Shāka Dwīpa was a pre-historic location in SE Asia where the early Tamils thrived and the archaic Vedic society emerged (Part 3 of Gunung Padang series)

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

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

 

Gunung Padang Megalithic structure (GPM) that appears to be Mt. Suryavān described in the Vālmīki Rāmāyana was part of a larger landmass known as Shāka Dwīpa that is currently named as Sundaland. GPM is likely to be the place where Sun-worship known as ‘Saura’ of the Vedic society evolved. 

The Vedic religion (known as Dharma or Sanātana Dharma which refers to eternal concepts that are  applicable to all places, to all people and at all times) has six types of worship methods (Shanmata) of which Saura or sun-worship is one. Though there are sun temples in India where the Sun is worshiped, the exact Saura worship method is not followed now as it used to be, if we go by the description given in Bhaviṣya Purāna. This text describes how the sun worship was done and where it originated. It didn’t originate in present day India! But since it is part of Vedic Dharma, it is understood that those ancestral to the Vedic people had conceived and spread this worship. Its location of origin was Shāka Dwīpa.

The time of emergence of Saura and the worship methods gleaned from Indic texts remarkably match with the time of fresh additions in the GPM – the 2^nd layer dated around 11,000 years ago. That was the time the earth started receiving a steady increase in solar light and energy – after the end of Ice age.    

 Location of Shaka Dwīpa not in Central Asia

There is a tendency among researchers to identify Shāka Dwīpa with Shakasthan (Sistan) and Persia. But the locational description on Shāka Dwīpa given in the Mahābhārata does not fit with Central Asia. There are two major reasons for Shāka Dwīpa to be elsewhere and not in Central Asia.

One is that the very name Shāka in Shāka Dwīpa was derived from the tree Shāka that was abundantly found there. It was like how Jambhu Dwīpa  (housing India) was called by the name of Jambhu tree (Syzygium cumini) found in abundance there.

Shāka tree is native to South Asia and South East Asia and not to central Asia or Europe. Its botanical name is Acacia sirissa or Albizia lebbeck. This was known as Uzhinjil (உழிஞ்சில்) or Unna (உன்ன மரம்) or Pālai (பாலை மரம்) in Tamil. Its flower was held in high esteem and worn as a mark of victory in war. In Sanskrit it is known as Shirīsha and in Tamil it is known as Vāgai (வாகை).  

Shāka flower that was worn as a symbol of victory.

The second reason why Shāka Dwīpa could not be located in Central Asia was that as per the description found in the Mahābhārata and Vishnu Purāna, Indra gulped the waters of the seas in Shāka Dwīpa every day and gave back as rains in time to the same place. This perfectly fits with the monsoon activity in the Indian Ocean regions, thereby indicating the location of Shāka Dwīpa in that region. (The Brahmānda Purāna verse on the location of Shāka Dwīpa close to the north of Tropic of Capricorn was quoted in Part 1).

The presence of seven countries (varsha-s) in Shāka Dwīpa sounds similar to the seven divisions of the olden Tamil country of the 1^st Sangam Age located outside India, each having further seven divisions, making the overall number of 49 countries in the Tamil Pāndya kingdom having Southern Madurai as its capital.

The Mountains, countries and rivers of Shāka Dwīpa given in the Mahabharata are identifiable in South east Asia and not in Central Asia. 

I attempted to locate the seven mountains based on the description of the Mahābhārata as follows:

1.      Meru also known as Mahākāśa – Likely to be Pura Besakih in Bali https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Besakih_Temple

2.     Malaya stretching towards east – appears to be New Guinea Highlands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Guinea_Highlands

3.     Jaladhāra - From where Indra takes water every day and showers as rainfall – Fits with Titiwangsa mountains of the Malay Peninsula. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titiwangsa_Mountains

4.     Mount Raivataka –  the star Revatī (Zeta Piscium) is placed directly above which means the mountain was on the equator. Later the region came to be known as Kaumāra after  Skanda alias Kumara who lived here. There was a crater formed by an extra-terrestrial impact some 22,000 years ago and where the first speech of the ancestral Vedic society evolved (Markandeya Purāna – Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5OoX4NHXI4 )

Now this mountain and region are under water.

5.     Shyāma – Means black. Dark complexioned people resided here. Matches with Papuans and Malenesians who continue to live in Papua New Guinea. The mountain range is  Papua New Guinea High lands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Guinea_Highlands   

6.     Kesarī  - In Sanskrit it refers to lion, and also a tree. Lion doesn’t seem to be native to Sundaland, but a tree variety known as Ceylon Ironwood (Mesua ferrea) is found abundantly in Philippines, Sumatra, Malaysia.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesua_ferrea

7.     Durgaśaila- No specific description is available for the mountain but it was a Varsha (country) where Shāka trees were found in abundance as per the Mahābhārata.  

The countries or Varsha-s –They were seven in number named as  Meru, Malaya, Jaladhāra, Raivataka, Shyāma, Kesarī and Mahāpumān where Mt. Durgaśaila was situated.  Shāka tree was found in this country. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albizia_lebbeck

Going by the presence of this tree, New Guinea and Northern Australia fit the bill as the location of Shāka Dwīpa Proper. This is exactly the same as what is given in Brahmānda Purāna. It is reproduced from Part 1. 

The names of rivers given by the Mahābhārata further reiterate that the location of Shāka Dwīpa was not in central Asia  but in South east Asia. Rivers such as Sukumāri, Kumāri, Seta, Keveraka, Mahānadī, Manijalā,  Chakshus, and  Vardhanikā were flowing in Shāka Dwīpa. There were other rivers too but these were specifically mentioned.

River Kumāri was in Southern Madurai where Skanda lived (circa 9990 BCE) and Pāndyan dynasty thrived for 4440 years. That land had gone under water. Southern Madurai was lost to the seas some 7200 years ago. (To know the chronology of the periods that followed three floods since the end of Ice Age as given in Tamil texts, check my book on kindle https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BC48ZVDZ )

In the Vishnu Purana description of Shāka Dwīpa, a river by name Ikshu is mentioned. Ikshu means sugarcane. So, sugarcane growing region has lent the name Ikshu to the river. Sugarcane is native to Papua New Guinea and South China. We rule out South China as it is not part of Shāka Dwīpa. Historically the Papuans and Austronesians were found to have domesticated sugarcane. A river in their location was known as Ikshu. Sugarcane was later introduced to North India in the Gangetic plain (the glacier-fed River Ganges / Ganga started flowing only in Holocene).

The people of Shāka Dwīpa

The missing pre-history hidden in Sundaland is further revealed by the Indic texts. Both the Mahābhārata and the Vishnu Purāna state that there were four classes of people (varna-s) such as Brahmins (priests),  Kshatriya-s (warriors),  Vaisya-s (traders) and Shudra-s (tillers) in Shāka Dwīpa. It is also stated that Shāka Dwīpa was the only place other than Bhārata varsha (India) where this four-some classification was in existence. The Tamil connection to Shāka Dwīpa is found in this context too, as the Sangam Age Tamil Grammar book, Tolkāppiyam states the presence of these four classes in addition to  three more namely, astrologers (Arivan), ascetics (Tāpathar) and war-field singers (Porunar).  

The first four classes in that order are mentioned as Magā,  Maśakā,  Mānasā and Mandagā.

The Magā-s (Brahmins of Shāka Dwīpa) were also known as Mriga in Vishnu Purāna, but found mentioned as Magā in Bhaviṣya Purāna and inscriptions. The Magā Brahmins initiated the sun worship. Shiva- worship also was done in Shāka Dwīpa. The Mahābhārata states that Shiva was the deity of Shāka Dwīpa. This must have started only with Skanda about 12,000 years ago (during Younger Dryas). Saura (Sun) worship must have started before that when the southern hemisphere started receiving more heat from the sun (Older Dryas -14,000 years ago). The first experience with the sudden increase in solar heat was welcomed by the people of  Shāka Dwīpa, most probably by those living near the equator at GPM. Thus started the Saura worship.

(To be continued in Part 4)

 

 

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)

 

Pre-historic migration from Northern to Southern hemisphere decoded from the Mahābhārata.

 Mahābhārata contains several small stories or events of the past, some of them appearing strange to comprehend. A common thread through such weird stories pertains to bizarre characters, odd behaviour of saintly people and unnatural or abnormal relationship issues that continue to be remembered till date or picked out selectively from the texts to debase the texts and the characters in those events. We tend to interpret them in our own way, with our own perceptions, while being unaware of the original line of thought supposed to have been delivered through those events.

One such story contains directives on how to interpret seemingly odd descriptions and the characters of the story, which offer remarkable understanding of the story when applied. Amazingly, the decoding of that story on such lines reveal that it was actually talking about migration of people from North to South of the equator in a distant past when the North was reeling under severe shortage of food due to climate change. The fundamental clue on understanding the story rests with the etymology of the proper nouns used in the story – of the Sanskrit names – and connecting them with the characterization of the people and the events in the story.

This story appears in Chapter 94 and Chapter 95 of Book 13 of the Mahābhārata. The translation in English can be read HERE. The central characters are the seven Rishi-s (sages) who govern mankind from their celestial abode in the seven stars of Ursa Major (Sapta rishi Mandala). As per Hindu Thought the rishi-s keep changing in each era following a change in mankind and their way of life. Figure 1 shows the location of the seven rishi-s of the current era. They are Marici, Vasishtha, Angirasa, Atri, Pulastya, Pulaha and Kratu.

Additionally, the name Arundhati also appears. She is the wife of Vasishtha who accompanies him from behind. The stars Alcor and Mizar represent Arundhati and Vasishtha as they were never seen away from each other; more importantly Alcor was never seen overtaking Mizar, in the same way that Arundhati was never known to have gone in front of her husband Vasishtha but towed behind him. For this reason, invoking Arundhati as a symbol of an ideal wife who doesn’t cross the path of her husband is part and parcel of Vedic marriages even today.  

Fig 1: The seven sages of the Saptarishi Mandala for the current period

Interestingly, the same names of the seven sages do not appear in the story under discussion thereby revealing that it was about a previous era when different set of rishi-s governed mankind. Their names as they appear in the story are Atri, Vasishtha, Kashyapa, Bharadwaja, Gautama, Vishwamitra and Jamadagni.

Atri and Vasishtha have remained in the group of that time. Additionally, Arundhati’s name also appears in the story as a devout wife following Vasishtha, thereby indicating the fixed alignment between Alcor and Mizar even in those times.

The story talks about the shift of the seven sages due to famine conditions. The story happened at a time of severe drought when the seven rishi-s, the chaste wife Arundhati, their maid servant, Ganda and her husband Paśusakha were struggling to get food. The first horrendous information of the story appears here where it is said that they decided to cook the dead prince, the son of Śibi’s son whom they received in a sacrifice, to satiate their hunger!

As they began cooking the dead body in a vessel, the dead person’s grandfather, Śibi (Vrishadarbha’a son) appeared there and offered to remove their hunger by giving them cattle. The sages refused to accept the kine and left the place without eating the dead one they were cooking. Seeing them leave, the king got angry and invoked a demoness, he named as Yātudāni, to follow the sages and slay them. But he sounds a caveat that Yātudāni must first ask for their names  and comprehend the meaning of their names; only after understanding the etymology of their names, can she slay them. This odd stipulation comes up as a valuable clue to  decipher the story.

Śibi is a plant growing in Northern latitudes

The story starts with Śibi whose son’s son was cooked by the sages for eating. Śibi is the Sanskrit term for the plant Typha angustifolia,  which grows abundantly in high Northern latitudes such as Siberia and Scandinavia.

Fig 2: Typha augustifolia (Śibi)

It grows where there is water. The entire plant is edible. But a time came when this plant could no longer grow due to climatic changes. The narration about sages preparing to eat the dead son of Śibi’s son shows that times were so bad that people were left with nothing but the dead and dried Śibi plants to eat. I locate the place of this plant in the narration at Altai mountains where Denisovan gene was discovered from a fragment of a bone. Let me justify this in the course of this write-up.

The sages were offered kine which they refused, as they didn't want to subsist on flesh. They started moving in search of food and met a mendicant accompanied with his dog on their way. This man was called as 'Śunasakha' which means 'friend of dog'. In Hindu Thought the dog signifies Yama, the God of death. He is also the God of Dharma who delivers good and bad according to one’s karma. The dog appearing well-fed would literally mean that many people had died and the dogs had scavenged on the dead people. As a personification of Yama, it can be deduced that God Yama appeared robust in having delivered fair judgement. But who was his friend – the Sakha of Śuna? We will decipher it in the course of the story.

The dog and Śunasakha accompanied the sages in their wanderings in finding food. At last, all of them  reached a Lotus-pond. That pond was guarded by Yātudāni, the demoness sent by Śibi, the king. Yātu means wind. Yātudāni denotes a state of heavy winds afflicting people. Coming from drought-struck Śibi’s land, it seems to indicate cold winds blowing from that region that was reeling under lack of sunlight and water. Now that Yātudāni was located in the region of lotus-pond, it could refer to the limit or boundary of the cold and dry winds.

The presence of lotus pond indicates a changed climatic condition where water was available. The lotus planet, like Śibi is completely edible. So, the sages had at last reached a humid  place where food was available. Yātudāni stopped the rishi-s who wanted gather the lotus-stalks from the pond for eating. She demanded that they tell the meaning of their names. One by one the sages started telling the meaning of their names, but Yātudāni could not comprehend any of the names!

The demoness could not understand the meaning of Arundhati, Ganda and Paśusakha too. Arundhati means the one who never obstructs. She expressed that meaning by saying that she always stayed by the side of her husband. Ganda described the meaning as the raised portion of the cheek. By getting associated with  Paśusakha as her husband, it is understood that Ganda refers to ‘raised grass land for grazing’. Paśusakha means ‘friend of cattle’.

All these are connected with a community of householders who depended on simple country life and  cattle wealth. Ganda and Paśusakha joining the sages in Śibi’s land shows that the region was dotted with raised land where cattle could be grown but had to be abandoned due to dry conditions. The sages and others were spared by the demoness as she could not understand the etymological meaning of their names and she was subsequently killed by Śunasakha (friend of dog). This is indicative of cessation of adverse wind patterns that afflicted people all the way from Śibi’s land.

The sages collected the lotus stalks for eating, but these stalks were stolen by Śunasakha. Ultimately it turned out that Śunasakha was Vāsava (Indra, the lord of people) who guides and protects people. He followed the entourage of sages to help them avoid un-agreeable foods and reach a place conducive for living. His stature as Indra, the ruler of mankind, has made him appear robust and well-fed. The deity of Dharma (Yama) was his constant friend and therefore he was Śunasakha. The story ends with the departure of Indra and the seven sages to their respective celestial abodes. People had started their routine life in the new place dotted with lotus ponds.

Migration from Śibi to lotus regions

The derivations from this narration are that two plants mark the two locations of human settlements. The two plants namely Śibi (Typha angustifolia) and lotus are complete foods. Even in times of starvation, people had managed to subsist on these two plants. Lotus is consumed in places like China and Thailand but it grows well in Vietnam. All parts of the plant are entirely consumed by the Vietnamese.

Fig 3: Lotus lakes in Vietnam

Source: https://vietnamtrips.com/vietnamese-lotus-flower

Lotus is indigenous to the Tropics in and around  Sundaland. Taking this as a cue, I am locating the region of Typha angustifolia to the north of China because that makes an easy route for people to have migrated northward or southward during times of distress. The northern most location for Typha angustifolia in this stretch is Altai Mountains! The lotus growing Vietnam formed the southern location of migration

Fig 4: The North and South limits of the migration

Since there is evidence of Denisovan genes found in Altai (Here) connected with Australian aborigines (Here)  and also of Papuans and Pacific islanders (Here) it is possible to deduce that a former migration had occurred in this corridor - from Australia to Sundaland to China to Altai.

The narration in Mahābhārata is about a southward migration through the same corridor when North became inhospitable and South was warm and wet. This could have happened during Glacial Maximum and Minimum periods, with migrants finally settling down in regions around Sundaland. The old memory transmitted through generations in the form of a simple story can be picked out by means of the clue given in that story itself – that etymology plays a great role in unlocking the secrets hidden in those stories.

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).

 

Epigraphic evidence for the year of the Mahābhārata war

 This is in continuation of the previous article on Methodology and methods of research for dating Mahābhārata

In dating the past, inscriptions are the primary sources of evidence. The year of the Mahabharata war can be deduced from the inscriptions of Janamejaya in whose presence Mahabharata was recited for the first time. Vyasa, the author also being present at that time, makes the decrees of Janamejaya the first rate primary evidence for dating.

Four copper plate grants issued by Janamejaya found in the district of Shivamogga in Karnataka are seen with time elements such as Shaka year, year name, month, tithi, star and weekday that help us in finding out the date of the grants. Two were given on solar eclipse days. Three of them were given to Brahmins of Shivamogga on the occasion of Sarpa-yaga done by Janamejaya.

One was given to a mutt at Bhimanakatte, presently following Madhvacarya's  philosophy. The donated land was occupied by the Pandavas during their exile. The boundaries of this grant are traceable to R.Thunga in the east, R.Varahi (Pāṣāṇa in the grant) and R.Bhima in the north now lost. Agastyasrama in the south is no longer seen.

This grant given on a day of eclipse contains Śaka year (89^th Yudhishthira Śaka), year name (Plavanga) and Pancanga details. They match with each other for the date Nov 2, 3013 BCE in Surya Siddhanta settings and not for any other setting. Janamejaya donated this by offering the water of Thungabhadra in front of Harihara shrine.

This date exactly matches with the Kali Yuga begin year at Pramathi when Parikshit ascended the throne following the abdication of the throne by the Pandavas upon the departure of Krishna from this world. Though Kali Yuga date is confirmed in many other inscriptions and continues to be followed in India, this grant of Janamejaya comes as a primary evidence for the year of Mahabharata 35 years before that.

On the same date Janamejaya had issued a grant to Usha Mutt in Kedarnath. He must have handed over that personally when he visited Kedarnath. Both Bhimanakatte and Kedarnath are connected with Bhima. Bhima was said to have built a dam at Thunga, by which the place got the name Vrikodara-Kshetra (inscription), now known as Bhimanakatte.

Bhimanakatte (Source: http://bheemanakattemutt.com/photos/)

Closer analysis reveals that the Pandavas had visited the places related to Ramayana in Karnataka and they were identified by Janamejaya who made arrangements for the upkeep of those places. Krishkindha seems to be the seat of Vaali-guhe (Balligavi). From there Bhimnanakatte is only 320 km.

Other three  inscriptions found at Begur, Kuppagede and Gauj in Shivamogga dt, reveal that the sarpa yaga was done in the 88th Kali year (Parābhava). Janamejaya gave these grants to the recipients in the 89th Kali year, while on a Dik-vijaya to this region. The dates exactly match with Kali Era beginning in the year Pramathi in 3101 BCE.

Surprise element is that Begur and Kuppagede (Pushpagade in the grant) were given in Caitra maasa – both Adhika and Nija following each other. This can be simulated only in Surya Siddhanta settings and not in any other settings. This confirms the 7200y cycle of equinoxes and not 26k western astronomy.

The Bhimanakatte grant with year name (Plavanga) and Śaka year (89^th in Y. Śaka) confirms that Parikshit ascended the throne in 3101 BCE following the departure of Pandavas and Krishna. 35 years before that Mahabharata war was fought, i.e. in 3136 BCE in the year Krodhi.

The detailed article can be read here: https://jayasree-saranathan.medium.com/epigraphic-evidence-for-the-year-of-the-mah%C4%81bh%C4%81rata-war-ee00d087cf55

 

Kali Yuga date mathematically proved (Supplement to Mahabharata date series: 9)

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Recap

·         The Catur Maha Yuga is of two types – one, based on the measure of Dharma that passes in quick succession within a few thousand years and another running into a fixed duration of lakhs of years.

·         In the Dharma based Yuga, there is no fixed duration of years for Yuga, Sandhya and Sandhyamsa period. This is not so in the other type of Yuga.

Chronologically Vaivasvata Manu was the first one to have talked about Catur Maha Yuga classification. This classification is repeated in the Puranas and Mahabharata. This is purely computation based, having a fixed duration for each of the Yugas. The date is water-tight that it cannot be changed at one’s whims and fancies. There exists a test for validating the Kali Yuga begin day. That will also be taken up in this part to prove mathematically that the Kali year as maintained till now is absolutely true.

This Yuga system, an ingenious innovation of the Vedic sages calculates Time at cosmic level.  The basic unit is the solar year with the sun becoming the determinant of time. It crosses approximately one degree of the sky every day giving rise to 360 Savana days. 

When the moon is combined with the sun to determine Time, the phases and the months come into picture. When the two begin the journey in space from a specific point, they were seen to come back to the same place on the same phase, tithi and month only once in five years. That was devised as the 5-year Yuga and used for ritualistic purposes in the short run.

When the five planets along with the two nodes were combined with the sun and the moon, the sages found, that it would take 4,32,000 years for all of them to join together around a same point in space. From this realization was born the Catur Maha Yuga concept in long term scale.

The basic requirement for this calculation being the knowledge of the orbital time of all the nine planets, it is understood that this calculation could have been made only after the discovery of all the planets. The Sun and the moon were well known and well-observed entities in any society. The knowledge of the nodes was already there in Ramayana. In fact this knowledge must have come from the time man had started watching the moon’s path from north to south and from south to north within a month. Of the remaining five planets, Saturn was discovered during Younger Dryas (Part 6) that ended by 11,700 BCE. So the computation of the Catur Maha Yuga must have been done only after this period.

In this context it is necessary to make a clarification on some passages referring to a planetary combination at the star Pushya marking the Kali Yuga and Krita Yuga.

Tishya for Kali Yuga.

In a dialogue between Sauti and Saunaka in Mahabharata on a discussion between Brahman and Devas in times of yore, there appears a description of the four yugas. It starts as follows.

“idaṃ kṛtayugaṃ nāma kālaḥ śreṣṭhaḥ pravartate”[1]

From Idam Krita Yugam it is known that the discussion had happened in Krita Yuga. Whatever is referenced here can be taken as the earliest. The description of the Yugas ends with Kali Yuga as follows:[2]

“tatas tiṣye 'tha saṃprāpte yuge kalipuraskṛte

     ekapādasthito dharmo yatra tatra bhaviṣyati”

Ganguli’s translation: “(Upon the expiration of Dvapara) the Yuga that will set in will be called Kali yuga which will come under the influence of Tisya constellation. Righteousness will lose full three quarters. Only a quarter thereof will exist in all places.”

The reference to one part of Dharma in this verse is a clear indicator of the Dharma Yuga cycle.

By the word “tiṣye’ (locative case) it is conveyed that Kali Yuga would be born at or in the star Pushya!

This view seems to be prevalent in Rama’s times as seen from Malyavan’s reference to Kali Yuga as Tishya![3]

This view continued till the time of Mahabharata war as we see Sanjaya using the name Pushya Yuga in the place of Kali Yuga while describing the four Yugas.[4]

The expected birth of a new Yuga, the fourth one with one quarter of Dharma perhaps gave rise to the concept of Pushya-snana, of doing austerities on Pushya day to protect oneself (the king) from misfortunes so that his kingdom and subjects can be protected.[5] (This practice of bathing continues even today on Full Moon in Pushya in the scared waters of many temples).

This view seemed to have altered with time. The relevance of Pushya changed from Kali to Krita Yuga that comes up after Kali Yuga.

Vishnu Purana states, “When the sun and moon, and the lunar asterism Tishya, and the planet Jupiter, are in one mansion, the Krita age shall return.”[6]

In Mahabharata Markandeya is seen telling the Pandavas that Krita age would begin again when the Sun, the Moon, and Vrihaspati would be in the same sign with the constellation Pushya. [7]

The association of just three planets and the birth of Krita following Kali could be about the Dharma Yuga and not the Maha Yuga. This reference should not be confused with the Maha Yuga calculation.

Maha Yuga Calculation.

Conjunction of all the nine planets is the basic feature of the Maha Yuga. This was pointed out by Aryabhata as “Gruha sāmānyam Yugam”. [8]

They congregate at the beginning of Aries every 4,32,000 years. In this congregation, one of the nodes has to be necessarily outside the group, i.e. 180 degrees away. And that node happens to be Rahu always.

This congregation takes place 10 times in a Catur Maha Yuga. These recurrences are apportioned into four Yugas as follows:

Kali Yuga = 4,32,000 years

Dvapara Yuga = 8,64,000 years (Two times of Kali Yuga)

Treta Yuga = 12,96,000 years (Three times of Kali Yuga)

Krita Yuga = 17,28,000 years (Four times of Kali Yuga)

Total = 43,20,000 years.

The naming as Krita, Treta etc., seems to follow just the number system. Kali means one, Dvapara means two, Treta means three and Krita means four.

The terms Yugya (yoked) and Yugma (even) are applicable to this Maha Yuga for the reason that there is an ascending and descending phase for the Yuga. The first of every Yuga is Utsarpini and the second half is Apasarpini.[9] 

The need for Sandhya period.

The Sandhya period was attested before and after a Yuga in this system. This is different from Dharma Yuga Sandhya where a Sandhyamsa was also present. There is no Sandhyamsa in Maha Yuga as there is no need to apportion Sandhya (Sandhyamsa means part of Sandhya).Thinking of the need to have Sandhya for Maha Yugas, only one reason looks plausible. The planets do not move in a fixed path and in a fixed time. There are bound to be mild variations. In the long run, there are bound to be unexpected variations caused by cosmic impacts. So taking all these into account the sages seemed to have given scope for 10% deviation of the duration of a Yuga and have added them before and after the Yuga.

The purport of the Maha Yuga concept

This calculation can be stretched to any length of time, even before the solar system was born when the planets were not yet born. The calculation shows that the sages had made the birth time of the Sun as a basic unit. The sun’s age as of now is around 5 billion years. That is roughly close to a day (or night) of the Creator God, the Four-faced Brahma, calculated as thousand times the duration of the Catur Maha Yuga. It is 4.32 billion years. This is the almost the age of our Sun as of today.

This shows our sages had taken the current age of the Sun as the duration of a day of Brahma. The sun is supposed to have a life time of only 10 billion years, according to science. Having finished half its life and the sun is going to see a decline in the thermo nuclear fusion happening in its body. This declining period is the night time of Brahma. Over all 8.64 billion years make one day of Brahma (day time + night time).

Thus the Catur Maha Yuga concept is basically the Vedic way of scientific enumeration of the age of the sun. The Creator Brahma churns out 36,000 such suns to enable habitable conditions for the sustenance of life. That idea is enshrined in the Maha Yuga concept. (36,000 is derived by multiplying one year of  Brahma by 100. Brahma’s age is 100 years according to scriptures. One year has 360 Savana days. We just deduced that 1 day of Brahma = 1 sun’s life. Therefore 360 x 100 = 36,000 suns.)

The Sun is a Deva, a palpable deity in our immediate surroundings and the Yuga concept is a measurement of time of the Devas. For this reason the duration is given in Divine years where 1 Divine year = 360 human years (solar years). The following is the oft repeated version found in the Puranas and Mahabharata. The first and the third numbers are 10% Sandhya period of the main Yuga given in the middle. These numbers are in Divine years.

Krita Yuga = 400 + 4000 + 400 = 4,800 (divine years)
Treta Yuga = 300 + 3000 + 300 = 3,600
Dwapara    = 200 + 2000 + 200 = 2,400
Kali Yuga  = 100 + 1000 + 100 = 1,200

Catur Maha Yuga Total             = 12,000

Converted into solar years: 12,000 x 360 = 43,20,000 years.

1000 times the Catur Maha Yuga = day / night of Brahma = 432,00,00,000 solar years.

Any prayer to the Devas must be done in this Time scale of the Devas.

It is for this reason the Sankalpa mantra for any work contains the expression of time starting from Deva’s scale to the lowest at the human level, i.e. the karana of 6 hour duration.

The Year name is an important feature of the Sankalpa mantra. The 60 years originally belonged to the Jupiter cycle with its year beginning at Uttarayana. In the Maha Yuga system, the year begins at the conjunction point of Aries. The same names are used for the Yuga years. The 60 year period marks the conjunction of the Dharma- Karma planets, namely Jupiter and Saturn that lay a foundation for working out one’s Prarabdha karma. (That replicates in the descending phase making 120 years the full life of man). So the names of the 60 year period are crucial for identifying one’s life time or any event.

There is a Year name for the start of Kali Yuga. Unless that is satisfied, there is no point in claiming a year as the first year Kali Yuga.

With these basics let me start proving the Kali Yuga date.

Kali Yuga began in the year Pramathi.

In Kali Yuga system the first year was Pramathi because the planetary conjunction happened at the beginning of Aries only in that year. The simplest proof comes from Aryabhata’s verse on his age.

He had written “when sixty times sixty years and three Yuga Pāda-s had elapsed, twenty three years had then elapsed since my birth.”[10]

(Pāda in Yuga Pāda doesn’t mean quarter, but just a part. This is reiterated by Vayu Purana that says “Just as Vedas are divided into four Pādas, a Yuga also has four Pāda-s” where Pāda means foot.[11] )

Aryabhata refers to the lapse of 3600 years (60 x 60) since the beginning of Kali Yuga when he was 23 years of age. At that age the vernal equinox coincided with the sidereal equinox (zero ayanamsa) according to the commentators, based on the planetary positions derived from his work. That year was Pramathi! So the first year of the sixty times of sixty years must have had Pramathi running. In other words, Kali Yuga started in the year Pramathi.

Let me show three simulations from Jhora for the stipulated age of Aryabhata when there was zero ayanamsa. They are Tropical (used in astronomy software), Lahiri ayanamsa and Surya Siddhanta (SS) which works on the limited to and fro equinoctial movement with zero degree Aries as the center. All of them show Pramathi, but the Sun was not at zero Aries for Lahiri settings. It was zero for Tropical and Surya Siddhanta though Tropical entry started seven and a half hours after SS time.

Zero ayanamsa in SS setting

Comparison of zero ayanamsa date between Tropical and Lahiri setting.

Pushya Paksha setting also did not match with zero ayanamsa. The year 499 is not a simulator creation; the olden commentators had mentioned the same year in Shaka years, as Salivahana Shaka year 421.

Pramathi as the first year of Kali Yuga is corroborated epigraphically too. It is a practice to refer to the first year of the Year cycle in the inscriptions. Most of the inscriptions found in North India refer to Pramathi as the start of the counting of years in Kali Yuga. In South India it is Prabhava, the reason being, the year clock was set back to the first year of the 60-year cycle for counting the years from Kali Yuga start date. This difference in North – South traditions has no justification except that North India retained continuity, while Southern tradition went back to the first year of the cycle for the New Yuga. When Pramathi was running, it was Prabhava in the South and this continues till date.

As such the Tamil inscriptions start as “Prabhavadi sellaa nindra..” (at the lapse of …. years starting from Prabhava)

An exception to this is found in the Tamil inscription located in Parameswari Caturvedi Mangalam near Gingee. It starts as “Pramathi sellaa nindra..” Expectedly the reigning king mentioned in the inscription was of north Indian origin. He was Fatenath Singh, the son of Raghunath Singh, seeming to be related to Desingh or Tej Singh (Desinghu Raja in Tamil). The year name (Bhava), Tithi (Shukla Trayodasi) and star (Uttarabhadra pada) perfectly match with the year 1754 – for which there is no historical record of Desingh’s descendants ruling from Gingee. Only this inscription stands as an evidence for an unknown history of the north Indian dynasty ruling this part of South India around 1754. Additionally this inscription offers credence to the north- Indian tradition of the Era beginning with Pramathi.

There are few other inscriptions giving the Kali Year along with the shaka year or the regnal year of the king, offering scope to cross check. They all point out to the beginning of Kali Yuga 3101 years before the Common Era. The inscriptions in Salivahana Shaka years also point out to the same beginning at 3101 BCE. Epigraphy offers a robust validation for the date of the Kali Yuga.

The first year of Kali Yuga

Pramathi was the first year of Kali Yuga derived from Aryabhatiya and also from the continuing record of the Kali year in the Pancangas. All the planets except Rahu were together at the beginning of Aries at that time.

This was never questioned by the Hindus until the westerners studied our system and handed out their ‘expert’ comments. In their inability to derive the conjunction from the Julian period they had used, they rejected the Kali Yuga computation as a fabricated one. Starting from them, this trend of rejecting the Kali Yuga date had continued till date, for the most obvious reason of the mismatch between the planetary - calendar system of the astronomy simulator and the Vedic system of computation.  Now let me show the simulated version for the Kali date conjunction from Tropical setting (used in astronomy simulator), Lahiri, Pushya paksha and Surya Siddhanta setting.

Let me begin from the Surya Siddhanta setting.

The Year is Pramathi, Caitra, Thursday, the sun and the moon at Aswini, the sun having just entered Aries and all the planets except Rahu at the beginning of Aries within 2 degree distance. Mars is at the 7^th degree from the beginning of Aries. Following this conjunction, the first day of Kali Yuga started on the next day, i.e. Friday. Surya Siddhanta setting offers excellent corroboration of the Kali Yuga conjunction and the associated Pancanga dates.

Tropical setting for the same date and time.

Major differences are seen in Tropical setting. The year has changed to Bahu-dhanya. The Star is different. The planetary conjunction is seen but at the beginning of Aquarius, and the month is Phalguna. Abhyankar’s simulation is close to this. The vernal equinox for this year was shown at mid-Taurus, not at the beginning of Aries, as seen in SS setting. The inference is that the Tropical zodiac is unsuitable to date Kali Yuga (and therefore Mahabharata war that took place 35 years before Kali Yuga started).

Lahiri setting for the same date and time.

The Year and week day were the same, but the tithi had advanced. More than anything, the sun and the moon were in Pisces with the sun, 10 degrees behind the zero degree mark of Aries. Saturn was also far away. The ayanamsa value shows the Vernal equinox in Taurus. The Kali Yuga conjunction that is possible in Surya Siddhanta setting is not showing up for Lahiri setting.

Pushya paksha setting for the same date and time.

Pushya Paksha differs from Lahiri by 1 to 2 degrees. We can see only the year and the week day matching. The Sun was at 22 degrees Pisces, so too was the moon. Saturn was far behind. Ayanamsa value shows the vernal equinox occurring in Taurus. There is complete mismatch with the Kali Yuga pointers.

One can try for any other year in Lahiri, Pushya paksha, Tropical or any other ayanamsa. Pramathi repeating only once in 60 years, it is not possible to get the conjunction for any other year. The discovery of the conjunction of all planets at zero Aries is a rare gem of importance to astronomy, precession theory and orbital physics.

The combination appearing only for the SS setting is proof of the reliability of the calculations that have gone into making the settings. While this could work perfectly for zero ayanamsa that needs no correction to the planetary degrees, the same cannot be assured for times of vernal equinox farther away from zero Aries, obviously because the rate of change of ayanamsa is not constant.

Compare this with the date of 3067 BCE promoters who claim that Kali Yuga started on the year of the war when Bhima killed Duryodhana. For their year 3066 BCE in Julian setting, the year was Ananda!. What an irony of sorts that the fierce war was fought on a year that was supposed to bring Ananda! The names were not arbitrarily given. The names carry the nature of the years. A war of the scale of Mahabharata had taken place in Krodhi and not Ananda.

Alternatively the 3067 backers prefer to de-link Kali Yuga. That is demonstrative of the complete absence knowledge of the historical connection between the Kali date and the exit of Krishna and the year of the war. If every scriptural reference to this historical connection told by none other than the sages are junked by these researches, what else is the basis for these researches?

Mathematical proof for the Kali Year.

The week day is the test for the reliability of the Kali date.

The conjunction of all the planets happened on a Thursday, as told by Aryabhata. The next day the counting of the Kali day started. In other words, the first week day of the Kali Yuga was a Friday. The week day count continues uninterruptedly for all ages. Starting from Friday on the first day of Kali Yuga, the continuity of the week day must be maintained till date. Compare this with the Julian calendar where 10 week days were compromised.

In any calculation of a particular day in the Kali Era, the total number of Kali days are divided by 7. If the reminder is zero, the day is Thursday. If the remainder is 1, it is Friday, if 2 it is Saturday and so on. The formulae given for writing Pancangas also end up with the same version that the counting started from Friday.

As a sample calculation let us take up the days of the sidereal year. The Sun’s movement from Asvini to Asvini forms a sidereal year. It has 365 days and a few hours. Divide 365 by 7. The remainder is 1. Therefore the first day of the next year is Friday. This is how the enumeration of the week day goes, but this cannot be as simplistic as this, for there are hours and minutes left. They pile up in such a way that the day advances by one every 5^th year. The following table shows the advancement in Vedic day and calendar day at the beginning of every year (sidereal).

Table 1

The Kali Year with its corresponding CE year is given on the left. The solar ingress into Aries is given in the 4^th column. This data is taken from Jhora astrology simulator. This data is important due to the reason the Vedic day starts at sunrise whereas the Calendar day (Gregorian) starts at mid night before sunrise. So, for the same solar ingress time, the next calendar day would start if the ingress time is after mid-night. For that time the Vedic day would continue to be the previous day. You will find this mismatch in the Vedic and calendar days in the Table. 

The progression of time can be seen to follow a specific time gap of six hours in the Table. Actually the days are April 14th or 15th for these years of the current period. 365 days + 6 hours are solidly added every year. The 6 hour period is seen to move up and down within 14th and 15th April at present. 

The week day on the first day of each year progresses continuously for four years and skips one day on the fifth year due to shift between two dates. In the Gregorian calendar the adjustment is done deliberately by adding one day for the non-counting of 6 hours in every year. In the Vedic calendar the adjustment happens automatically as it sticks to the ingress time during the day. When the ingress occurs at evening or night, that day is not taken as the first day, instead the next day is treated as the first day. In this way one day is skipped from becoming the first week day of the year. This goes on forever. This element is added in the Table below. I named it as Ritual day, for, only this day is recognized as Vishu and fit for Sankramana Tarpana.

Table 2

The Ritual day is added as the first column. It can be seen the skipped days do not match with the Vedic day. The Vedic day takes in to account just the sun rise time, but the first day of the year follows the solar ingress time. Look at the 3^rd row. The solar ingress happened at 7 PM on a Friday. This was skipped and instead the next day (Saturday) was taken as the first day of the year. The highlighted days in the first column can be checked with the 5^th column (solar ingress) to know which day gets skipped and how the day progresses. 

This can be cross-checked mathematically. In other words, the mathematical test for the start of the Kali Yuga time lies with the sequence of the week days on the first day of any Kali Year. The first day of the Yuga started on a Friday. Now after 5122 years, the sequence of week days after skipping every 5th week day must have continued and be matched with the running week day of the present times. 

For computing we need the length of the sidereal day. This is given in various texts as follows, but they are not reliable for the current times.

I am taking the most recently available figure from “Veemanatha Pancanga Vākya” (Tamil), written in Kali Year 4968, corresponding to 1867 CE.[12] The length of the year given in this Tamil text is 365 days, 15 Nazhigai (नाडी), 31 Vinadi and 15 Tatparai.

The conversion is given below. The last column is in Tatparai

From Nazhigai to clock time, the conversion is this:

1 Nazhigai = 24 minutes.

From this the duration of a day and the Vedic Year can be calculated.

The Vedic year = 365.2586806 days

At present = 365. 256363 days [13]

There is a difference of 0.002317552 days showing that the sidereal year at present is shorter than it was in 1867CE. This means the earth completes the revolution faster than it was in the year 1867 CE. The year ends 3.33727488 minutes earlier. This is the revelation not known to the scientific community.

The duration of the year is converted into the lowest denomination, i.e. tatparai.

1 year = 365 days, 15 Nazhig, 31 vinadi, 15 tatparai

1 year = 78895875 tatparai.

This is to be added every year to arrive at the length of the year. 

Basically to know the number of elapsed days in Kali Yuga, the Kali year that ended is multiplied by the length of a year given in tataparai. This is converted into days and divided by 7, to get the week day on the first day of next year.

The calculation is produced below for seven years starting from 2015 to 2021. We have to check if the sequence of the week days appear in this calculation to establish the authenticity of Kali Yuga year. 

The top row gives the completed Kali Years. The second row gives the corresponding CE year when the Kali year ends and the new Kali year begins. (The Kali year begins at Mesha sankramana)

The third row shows the length of a sidereal year in Tatparai. 

The fourth row (tatparai) shows the elapsed Kali days in Tatparai as at the end of the Kali year mentioned in the first row. This is obtained by multiplying the elapsed Kali years by the tatparai duration of a year. For example for the year 2015 CE, the Kali year 5116 multiplied by tatparai of a year is entered in the fourth row. 

The 5th row converts this duration into days.

The 6th row gives the result of the days divided by 7.

The 7th row notes down the decimal part of the remainder.

The 8th row shows the remainder converted into days.

The 9th row converts the decimal of the remainder into Nazhigai. The 10th and 11th rows show the corresponding Nazhigai into minutes and hours. 

Let us take the second column showing the number of Kali days on the first day of Citra in 2015 CE corresponding to Kali year 5116. When divided by 7, the remainder is 5.6 days. Counting from Friday, it is Tuesday. 

The next column shows the next year details. In the next year (Kali 5117 / 2016 CE) the remainder is zero. So that year started on Thursday. 

As the day progresses like this, the Nazhigai also gets added. By the beginning of the year 2020 CE (Kali year 5121), the remaining day becomes 4.9 in which 4 is Monday (counted from Friday). The decimal place corresponds to 54 Nazhigai or 21.6 hours. Being closer to almost a full day, the next day is taken as the first day. It is Tuesday. Thus from 2019 CE to 2020 CE, the first week day jumps from Sunday to Tuesday. This can be cross checked with Table 2 for the time of solar ingress in the year 2020 CE. The time was 8 PM on Monday. The rituals cannot be done on that day, but only in the next day after sunrise. Therefore Tuesday becomes the first week day in 2020 CE. This adjustment happens automatically in the calculation.

The inference is that the Kali Year and the first week day of the Kali year have a fixed relationship. From the 1^st day of Kali Yuga that started on a Friday, this continuity is maintained in such a way that every 5^th year the week day advances. What is seen presently in our calendar and picked out from the simulator tallies with the mathematically arrived remainder of the Kali days of the year.

If you change the Kali Year, the number of Kali days change and the week day also changes. The current week day can remain as it is only if the true Kali date is not changed. This unchanging sequence helped the Siddhantins such as Aryabhata to say emphatically that Kali Yuga conjunction happened on a Thursday 3600 years before his time when he was 23 years old. To ignore this knowledge and impose another date as Kali year is cultural genocide imposed on the uninformed people of Bharatavarsha. Not only that, the scientific system of this country is also being buried by mass ignorance.

This kind of counting is not possible for Mahabharata war day that 3067 backers are proposing as the time Kali Yuga began. You need to know the extent of a year; you need to know the first week day of the year. That first day should have some cosmic relevance – like the solar ingress. Where are all these for the day of “Praptam Kali Yugam” time? Dating Mahabharata is not a child’s play – but it’s being done as a child’s play with a simulator in one hand and fanciful thoughts on the other. In the process, only our Sanatan knowledge is getting sidelined to be forgotten forever. 

This discourse continues for few more parts, to remove the cobwebs woven around Shaka years and the  Aihole inscription.

(To be continued)

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[1] Mahabharata: 12- 327 -73

[2] Mahabharata: 12- 327 - 76

[3] Valmiki Ramayana: 6-35-14

[4] Mahabharata: 6-11-7

[5] Brihat Samhita: Ch.48

[6] Vishnu Purana: 4-24

[7] Mahabharata: 2-89 (Ganguli’s translation)

[8] Aryabhatiya: 3-8

[9] Aryabhatiya: 5-9

[10] Aryabhatiya: 5-10

[11] Vayu Purana: 1-32-64

[12] Periya Varushadhi Nool” (Tamil) p. 6

[13] http://www.public.asu.edu/~mjwhite/Sidereal%20and%20tropical%20years.pdf