Fwd: FW: RE: The Significance of the Spring Equinox and Kali Yuga

[Guest guest]

Abhinavagupta , " A Krishen Kaul "

<jyotirved wrote:

 

Dear Mr. Kaul,

 

It's good to have someone so knowledgeable and focused on Hindu

astrology contributing here on Abhinavagupta's own (esoteric)

understanding of such matters.

 

I agree with you that the New Year in ancient times could begin at

any of the solstices or equinoxes, and that this fact should be kept

separate from the notion of Uttar⹡na, which refers only to the sun

starting on its northern course (i.e., from the winter solstice). My

wife Elizabeth, in her examination of the Bhairavâ " " amî ¨lunar) festival

(Mⲧazî² " a), had suggested in the late 80's that the NewYear may have

begun with different festivals (not just limited to these 4 critical

calendrical junctures) in various parts of India, but that some

regions might have even celebrated more than one New Year.The

choices were probably determined not just by the astronomical

consideration, but also agricultural cycles, availability of

leisure, mythical narratives, etc.

 

The esoteric meaning of viSuvat (equinox), as explained by Abhinava,

was only recently discussed on this list, with the most recent post,

by Radhakrishna Warrier, being precisely on this topic of (not)

taking the precession (⹡n⭳a) into account:

 

Abhinavagupta/message/4188

 

In fact, the viSuvat was at the back of my mind when I wrote my

doctoral thesis on his conception of humor. Finally, bearing in mind

that that the Tantr⬯ka is not a treatise on astronomy (nor

astrology) but on esoteric practices and doctrines, it makes perfect

sense for Abhinava to simply elaborate his interpretations starting

from the calendrical conventions current in his time and place.

 

Regards,

 

Sunthar

 

P.S. In future, it might be preferable to post such lengthy analyses

of 'esoteric' topics in the form of essays (at our svAbhinava site

or elsewhere) and reserve the forum bandwidth mostly for discussion.

Also, you'd need to provide the English equivalent of Sanskrit terms

used for the benefit of (even most of) our (Hindu) readers.

 

 

----------------------

Shri Ishwardas ji,

 

Namaskar!

 

Your scholarly and carefully worded post is a pleasure to read and

deal with!

 

In a different post, I have mentioned it somewhere that it appears

that all the four cardinal points, viz. the two equinoxes and two

solstices had an equal importance at one or the other point of time

in the Vedic period. Thus your statement that sometimes the solar

year started with Uttarayana and sometimes with the Vasant Sampat is

quite correct.

 

You must have observed that we always celebrate (actually must

celebrate!) the lunar new year before the solar new year! It gives

a wrong impression that the lunar New Year has a preference over the

solar new year! No it is not so. The fact of the matter is that

the lunar new year is named as vⳡntavarⴲa or sharad navarⴲa! That

means it will start only after vasanta [spring] ritu [season] or

sharad [autumn] ritu has started! And that is a phenomenon created

by

the sun! When the sun enters the month of Madhu, it is the start of

vasanta ritu. The first new Moon after that is the Vⳡntavarⴲa! As

such, you can say that if there had been no vasanta ritu, there

would have been no vasanti navaratras either! Similarly, with the

ingress of the sun into the month of Urja, Sharad Ritu starts. It is

the first new moon after that which is known as the start of the

Sharad navarⴲas!

 

Thus the sun gains an " upper hand " .

 

 

 

What perturbs me most, and what should perturb every Hindu equally,

is that these days we celebrate neither Vasanti Navaratras nor

Sharadiya navaratras, for that matter any other festival, whether

solar or lunar, on correct days! It is all because of the Ayanamsha

confusion created by Lahiri and Lahiri jyotishis [astrologers], who

call themselves Vedic jyotishis!

 

 

 

For example, the sun enters the month of Madhu around February 20

these days. Every Panchanga [almanac], including the Rashtriya

[national] Panchanga, in any language, mentions clearly that it is

the start of Vasantu Ritu. Naturally, Vasanti navaratras should

have stated with the first new moon after that. But no, we are

asked to wait till it is the Lahiri Sun that enters Lahiri Mina

Rashi.

It is only after that the first New Moon will be taken as the start

of

Vasanti Navaratra! And as everybody knows, Lahiri sun enters Lahiri

M Rashi [zodiacal sign] around March 14 these days, that is about

25 days after the start of the real Vasanta Ritu! Naturally, the

first New Moon after that Lahiri sun in Lahiri M [Pisces] will be

away by about one month from the first New Moon after the start of

solar Madhu, the real Vasanta Ritu! It means that our Vasanti

navaratras are off by one month! Same is the case with Sharadiya

Navratras

and every other festival!

 

What is still more perturbing is that we are just unaware of all such

atrocities being committed on us by these Lahiriwalas [those who

swear by Lahiri], including the Rashtriya Panchanga, simply because

we have a blind faith in our panchanga-makers, who are actually

phalit jyotishis [predictive astrologers] or their clients!

 

Now about Uttar⹡na lasting from one equinox to another:

 

Lokmanya Tilak also has said in his " Orion " that the Uttar⹡na lasted

from one Equinox to another but as far as I remember, it was from

Autumn Equinox to Spring Equinox and not the other way round

according to him. His surmise appears to be more reasonable and

logical since the Winter Solstice would then fall in the middle

whereas if we take Uttar⹡na from Spring Equinox to Autumn Equinox,

Winter Solstice is completely ruled out! However, the VJ is quite

categorical that the shortest day i.e. WS is the real start of

Uttarayana!

 

IMHO, there is no reason to suggest some alteration in the period of

Uttarayana ranging from Winter solstice to Summer Solstice, at least

not after about 1400 BCE, the approximate date of the VJ.

Technically, a period ranging from the shortest day of the year to

the longest day of the year is in complete agreement with the

phenomenon of seasons -- and worthy of being called Uttarayana.

Our commentators like Shankaracharya, Abhinavagupta etc. etc. also

have said " Uttarayana -- when the sun turns uttara [north] " and as

everybody knows, rather should know, sun really starts turning

towards north on the WS day after having gained the maximum southern

declination till then!

 

Now coming to your points regarding Uttarayana etc. being clubbed

with Makara [Capricorn] Rashi by Acharya Abhinavagupta.

 

 

 

The Acharya was one of the greatest yogis of all times of the tenth

century AD in Kashmir. I have personally gone through all the

volumes of " Tantr⬯ka " with a Sanskrit commentary by Jayaratha.

 

In a different post recently, I have referred to Laghumanasa of

Munjala. It was one of the most important works of Hindu astronomy,

and the only work which gave a real " definition " to Ayanamsha --

that the calculated results were to be adjusted to be brought in

line with the observed positions. Thus the Ayanamsha was to be

subtracted from the Surya Siddhâ®´a results to make the calculated

results of the solar transits coincide with that of the observed

Uttarayana, Dakshinayana etc. He suggested an amount of one arc-

minute per year from Shaka 444 AD. This is exactly opposed to what

was practised, more than about a thousand years later, by Ganesha

Daivajnya, the author of Graha Laghava! He advised that we should

add Ayanamsha to planets observed as per " Vedha " at the rate of one

arc-minute per year from Shaka 444 AD! In other words, he put the

cart before the horse!

 

Panchangamakers of all over India took to Grahalaghava like ducks

taking to water since Grahalaghava is one of the easiest karna-

granthas to work with and anybody, knowing a bit of mathematics,

could calculate a panchanga

accordingly! Thus Grahalaghava panchangas became the rage of the

day,

forgetting about Laghumanasa etc. etc. This is exactly what made N C

Lahiri

dovetail his Lahiri Ayanamsha to Grahalaghava since people were

addicted to

that ayanamsha then. His Ayanamdha in the 1940s is hardly different

from

Grahalaghava Ayanamsha by more than half a degree! Since he knew

astronomy,

he took to the actual rate of precession from that date onwards,

i.e. from

about 1940, he started decreasing the Sayana longitudes at the rate

of about

53 arc-seconds per year further as against the Grahalaghva ayanamsha

of 60

arc-seconds per year.

 

 

 

Coming back to Acharya Abhinvagupta clubbing Uttarayana with Makar

Sankranti,

this is what Alberuni has said on page 367 of Alberuni's India --

Vol I,

" For Punjala (read Munjala) the author of Small Manasa i.e.

Laghumanasa,

says that in the year 854 of the Shakakala the real solstice

preceded his

calculation by 6 degrees 50 minutes and that this difference will

increase

in future by one minute every year.

 

 

 

" These are the words of a man who either was himself a most careful

practical observer, or who examined the observations of former

astronomers

which he had at his disposal, and thereby found out the amount of

the annual

difference. No doubt, also other people have perceived the same or a

similar difference by means of the calculation of the noon-shadows.

Therefore (as this observation was already much known) Utpala of

Kashmir has taken this theory from Punjala " .

 

 

Alberuni is referring to the same Utapala who became known as

Bhatotpala, since his full name was Utpala and Bhat his sir-name!

He has written commentaries on Brihat Samhita and other works.

 

What Alberuni's statement indicates is that Kashmir was following

system of observed positions i.e. Vedha already. Thus Kashmiri

astronomers were already subtracting from the calculated results of

Surya Siddhâ®´a the difference of " Ayanamsha " so as to make them tally

exactly with the observed positions!

 

That means Makar Sankranti and Uttarayana or Dakshinayana and Karka

Sankanti, etc. were one and the same thing for Kashmiri astronomers.

 

And no wonder Acharya Abhinavgupta also adopted the same

nomenclature.

 

 

 

(Much to the dismay of real scholars, Kashmir also started making

panchangas

as per Grahalaghava and/or Makaranda (another karna gantha of

Grahalaghava

ilk!) over the last couple of centuries and since 1990s as per Lahiri

ayanamsha, as against what Utpala and other early Kashmir

astronomers had

been doing. Thus you can see the results for yourself! Hindu

monarchy was

abolished in Kashmir, like in the rest of the country, and Kashmiri

Pandits

were the worst sufferers since they were made to lose their

dharma -- by

celebrating Pitramavsya on the day of Dipavali -- by their worthy

panchanga-makers of today---and Pandits have become refugees in

their own

country!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you peruse BVB6.doc in files section of this forum, I have

referred to

more or less similar asseverations of Acharya Abhinavagupta as

pointed out by

you in support of my contention that we are celebrating all our

festivals on

wrong days!

 

 

 

However, there is a fly in this ointment of clubbing Uttarayana with

Makar

Rashi/sankranti and Vasant Sampat with Mesha Sankranti etc. In

around tenth

century AD, the difference between the observed positins and the SS

calculated positions of the sun were not more than about 7 degrees.

As

such, when the Vernal Equinox was clubbed with Mesha Rashi, it was

simultaneously fixed with Ashvini nakshatra! i.e. Mesha Sankranti,

Vasant

Sampat (Vernal Equinox, and the start of Ashvini nakshatra became

one and

the same thing! Thus what had been advocated by the Surya Sidhanta

in about

second century AD, was continued in the tenth century AD as well,

since

nobody ever doubted the " integrity " of the SS as it was supposed to

have

been revealed by Surya Bhagwan. Clubbing the three together is

impossible

astronomically! Vernal Equinox keeps on " precessing " whereas the

constellation Aries and the nakshtra Asvhini (or Ashvini star) are

not

subject to precession! It may sound strange on the face of it but

it is

actually so!

 

 

 

Astronomically, actually, when we say that the stars have precessed,

what we

mean to say is that since we are taking the Vernal Equinoxo point of

the

zodiac and since the Vernal Equinox has precessed, the measurement

of stars

has undergone a change in the position, from one epoch to another!!

Stars

are more or less " stationary " and since constellations and

nakshatras are a

haphazard grouping of stars, may be trillions upon trillions of

them, they

i.e. constellations and nakshatras remain comparatively " fixed " .

That is

why Acharya Yaska also had said something like " na ksharati iti

nakshatrasm "

i.e. the 'bodies' that do not deviate from their places are known as

nakshatras in his " Nirukta " .

 

 

We know that stars have two types of motion, one is an

implied " precession " and the other is Apparent motion. The former

is also known as mean motion and the latter as True motion. The

Apparent or True motion is actually the motion of one star as

compared with another, in this case the motion of rest of the stars

as compared to the sun-earth combine.

 

 

Since precession of equinoxes (and even solstices etc.!) has a

direct impact on the earth, some of the stars become " invisible "

after a few thousand years. For example, a few thousand years back,

the star Sirius (Lubhaka) was a marker for floods in the Nile but it

is no longer so. That means that in the past it was visible with

the onset of rains in Egypt by coming out of combustion of the sun

during that time, but later on it became " invisible " during that

time. Even the much talked about Pole Star keeps on changing! The

Yogavasishtha has said, in its inimitable style, " dhruvo'pi

adhruvatâ­ gatah " - even Dhruva is not actually dhruva [fixed], i.e.

even a star like

Dhruva, supposed to be permanent, is not actually ever lasting.

 

Thus the condition that Mesha Sankrâ®´i [solar transit of Aries] can

always be clubbed with Vernal Equinox and Ashvini nakshatra is

astronomically just not feasible. This will be evident from the

Stars tables on this forum. The Vernal Equinox is these days in

actual conjunction with Purva-Bhadra-II star and technically

speaking, that star belongs to an entirely different sign that Mesha

Rashis

or Aries constellation!

 

 

 

As such, we have to, willy-nilly, forget about clubbing so called

Sayana Rashis either with Uttarayana etc. or with nakshatras!

 

That means that we have to go by the Vedanga Jyotisha calendar ---

Madhu, Madhava etc. months, and Krittika etc. nakshatras! Nowadays,

maybe Madhu, Madhava etc. months and Purvabhadra etc. nakshatras.

 

 

 

This is the only way when we can keep our calendars aligned to the

seasons and nakshatras [asterisms] and that is what you mean

by " agriculture " .

 

 

 

As already mentioned in a different post, the Rashtriya Panchanga is

playing a very very cruel joke on all the Hindus when it clubs an

artificial Chaitra with the Spring Equinox! It should actually have

been Vaishakha [the preceding month] and that also, to the exclusion

of any another solar Vaishakha! There are actually countless

Vaishakhas going on thee days! RP itself starts one Vaishakha on

April 12 another on April 14 and then another one on April 21

whereas the real Vedic (solar) Vaishkha has been obliterated by the

RP and all the other panchangas, as it should actually have started

on March 21! Thus a time will come when instead of the real Vedic

Vaishakha of Mach 21, the RP will start it on the day of Summer

Solstice. (Please see Rashi5.doc).

 

 

 

To sum up this long post, when the astronomers (read sidhanta and

panchangamakers) of India knew hardly any astronomy they clubbed

Meshaarambha-bindu with Vernal Equinox as well the Ashvini

nakshatra, which means virtually Ashvini [asterism] and it continued

at the time of Acharya Abhinavagupta. The same panchanga-ganita

[calculation] is continuing even today, with the only difference

that these days, most of the astronomers like N. C. Lahiri etc. are

doing it deliberately -- hurtling the entire Hindu society towards

adharma!. Now that we know a bit of astronomy, it is for people

like you to

revolt against all such Lahiris and RPs who compel us to get

literally

uprooted from our real Vedic and even cultural roots!

 

I hope I have clarified your doubts to some extent.

 

With regards,

 

A K Kaul

 

 

 

PS I have already had a long and even a " heated " argument on this

forum

about Kali Era being an imaginary era and without any astronomical

foundation. In any case, I will discuss it further at a later date.

 

AKK

 

 

 

 

 

_____

 

Ishwardas

Sunday, June 17, 2007 7:21 PM

HinduCalendar

[HinduCalendar] The Significance of the Spring Equinox and

Kali Yuga

 

 

 

Namaskar

 

1. On the basis of prehistoric monuments such as New Grange in

Ireland, Stonehenge in England and Goseck in Germany we know that,

from about 5000 BC, the Winter Solstice enjoyed great importance in

Ancient European cultures.

 

However, the Nebra Disc found near Goseck suggests that the Spring

Equinox may have been equally important at least for agricultural

reasons if nothing else.

 

The following parallels may be drawn from the Indian tradition.

 

Shri Abhinavaguptacharya in his Tantraloka (Ahnika VI) says that

Uttarayana (the sun's progression towards the North) covers the

constellations from Capricorn to Gemini. However, he also says

that, " Having passed through three transits, the sun reaches Aries

where a particularly auspicious moment occurs, namely, the [spring]

Equinox. The Equinox is the source of Siddhis. It is the most

propitious time of the year for purposes of worship, etc. "

 

He also compares a cycle of 12 years to the 12 months in a

year " beginning with Chaitra " . This suggests that, although

Uttarayana might have begun with the Winter Solstice, the solar year

started with the month of Chaitra - and with the Spring Equinox.

This

fact was recognised by the Indian Government back in 1957 when it

introduced the reformed calendar which remains the official calendar

to this day.

 

Apart from agricultural and astronomical considerations, what might

be the religious and spiritual reasons that make the Spring Equinox

so important? If the sun's Northward Path or Uttarayana begins on

Winter Solstice (22 December) and ends on Summer Solstice (21 June)

then the Vernal Equinox (21 March) represents the midpoint of the

Northward Path. Perhaps the Equinox symbolized a kind of spiritual

junction which allowed man to gain entrance to the spiritual world

of

the Gods.

 

After all, as the Shatapatha Brahmana says, Spring, Summer and Rains

represent the Gods, and Autumn, Winter and the Dewy Season represent

the Pitris. Accordingly, the division of the year would have been

along equinoctial rather that solstitial lines. Thus the first half

of the year would have been Vasanta, Grishma and Varsha and the

second half would have been Sharada, Hemanta and Shishira.

 

In that case, the original Uttarayana might have been the period

between Spring Equinox and Autumn Equinox. This would have been the

Upanishadic Path of the Gods (Devayana) leading to Brahmaloka or to

the mysterious " Northern Land " , the Uttarakuru (= Svarga?) of the

Mahabharata.

 

In any case, it seems natural enough to celebrate New Year in Spring

when the changes in daylight are clearly visible to all, new

vegetation begins to grow, the harvesting of the crops has been done

and people have a bit of spare time and spare money to celebrate. In

contrast, the Winter Solstice is hardly noticeable to anyone except

to minorities like astronomers.

 

And of course our calendar does begin in Spring already, only that

as

has been pointed out it is out of sync with the Equinox and, in the

course of time, with the seasons.

 

2. Regarding the beginning of Kali Yuga we cannot reasonably exclude

the possibility that the year 3102 BC is part of an ancient time-

keeping tradition. After all, a sophisticated civilisation like that

of Ancient India must have had its own calendar.

 

That the date of 3102 BC could not have been arbitrary but was based

on some historical event or chain of events is evident from the fact

that it matches similar dates known from other traditions (Ancient

Egypt, Latin America, etc.). Perhaps worldwide climatic and other

changes gave rise to the concept that a new era had begun which in

comparison to earlier times represented a deterioration in the world

situation.

 

The fact that much of the world including India itself has fallen

under the influence of spiritual ignorance, materialism, selfishness

and repressive religions entitles us to conclude that there is a

considerable amount of truth in this tradition.

 

 

<http://geo./serv?

s=97476590/grpId=13815029/grpspId=1705075991/msgI

d=2104/stime=1182581295>

 

[ishwardas]

 

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