Mahabharata Quiz - 88

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Question – 88

Did unusual Kshaya tithi-s cause Trayodasi Pournami? How did the moon appear then?

Answer:

The unusual repetition of kshaya tithi-s, apparently caused by the disturbance on the lunar orbit due to the comet-hit resulted in faster than normal movement of the moon. That it continued in the next phase is made out from the expression, “tat kṣayāya bhaviṣyati” which was seen by Vyasa day and night.

The other expressions given by Vyasa which were mistaken to mean an eclipse are taken up now. The phrase “alakṣyaḥ prabhayā hīnaḥ” is quoted by opponents to indicate an eclipse.  Taking the meaning of ‘alakṣyaḥ’ as ‘invisible’, the Mahabharata researchers thought it referred to an eclipse as there was a ‘reduction in the moonlight’ (prabhayā hīnaḥ). But Alakṣya is the opposite of Lakṣya with one of the meanings, “mark”. Alakṣya means without marks.

Here we must recall Vyasa’s verse on “Somasya lakṣma vyāvṛttaṃ” where he meant seeing changes in the marks on the lunar disc. So naturally he was expected to look intently at the waxing moon for the fresh mark that he had seen days ago. To his dismay, no marks were seen anywhere on the moon. Then what did he see? He explains it in the next line, “candro 'bhūd agnivarṇa” - the moon appeared in the colour of fire. Additionally, the increase in brightness day after day expected in the waxing phase was no longer happening. The lunar disc appeared entirely devoid of marks and bereft of light.

The verse under discussion (quoted in question - 85) perfectly expresses the dull appearance of the lunar disc that was recovering from a comet-hit. Two probable reasons can be cited for such appearance; one, related to the atmospheric aberrations in the observer’s location and two, disturbed lunar soil yet to settle down on the surface of the moon.

Mahabharata Quiz - 87

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Question – 87

What is meant by Kshaya tithi? How did it happen in the phase that followed Trayodasi Amavasya?

Answer:

The tithi at sunrise is counted as the tithi of the day. A ‘kshaya tithi’ is that which starts after the sunrise and ends before the next sunrise – by which that tithi is lost in counting. To give an example, suppose the tithi at sunrise is Dwitīya, then the tithi of the day is taken as Dwitīya only. Sometime after sunrise, Tritīya arrives but may end before the next sunrise when Caturthī has already started. By this the previous day had Dwitīya and the next day has Caturthī, and in between Tritīya is dropped from counting. Tritiya in this case is known as Kshaya tithi.        

This phenomenon of kṣhaya tithi occurs due to variation in the speed of the moon. It would be faster at perihelion, by which a tithi (12 degree) gets ended between two sun rises. By this, three tithi-s are seen within two sunrises. Like the Kshaya māsa event, the Kshaya tithi would be followed or preceded by an extended tithi, known as Tri-dina sprukh that stretches beyond two sun rises. This occurs when the moon is at aphelion. Within a month the moon crosses both the perigee and apogee in its orbit around the earth by which the Kshaya tithi and Tri-dina sprukh occur in succession. At times Kshaya tithi is accompanied with Tithi-dvayam. But whenever a Kshaya tithi occurs, either a Tithi-dvayam or a Tri-dina sprukh is certain to occur a few days before or after the Kshaya tithi, in the same paksha (phase of the moon).

Particularly after Bodhayana Amavasya, which by itself is a case of early occurrence of a tithi, not matching with day and night, an extended tithi or Tithi-dvayam would occur within Pancami (the first 5 tithi-s). Strangely Vyasa was seeing only Kshaya tithi-s and no automatic adjustment by way of extended tithi-s. This means the moon was faster than normal.

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Mahabharata Quiz - 86

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Question – 86

Why can’t the claim of the other researchers that it was an eclipse be true?

Answer:

The claim of Eclipse cannot be true:

1.     The first point against the lunar eclipse is that it was seen by Vyasa ‘day and night’. Can the lunar eclipse that was going to happen in future (bhaviṣyati) be seen beforehand for day and night continuously?

2.     The second point is how the Full moon could occur in the star Kṛittika? Only the star is mentioned here, not the month. The Karthika month was already gone at the time Krishṇa left two days prior to the Full moon in Karthika. There was no eclipse at that time. But this Full moon occurred in the month of Margashira, after the Amavasya in Trayodasi. So, there is something wrong with it appearing in Kṛttika, the star. This is asambhavam – impossible, but it seemed it was going to happen; that is why Vyāsa kept watching day by night.

3.     The third point is against linking the term ‘Kshaya’ with eclipse (reduction in lighted surface during the lunar eclipse). ‘Kshaya’ refers to the tithi. Day and night Vyasa had been observing the tithi-s diminishing (kshaya) by which the Full Moon would appear ‘out of season’- expressed in another verse (aparvaṇi).

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Mahabharata Quiz - 85

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Question – 85

In which verse does Vyasa say that the next phase ended in Krittika star and happened to coincide with Trayodasi?

Answer:

Vyasa said that day and night he was watching the moon increase in size. This was after the unexpected early Amavasya in Trayodasi. The moon showed ‘Kshaya’. The marks on the moon appeared nil with the lunar disc appearing hazy and red in the color of agni. Since this is a crucial verse let me give the word by word meaning of this verse.

ahorātraṃ mayā dṛṣṭaṃ tat kṣayāya bhaviṣyati

alakṣyaḥ prabhayā hīnaḥ paurṇamāsīṃ ca kārttikīm

candro 'bhūd agnivarṇaś ca samavarṇe nabhastale (MB: 6.2.22-23)

Meaning:

ahorātraṃ = day and night, continually (dual number, neuter, vocative, singular, stem: ahorātra)

mayā = by me (deictic instrumentative, singular, stem: asmad)

dṛṣṭaṃ = is seen (SB 5.10.11), seen (SB 1.12.30), being seen, personally seen

tat = there, in that place (neuter, nominative, accusative, singular, stem: tad)

kṣayāya = for destruction (BG 16.9, SB 4.29.22), for the sake of diminishing (SB 2.7.22), diminution, decay, loss (dative, singular, stem: kṣaya)

bhaviṣyati = it will be (SB 11.7.4), will appear (SB 2.7.38) (locative, singular, future participle, stem: bhaviṣyat)

alakṣyaḥ = no particular marks (stem: lakṣyaḥ meaning mark), insignificant appearance.

Prabhayā = with its light (SB 10.51.29) (feminine, instrumentative, singular, stem: prabha)

hīnaḥ = bereft of (SB 4.14.39-40) (nominative, singular, past passive participle, stem: hīna)

paurṇamāsīṃ = Full moon (ī-stem, singular, accusative)

ca = and, also, moreover

kārttikīm = Full-moon in the constellation of Kṛttikā, Full-moon in the month of Kārtika (ī-stem, singular, accusative)

candro 'bhūd = candra (moon) abhūt = Root verb: bhū, appeared (SB 10.19.7, SB 9.24.12) (third person, singular, tense paradigm aorist class, parasmaipada)

agnivarṇaś = having the colour of fire

ca = and, also, moreover

samavarṇe = of the same colour (singular, locative)

nabhastale = sky surface, firmament (neuter, locative, singular)

Overall meaning:

“Day and night seen by me that the diminution will be happening; also, in the firmament Full-Moon in Kṛttikā without marks and bereft of light, appeared in the same colour, in the colour of fire.”

Counted from the previous Amavasya that ended in Vishakha, the Full moon happening in Krittika means, the regular tithi cycle was not over; the Full Moon had occurred earlier than normal, in Trayodasi tithi. 

This verse is misinterpreted by almost all the Mahabharata researchers as indicative of a lunar eclipse in 13 days! In support of this, they show ‘Kṣaya”, “Prabhayā hīna” and “agnivarṇa” in the verse!

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My talk in Ek Bharat Shretha Bharat programme in Doordarshan (Podhigai)

I am sharing my talk in Doordarshan (Podhigai) Tamil channel in a weekly programme on the idea of Ek Bharat Shreshta Bharat.

It was a live telecast for an hour from 12 p. m to 1 p.m. on Thursday, the 12th October, 2023. I picked up the topic of how ancient Tamil culture encompasses Bharatheeya culture. 

I began by talking on how the Tamil name for Jambudweepa was is vogue in Tamil literature to denote our country and how the the Guardian deity of this dweepa was located in Pumpukar of TN. I delved on the antiquity of Pumpukar and showed how the Bharatheeya culture spread from South to North.

I also spoke about why the kings of the three Tamil dynasties went to the Himalayas to hoist their flags. Then I talked about the language question - the human language (Manushya Bhasha) spoken by Sita of Videha and Hanuman of Kishkindha in Lanka. In the course of the talk I articulated how Shiva was the son-in-law of the Tamils, Rama, the son of the soil with Chola claiming ancestry from him and Krishna as the son-in -law of the Tamils. Other issues also were touched upon. The recorded version can be viewed here:

 

Mahabharata Quiz - 84

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Question – 84

How do you say that the waxing phase that started after Trayodasi Amavasya ended once again in Trayodasi tithi? Did Vyasa say so?

Answer:

Yes. Vyasa said about the shortening of the next phase by Trayodasi tithi while expressing the odd events to Dhritaraṣhṭra before the war started.

To understand this verse, let us recollect that Karthika Pournami occurred soon after Krishna started his mission. Based on the star of the day he started (Revati) we said in Question - 65 that he started the discussion with the Kauravas in their assembly on the Full moon day. That was in the Karthika month. The Full Moon occurred in Karthika star. The waning phase that started after the Full Moon ended in Trayodasi Amavasya when Vishakha star was running. The next day the waxing phase of Margashira month started. It must end up in Full Moon in Mrigashirisha star. Counted from the 1^st tithi after that Amavasya, Mrigashirisha is the 16^th star which is the time for Full Moon. But Vyasa said that it ended in Krittika star!

In other words, Vyasa indicated that Full moon occurred in the same star of Karthika for two consecutive months! Instead of Mrigashirsha star, the full moon occurred well before that in Krittika which is impossible to happen in nature, but it did happen on that phase following Trayodasi Amavasya. Once again, the moon had moved quickly or moved in a shortened orbit such that the Full moon occurred when Trayodasi must have been running. This shows that the hit suffered by the moon had caused the moon to attain a new equilibrium by which two consecutive phases ended in Trayodasi tithi-s.

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Mahabharata Quiz - 83

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Question- 83

What was Krishna’s reaction to the observation of Karna of odd events seen in Nature?

Answer:

That is the Ganesha moment for us to figure out Krishna's response  because Krishna did not react to those observations except by saying that Amavasya was due on Jyeshtha. It could not be so if he concurred with Karna’s version of earlier Gara Karana in Citra star. Perhaps Vyasa deliberately avoided giving us the detailed talk of Krishna regarding the change in Karana and tithi.

Krishna must have definitely concurred with Karna’s observation on earlier Amavasya and ended up saying – let us wait and watch. However, only his advice to Karna to get the war ritual done on Jyeshtha Amavasya was recorded by Vyasa in the text. Later just prior to his departure from this world, Krishna recalled the thirteenth tithi Amavasya before the Mahabharata war. Like this, somehow Vyasa has made it a point to repeat twice every controversial idea for us to have the Ganesha moment.

Failing to sense the need to think and rethink on this part of the Mahabharata, quite a few researchers have written that the war started on Jyeshtha Amavasya of Karthika, without giving a thought on further developments written by Vyasa.

One such development was about what Vyasa observed of the moon in the next phase. That phase also ended in Trayodasi tithi!

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Mahabharata Quiz - 82

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Question – 82

What other odd observation did Karna tell Krishna?

Answer:

Among the five astronomy observations, the second most bizarre one, other than the shift in the mark on the moon, is about the planet Mars. Karna said,

“The planet Angaāraka (Mars), wheeling, O slayer of Madhu, towards the constellation Jyeṣṭha, approacheth towards Anurādha, indicating a great slaughter of friends.” (MB: 5.141.8)

After Anusham (Anuradha), the star Jyeshtha comes. By having said that Mars wheeled towards Anuradha from Jyeshtha, a retrograde motion of the planet Mars is indicated. Almost all the Mahabharata researchers treated it as retrogression without realising the fact that it cannot.

Why it cannot?

Because the month was Kartika which means the Sun was in the sign of Scorpio. Anuradha and Jyeshtha are the stars located in Scorpio. The verse shows that Mars was also present in Scorpio. As per the rule of astronomy, Mars, an outer planet cannot retrograde in the sign where the sun is also located. The retrogression of Mars begins only away from Sun – that is when it transits 5^th, 6^th, 7^th, 8^th and the 9^th signs from the sun.

Retrogression can be explained by the following figure. The sun is in the centre. The blue dots are the locations of the earth, and the red ones are those of Mars. Note that Mars is on the side of the Sun and the earth.

The earth is in the inner circle and the Mars in outer circle. When they negotiate the curve, the earth in the inner circle will be ahead of Mars in the outer circle. The resultant positions are shown on the slide on our right. It shows that Mars seems to go backward as the earth takes the lead but ultimately takes a forward course. This phenomenon known as retrogression will happen when Mars is on the side of Sun and more so when it is in the same sign as the sun is.

In Kartika it was present with the Sun in Scorpio. So, it can never go retrograde at that time. But Karna noticed that it ‘wheeled’ backward towards Jyeshtha. This is impossible to happen in Nature, but it did happen following the comet-hit. Why?

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Mahabharata Quiz - 81

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Question – 81

Since Amavasya occurred on Trayodasi tithi, did it affect the entire tithi-star alignment?

Answer:

Yes. The Gara Karana which must have occurred on Uttara Phalguni advanced after the comet-hit on Pushya day. As a result, the next Karana cycle started early with Chatushpada and Nagava (Karana-s) coming on Trayodasi when Vishakha star was running.

The normal nakshatra-tithi-karaṇa alignment is shown in the left figure, based on Krishna’s starting of the journey in Revati nakshatra. The right-side table shows the changed alignment since Pushya day.

The table unmistakably reveals that Karṇa’s specific reference to Gara Karaṇa can be traced to the fact that 'Gara' which must have been running on Uttara Phalguni (the day of this conversation) was missing but found to be coming on the Citrā day with the phase of the moon showing quick reduction as to cause Amavasya on Vishakha.

After the comet-hit, the running Shashthi tithi on Pushya day changed into Saptami.

A tithi was lost forever thereafter.

No simulator can detect this.

No man, no scientist had ever known this.

Only the great Itihāsa of the Mahabharata has retained this information meticulously, that we Indians are ignorant of.

The cause of ignorance is the absence of subject knowledge used in these verses.

Knowledge of the subject is more important for dating Mahabharata!

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Mahabharata Quiz - 80

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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.

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Mahabharata Quiz - 79

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Question – 79

It sounds odd that the broken comet or cometary pieces hit the moon and the earth simultaneously. Is there any precedence to this kind of hit? How did Karna and Vyasa know of the hit on the moon?

Answer:

As per current scientific knowledge, a cosmic collision simultaneously on the earth and the moon has a probability ratio of 23:1.  That means out of every 23 hits on the earth, there is at least one case of simultaneous hit on the moon as well. One such simultaneous hit occurred in the Mahabharata period on Pushya day in the Karthika month in the year 3136 BCE.

The fragments of a broken comet (Atlas Question - 76) seemed to have landed on the earth much like the comet Shoemaker-Levy that fell on Jupiter after getting trapped by the gravitational pull of Jupiter. In such events the fragments would be shattered into many pieces as they come closer and would crash land as a series of meteorites over a few days. The big chunks would cause heavy damage. One such big piece had fallen on Pushya day on the moon.

This object must have been huge enough to have caused a deep and wide penetration of the lunar surface sending plumes of lunar dust settling down on a wider region around the impact area. Since the object doesn’t burn in the atmosphere-less moon, the impact zone remains true to the size of the hitting object with the displaced lunar mud and dust settling down around. A very huge spill-over region on the moon could have been detected by a regular visual observer from the earth immediately after the collision.

More than half the moon was originally visible in Krishna Shashti /Saptami on Pushya day. It is possible for the observers on the earth (Karṇa and Vyasa) to have noticed a change in the marks on the moon on the very night of Pushya after the collision that disrupted the war ritual done by Duryodhana to make Bhishma as the Chief. The appearance of the waning moon on Krishna Shashti is shown in the picture below. 

Most regions are marked by dark patches. Only a small portion to our right appears plain. In that region a mark must have appeared which was reported by Karna and Vyasa.

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Mahabharata Quiz - 78

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Question – 78

You said that Karna made five odd observations. One was the early occurrence of Gara Karana. What were the other odd observations?

Answer:

Of the five observations, two were purely astronomy- based but three were odd sightings. One such observation was explained in the previous question. Now let me take up the oddest of all – a reference to the changed appearance of the moon. Karna said that the sign on the moon shifted position!

Karṇa said, “somasya lakṣma vyāvṛttaṃ” (MB: 5.141.10)

The same verse is repeated by Vyasa to Dhritarashtra just before the war,

“vyāvṛttaṃ lakṣma somasya” (MB: 6.2.32)

The words are jumbled but they mean the same.

This being an important verse let me do a word for word translation:

vyāvṛttaṃ = to be distinguished, to become separated, to diverge from, to divide, to part with, to wind in different directions.

lakṣma = a mark, sign, stain, bad mark, blemish (neuter nominative, accusative, vocative, singular, stem: lakṣman)

somasya = of the moon (masculine, genitive, singular, stem: soma)

Overall meaning:

“The mark (sign) of the moon became separated or parted with.”

This observation looks bizarre, but it refers to some abnormality with reference to the features found on the lunar disc. Not a shred of evidence of an eclipse in this meaning, yet most researchers treated this as evidence for a lunar eclipse.

This observation was given by Karṇa during the waning phase of the lunar Kartika month. So, any lunar eclipse suggested by researchers must have occurred on Kartika Full Moon. Just before the Kartika Full Moon, Krishna left Upaplavya in the star of Revati. But there is no mention of an eclipse soon after he started anywhere in the continuing descriptions.  Whatever we have been reading right from the time Krishna left Upaplavya was about natural calamities pointing to a cosmic impact.

Scientifically speaking, atmospheric turbulence on the earth can make the lunar surface appear to shimmer for naked eye observation under extreme conditions experienced at that time. The dark marks on the lunar surface could have appeared blinking or shaky. But here the observation is different. A new spot or a sign was seen in the featureless region of the moon giving the impression that a pre-existing sign got separated and moved to a new location. The analysis of this odd observation gives mind-boggling revelations.

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Mahabharata Quiz - 77

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Question – 77

Did the people of the Mahabharata anticipate the arrival of Amavasya earlier than normal, in Trayodasi tithi?  Has Vyasa given any indication of it?

Answer:

Yes. Ever since the comet shattered on Pushya day, with rains of meteors falling at the time of the ritual to appoint Bhishma as the chief of the army, everyone must have got disturbed. They started observing the surroundings to see that they were safe. More than seventy odd sightings were given in the name of nimitta-s only from this period. The earliest reference to the odd nature of things is found in the conversation between Karna and Krishna on the day of Uttara Phalguni when Krishna bid farewell to Karna before leaving Hastinapura.

Karna made five odd observations about planets and Karana! A Karana is half of a tithi. In Question - 36 we wrote about Vishti Karana coming in Krishna Saptami. There are 30 tithi-s covering 2 phases of the moon and 11 Karanas. Of the 11 Karanas, the first seven are known as Chara Karanas as they keep repeating. But while nearing Amavasya 4 other Karanas will appear which are known as Fixed (Sthira) Karanas. Particularly the Karana-s by names, Chathushpada and Nagava will always coincide with Amavasya. The Tithi- Karana relationship will never change but the background star will keep changing month after month as the moon moves. The normal sequence is given in the table below.

Karna was talking to Krishna on Uttara Phalguni day. As per the above table, Gara Karana must be running on that day. But no. Gara was going to appear in Citra, said Karna. He said,

“citrāṃ pīḍayate garaḥ” (5.141.9)

In the normal course, Gara Karana must coincide with Vishakha, but the location of the moon made him think that Gara Karana would come in the star Citra. This means the Karana related to Amavasya would appear in Vishakha.

In reply to him, Krishna said that Amavasya would occur in seven days from then in Jyeshtha (not Vishakha, the second previous star). Based on that observation only, we deduced that this conversation was happening on Uttara Phalguni day. 

They had different views. Karna expected Amavasya on Vishakha, but Krishna thought it would come on normal time, that is on Jyestha. If we go by Karna’s observation of Gara Karana coming in Citra, the further sequence will be as follows:

If Gara Karana comes in Citra star, the fixed Karana-s namely, Chathushpada and Nagava would come on Trayodasi itself when Vishakha was running. If Chathushpada and Nagava were running, it means the time was Amavasya! But it was Trayodasi in normal course!

So, this conversation was not a casual one, for, it was impregnated with a serious judgement of tithi- Karana- star alignment. This was a Gaṇesha moment for Krishna and for us too. But Karna succeeded in guessing right about the early arrival of Amavasya.

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