Shrii Krishna made a last minute effort to make peace but failed. He left the Upaplaavya city on Kaartiika Shuddha Dvaadasi day in Revati Nakshatra (star) between 7:36 – 8:24AM. He reached Hastinaapura in Bharani Nakshatra, and had discussions with the Kouravaas till Pushyami Nakshatra. The day Duryodhana rejected the peace proposal was Krishna Pancami. Krishna left Hastinaapura, and had consultations with KarNa before he departed. (He revealed to KarNa that he was the eldest son of Kunti) on Uttara Palghuni day. Krishna informed KarNa that Duryodhana must get ready to fight, seventh day from that day, which will be Amaavaasya day (New-moon day) with JyeshTa Nakshatra. Krishna returned to Upaplaavya city on Chitta Nakshatra. Three days after that on Anuradha Nakshatra Balarama came to Upaplaavya. Next Pushya Nakshtra day Pandavaas left with Krishna to Kurukshetra.
Fifteen days after return from Upaplaavya city, Balarama left on Punarvasu Nakshatra on the tour of sacred places. (Balarama did not want to participate in the war that involved cousins on both sides). He returned to Kurukshetra after forty-two days in the ShravaNa Nakshatra. The war already started eighteen days back. On the nineteenth day, BahuLa Caturdashi day on ShravaNa Nakshatra, Duryodhana died. It was the fifty-ninth day after Amaavaasya with JyeshTaa Nakshatra.
Krishana returned from Hastinaapura after his unsuccessful peace mission on Uttara Palghuna day. Starting from that day, the seventh day is New-moon day (amaavaasya) with Saturn on Rohini Nakshatra as discussed by Vyaasa. Rahu was approaching the Sun, and the Moon was turning towards Amaavaasya (New-Moon day).
36 years after the Mahabharat war, Yaadava kula was destroyed. This was predicted by Krishana by astrological happening – “Rahu has compressed Purnima on Chaturdasi day. This happened once before the Mahabharata war and again will be happening soon and this will lead to our destruction”. He remembered Gandhari’s curse on the Yadava kula.
Astrologically a strange phenomenon occurred during the Mahabharata war.
The lunar cycle (paksha – normally is 15 days) sometimes happens in fourteen days. But during the Mahabharata war-time a rare thing happened – the paksha got compressed to 13 days. (May be 13 is a bad number). This aspect has been discussed in the Bhiishma parva – 3rd Adhyaaya. Guru and Shani are in Vaishaaka, Moon and the Sun entered in the same house one after the other making amaavaasya on the Trayodasi day it self . This peculiar condensation of the thithiis into thirteen from fifteen is a rare phenomenon as discussed by Vyaasa in Mahabharat and has inevitably followed by mass destruction due to war. This incident provided a direct means to establish the precise date of Mahabharat war.
According to Julian calendar this type of planetary collusion occurred definitely in 3076 BC in November. Vyaasa writes:
Caturdashiim panchadashiim
Bhuuta puurvamca shoodhashiim
Imaantu naabhi jaaneham
Amaavaasyaam trayodashiim
Chandra suurya bhougrastou
Ekamevam trayodashiim
AparvaNi grahaNe tou
Prajaa sakshapaishyataH
“I have seen fourteen days a paksha, fifteen day completion or extension to sixteenth day also. This amaavaasya falling on the thirteenth day itself I have never seen before” – says Vyasa. That, on the same month Sun and Moon eclipses falling during the missing thitiies is a rare phenomenon, resulting in large-scale disaster to people.
One month before, in Margashira, during Purvaashhaada Nakshatra, armies of Pandavaas and Kouravaas have assembled on the West and the East sides of the Hiranya river, respectively. The next day was Navaraatri and Durga Puja day. Duryodhana was itching for the war. That evening Duryodhana sends a word with Sekuni’s son Ulaka, ” We have finished the prayer to the arms and everybody is ready – why there is further delay in starting the war?” The next day, Margashira Shudda Ekadashi day, in KRittika Nakshatra, the war started. Hence, the famous Bhagavad Geeta teaching also started on that day. The war began at 6:30 am. The date according to Julian calendar was 22nd November, 3067B.C.
Other notable incidences that occurred:
Bhiishma’s death:
Maagha Shuddha AshTami day in Rohini Nakshtra in the afternoon that 58th day after the war started, Bhiishma died. ( This is the actual death – He actually fell in the war on the 10th day after the war started).
Sri Krishna’s Birth – He was born on 3112B.C. on Friday at 11:40 PM.
Pandavaas Birth – YudhishTara was born on August 31, 3114BC, Tuesday (Mangala Vaaram) Shudda Panchami JyeshhTaa Nakshatra – He was 696 days elder to Krishna.
Bhiima was 347 days younger to YudhishTara. – Krishna Trayodashi, Makha Nakshatra, and Arjuana was 303 days younger to Bhiima. Shukla Chaturdashi Soma Vaaram (Monday) Uttara PhalguNi Nakshtra.
When Pandavaas came to Hastinaapura after the death of their father Pandu, it was 3091BC and YudhishTara was 14years, 9 months and 11days old.
When he was coranated by Bhiishma as a prince, YudhishTara was 20 years, 1 month and 26 days old. (November, 3094BC).
They reached Varanasi in PalguNa Shuddha AshTami RohiNi Nakshtra.
Droupadi’s Swayamvaram -in 3091BC, April – to reach the Wax-house it took 10 days for Pandavaas. They stayed there for an year. After the burning of the wax-house, they spent six months in the Shaalihotraa’s ashram and seven months in Ekachatra city.
The second coronation and building of Indraprasta was in November 3091BC, seven months after the marriage.
Rajasuuya yagna was performed after Arjuna’s dig vijaya tour – It took five years and six months for Arjuna. Subhadra’s marriage was in April 3084BC. Three months after that was Khadava vana dahanam.
Abhimanyu was born in 3083BC, February.
Kaliyugam started in 3105BC, October 13th, Amaavaasya Mangala (Tuesday) JyeshaTa Nakshatra – Kali was born. This was the most inauspicious day.
The next Pournima day (Full-moon day) was full eclipse of the Moon, October 1, 3104BC. That was the day, when the five grahaas along with moon were in DhanishTaa Nakshatra.
Dharmajaa’s Rajasuuya – Fifteen years before the Mahabharata war was the Rajasuuya yagna of Dharmaja. That day was amaavaasya (new-moon day) JyeshTa Muula nakshtra . YudhishTara shakam started in 3082BC, October 26th . The gambling and the banishment of Pandavaas to forest was in November 3081BC, Margashira shukla-Trayodashi.
Vanavaasam was 12 years and living incognito was for one year (13 lunar years + 5 lunar months + 12 days or 13 solar years plus 18 days) – Bhiimshma calculates and declares that Dhurodhana’s calculations were wrong.
AJNaata vaasam (living incognito) began in Margashira 3069BC. Arjuna was noticed on Margashira Krishna Navami, 3068BC.
The Great war began on 3067BC, Friday 22nd November, Margashira shudda ekadashi Nakshatra.
The war lasted for 18 days.
Dharmaraju ruled for only 36 years.
25years later YudhishTara shaka started. (Thursday October 26th).
Fifteen years after Dharmaja rule started, Dhutaraashtra, Gandhaari, Vidura, Kunti and Sanjaya left for Vaanaprasta (forest living). That year itself Vidura performed praayopavesham.
Two years after that Dhrutaraashtra, Gandhaari and Kunti got caught in the forest fire and died.
Sanjaya was only left.
Shrii Krishna passed away on 3031BC, April 13th Friday.
Pandavaas Maahaa Prastaanam was in 3031BC, in November.
These are the dates that matched the Indian astrological description of the stars and the moon, and Julian Calendar predictions.
There is so much self consistency in all the events and the descriptions that it makes one to wonder. Based on these exact information Mahabhaarat must be Five thousand years Old (from today) as per the historical accounting.
The analysis is extremely precise and scientific, matching the astrological position of the Indian and the Julian Calendars.
The beauty and the scientific psychoanalysis of Bhagavad Geeta stand out as monumental contribution by the Mahabharat period to the mankind. Based on the above facts the historicity of Mahabharat cannot be questioned.
Aryabhata, is a famous early astronomer with contributions to science, whose estimate of p, and the time of moon revolution around the earth are so accurate, that his works are being extensively researched. Aryabhata (476-550 AD) stated that Kaliyuga started 3600 years before, when he was 23 years old, making the start as 3102 BC [Aryabhateeya ref-1]). It would date Mahabharata war to around circa 3130-3140 BCJ.
Surya Siddhanta [Ref 2], a document evolved from roughly same period, states that sun was 54 degrees away from vernal equinox when Kaliyuga started on a new moon day, corresponding to February 17/18, 3102 BCJ, at Ujjain (75deg47minE 23deg 15min N).
Varaha Mihira (circa 560 AD), another famous astronomer, stated that 2526 years before start of Saka count (either Shalivahana saka starting in 79 AD or Vikrama Saka starting in 57 BC) [Brihat Samhita Ref-3] as per text below.
When Saptarishis (ursa major) was near Magha Yudhistira was king 2526 years before Saka time
Presently, traditional Sanatana Dharma followers consider that Kaliyuga started at 3102 BCJ, when Sri Krishna passed away, and that Mahabharata war occurred in 3138 BCJ. Millennium year 2000 AD is Kali 5102.
Like Homer’s Iliad, another epic poetry from Greece, different scholars have expressed opinions varying between the story of Mahabharata being either total fiction or true record of historical facts. It took efforts by Schliemann and others to show physical archeological evidence of existence of Troy in present day Turkey, and Homer’s poems having historical relevance.
Bharata has been continuously and relatively densely lived in for thousands of years and in Northern Bharata the archeological evidence is difficult to come by because of many 100’s of generations of people living in same area. Hence, it is usual to look for Puranic and Vedic (written and oral recitation) astronomical evidence to substantiate the time periods. As is true of all such documents like bible stories, Scandinavian, Chinese, Japanese, Egyptian and other documented local folklore, the historical truths are likely to be anywhere between absolute truth to vivid imagination. An objective analysis can help in determining the likelihood of folklore being a historical fact or not.
Mahabharata
Mahabharata epic story was written by, Vedavyaasa (or Krishna Dwaipaayana) after the Mahabharata war. Vyaasa is also credited with codifying the existing branches of Vedas. It is perhaps the longest poem of its kind of such antiquity. The presently known oldest version of Mahabharata, based on its style, grammar and other features was probably written down before the Gupta period. This Mahabharata text does not refer to any Zodiac’s or Raashis (a western concept probably accommodated in to Jyotishya some time during 300BC to 200AD). The linguistic style of the oldest version of Mahabharata clearly cannot be the basis for determining if and when the events of Mahabharata occurred. It probably may have been rewritten/re-rendered many times as the mode of transference was by oral traditions as in the case of Vedic chandas prosody. The known oldest version has nearly 90,000 to 100,000 poems dominantly with 32 syllables Anushtup chandas, in 18 chapters called Parva’s [ref-4 and 5].
The Bhishma Parva and Udyoga Parva (specific chapters of Mahabharata) provide considerable astronomical/astrological descriptions and omens as the Mahabharata war was approaching. It describes a period of draught, with many planetary positions. Then there is this clear reference to pair of eclipses occurring on 13th day as shown below.
Fourteenth day, Fifteenth day and in past sixteenth day, but I have never known the Amavasya (New Moon day) to occur on the thirteenth day. Lunar eclipse followed by solar eclipse on thirteenth day is in a single lunar month etc…..
This reference to “Thirteen day” eclipse pair appears to be a unique astronomical observation.
Mahabharata text also refers to retrograde motions of planets prior to war and provides their location with reference to 27/28 Vedic star locations. Mahabharata Drona Parva also refers to Jayadhratha’s killing during a dark episode on 13th day of the war, which some consider as another short solar eclipse.
This document is basically concerned with analysis of all eclipses visible at Kurukshethra (Location where Mahabharata war took place, north of New Delhi, Longitude 76 deg 49 min East, Latitude 29 deg 59 Min North) from 3300 BC to about Buddha-Mahavira-Parshvanaatha time of about 700BC. Analysis of the time between successive eclipses, specifically time between end of one and beginning of other has been made, with a view to look at astronomical feasibility of back-to-back eclipses in 13 days, using modern astronomical computer software.
Another major issue of how did observers of the period define and determine period between eclipses when no clocks existed, has been addressed.
EclipsesLunar eclipse occurs when Earth’s shadow falls on the Moon. There are about 150 lunar eclipses per century. Lunar eclipses can occur only at full moon, and can be either total or partial. Further they can be umbral and or penumbral. Total lunar eclipses can last up to 2 hours, while partial lunar eclipses can last up to 4 hours. Any observer on dark face of earth can see when lunar eclipse when it occurs. During period 3500BC to 700 BC, nearly 4350 lunar eclipses have probably occurred. A good fraction of these would have been visible in Kurukshethra [ref-6].
Solar Eclipse occurs when Moon’s shadow falls on earth observer. About 240 solar eclipses occur every century. During period 3500BC to 700 BC, nearly 6960 Solar Eclipses have occurred. Solar can occur only at new moon. Solar eclipses may be total or annular. Total solar eclipses can last up to about 8 minutes, and partial solar eclipses can last up to 115minutes. The shadow of moon has a limited size of few thousand miles falling on nearly 8000-mile diameter earth. Hence, solar eclipses can be seen only in a limited range of longitude-latitude where the shadow falls. Elsewhere, even though sun is visible, eclipse will not be seen.
Eclipse evaluating computational software and its validation in present context
Astronomical calculations have been greatly improved since past 30 years, particularly with considerable amount of trajectory work conducted in Moon and other scientific projects. High accuracy computer models and software have been developed. These are validated against databases from US Naval Observatory’s Interactive computer Ephemeris, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. One such code is LodeStar Pro copy righted by Wayne C Annala in 1994 [Ref- 7]. The Lodestar Pro was checked for historical eclipses of 1000-2500 BC from clay tablet records of Mesopotamia area presently available with British Museum. Wayne Mitchell has analyzed this data [Ref-8]. Lodestar Pro provided excellent match with ref-8.
Eclipses at Kurukshethra
During the period of our interest, 3500BC to 700 BC, nearly 4350 Lunar Eclipses and 6960 solar eclipses have occurred on earth. Of these nearly 673 solar and lunar eclipses occurred in pairs of time gap of about nominal 15 days corresponding to roughly half lunar month. We need to search amongst these 673 for eclipse pairs visible in Kurukshethra, which occurred in “Thirteen” days.
A very detailed scan of all the visible lunar and solar eclipses for every year from 3300BC to 700 BC was made on the Lodestar software for Kurukshethra location. These are tabulated and plotted. Maximum eclipse time gap (end of one eclipse and beginning of next eclipse for naked eye observers) was found to be about 379 hours while the minimum was about 332 hours. A plot of time gap between back-to-back eclipses versus eclipse pair number is shown below. (This time corresponds to maximum to maximum – not end of one to beginning of next as in the future table).
The plot shows that during the period 3300BC to 700 BC, (Julian year corresponds to zero at 4712 BC- an imaginary date- Our range corresponds to 1412 Julian year to 4012 Julian Year) nearly 672 pairs of eclipses occurred on earth, which in principle may have been visible at Kurukshethra. Amongst these, nearly 32 pairs would be occurring for period less than 14 days. Many of these were found to be weak penumbral eclipses of moon, and solar eclipses had such low obscurity as to raise the issue whether any body could see them. Six pairs of “thirteen day” eclipses could be seen unambiguously.
Definition of Day and issue of timing determinationIt is easy for us, in present time, to precisely analyze the eclipse times based on a 24 hour per day time clock. However many thousand years ago, such a time evaluation would clearly be irrelevant. Hence the count of the day and time had to be based on clear, natural and unambiguous events such as sunset to sunset or sunrise to sun rise. Hence in all the analyses, presented below, the time of relevant sun rise or sun set is indicated such that the eclipse beginning and end can be evaluated with reference to the sun rise or sun set. In modern day definition, the period from sunrise to next sunrise is never 24 hours except on equinox day. On all other days, the time will be either less than 24 hours (when day light time is shrinking) and more than 24 hours (when day light time is increasing). For people of ancient times, sunset-to-sunset or sunrise-to-sunrise would be the logical definition of a day. Using this definition, it is possible to determine whether an eclipse pair occurred in “Thirteen days”.Kurukshethra eclipses and some planetary retrograde motionsThe table below shows six pairs of eclipses, which can be analyzed further to determine whether Mahabharata war and events could occur then.
Six eclipse pairs visible at Kurukshethra occurring in less than or near 14 daysEvents in red not visible due to sun rise (Lunar) or sun set (Solar)Year BC Eclipse Julian day Initial con Max End Sunrise Sunset end/start date
After serious analysis of all the eclipses, six eclipse pairs from 3129 BCJ, 2599 BCJ, 2056 BCJ, 1853 BCJ, 1708 BCJ and 1397 BCJ clearly are the best candidates for Mahabharata war year from “thirteen day” eclipse pairs view point. There are others that have low obscurity for solar eclipse, or have dominant penumbral lunar eclipse content and hence do not constitute strong candidates for the Mahabharata war. One typical eclipse pair of the six is illustrated using Lodestar Pro views of the relevant sunset/sunrise periods. The light/day transition is clearly shown in all the eclipse, which would form the only method of determining that the eclipses occurred in less than fourteen days, which has to be called thirteen-day eclipses. Planets Sani (Saturn) and Brihaspati (Jupiter), Shukra (Venus) in retrograde motion are illustrated for period around the eclipse pairs.
Solar-Lunar eclipse pair from Julian year 3129BC
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