Excerpted from my book “Myth of 'The Epoch of Arundhati' of Nilesh Nilkanth Oak
Oak’s revolutionary discovery of the meaning of ‘Vakri’ motion
‘Vakri’ is a word that often troubles this Mahabharata researcher. Since he never thought that learning astrology terms would help in understanding the astronomy terms of Mahabharata, we are entertained with a new a discovery of the definition of Vakri, through ‘Voyager- Simulation Nyaya’. He gives the list of findings on Vakri he made through this Nyaya in the 4th chapter on Mahabharata astronomy[1].
Vakri is generally translated as ‘retrograde motion’. But Oak found a difference between Vakri and retrogression through the Voyager- Simulation Nyaya and proposes that the Mahabharata uses the two terms in different meanings. After working on the vakri of different planets with the aid of this Nyaya, he came to the conclusion that “Mahabharata astronomers referred to oblique crossing of the ecliptic by a planet as ‘vakri’ motion while the true retrograde motion of a planet was described as being steady (dhruva or sthayi), or travelling in reverse (apasavya) direction.”[2]
For a reader confused with this distinction between vakri
and retrograde motion, a solution is available in his blog as follows: [3]
Anticipating what the reader would ask on reading
this, he continues to write as follows in the same blog post.
He differentiates the two movements – Vakri and retrograde - of which the definition of the latter continues to elude him. As one who has confessed in the very beginning of his book that his approach is ‘piecemeal’[4] he has solved the problem of Vakri for now and postponed to a future research the concept of ‘retrograde motion’ given in Mahabharata.
With this piecemeal discovery Nilesh Oak goes on to locate the vakri planet and the retrograde planet in the simulator and claims victory that he had correctly found out the date of that observation.
If his definition of vakri is true, then Mars cannot
be seen making oblique crossing of the ecliptic this year –i.e. 2019 – the year
of writing this critique, for the simple reason that Mars does not have vakri
motion, or retrograde motion throughout 2019. But what does the declination
graph for 2019 show? It shows Mars crossing the ecliptic from north to south in
mid October 2019. Similarly the outer planets such as Jupiter and Saturn are in
vakri motion in the middle of the year, but both are seen at the southern most
part of the ecliptic throughout the year with no obliquity in their motion. The
following graph testifies this.[5]
Mars is marked within red box while Jupiter and Saturn are marked inside green in the above graph. A no-vakri Mars is crossing the ecliptic obliquely while there is no change in the path of Saturn and Jupiter that are in vakri motion in the middle part of the year.
A simple cross-checking of the current motion of these planets offers the best test of his hypothesis on vakri motion, but he has omitted this important step. Even before we could plunge into his Epoch of Arundhati and planetary alignments in support of his date, we are finding him make Himalayan blunders in understanding the terms of Mahabharata astronomy. One can then imagine the veracity of the findings coming out of this flawed use of the term vakri to locating a date in his simulator.
From
Appendix I of my book:
List of Manipulations done by Nilesh Oak to ‘corroborate’ his date of Mahabharata.
(4) Experiment numbered 13:
Vakri’ motion of Mars.[6]
(Mahabharata reference No: 11, 13, 14 in his book)
In the previous instances quoted on the manipulations done by Nilesh Oak to prove his date, we faulted him for neglecting to define the terms in the verses. Here in this experiment he attempts to define the term ‘Vakri’ in the verses on Mars. It was well established earlier how Nilesh Oak demonstrated his utter lack of understanding of ‘Vakri’. In this experiment he describes how he derived the meaning of the term Vakri through DVA – Direct Visual Astronomy of the Simulator.
Nilesh Oak hopes to clinch something big in his discovery of the meaning of Vakri, comparable with Kepler. He says,[7]
“There is indeed something intriguing about Mars. Small discrepancy (between prediction and actual observation) in the measurement of Mars led Kepler to his marvellous theory of elliptical orbits of planets. Intriguing descriptions of Mars in the Mahabharata text and my explanation provide high degree of corroboration to the proposed year of 5561 B.C.”
Oak has indeed made a break-through invention of Mars spending nearly 6 months in retrogression in Chitra and Swati before it turned forward.[8] This is against the current scientific knowledge of Mars in retrogression that is possible for only 80 days at a stretch. All glory to Voyager simulator that enabled him to see this through DVA.
·
Nilesh Oak can notify the developers of
Voyager Simulator of this discovery to take his name forward for recognition.
·
Oak can also notify them of his
innovative ways of deriving meaning for a Sanskrit word like ‘vakri’ and the
English word ‘retrogression’ by means of DVA so that they can use his name and
innovation as publicity material to promote their product.
·
But Nilesh Oak must be careful not to
take his discovery and innovation to the notice of an astronomer to avoid
getting his book tossed into a dustbin. No astronomer would accept his
explanation without first establishing them conceptually and mathematically.
Sadly Nilesh Oak’s book is a series of ideas never established conceptually or mathematically but ‘seen’ and ‘proven’ in the DVA of the Voyager Simulator.
[1]“When Did The Mahabharata War Happen?” Page 37
[2] Ibid. Page 81
[3]“Tri-Murti of scientific Method” https://nileshoak.wordpress.com/2014/10/07/tri-murti-of-scientific-method/
[4]“When did the Mahabharata war happen?” Page 5
[5]Source: http://time-price-research-astrofin.blogspot.com/2018/12/declinations-of-sun-moon-and-planets.html
[6]“When did the Mahabharata war happen?” Page 80
& 81.
[7]Ibid. Page 81.
[8]Ibid. Page 81
