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Question –
106
Couldn’t there be
a chance that Arundhati indeed appeared differently during the Mahabharata
period under consideration?
Answer:
There is no chance
for the change of position of Arundhati (Alcor) with reference to Vasishtha (Mizar)
considering two observations found in the Mahabharata expressed by the
contemporary characters.
1.
At
the marriage of Draupadi with the Pandava-s Kunti
blessed her to be like Draupadi. Here she means Draupadi following the
Pandava-s like Arundhati following the footsteps of Vasishtha. If it was the
other way round – of Vasishtha following Arundati, Kunti could not have said
this, for, which mother – particularly of those times liked her sons to be behind
their wife?
2.
Lying
on the arrow bed after the war, Bheeshma narrates
the life history of one Sāndli and says that since she followed her husband like
Arundhati, she was elevated into a star like Arundhati.
If during the war
period Arundhati had changed her position from being behind to Vasishtha into
putting her husband behind her, this could not have been told by Bheeshma. So,
what Vyasa observed was- as he said a nimitta - a temporary aberration in the way
Arundhati appeared at a particular time. It is foolish to believe that it was a
permanent appearance and construct a
theory on the assumption that Arundhati changed her position for a long period
of time – say for 6000 years as Nilesh oak claims.
