Very often we hear Mr Nilesh Oak making a claim that
he has corroborated 300+ or 500+ astronomy observations of Mahabharata. As part
of critiquing his book, “When Did The Mahabharata War
Happen? The Mystery of Arundhati”, I noted down all the astronomy
observations referred by him in his book to check the veracity of this claim.
It was found out that of the 217 astronomy references
he has provided at the end of his book, he has worked on only 21 references to
deduce 18 planetary alignments discussed in the 7th chapter of his
book. 25 references in support of his claim of Solar eclipse or Amawasya
running on the first day of the War are found to be analogies. Similarly 28 references in support of his view that Sharad season was running at the time of
the War, turn out to be analogies only. There are four references on the Sun’s
appearance which he deduces to be indicative of solar eclipse, which however stand
disputed.
There are 6 references that he claimed to have
tested in his simulator but they too happen to be analogies. The explanation
given by him are disputable in nature, to quote one, he includes the recently
discovered planets namely Uranus, Neptune and Pluto to corroborate a verse
which is an analogy. (Below)
Overall he had ‘corroborated 75 references if we
include Arundhati observation also.
A sample page of Sharad season corroborations is
given below. The page number in his book where the reference and the explanation appear is given at the end of each reference. The number within the bracket is the serial number of the reference 'corroborated' from Mahabharata text in the list of astronomy references he has given.
The following is the sample page of the ‘corroborations’
done by him in support of Amawasya or Solar Eclipse on the first day of the
war, though he admits that “the Mahabharata text does
not specifically state the occurrence of the solar eclipse on the first day of
war.” In fact Mahabharata text alludes to waning phase for most part of
the war time by referring to late moon-rise (after midnight) on the 14th
day of the War.
The 30-minute video on the nature of ‘corroborations’
of this kind is available for viewing.
The video also discusses the purport of the Sharad season and full moon analogies employed by Vyasa to describe the War scenes.
In the final analysis, it is found out that his claim of corroborating hundreds of astronomy references from Mahabharata is unfounded.
Related Posts:
Video 3: Understanding
seasons the Vedic way.
