Dhanishthadi ....

Dhanishthadi ....

Shri. Oak’s book has a chapter on Fall of Abhijit. Although I have found many points of disagreement with what he has written, particularly because of his wrong translation of the shlokas, I was fascinated by the statement by Indra, ‘धनिष्ठादि तदा कालो ब्रह्मणा परिनिर्मितः’ Here are a few thoughts on the subject

Shri. Oak has interpreted this statement to mean that a system of time counting was established by Brahmadeva when one of the Cardinal points of the Sun’s movement through the Ecliptic was in Dhanishtha. By and large this interpretation appears correct to me, as a common reader with some acquaintance with astronomy. We know that as a result of Precision, the four cardinal points, viz. Summer Solstice, Autumnal Equinox, Winter Solstice and Vernal Equinox move backwards through the ecliptic completing one full rotation in 26000 years.

The cardinal points are closely associated with seasons. Our ancestors probably noted the phenomena of equinoxes, longest and shortest days at a very early stage and may have started noticing the year as a time-block, other than and larger than the more easily noticed lunar month. At what stage they firmed up their observation that Sun and Moon move along a specific path in the sky, moon in 27 days and Sun in 365 days is to be left to our imagination. The system of counting numbers, that appears most natural to us, must have taken its time to develop, prior to all this. Then our brilliant ancestors observed that the path of movement of Sun and Moon in the sky can be marked out by referring to some specific stars and groups of stars, lying along the path. How long it took to complete this process of identifying the Nakshatras, at fairly equal distance, that too, 27 of them, and giving them the Names is again unknown. At some point of time all this was done and then only the movement of the cardinal points along the ecliptic,( which is really very slow), must have been observed. Only after all this background was established, Brahma could have said, ‘Such and such Cardinal point is currently in Dhanishtha. A new year begins when Sun enters and passes through Dhanishtha. Let all know this and and I order them to keep track of the year from Dhanishtha through the following 26 nakshatras.’ This is probably what is meant by Indra’s statement.

Which was the Cardinal point which Brahma associated with Dhanishtha? Was it Summer Solstice? It is closely associated with start of the rainy season in India. In south India rains begin a little earlier, by 10th June, but in north Indian, rains start by 25th June, just at Summer Solstice. So Summer Solstice is a most significant marker for an agricultural society. It would be appropriate to assume that Summer Solstice used to occur when Sun was passing through Dhanishtha, when Brahma set down his rule. What is ‘Awe Inspiring’ is that the time when Summer Solstice was coincident with Sun in Dhanishtha, is as far back as 14000 BCE! When I read this in Shri. Oak’s book I was really flabbergasted! Were our ancestors that smart in such ancient time? We can be justly proud of them.

I only wonder, why Brahma did not order counting of years, 1,2,3,4 etc. from that time, or, so to say, started a ‘Brahma Shaka’. If he had, we would have found statements like this ...‘In the year of Brahma 1437, such and such king was ruling at such and such place’ in all ancient texts. If this had happened, there would have been no question about when Mahabharata happened. Vyasa would have mentioned ‘Brahma Years’ for all major events! Shri. Oak and Shri. Achar and all other researchers would have been jobless! So would I! Alas, it did not happen! So we have all the researchers and controversies. (Of course, in spite of Shalivahana Shaka being around, we do have controversies about when Shivaji was born!) Wonder is that no one thought of starting to count years from an event, in India, until Vikramaditya .