Other observation noted by Indra and mentioned to Skanda as causing him to worry is the fall of a nakshatra from the sky. The choice of Abhijit for this role seems unanimous. What is meant by fall from the sky? It should mean disappearing from the sky. This cannot happen for an observer in northern hemisphere, in northern India in particular with Latitudes around 25-30 degrees, in case of Abhijit, in those ancient days when he was not far from the north pole. At best it can mean disappearing below the horizon for a part of its journey around the north pole, every day-night. I therefore conjecture that Indra meant exactly that! ‘The star Abhijit which was once very close to north pole and was therefore always above the horizon has moved so far away from the pole that now for a part of its path, it actually goes below the horizon, it has fallen from the sky!’
Abhijit was closest to north pole around 11000BC, about 5 degrees away. By about 6000-6500BC, north pole had moved sufficiently away from Abhijit to make it dip below horizon. Timing of Indra-Skanda dialogue therefore is around then, in my opinion.
As I have mentioned in the earlier post, Abhijit has always been way far too distant from the ecliptic to have a place in the list of 27 nakshatras, which are strung along the ecliptic, more or less. It was simply the most important star in the sky besides the nakshatras, being pretty close to the north pole. My conjecture is that the Nakshatras were identified and named some time in the past when Abhijit was close to north pole, between 13000BC to 11000BC. When Indra points out that Abhijit has fallen from the sky, it was natural that it should no longer be counted along with the 27 nakshatras. At that time there appears to be no other big star close enough to the north pole. If there was one, it would have taken the place of Abhijit in the list of nakshatras! For example, around 0001AD, Indra could have proposed that Dhruva should be counted along with the Nakshatras. That did not happen but Dhruva’s status has indeed been recognized in our folklore.
About the rest of the points about Rohini and Dhanishtha in the quotation, my comments are as follows.
Shri. Oak has examined four cases of a particular cardinal point near Dhanishtha and also later near Rohini, looking for movement of that cardinal point from Dhanishtha to Rohini. In fact, from his data it is seen that, due to precision phenomena, every cardinal point was first near Rohini and after abt. 7000 years, moved near Dhanishtha! If start of the year was from a particular CP to start with, it will take 19000 years for that CP to move from Dhanishtha to Rohini. That was not the problem faced by Indra. When Nakshatras were first identified and system of counting time got a frame of reference, around 13000BC ( when Abhijit was close to North Pole) as I conjecture, Summer Solstice was close to Dhanishtha and it was appropriate to count year start from Dhanishtha! Around 6000BC when Indra finds Abhijit fallen from sky, Summer Solstice had moved well away from Dhanishtha and no other CP was near it! On the other hand, Winter Solstice was still close to Rohini.
This is Indra’s problem. 1. Should the beginning of the year be shifted from Dhanishtha to Rohini i. e. from Summer Solstice to Winter Solstice and 2. What should be done with Abhijit? He asks Skanda to discuss this with Brahma. It looks like Brahma decided to give that honour to Krittika as winter solstice was closer to Krittika by 6000BC! Krittika was competing with Abhijit for this honour! No wonder Krittika was pleased and brightened up! Poor Abhijit got dropped from Nakshatras.
The picture shows the path of movement of Celestial North Pole over the sky. This will help explain some points above.
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2 comments:
Quick correction.. Shri Prabhakar Phadnis means Dr. P V Vartak when he writes P V Oak.
Careless Error . Correcting. Thanks.
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