jul 21st, 2009
the amavasi in kartikatam (new moon in the month of cancer) is an auspicious time to do bali-tarpanam (offerings to the spirits of the ancestors or manes). this would have been the 22nd of july, but because of the inauspicious solar eclipse it was moved forward by one day, and so today in kerala lakhs of people went to the major temples like tirunelli in wynad, the island siva temple in aluva, papanasini in varkala, tiruvallom in trivandrum, etc. and did their offerings.
i am a little unclear how this is related to the karkitaka sankranti, ie the summer solstice, which as we know happened on jun 21st (the obverse of the makara sankranti, the winter solstice). i guess it is the first new moon after the sankranti? anyway we are now in the dakshinayana period, as the sun heads southwards towards the tropic of capricorn or makara.
well, hope you have an enjoyable eclipse.
the traditional explanation for the eclipse is that rahu or ketu (i forget which) has swallowed the sun/moon. rahu and ketu are included among the nine planets, even though they are metaphorical. my conjecture is that they were included as mathematical functions that would explain discrepancies in the orbits of the observed planets (budha/mercury, shukra/venus, chowwa/mars, vyazham/jupiter, sani/saturn). after all, indian astronomers were likely the most mathematically astute in the world -- note how aryabhata in 499 CE had already calculated the diameter of the earth, and how the kerala school of astronomy circa 1300 CE (madhava, parameswara and nilakantha) figured out that the earth moved around the sun.
astronomy and the related calendar and timekeeping have been core civilizational strengths of india. we were the ultimate star-gazers. after all, we actually observed the celestial configuration in 3102 BCE at the start of the kali yuga, when the europeans were literally swinging from trees. the limeys couldn't believe our ancestors could have observed these minutely. they claimed that the old observations were 18th cent CE fabrications (another case of judging others by your own predilections for forgery and fabrication).
3 comments:
/** after all, we actually observed the celestial configuration in 3102 BCE at the start of the kali yuga, when the europeans were literally swinging from trees
**/
Actually, i like your blog for such hilarious & very entertaining comments.. indirect sarcasm (like swinging from trees) multiplies the enjoyment of reading :)
Rahu and Ketu are actually the points where the earth's plane of rotation around the sun meets with the moon's plane of rotation around earth.
All of you are wrong. In Srimad Bhagavatam canto 5 suka or some rishi tells some listener that Rahu only CONFRONTS the moon and sun DURING the eclipse (which means rahu and ketu do not cause it - it was a myth, even at those times). Aryabhatta even says that they are due to shadows of the Earth on the moon and those of the moon on earth, and he didn't get burned on the stake or poisoned for his 'evil' claim.
Before Rahu swallows the moon and sun, Mahavishnu releases his chakram that makes him run away.
"There is no actual swallowing, only confrontation" - Suka, Suta, Narada...(I don't know exactly who)
And Europeans(Yavanas) were mating and killing each other... they probably weren't advanced enough to use physical energy for something constructive like swinging from trees ;-)
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