A major difference between dating the Ramayana and the Mahabharata is that the year of the Mahabharata war is very much etched in our system of Time whereas Ramayana is not. The year of Krishna leaving his mortal coils forms the cut-off year as that year forms the beginning of Kali Yuga – the Time scale we continue to follow. 5124 years having gone by the month of Mesha (Aries) in the Gregorian year 2024 CE, the year of Krishna leaving the world is easily calculated to be 3101 BCE. The Mahabharata war occurred 35 years before that, as is known from Gandhari’s curse of destruction of the Vrishni-s on the 36th year after the war. In four contexts, this duration has been mentioned in the Mahabharata thereby making it very clear that the war took place in 3136 BCE, thirty-five years before Krishna left.
The year name of the war is deduced as Krodhi – being the
36th year before the first year of Kali Yuga (Pramathi). The
Janamejaya grant found in the possession of the Bhimanakatte Mutt further
reiterates the first year of Kali Yuga as Pramathi.
This advantage of cross referential inputs either by the
year name or the year number is not available in the case of Ramayana. However,
Valmiki gives valuable information on the location of six planets besides the
name of the month, tithi and the star of the day and even the lagna of birth.
Of these, the month and tithi will join every year.
The star also will join once in a few years and not every year because the time
taken by the moon to cross a tithi differs from the time taken to cross a star.
A tithi is slightly longer than a star. By the time the moon completes a round of
the zodiac, the sun also has moved at the rate of one degree a day. It crosses
a star in 13 days and 8 hours (approximately). By the time the moon completes
one round around 27 stars, the sun would have crossed two stars. When the moon
comes around to catch up with the sun, two stars are thus crossed additionally.
As a result, the star – tithi match of a particular combine
will be different month after month. For example, Rama was born in Shukla
Navami with the moon in the star Punarvasu. This combination will change in the
next month with the same tithi advanced by two stars. Therefore, the month is
important for a combination of tithi-star to be the same. The month is
determined by the position of the Sun. The Sun was exalted at the time of Rama’s
birth as per Valmiki, which means it was in Mesha (Aries).
The foremost crucial input from Ramayana is the combination of Shukla Navami tithi in Punarvasu with the Sun in Aries. In reality, it is impossible to see this combination.
The problem in tithi-star combination with the Sun in
Aries
To understand the problem, let us know the terminologies
used. The birth time tithi was Shukla Navami which means the Moon was in the 9th
tithi after Amavasya in that month. The moon joined Punarvasu on the day of
Rama’s birth. Counting backwards to know when the Amavasya occurred in that scenario,
we can know the position of the sun. Amavasya means conjunction of the sun and
the moon. Once the moon leaves the sun (the disc of the sun is the limit), the
1st tithi called Pratipat starts. Each tithi will cover each star
though it need not be from the beginning of the star. A star means a span of 13
degrees and 20 minutes. A tithi crosses a little more of this span in a day.
When we count back the Navami tithi (9th
tithi) from Punarvasu star, the Amavasya must have occurred in Purva Bhadrapada.
That means only if the Sun and the moon meet at Purva Bhadrapada, can the Navami
tithi in Shukla paksha (waxing phase) coincide with Punarvasu star. This is
shown in the following illustration.
In the above illustration, the
topmost row represents the zodiacal signs. I have named only three signs which are
relevant to our discussion. The second row shows the 27 stars. I started with
Purva Bhadrapada because that is where the Amavasya occurred so that Shukla
Navami can join Punarvasu (Pv). These two (tithi and star) are circled and
highlighted. The Sun in Purva Bhadrapada or its further movement to Uttara
Bhadrapada by the day of Shukla Navami – makes it to be in Meena rasi (Pisces) only and
not in Mesha rasi as told by Valmiki.
Assuming that the Sun was in the last degree of Purva
Bhadrapada at the time of Amavasya, it would move 9 degrees in 9 days, i.e., at
the time of Shukla Navami. That brings the Sun to the 9th degree of
Uttara Bhadrapada only. Four more degrees are there in Uttara Bhadrapada and 13.20
degrees are there in Revati, (the next star) which makes the Sun take 17 days
to enter Mesha.
When we move the moon across the tithi-s, the next
conjunction (Amavasya) occurs in Ashwini star, when the Sun will be very much
in Mesha as stipulated by Valmiki, but the 9th tithi doesn’t
coincide with Punarvasu. Shashti will be running on Punarvasu and the star Magha (Ma) will coincide with Navami. (This combination appears in 2024 when the Sun will be in Mesha but Punarvasu will start in the afternoon of Shashti and end in Saptami.)
This is the issue.
To have the Sun Mesha at the time of Rama’s birth, we
can’t have the tithi-star alignment. The alignment happens in Meena even now
which has made people celebrate Sri Rama Navami in Meena month (Panguni)
and not in Mesha (Chiṭṭirai). Seeing the impossibility to get the alignment, Sri
Rangam temple observes the birth star of Rama in the month of Mesha. In many other
places the Navami- Punarvasu combination in Meena maasa is treated
as Rama’s birth date.
The issue is why this discrepancy is taking place. How
did the alignment happen in Rama’s time and not now? If the alignment cannot be
reproduced, how can we reproduce the exact date of Rama’s birth?
Readers would have seen many writers suggesting a date
of Rama’s birth, claiming that they got it from the simulators. Ask them to
show the tithi -star alignment with the Sun in Aries; they can’t show it because
all of them use the western astronomy simulator which does not consider the
tithi-star alignment. Almost all of them looked at the simulators to see the placement
of the planets and suggested a date. But those in the know of astrology will understand
that even a small change of a planetary position will give wrong time. This is
the converse of the theory that if the birth time differs a little from the
original, the resultant planetary position will not be correct. The Panchanga
features such as tithi, star, weekday and lagna further tighten the time that one
cannot suggest some date.
The question, however, remains why the tithi-star alignment
does not happen.
(Cont’d)
