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)

 

From Tamil to Sanskrit to Brahmi - my talk in 'Pesu Tamizha Pesu'

 My talk in

@pesutamizhapesu

on * significance of Sanskrit in temple worship * basis of mantras with various examples * simultaneous evolution of Tamil & Sanskrit from a pre-existing proto language * Brahmi not the basis of Tamil writing

My talk in 'Viyan Tamil' on Varna, Jaathi and Dravida

 In my talk to #ViyanTamil I spoke on

* Varna vs Jaathi * Manu Dharma offering portfolio allotment by varna-mix * Kanchi as Dravida country * Caste conflicts in Kanchi * Brahmins identifying themselves as Dravidas * No Tamil king called himself a Dravida

Hinduness of Thiruvalluvar - My talk in 'Pesu Tamizha Pesu' channel

 In my recent interview to Pesu Tamizha Pesu Tamil Channel, I focused on issues such as

# Was Thiruvalluvar a Christian or a Jain or a Buddhist or a Hindu?

# What is being a Hindu?

# Which God was worshiped by Thiruvalluvar?

My book "When was the First Vedic Homa Done?"

Released a booklet tilted "When was the First Vedic Homa Done?" on 27th December 2021. It traces the story of Agni as given in scriptures and and how and when the first Homa was done. From the narration of sage Markandeya found in the Mahabharata it is known that Skanda conducted the 'marriage' of Svāhā with Agni - symbolic of the beginning of the Vedic Homa. 

The first copy of this book was presented to the Honorable Vice President of India, Sri. Venkaiah Naidu on 27th December 2021. I wish this copy reaches as many people as possible to spread the information about the beginnings of Vedic Homa. 

Click the image to enlarge

The narration is in story form and brings out parallels from Tamil literature on Skanda's role in starting the first Homa. The location of the first Homa and the feasibility factors for the performance of the Homa are discussed. Sample pages are shown below. 

This booklet is of 22 pages and priced at Rs.50. Can be purchased by writing to jayasreebooks@gmail.com 

Can be bought along with other books to save on the postage.

My other books are

"Mahabharata 3136 BCE" (Rs. 475)

"Myth of The Epoch of Arundhati of Nilesh Nilkanth Oak"  (Rs. 230)

"Oral Cancer: Astrological prediction and remedies" (Rs.250)

"ஆண்டாள் தமிழும் அறியாத வைரமுத்துவும்" (Rs. 50)

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).

 

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.