           The month of waiting appearing to be an Adhika Maasa from the textual description, how could an Adhika Maasa be possible at that time (Maagha month) when the earth was passing through the perihelion, faster than normal?

                   III.           Did the earth-moon system suffer a terrible cosmic impact, given the fact that Vyasa referred to Amavasya (no-moon) on the 13^th tithi and a change in the mark on the face of the waning moon?

The key to all these three questions lying with the 3^rd question – that can be cross-checked by scientific records - I sent a paper to Academia Letters fulfilling the requirement of adding a case study or an idea to a previously published research paper (word limit 1600). Since I already zeroed in on Piora Oscillation coming close to the traditional Mahabharata date (3136 BCE), I went through all the papers and zeroed in on Mr. Joachim Seifert’s paper on climatic pattern in Mid-Holocene and sent my paper to Academia Letters.

I am glad that it was approved by 19 scholars, including Mr. Seifert who did concur with a cosmic impact in the year 3136 BCE. His review is re-produced below. In my interactions with him I came across the graphs in support of this as also another impact in the year 3101 BCE, that finds mention in Mahabharata and Srimad Bhagavatam in the words of Yudhishthira seeing ‘nimittas’ seven months after Krishna left this world. This makes the traditional date of Mahabharata all the more water-tight.

He also opines that the presumed shift in the position of the binary Alcor- Mizar (Arundhati- Vasishtha) was due to the rattling of the earth by the impact. He cites a proxy for this in the records of Canterbury Monks in 1178 CE. 

  (Link here)

The year of Mahabharata, being pivotal to building up the chronology of the later history of India and inseparably intertwined with the start of Kali Yuga in 3101 BCE that is well established by thousands of inscriptions and continuing to be in use for all religious purposes and by scores of Hindus throughout India, I consider that I am humbly paying back my debt to the Rishis and the Itihasa of Mahabharata by validating the date and getting the date vindicated by science.

May the Paramaatman take this forward to a logical conclusion.

Click HERE  to read the paper. 

Given below the list of 19 scholars who approved my paper. 

I have also re-produced here the reviews by eight scholars who didn’t find merit in the paper. This is to maintain transparency to inform the public the two sides of opinion so that they can come to an informed conclusion on the validity of the traditional date of the Mahabharata war (3136 BCE) Wherever required I am incorporating their suggestions.                                                                                  

Approvals:

I express my sincere thanks to all the 19 scholars who have approved my paper. By their approval they have contributed immensely to the re-establishment of this ancient Itihasa of this land as a non-faltering and true account of the Rishi, Veda Vyasa who had given the world's first accurate eye-witness account of the cosmic impact. 

1.      Gonzalo Linares Matás, University of Oxford

2.      Trevor Palmer, Nottingham Trent University

3.      Aliyu Adamu, Author, NIPES Journal of Science and Technology Research

4.      Дмитрий Ключарев

5.      Erick Pajares G., CEO, Biosphere Group -Think Tank on Sustainable Futures Research

6.      D. S. J. Mylne

7.      Steven Gullberg, University of Oklahoma

8.      Julian West, mythsarehistory.com

9.      Mauro Cavalcanti

10.  Joachim Seifert (whose research is the basis of my paper)

11.  Nathalie Gontier, Universidade de Lisboa, Centro de Filosofia das Ciências, Director AppEEL

12.  Paul Dunbavin, Author, www.third-millennium.co.uk

13.  Raj Bhat, Banaras Hindu University

14.  Prof. Dr. Emin Taner ELMAS, Igdir University

15.  Narayanan V Bhattathiri, Former Senior Research Fellow, International School of Dravidian Linguistics

16.  Vladan Celebonovic, University of Belgrade, Serbia

17.  Manish Pandit, University of Birmingham

18.  Thomas F.King, University of California Riverside

19.   Jhonny Casas, Universidad Central de Venezuela 

Review by Mr. Joachim Seifert

This paper of Mr. Saranathan is excellent and very important to clarify effects and aftermaths of meteor impacts on Earth. As papers of Seifert and Lemke, see refs., part 1 to 8, always outline, is that all meteor impacts on Earth were followed by a substantial descent in global temperatures. The cause of this, as quick hint, is that Earth or the Earth-Moon gravitational system moves, after a meteor hit, out of the x-y-ecliptic, where the gravitational pull is strongest, somewhat into the z-dimension, half above and half below the ecliptic in its orbit around the Sun - a skewed Earth orbit with reduced gravitational pull. This leads to an enlargement of the Earth orbit, longer distances to the Sun and a subsequent drop in global temperatures. We must therefore see a substantial temperature drop after this meteor impact in 3136 BC. Lets consult GISP2 in Greenland, the version of borehole temperatures: Starting out at 3,400 BC, with a borehole temp at -31.30 C, temps increase toward the Piora interval to 3210 BC, to the time of the Andaman meteor impact, to -30.0 C. This first Piora Andaman impact lowered the temp to -30.40 C at 3160 BC. From there on, temps recovered to -30.25 C, when this, now the second impact, at Hastinapura, struck at 3136 BC (excellent time research of the author). This event struck the Moon, with fragments reaching Earth, as described. There is no impact crater on Earth necessary, since the unit Earth-Moon-system went into the colder z-space dimension. The temperature drop starts exactly at impact year 3136 BC from -30.25 C down to -30.37 C in 3100 BC, about a third of the Andaman meteor temp drop. The Piora cold event did not stop here: After a warming 3100-3035 BC, the third meteor struck, the Morasko event in Poland, which lowered global temperatures again and the fourth, the largest impact, prolonged the cold in 2920 BC, the Burckle impact - the cold and dry period until the deepest point at 2800 BC. This Piora strikes and the drought Burckle event wiped out the Harrappan and Jemdet Nasr cultures. Historical observations of this Hastinapura impact event, the location and its exact dating now provides a face to this second Piora impact event, the other three already described in the literature. Very important is the following: The historical observation plus the necessarily commencing temperature drops are just 2 proxies for the impact. All impacts (about 25 in the Holocene) are characterized by a number of other proxies: Flood-drought history, iron oxide- hematite (the iron meteorite losing mass), titan, 15-N, NO2, 14-C, 10-Be, fire history, non-volcanic dust history in polar ice or bore cores, the IntCal13 tree ring calibration analysis and various others. As a rapid and easy glimpse onto IntCal13 for everyone: The meteor/fragments entering the Earth atmosphere, at 2000-3000 C, produce different radioactive substances, 14-C with the longest life for detection, in plant uptake of CO2 through trees. The increased 14-C-content in the air is demonstrated in IntCal13, by sharp descent from peaks. IntCal13 covers tree trunk 14-C on a global scale. Therefore: Print out the respective IntCal13 graph from 2050 -4050 BC and identify the sharp calibration drops, caused by meteor produced 14-C. Here you will observe the Hastinapura 14-C drop, as well as the the three others, the Andaman, Morasko and the ultra-large Burckle drop for the Piora time span. All other proxies for the more that 20 impact events will be demonstrated in future papers. This Hastinapura paper closes one more gap in meteor impact science and we should be grateful to the author having consulted the ancient literature for historical eyewitness reports and also for focussing onto the astronomical side of this important impact event.

 

****

Rejections:

Eight reviewers did not approve the paper for publication. Their names are not disclosed, but their comments were shown to me. I am posting them all here. I will be addressing relevant issues raised by them in the comment section of the paper soon, for the benefit of everybody. For instance, the 1^st review questions the feasibility of the calendar date to pinpoint the date of the comet hit on Beta Cancri (Pushya). We maintain a calendar for too long, at least for a known period of 5122 years since Kali Yuga began. I will place on record the feasibility of deriving the exact dates.

Review 1:

“The core idea that the memory of cosmic impact events could have been contained in certain human records or traditions is viable. However, there is no way that the lunar mansions, the star Beta Cancri or specific calendar dates were possible around 3200 BC. The Mahabharata was written at a much later date. If such a cosmic impact had occurred, memories of it may have been preserved in oral tradition and contributed to the Mahabharata narrative at a much later time. Such details could not, however, have been recorded so accurately at the time of the events themselves.

Phrases like 'solar insolation' do not inspire much confidence in the scientific part of the argument.

In order to salvage this idea, it would be good to quote the pertinent passages from the Mahabharata, or at least some key passages, to address the issues identified above and to be much more cautious about the conclusion.”

Review 2:

“The idea that cosmic impacts cause changes in climate as well as in the human history is not a new one, but it has started to take more attention recently. The author does apply this idea, using hindu written sources as ancillary evidence.

However, the paper needs more work in its supporting references. Recent bibliography (e.g. Bobrowsky & Rickman (2007): Comet/Asteroid Impacts and Human Society) as well some of the older works by Masse, will help in the point.

The reference to the lunar meteorite "storm" is well chosen, but this event was dated 800 million years ago. Are there geological evidence of such events in the historical times?

A cross check with the impact database will show that there are no discovered impact craters for that particular period (of course, the relevant impact crater may still be undiscovered). Cross checking with other primary sources of the era, may come up with similar phenomena in other civilizations. These would be a major evidence for the author's hypothesis.

So, at the moment, I cannot recommend the paper for publication, but I would reconsider it if more evidence is provided.”

Review 3:

“This is pseudoscience, commingling religious text with factual history. This is another push by the current Indian government to miseducate the masses.”

Review 4:

“The concept that a swarm of comet debris may have hit the earth about 3200 BC is not new. See for instance:

Baillie, M. 2007. The case for significant numbers of extraterrestrial impacts through the late Holocene. Journal of Quaternary Science, v. 22, pp. 101–109. or other contributions from the Holocene Impact Working Group.

Mahabharata has been often misused by cherry-picking scattered verses in order to create the description of a single catastrophic event, such as an atomic explosion. This letter gives the impression of doing the same because it does not quote the verses precisely. Moreover it is hard to believe that the trajectory of the Moon could have been affected to the extent and in the way reported by the letter.

Moreover, the number of issues raised cannot be adequately argued and supported by references within the number of words allowed by academia letters”

Review 5:

“The paper is very speculative and does not give reference to the original text.

1. It claims dates for Mahabharata in 3100 BC which is too early by conventional standards.

2, It is not clear that a meteor shower that can create enough impact to change EOO would only have such a limited impact on weather - that too in Europe when the event is supposed to have happened in the Arabian sea.

3 The Arabian see itself is not visible from Kurukshetra where the war is said to have happened.

4. References to Harappa are wrong in that they are not from any accepted narrative of the Harappan Civilization and the reference to a website is not reliable.

5. The said descriptions in Mahabharata are vaguely referenced (in the 10th book) and there is not way of reliably verifying the claim.

All in all the paper is simply a speculation based on unreliable claims, and inconsistent with a lot of data and generally accepted timeline of events.”

Review 6:

“This article is almost ready for preprint publication. I would like to privately suggest to the author that they need to mention more Bibliographical references within the first two pages of this article. And cross compare as to why and how specifically may have caused a Cosmic impact described in the Hindu Epic Mahabharata cause the Piora Oscillation. First explaining how and why this applies in hypothetical terms an next how an why the bibliographical references support this a a preliminary theory as well. Once this is done I would recommend for publication in "Academia Letters".”

Review 7:

“I think this is a good and interesting paper, but I here are some little problems I saw:

If you have section headings in the middle it would be less jarring to have one at the beginning and end, too.

I would like to see more pictures, maybe a diagram of the orbits of the objects and changes in axis tilt.

"the ark of noah", not "the noah of ark"

"crater" not "carter"

Several other typos show a need for proofreading, and I recommend a look at the formatting in your bibliography, too.

Review 8:

“The Mahabharata comes (earliest) from Vedic times, which start (earliest) 1500 BC. How to explain the gap of at least 1500 years? This is too much. The idea of such impacts itself is very very speculative, not enough substance. In sum, it is pseudoscience.”