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Question – 49
Krishna started his
journey for peace at the end of Sharad season in Kaumudi maasa (kaumude māsi
revatyāṃ śarad ante himāgame). Which month was known as ‘Kaumudi’?
Answer:
The dictionary
meaning of Kaumudi is Kartika month.
This can be
further corroborated by the reference to Sharad season in the verse. Sharad
season falls in the months of Ashvina and Kartika. Vyasa specifically says, ‘at
the end of Sharad season’ (śarad ante). Only Kartika will be running in the
later part of Sharad season.
To substantiate
this further, let us construct the season-calendar of the 5-year Yuga
period that started in the year Krodhi when the Pandava-s returned from exile. This
can be done based on the hints given in Yajur Vedanga Jyothisha which defines
the season as two synodic months and two tithi-s. This must not be construed as synodic months
starting from a New- moon or a Full moon. Vedanga Jyotisha calculates it from
the beginning of the 1st year of the 5-year Yuga period, i.e., from the Uttarayaṇa
of the 1st year.
Shishira was the
first season covering the two months, Magha and Phalguna. Since the Uttarayaṇa
started in Magha (found in the version of Bhishma) we can construct the Season-
calendar of the Mahabharata by adding two lunar months and two tithi-s from the
first tithi of the 1st year that was found to be Magha Shukla Pratipat. The 8th
Ṛtu (season) must start from the 15th tithi from the beginning of the 1st Ṛtu,
says Vedanga Jyotisha. That is found
fulfilled in the table below constructed for the 5-year Yuga period that
started in Krodhi, the year of the war.
The four seasons
of the 1st year (Samvatsara) Krodhi are boxed to highlight that all the major
events of the war had taken place within these four seasons. The Sharad season
when Krishna undertook the journey is also highlighted to show that it
contained only Ashvina and Kartika. This season started on Shukla Navami
of Asvina as per the Table.
Since a season has
2 lunar months and 2 titthis, by Shukla Dasami of Kartika one half of Sharad
season was over (one month + 1 tithi). We already found in Question
47 that Krishna left on Shukla Dwadasi of Kartika month. By then one half
of Sharad season was over. This prompted Vyasa to say that he started in the later part of the season (śarad ante). Kartika month coming at that time, it
goes without saying that Kaumudi was a reference to the month of Kartika.
The Table also shows
that the season (any season) didn't begin on the same day in any year of the
5-year Yuga. No simulator comes to our help in deriving the first day of a
season. We must manually calculate it.
