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)

 

 

Why Setu Samudram Canal Project is not viable - my interview to Dinamalar

 On 12-01-2023, the DMK Government moved a resolution to revive the Setu Samudram Canal Project (see the report below). Following this I was invited by the Dinamalar Video Channel to express my views on the feasibility of the project. In my interview to Ms. Shyamala of Dinamalar, I shared my views on

# the historicity of the site

# non-feasibility of the canal project from different perspectives, including those of the fishermen

# 'Setu Sentiment' and many more.

From

https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/mk-stalin-resolution-reviving-sethu-samudhra-canal-project-tamil-nadu-ram-setu-2320503-2023-01-12

MK Stalin moves resolution for reviving Sethu Samudhra Canal project, to seek Centre's support

 By  Pramod Madhav

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Thursday moved a resolution to revive the Sethu Samudhra Canal project and will seek the Centre's support in implementing the project. The Sethu Samudhra Canal project is seen as an ambitious project by the ruling DMK government as it would create a shipping route between India and Sri Lanka. The ambitious project proposes to link the Palk Bay and the Gulf of Mannar between India and Sri Lanka by creating a shipping canal. The resolution was passed unanimously.

"Due to political reasons, BJP opposed Sethusamudram Project. Former CM of TN, Jayalalitha was in favour of this project but suddenly changed her stand & filed a case against it," the CM said while moving the resolution.

But the project has faced stiff opposition from pro-Hindu groups fearing that it may damage Ram Setu bridge, which connects Rameswaram to the Mannar island of Sri Lanka.

M K Stalin batted for reviving the project for economic prosperity of the nation and enhancing the freight handling capacity of Indian ports.

The project, which was started on July 2, 2005 at an estimated cost of Rs 2,500 crore, came to a standstill after protests by environmentalists and Hindu activists against the demolition of the Ram Setu, a symbol of heritage. The DMK had, in the run-up to the 2021 Assembly election, promised to complete the project when it comes to power to bring economic benefits to the state

 ABOUT THE PROJECT

The Sethu Samudhra Canal project is essential to strengthen the economic development of Tamil Nadu and India. The project was originally conceived in the year 1860 by Commander Taylor at a cost of Rs 50 lakh. The project had been studied for years and was designed by various technical experts like Dr Ramasamy Mudaliar from Tamil Nadu in the year 1954.

During the Union Cabinet meeting held during 1964 and the high level committee under the chairmanship of Dr Nagendra Singh, ICS in 1964. Various alignments were evaluated and project reports were prepared to implement the scheme without being detrimental to the environment.

During the regime of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had given permission to conduct the feasibility study of the project. The project was sanctioned in 2004 when the UPA government was in power.

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.

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

Siddhantic cycle of precession matches with the paleoclimatic data (Part 5 of my paper on Siddhantic concept of precession)

Previous

UPDATE:

The entire series of 5 parts can be downloaded here:

https://www.academia.edu/47853142/Siddhantic_Concept_of_Precession_of_Equinoxes_New_Revelations

This is Part 5, the last part of my paper on the Siddhantic concept of the equinoxes offering newer insights into emerging trends in Science on Precession.

Part 1 of my paper (August 2020 ) gives an outline of the western and the Indic model of precession of the equinoxes and a comparison between the two. The Indic model does not support continuous precession but an oscillatory to and fro movement of the equinoxes of a circle of 108˚ covered in 7200 years at an average rate of 54 arc seconds per year or 1 degree in an average of 66.66 years.

Part 2 of my paper (September 2020 ) addresses the objections to the Indic model in the light of “a very difficult passage” in Siddhanta Shiromani on a different version from Surya Siddhanta and Munjala and resolves them by drawing up the three types of cycles as shown below.

Part 3 of my paper (November 2020) brings to the fore the textual, epigraphic and iconographic evidence on the limited to and fro motion of the equinoxes, besides the sidereal representation of the equinoxes and the corresponding polar shift within the constellation called Shishumara (Ursa Minor) as outlined by the various Indic texts.

Part 4 of my paper ( February 2021) discusses the problems in the Milankovitch Theory, outlines the Indic model of three cycles and the Band of Tropic of Cancer known as Jambu Marga within which the solstitial limits move up and down in three cycles in tune with the to and fro motion of the equinoxes. Three cycles make up one Yuga of Ayana, mentioned by Munjala. Two Yugas of Ayana are equal to the span of 41,000 years that match with climatic changes.

Part 5 of my paper can be read in March 2021 of  https://astrologicalmagazine.com/  

This last part outlines the historical beginnings from Skanda’s time that match with the change of an Epoch when de-glaciation started in the Southern hemisphere causing a series of Meltwater Pulses.

The oral tradition of Narrangga people of Yorke Peninsula in Southern Australia of a sea breach around 12,000 years ago match with the sea flood at Skanda’s time around the same time. The to and fro ayana cycles are mapped to check the de-glaciation at Skanda’s time and in the periods before him and after him.

It is found that the glacial events since the Last Glacial Maxima (33k years ago) had alternated with a gap of approximately 6500 years. This is not supported by the Milankovitch cycles but is found close to the Indic Ayana cycle of 7200 years. With more evidence coming in support of much shorter cycles of 1000 and 2000 years known as Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) events, they were super-imposed on the Indic to and fro cycles to check for concurrence.

The DO events are found to have occurred within 1200 years on either side of the midpoint of the Indic Ayana cycle at zero degree Aries. In other words, increased insolation followed by de-glaciation was on the higher side in the mid region. The absence of the DO events in the edges match with colder times and mini Ice ages as was witnessed in the 17^th century.

Based on the variations in the rate of trepidation of the equinoxes and Dansgaard –Oeschger events matching with the Ayana cycles, it is proposed that the sun is taking a helical or sinusoidal path. While we await corroborative discoveries in this regard, what cannot be easily displaced is the time tested Indic wisdom of to and fro movement of the equinoxes.

Path of the Sun, detected in the movement of the equinox

The precession record (Table 1 in Part 1 of the series) showing faster movement around the mid-point, with steady slowing down until now and a gradual acceleration in speed noticed in the past century has no explanation in any scientific theory but only in the Siddhantic version of the movement of the equinoxes, as the sun surges in a helical path. 

Hypothetical path of the Sun

* Today we are close to one edge of the curved path of the sun by having come closer to the 27 degree distance from the zero point of Aries. Severe winters have been witnessed since the 17th century. 

* The earth's rotational speed has increased by 3 minutes compared to the 19th century data with the Pancanka writers. 

* The earth was found to have rotated faster than average on a record number of 28 days in the year 2020, ever since the monitoring started fifty years ago. 

* There is a spurt in the rate of precession in the past one century. 

With these early indicators for a reversal in the direction of the equinoxes, the day is not far off to see the Siddhantic model of to and fro motion getting the attention of the scientific community. 

My effort is a squirrel's part to pick out a few grains known to me in laying the foundation for a revival of this unrecognized science perfected by our ancient sages. 

 

Sun’s movement – a determinant of precession and the Band of Tropical limits (Part 4 of my paper on Siddhantic concept of Precession)

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This is Part 4 of my paper on the Siddhantic concept of the equinoxes offering newer insights into emerging trends in Science on Precession.

Part 1 of my paper (August 2020 ) gives an outline on the western and the Indic model of precession of the equinoxes and a comparison between the two. The Indic model does not support continuous precession but an oscillatory to and fro movement of the equinoxes of a circle of 108˚ covered in 7200 years at an average rate of 54 arc seconds per year or 1 degree in an average of 66.66 years.

Part 2 of my paper (September 2020 ) addresses the objections to the Indic model in the light of “a very difficult passage” in Siddhanta Shiromani on a different version from Surya Siddhanta and Munjala and resolves them by drawing up the three types of cycles as shown below.

Part 3 of my paper (November 2020) brings to the fore the textual, epigraphic and iconographic evidence on the limited to and fro motion of the equinoxes, besides the sidereal representation of the equinoxes and the corresponding polar shift within the constellation called Shishumara (Ursa Minor) as outlined by the various Indic texts.

Part 4 of my paper can be read in February 2021 issue of https://astrologicalmagazine.com/

In this part the problems with the Milankovitch theory of precession are analysed in the light of the recent findings on the science front, particularly the acceleration of the rate of precession noticed at present which cannot be explained by the current model of the luni-solar influnce on precession.

There is another issue of complete absence of axial precesison of the earth, that is fundamental to the current theory of precession. A detailed blog on this based on the evidence from the ancient monuments was already posted here in September 2020

Having established that there is no axial precession of the earth with reference to the sun the probable cause for the movement of the equinox that is noticed only with reference to the outer space is probed and proposed to be caused by the shape of the path taken by the sun as it moves across space.

In this context an anomalous observation on the earth is brought to the fore. This is witnessed at the solstice limits in the two hemispheres of the earth as a shift in the solstices at the rate of 15 meters per year. 

Shift of the Tropic of cancer in Mexico

This means the solstice crosses one kilometer in 66.66 years, which is exactly the average rate proposed by Surya Siddhanta for the shift in the equinox per degree. In other words, for every degree of movement of the equinox there is a corresponding shift in the inclination of the earth detected by 1 km shift in the solstices. This is surprising given the fact that the earth’s axis doesn’t tilt and that earth maintains the same angle of tilt with the sun.

Then what causes this shift?

No scientist had taken this shift seriously under the assumption that this shift is caused by the changing axial tilt of the earth.  But now having known that such a tilt is not at all happening, the question remains what causes the sun’s solstice limit to move northward?

Is the entire plane of the solar system getting tilted as the sun surges ahead, by which the sun is seen to glide up with reference to the earth?  

An unknown feature of the sun’s movement and also the tilt of the plane of the solar system are waiting to be discovered.

The current movement would reverse in future is what we gather from the inputs on solstice limits given in the Indic texts. The tropic of cancer crosses the center of India. Presently it passes through Karkoteswar temple in Ujjain. A compilation of all the inputs on the location of the tropic of cancer in the past given as Jambu Marga in Mahabharata shows there is a minimum of three solstitial bands (current, further north in Rama’s time and further south in Skanda’s time) justifying the Yuga of Ayana of Munjala!

There are 2 Yugas of Ayana moving within the Jambu Marga comprising of 6 rounds of 7200 years each. Glaciation and de-glaciation had alternated due to the change in the inclination of the sun or the solar system or the yet to be discovered X factor leaving an imprint by means of the solstice shadow on the earth that our ancestors had so meticulously watched over many rounds of cycles of the equinox. For details, request the interested readers to procure a copy from the website cited earlier.

The cross-check of the paleoclimatic data is done with these Indic cycles in the next (the last) part of the series to show that the Indic cycle is true to the core and is waiting to be discovered sooner than later by the scientists.