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Question – 44
What is the basis
of the claim that Adhika Maasa cannot occur in the month of Magha? The extended
stay of Bhishma shows the probability for an Adhika Maasa in that month.
Answer:
Adhika Maasa is a
lunar month that is caused by the difference between the solar and the lunar
months due to the differences in the speed of the sun and the moon. The sun travels
1 degree a day and covers one month of 30-degree duration in 30 days. The moon
moves faster and completes 30 solar days (one solar month) in approximately 29 days.
In other words, every solar month is equal to one lunar month + 1 lunar day. Because
of this, at the end of every year (12 solar months), 12 lunar days are formed extra.
In two years, 24 lunar days remain additionally. In another six months, another
6 lunar days are formed. Thus, every two and a half years 30 lunar days are
formed extra. Since this is the duration of a lunar month, this is expunged to adjust
the lunar month with the solar month.
For identification
of the Adhika Maasa, when two New-Moons (Amavasya) occur in a solar month, the
lunar month following the first Amavasya is treated as Adhika Maasa. The
month following the second Amavasya is treated as Nija Maasa. This
follows the rationale that there must be solar ingress (saṅkramaṇa) in a lunar
month. The lunar month not having a solar ingress is an Adhika Maasa.
The solar month stretching
longer than the lunar month happens when the earth is at aphelion, that is farther from the sun. Because of
this, the solar days range from 30 to 32 in the months starting from Phalguna to
Ashvina. Adhika Maasa can happen only in this period.
On the other hand,
in the months from Kartika to Magha, the earth is at perihelion,
that is closest to the sun. The Panchanga will show 29 days for these months due
to the faster movement of the earth during this period. Only in these months, Kshaya
Maasa can occur. This is identified by two solar ingresses within a lunar
month.
Any time a Kshaya
maasa occurs, it would be accompanied with two Adhika maasa - one before and
another after the Kshaya maasa. Kshaya Maasa repeats once in149-years. The last
time it occurred in the year 1983 when the solar ingress into Capricorn (Makara
Saṅkrānti) started after Shukla Pratipat of the lunar Pushya month and ended on
13th February before the lunar month ended. The very next month, Phalguna was
an Adhika maasa with no solar ingress. Prior to the Kshaya masa, an Adhika maasa
occurred in Ashvina. Thus, the stretching and shortening of the months before
and in the middle are the result of the difference in the speed of the earth
from farther to closer distances to the sun.
Thus, scientifically,
it is impossible for an Adhika Maasa to occur in the month of Magha. In the Mahabharata,
only in the beginning of that year (Krodhi), an Adhika Maasa occurred in
Caitra. So, no Kshaya maasa could have occurred in Magha of that year. So, what happened then? How did the days get extended, forcing Bhīṣma to
wait for the Uttarayaṇa to come up?
