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Question – 80
What possibly Karna
and Vyasa had seen as to say that the mark of the moon became separated or
parted with?
Answer:
As seen from the
earth, the Full moon has dark patches for nearly three-fourths of its surface. These
dark patches are volcanic ‘seas’ that were formed during the early period of
the formation of the moon. They have always remained the same. Any collision in
that part is not detectable, but a powerful collision in the blank region on the
lunar disc could create temporary marks formed by the scattered soil. That can
be seen as a fresh mark on the face of the moon in the immediate aftermath of
the collision.
The statement made
by Karṇa and Vyasa - “somasya lakṣma vyāvṛttaṃ”
(“The mark (sign) of the moon became separated or parted with”) goes to prove
that the two had seen a fresh mark on the lunar disc on the night of Pushya. It
is also possible that many had seen it, which is made out from the similar
expression used by both Karna and Vyasa on different occasions. Vyasa could
have repeated what everyone of that time must have been exclaiming anxiously.
On the night of
Pushya, waning Shashthi tithi was running. On that evening the mishap had happened.
The unexpected meteorite shower and accompanying events caused the people to
watch the environment with fear and caution. By midnight, the waning Shashthi
moon had risen which would appear as follows in normal times.
But the observers
were shocked to see the dark mark shifted – this is what Karna and Vyasa said.
This means a dark mark must have appeared on the usually blank surface that we
see on our right in the above picture. We can identify region as in the following
figure.
This is odd and that is why both have mentioned it as a ‘nimitta’ – a sudden unexplainable sighting which is likely to cause or indicate something bad. Generally, we find Vyasa repeating the odd events twice in the book of Mahabharata. This sighting is also repeated twice to stress the point that something indeed was noticed on the moon.
This sighting made them keep looking up at the moon intensely and night after
night. That is how they found that on the night of Trayodasi when the moon had to appear as a crescent in pre-dawn
sky did not appear at all. The moon was missing even as early as
Trayodasi when it must be seen lower in the eastern sky. That was the next
shocking thing. But Karna seems to be well versed in astronomy that he foresaw the
missing of the moon on Trayodasi by following the shift in the node, that is
Rahu. Since the explanation about this is complex and lengthy, I request
readers to read about it in my book. In this quiz section, let me move on to
the next issue of loss of tithi.
