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Question: 89
Can you sequence
the events in a nutshell showing the difference in moon’s phase and appearance?
Answer:
The sequence is
this:
# It was Krishna
paksha (waning phase) in the lunar month of Karthika.
# On the evening
of Pushya star, a shower of meteors was experienced by the people of Hastinapura.
The running tithi was Krishna Shashthi.
# When people
watched the moon that night, it appeared like Krishna Saptami with a reduced size
of the moon. Whereas it should have been Krishna Shashthi.
# They also
noticed a fresh mark on the plain region of the lunar disc where normally no
marks are seen.
# The phases in
the next days showed the moon going from Saptami to Ashtami, to Navami, Dasami,
Ekadasi and Dwadasi.
# By the time of the
next tithi, that is, Trayodasi, the moon completely disappeared from the sky
indicating the onset of Amavasya.
# The star of that
day was Vishakha while in normal course it should have been Jyeshtha – a star
after Vishakha.
# Now the waxing
phase starts which is called Margashira month. People were anxiously watching
the growing phase of the moon.
# Usually, the
growing phase will be bright as seen from Bharat because the plain regions will
appear bright first. But they could see no brightness of the lunar disc.
# The mark that
earlier appeared is not seen, but the entire disc appeared fiery red with the
regular marks not seen.
# The phases were
moving very fast with kshaya tithi often.
# The Fullmoon which
ought to appear on Mrigashira star appeared earlier, on Karttika.
# Only the previous
month of Karthika, the Full Moon appeared in Krittika star. But again, in
Margashira month, the Full Moon appeared in Krittika star.
# So, for two
consecutive months Full Moon appeared in Krittika star which is impossible happen.
If people consider
Margashira as Margashira, it is not so because it was Karthika because the Full
Moon occurred in Karttika (once again)
So, the inference
is that a full lunar month has gone unaccounted for by this.
