Unique eclipse pair combination just before the Bharata War!
Notes Quoted from : “http://www.boloji.com/astro/00325a.htm”
- Surya Siddhanta 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 stated that 2526 years before start of Saka count [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
- 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…..
- 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.
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.
There are about 150 lunar eclipses per century.During period 3500BC to 700 BC, nearly 4350 lunar eclipses have probably occurred.
- About 240 solar eclipses occur every century. During period 3500BC to 700 BC, nearly 6960 Solar Eclipses have occurred.
- 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.
- 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 were 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)
- 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. 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.
Items in red show retrograde or Vakri motion
|Graha (Planet)||3129BCJ||Mahabharata text|
|Shukra (Venus)||U Phalguni||Poorva Phalguni|
|Ravi (Sun Solar)||U Phalguni||Rohini|
The location of the planets at the time of eclipse pair is shown in table above. Clearly, only Brihaspati, and Shukra are the only planets near locations indicated in the Mahabharata text. This date of 3129 BCJ is a serious candidate date for consideration of Mahabharata war.
The first and oldest eclipse pair from 3129 BC is unique. These fit the Puranic description that Sri Krishna passed away in 3102 BCJ, which is 27 years after the war. Our study confirms that Kaliyuga could have started in 3102 BCJ.
The second date 2559 BCJ is also unique in that Varaha Mihira stated that 2526 before start of Saka, Yudhishtira was the ruling king. If it Saka was Vikrama it would make Yudhistira as king in 2583 BCJ, which is before Mahabharata War. Yudhistira was also king for a short time before war, before he lost it in a game of dice to Sakuni/Duryodhana. This date is also an excellent candidate for Mahabharata war. There is another event that occurs in 2559 BC. While the eclipse pair occurred in lunar month Shravana, there is another short solar eclipse in Pushya. On 13th day of Mahabharata war, it is said that Jayadhratha was killed when Sri Krishna covered the sun for a short time just before the sunset. This event could be looked upon as a solar eclipse. A study of year 2559 shows that another solar eclipse did occur in Pushya lunar month (Julian Dec 06, 2559) some 40 days before the winter solstice (Uttara ayana).
The other pairs are not good candidates for a set of reasons given in the original article.