A Short Lunar Fortnight.

Vyasa has talked about a very short Lunar Fortnight from Previous Purnima to The Amavasya on the day just prior to the start of the Mahabharat War. That is the talk between Vyasa and Dhritarashtra when Vyasa describes many bad omens which he sees and which point to the disaster which is going to hit the Kuru dynasty. He says that the fortnight is only of 12 days from Purnima to Amavasya instead of the normal 14 days’ gap or a shorter, but not unusual, 13 days’ gap or even the rare 15 days’ gap. I stated in my earlier post describing what I would verify for any proposed war year, that the lunar fortnight ending on the Amavasya at the start of the war must match this description. The consensus is that it is an extremely unlikely event. Many attempts have been made to check whether this is possible without positive outcome.

I have a surprise for interested readers!

I happened to take a look at the Kalanirnay Calendar for August 2016 and was shocked to note a short fortnight right there!

1. On 17th Aug. it says it is Narali Purnima. Purnima begins ‘in the evening’ at 4-27 PM. Why Purnima then? Because Narali Purnima is an evening affair so you need to have Purnima in the evening. (That is how I understand it)

2. On 18th Aug. it says Shravan Purnima or Rakshabandhan. At sunrise it was a Purnima so it is a Purnima day. Purnima however ended at 2-56 PM.

3. On 19th and 20th Aug. calendar shows Pratipada and Dvitiya. Resp.

4. On 21st Aug. calendar says it is 3 and 4. It is called Sankashti Chaturthi with moonrise at 9-21 PM. Time for beginning of Chaturthi is 8-17 AM and end of Chaturthi is 29-43 PM or 5-43 AM on 22nd Aug. Chaturthi will end before sunrise on 22nd Aug. (These timings are shown on the back page of the calendar.)There is thus a tithi-kshaya here. (Two tithis on the same day.)

5. Then for next 9 days, from 22nd Aug. to 30th Aug. there are consecutive tithis from 5 to 13 (Krishna Panchami to Trayodashi)

6. On 31st Aug. Calendar shows 14th or Chaturdashi. It also shows the Chaturdashi ending and Amavasya beginning at 2-03 PM and calls the day Pithori Amavasya! ( I believe the Puja for Pithori is an Evening event.)

7. On 1st Sept. calendar shows Shravan Amavasya. It was Amavasya at sunrise but it ends at 2-32 PM.

18th August is Purnima and 31st Aug. is Amavasya. There are 12 days between the two!. One tithi, (4th – Chaturthi) has suffered a loss (tithi kshaya) which causes the short fortnight.

Surprisingly, there is a Lunar Eclipse shown on 17th August and Solar Eclipse on 1st Sept. (Both are not visible in India.) Vyasa also had talked of a Lunar Eclipse on the Purnima and a solar eclipse, indirectly hinted and vaguely described, on the first day of war which was a continuation of Amavasya. Of course, you can see a solar eclipse only after sunrise.

Events during this fortnight of August show a surprising similarity with what Vyasa says!

Let us calculate the period between end of Purnima and beginning of Amavasya here.

1. Purnima ended on 18th Aug. at 2-56 PM.

2. On 31st Aug., 13 days later, almost an hour earlier, at 2-03 PM, Amavasya began. The gap is 12 x 24 + 23 hours, or 311 hours. The average period for 14 tithis should be 14 x 24 = 336 hours less 6 hours since lunar month is about 29 1/2 days and not 30 days or say, 330 hrs).

3. The period from End of Purnima to End of Amavasya can also be checked. It is from 18th Aug. 2-56 PM to 1st Sept. 2-32 PM. i. e. 1/2 hour less than 14 full days or 335 1/2 hours against the average of 15 days less 6 hours or 354 hours.

It is clear, this fortnight is a ‘really short’ fortnight.

What Vyasa describes is thus definitely possible and being an unusual event, carefully noted down by Vyasa, any proposed war year under verification must show occurrence of it.

My demand for it is vindicated.

-

-

-

As a matter of curiosity I verified the length of the Krishna Fortnight (from start of Pratipada to End of Amavasya) for the past several months from the data given on Kalanirnay. I find the following figures in hours (rounded off to half hour)

1. Shaka 1936 Pousha - 368.5 hrs.

2. Magha - 360.5 hrs.

3. Falgun - 351.5 hrs.

4. Shaka 1937 Chaitra - 344.0 hrs.

5. Vaishakh - 336.5 hrs.

6. Jyeshtha - 334.0 hrs.

7. Adhik Ashadh - 336.0 hrs.

8. Nija Ashadha - 340.0 hrs.

9. Shravan - 348.0 hrs.

10. Bhadrapad - 357.0 hrs.

11. Ashvin - 366.0 hrs.

12. Kartik - 372.0 hrs.

13. Margashirsha - 374.0 hrs.

14. Pousha - 373.0 hrs.

15. Magha - 367.5 hrs.

16. Falgun - 359.5 hrs.

17.Shaka 1938 Chaitra - 350.0 hrs.

18. Vaishakh - 341.5 hrs.

19. Jyeshtha - 336.0 hrs.

20. Ashadh - 334.0 hrs.

21. Shravan - 335.0 hrs.

One can see a pattern of increasing and decreasing length of the paksha as compared to 15 days less 6hrs or 354 hrs. Jyeshtha of Shaka 1937 also had a short Krishnapaksha of 334 hrs. Calendar shows 2nd June as Purnima and it continues till 9.48 PM. Amavasya however is shown on 16th June and it continues till 9.35 PM. There are 13 days between these two dates so it does not match with Vyasa's description. Also there were no eclipses on either day. So out of short Krishnapakshas of 334/335 hours which will occur from time to time, only very few will match Vyasa's description. I am amazed that, accidentally, I noted that Shravan of Shaka 1938 matches it in all respects.

RESEARCH PROGRAM FOR WAR YEAR DETERMINATION.

Year of Mahabharata War.

I have no access to any software for Astronomical Research on this subject. If I can get it, how will I go about trying to determine the year? My line of action will be as follows.

1. I would concentrate on the period when Arundhati was maximum ahead of Vasishtha, based on data generated by Shri. Nilesh Oak, say 7000BCE to 5000 BCE, to begin with.

2. Then note down the years within this range when Saturn was in Rohini. As Saturn takes more than one year to cross a nakshatra, the years so noted +/- 1 would also suit.

3. For any year taken up for further verification, the date of Winter Solstice and Autumnal Equinox get established.

4. Working backwards from date of Winter Solstice, based on the fact that Bhishma spent 57 days on the bed of arrows, the date of his fall and the date of commencement of war will be established.

5. With the first day of war thus fixed, I will verify whether it was an Amavasya day or not later than 3rd day after Amavasya.

6. If that is satisfied, I will check the previous Purnima. Was there a total or near total Lunar Eclipse on that day?

7. If so, what was the length of the Paksha? It should be short, at least not exceeding 14 days. (A paksha of 13 days as described by Vyasa appears difficult to find.)

8. If ok so far, which is the Revati day, after the Purnima? That will be the day for Krishna to start from Upaplavya. It has to be, say, not later than 2 or 3 days after Purnima so that Krishna returns on 4th day and both armies move to Kurukshetra on Pushya day, 8th day from Revati day.

9. Was there a solar eclipse on the Amavasya? Need not be,

10. If all above are satisfied, the motion of Mars will have to be checked for Vakra or Apasavya motion, position on the first day of war etc. vis a vis description in the Text.

11. Similarly, Jupiter’s motion prior to first day of war and end position should be checked. Does it end up in Shravan?

12. Movement of Venus also needs to be checked similarly for comparing with what the text says.

13. If any year under verification meets the above requirements, it can be considered as a Candidate year.

14. If no year can be determined as a Candidate, I would go further 500 years back (in desperation), and then give up!

15. I would still call the qualifying year or years as only Candidates and offer them to researchers and others for developing a consensus.

I would welcome views of interested readers on this program!

I wrote some posts here about a monograph by Shri. Narahari Achar on his use of Planetarium Software for validating the year 3067 BCE determined by Shri. Raghavan earlier as the year of Mahabharat War. I have consolidated, edited and published my critical comments in a book form and published it on Amazon Kindle self publishing. Interested readers can read it there or I can send them a WORD file by e-mail if they request for it. Prabhakar Phadnis pkphadnis@yahoo.com