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Note: This is a
drastically abridged version of the painstaking investigation
undertaken by Prof. R N Iyengar. The research findings have been
made simplistic to address a cosmopolitan student community.
The
ancient intellectual tradition of India holds that the epic Mahabharata
reports part of its national history. But claims of historicity
of literature and literary characters must be based on physical
evidences.
Though
little is available in the form of archaeological finds, the
historicity of the
Mahabharata can be proved on the basis of the astronomical
references it contains, particularly to eclipses and planetary
positions. Modern planetary software such as PVIS (Planet
Visibility Software) for searching eclipses dating back to 3000BC and
EZC (Easy Cosmos) for analysing planetary positions using sky
charts can be used to scientifically date the celestial observations
made in the epic. Planetarium software are powerful tools for
computer-based searching of thousands of possibilities and for sifting
through obscure texts on celestial events.
The
celestial events mentioned in the Mahabharata can be believed to be
historical if:
¨
the unique
astronomical references in the epic are credible
and compatible with the data generated using modern planetary software,
and
¨
the celestial
events referred to remain consistent
internally, and across various literature dealing with the same period
(such as, in this case, the Mahabharata, Harivamsa, Bhagavata,
Vishnu Purana, Skanda Purana, etc.)
Evolution
of the Mahabharata
Mahabharata
which today contains a hundred thousand verses, is believed to have
originated as a poem, Jaya, which had only 8,800 verses.
It grew first into a smaller epic containing 24,000 verses, called Bharata,
before taking form as Veda Vyasa’s Mahabharata. All these
versions tell, essentially, the same story relating to an ancient
period. Therefore, it may be taken that though obscurities,
exaggerations and contradictions pertaining to religious, cultural and
sociological themes could have crept into the later text, descriptions
of natural phenomena, planetary positions, eclipses and other celestial
phenomena would not have been distorted intentionally. Eclipses
mentioned in the Mahabharata
It
is interesting to note that eclipses are described, at
least in one place in the epic, as a physical phenomenon rather than a
mystical or mythological occurrence, as was the usual practice among
the ancients of all civilizations.
Sanjaya,
in the chapter Bhishma Parvan, just
before the commencement of the Kurukshetra war, mentions that Rahu
‘covers’ the sun and moon at intervals by virtue of his longer
diameter, and hence, bigger circumference. A reading of these
verses also reveals, surprisingly, that our ancients apparently knew to
calculate the circumference of a circle given the value of its
diameter, though they gave a value of 3 and not 3.14 to the irrational
number ‘pi’ (Õ)
Sanjaya,
proposing a rudimentary theory of eclipses in
the Bhishma Parvan, says that the diameter of Rahu is 12,000 yojanas,
whereas the respective diameters of the sun and the moon are 10,000 and
11,000 yojanas. The corresponding circumference of the three
celestial bodies are mentioned as being 36,000, 30,000 and 33,000
yojanas!
Eight
solar eclipses are mentioned at various times, in
various chapters of the epic. They are always regarded with
foreboding and always associated with Rahu, the
mahagraha, who is said to have ‘caught’ or ‘covered’ the sun.
Some of the eclipses that find mention in the epic are given
below:
Says
Dhritarashtra in the last chapter of Sabha
Parvan,
“Meteorites
are falling in daytime, and Rahu covered the Sun on an odd day, causing
great fear among the people.”
Some
time before the epic battle too, an eclipse is said
to have occurred:
“The
mahagraha portends a frightful catastrophe for both
armies” (Bhishma parvan)
A
few verses later, in the same chapter, there is mention
of a double eclipse:
Candra-suryavubhau
grastau ekamase trayodsim
(Bhshma parvan)
Meaning:
Moon and Sun were eclipsed in the same month at
thirteen days’ interval.
The
eighth and final solar eclipse that finds mention in
the epic is observed at Dwaraka and is mentioned in the Mausala
parvan of the Mahabharata. It is the 36th
year after the Kurukshetra war, and Krishna understands that his demise
is near:
“The
fourteenth day has been made into the fifteenth day
again by Rahu. Krishna understood that the 36th year
had arrived.”
The
context referred to here is Gandhari’s curse at the
end of the Kurukshetra war, wherein she had told Krishna that he and
his Vrishni clan would perish, just as her sons had, in the 36th
year hence. On the last day of the war, among several bad omens that
had preceded the duel between Bhima and Duryodhana, an eclipse was one:
“Rahu
caught the Sun at an odd time; the earth quaked,
shaking the trees and forests” (Salya Parvan)
Solar
eclipses occur in 18-year cycles (It appears that
our ancients had worked out this as well), and Krishna apparently
recognised that two 18-year cycles had elapsed since the solar eclipse
that oversaw the annihilation of the Kauravas in the epic battle at
Kurukshetra.
This
eighth, and last reference to solar eclipse in the
Mahabharata is a very valuable reference for establishing the
consistency of the celestial events across contemporary literature of
the time, for this event also finds prominent mention in the Prabhasa
Khanda of Skanda Purana, while describing the last days of
Krishna.
Planetary
references in the Mahabharata
There
are a number of descriptions of planetary positions in the epic, with
reference to their nearness to fixed stars. These events can be
reliably dated using modern computer software and can be used for
attesting the internal compatibility of various statements in the epic
pertaining to other celestial events such as eclipses.
The
reigning star or nakshatra citations in the Mahabharata have
been explicitly associated with the position of the
moon. It follows that, for the planetary positions also the same
observational approach should have been used with the help of the night
sky. Though all the textual planetary positions cannot be taken
on their face value, some, on which all editions of the
Mahabharata agree, can be considered reliable.
Some
of these statements are:
- Saturn
is near star Rohini. Mars is approaching
Anuradha from Jyestha. There is a planet near Citra (Udyoga
parvan)
-
Saturn
is staying near Rohini (Bhishma parvan)
- A white planet resides, having crossed Citra (Bhishma
parvan).
Establishing
the internal consistency of eclipses and
planetary positions Indian
date was found using the panchanga software
of Yano
The
epic contains several observations of eclipses and
planet positions. Some of these may be approximate and difficult
to interpret today. If, using modern planetarium software, one or
more dates can be found, which are compatible with all, or at least a
majority of the textual statements regarding the eclipses and planetary
positions, the Mahabharata can be scientifically placed within
a time frame.
The
period of the search was restricted to the interval
501BC-3000BC. The lower limit has been selected as all traditions
accept that Krishna preceded Gautama Buddha, whose date is historically
accepted as being 563-483 BC. The upper limit has been dictated
by the limitation of the software used for dating the celestial
events.
There
is a clear reference in the text to a double
eclipse, that is a lunar and a solar eclipse, in either order, within
the period of a fortnight (See section on ‘Eclipses mentioned in the Mahabharata’,
above). Note that the section also refers to the eclipse that occurred
after the disastrous game of dice (at the end of Sabha parvan)
and to another that preceded Krishna’s demise, 36 years after the
Kurukshetra war.
Eclipse
search
Step
1:
Initially, all solar eclipses that could have occurred at Kurukshetra
between 501-3000BC were determined. It was found that 891 solar
eclipses were possible in that time interval.
Step
2:
This was followed by a search for lunar eclipses only in the years with
solar eclipses. It was found that 247 double eclipses were
possible in the period under consideration, with a solar eclipse
succeeding or preceding a lunar eclipse at a fortnight’s interval.
Step
3:
Since it is clearly mentioned in more than one place in the text of the
epic that Saturn was near Rohini in the war year (See section on
‘Planetary References in the Mahabharata’, above), this
restriction was applied to the 247 double eclipses. It was then
found that only 31 double eclipses could have been observable in the
time period 501-3000BC in the Rohini series.
Step
4:
Then, the constraint that there was a solar eclipse observed at Dwaraka
in the 36th year after the war, was applied. This
exercise led to the elimination of all but 13 possibilities.
Step
5:
Then, invoking the statement that Mars was between the stars Jyestha
and Anuradha on a kartika-krishna-ashtami night before the war
(See section on planetary references in the Mahabharata, above), it was
found that 1478 BC is the only year that is compatible with all these
celestial references in the epic, and is hence the most likely year in
which the Kurukshetra war took place. The Julian date
corresponding to the Indian date was found using the panchanga software
of Yano (http://kyoto-u.ac.jp/pub/doc/sanskrit/pancanga).
Conclusion
A
long period of 3000BC-500BC was searched with the help
of modern planetarium and eclipse software to prepare a candidate list
of possible years for the Kurukshetra war.
Dates
compatible with the occurrence of a double eclipse
at Kurukshetra and at Dwaraka in the 36th year reckoned from
the Great War were identified.
All
the findings were further matched with the most
reliable planetary positions found in the text.
The
exercise in archaeo-astronomy led us to establish the
historicity of the Mahabharata by providing a likely year, 1478 BC, for
the Kurukshetra war.
An
obvious limitation of this investigation is the time
period studied, which is 501-3000BC. It would be interesting to
find whether the eclipse sequences and other textual statements can
still be satisfactorily explained for years prior to 3000 BC.
Assuming
1478 to be a fairly accurate year for the epic
battle, considering its scientific validation using modern, powerful
software tools, it would also be interesting to prepare a reasonable
calendar of events, tracing the course of the story of the Mahabharata
based on the precise references to natural phenomena available in the
text of the epic. This would include comet observations,
statements about the double stars (Vasishta and Arundhati) and the Pole
star, Dhruva, besides other references to eclipses, nakshatras
and planetary positions, as well as references to earthquakes,
meteorite impacts, floods and famines - all of which find mention in
the encyclopaedic Mahabharata.
Another
interesting exercise would be to verify the
concordance of the results obtained here with other ancient literature
concerning Krishna, including Harivamsa, which is traditionally
considered an appendix to the Mahabharata and
Purana literature.
Having
objectively established the historicity of the
natural phenomena in the epic, it would be of historical and scientific
interest to verify the veracity of still more ancient natural events
such as the drying up of river Saraswati.
Dr.
R N Iyengar is
Professor, Department of Civil
Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560 012. This
article is based on his lecture, delivered on August 22, 2004 at the
invitation of Sri Tirunarayana Trust, and his paper, published in the
Indian Journal of History of Science (2003), pp. 77-115.
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