Modern astronomy vis-a-vis the pranks of Maya the mlechha! ---I

[Guest guest]

Dear friends,

On going through the various posts on the topic of

calendar reform, I am constrained to say that quite a few members’ posts give

an impression that they are talking in circles by just repeating the same

baseless arguments ad infinitum without understanding the issue raised! Thus instead

of contributing anything worthwhile in the direction of reforming the Hindu

calendar, they are making the confusion worst confounded. It appears that

they are doing so because almost ninety-nine per cent Hindus have a

“Master’s degree” in phalit jyotish these days, but when it

comes to astronomy, it is not even one in a million who has the knowledge of

even its ABC!

 

For

example, some members say: The Vedas talk of two types of zodiacs --

both sidereal and tropical. Then in the same breath they say,

sidereal means nirayana and tropical means Sayana! But then to confuse a

layman further, they say that by sidereal they mean that the zodiac

comprises nakshatras instead of Rashis, but then there is a rider that

those nakshatras have nothing to do with the stars of those names! Obviously,

they do not know even ABC of astronomy since there cannot be innumerable

types of zodiacs astronomically. It is thus obvious that when they

say that the Vedas are talking of several types of zodiacs, they are

putting a question mark on the astronomical knowledge of our Vedic rishis,

when actually these “scholars” do not know themselves as to

what they mean by Sayana and nirayana zodiacs! By implication, it

means that if the Vedas really talk of nirayana zodiacs also then they are

talking of the hundreds of ayanamshas, including one of the most useless

and funniest ayanamshas viz. the “Muladhara Ayanamsha”!

 

 

 

Some

people talk of Ghatika/nallika etc. and in the same breath say that a day

comprises sixty ghatikas! They forget that in India a day ranges

from one sunrise to another and the duration of one day is thus never

equal to that of any other day except for two equinoxes -- when the

day and night are equal. In other words, it is only on those two

days that the day (actually a day and night!) can be said to be of sixty

ghatikas! That means that the sixty “ghatikas” of one

day are not equal to the sixty “ghatikas” of another

day---thus making the Ghatika time scale itself absolutely heterogeneous!

Again, they are ascribing all these “findings” to our Vedic

Rishis, which means the Rishis did not know even ABC of geography leave

alone celestial astronomy! It is, however, abundantly clear that

these “scholars” are ascribing their own lack of geographical

knowledge to the Vedic Rishis and claiming simultaneously that they are

spreading the real Vedic knowledge far and wide!

 

 

 

While

trying to somehow or the other ascertain the starting date of an imaginary

Kali Era, these “scholars” say that all the Vedas and Puranas

and what not have discussed the four yugas and so on! The question

is not whether those scriptures are talking of Kaliyuga etc. or not, but

whether they have given any indication as to when the Kali Era

actually started! To the best of my knowledge, it was Aryabhata who

started this mess by saying that 3600 years had elapsed on the day of his

23rd birthday, which means he had calculated it by back

calculation! Then again, Aryabhata was himself not sure as to whether it

started at the midnight (that also Ujjain

mean time!) of February 17/18, 3102 BCE or at the sunrise time of February

18, 3102 BCE! He kept on manipulating the fundamental arguments after

purloining them from the SS of aya the mlechhaso that as per one

“text book” of Aryabhata, Kaliyuga started on Feb 17/18 but as

per his other “textbook” it started at “sunrise”

time of Feb.18 Prior to that statement of Aryabhata, we do not

have any evidence to the fact that anybody else, including the charlatan

Varahamihira has referred to Kali Era starting at a particular date! Poor

Aryabhata could not calculate even the sunrise time of Feb. 18, 3102 BC

correctly since it did not take place at 6 am on that date, which he has

given as the starting time and date of Kali era, but at an entirely

different time!

We

forget that astronomy cannot be clubbed with mythology, nor fantasy (read

phalit jyotish!), for that matter! But that is what is being done

exactly! This a very unfortunate situation, and all this is being

done most probably deliberately by phalit jyotishis who are actually

themselves groping in darkness as to whether their predictions prove more

accurate on a so called sayana or a so called nirayana basis! Some

astrologers even claim that both the “Sayana and nirayana

systems” make correct predictions and that is why they say that

there are two types of zodiacs! And since they cannot do anything

without any supernatural crutches, they take refuge in the Vedas by such

funny statements that they refer to both the types of zodiacs!

It

is claimed by some jyotishis that Jainism and Budhsim and the VJ were

“created” simultaneously i.e. around 1400 BCE. But then

it is denied that we have any archaeological evidence that any of our

shastras existed prior to 300 BCE as per Harappan excavation! In

other words, they are trying to eat the cake and have it as well!

Instead

of a scientific discussion about calendar reform, more often than not, it

revolves around parochialism trying to prove one up-man-ship of one region

over the other just to prove their pet theories! I wonder whether

such statements will create more divisions than homogeneity.

Some

predictive astrologers go out on a limb to defend the atrocities committed

by the Surya Sidhanta of Maya the mlechha! In fact that sidhanta is

the main culprit for having misguided us about everything regarding

astronomical canons. And as everybody knows, astronomy is the basis

for calculating a panchanga to decide the correct muhurtas or

even prepare correct horoscopes! Let me illustrate it with concrete

arguments:

 

i)

It is the very first

“indigenous” astronomical work giving the fundamental arguments of

all the planets and unfortunately for India none of them is correct! That

is blot number one the SS!

ii)

There is no other astronomer

in India

who has claimed that he gained the planetary knowledge through tapasya.

Even Acharya Lagadha of the Vedanga Jyotisha did not do so nor did Garga, who

has been referred to in the Mahabharata also. Same is the case with other

sidhantas, including Aryabhati, whether pre or post SS. Actually the

author of the SS was Maya, a Greek, and the Greeks were called Yavanas in India

in those days. Being invaders they were unwelcome “guests” thus

they were knows as mlechhas!!) However, in spite of calling himself an Asura,

he claimed to have got “planetary” divine knowledge from Surya

Bhagwan! Thus, by implication, all the wrong fundamentals have been given

by Surya Bhagwan instead of Maya the mlechha! Thus he is trying to absolve

himself of all the responsibilities of non-sense calculations by laying it on

the shoulders of Surya Bhagwan! That is blot number two on the SS!

iii)

It actually means Maya the

mlechha was a liar of the worst kind -- as are most of the Ayanamwhawala

jyotishis (including the zero ayanamsha-walas, who call themselves

tropicalists!) today, since they claim to be Vedic astrologers, when actually no

“scholar” has as yet been able to prove the existence of Mesha, Vrisha

etc. Rashis in a consecutive order in any of the Vedas! Most of these jyotishis

also claim to have got sidhis from Ravana or Aruna or Brighu or even ghouls and

ghosts (Karana pishachika!) and so an and so forth, since they know that they

cannot make correct predictions just on the basis of astrology, whatever the

ayanamsha! As such they have to resort to all those crutches! That

is blot number three on the SS!

iv)

Maya the mlechha was

completely ignorant of geographical facts and in spite of the fact that

precession was known to the Greeks even in the early second century BCE, Maya

was oblivious to that also. It was only his stooges who made some funny

interpolations in the SS by stating “trimshat kritva yuge

bhanam…” Those phalit jyotishis thus made the precession look

like a swinging pendulum instead of a uni-directional phenomenon! That is blot

number four on the SS!

v)

Maya the mlechha, being

ignorant of even ABC of astronomy, whether Indian or Greek, clubbed the

starting point of the zodiac with Ashvini nakshatra, though he has made it very

clear that the Vernal Equinox was the starting point of zodiac! It is the

same “legacy” that is being carried on their heads by his stooges

even today, who call themselves Vedic astrologers! Like Maya, these “Vedic

Jyotishis” are unaware even of the basic tenets that the VE can never

remain glued to any nakshatra for long, much less to a Star of any nakshatra!

That is blot number five on the SS!

vi)

Maya claimed that at some

point of time in the past, the mean longitudes of all the planets were zero! It

was a fantastic statement, which no real astronomer in the world has ever made

since the mean longitudes of all the planets can never be zero at one and the

same time, whether over the past fifty thousand years or in the ensuing fifty

thousand years! He even made a fantastic claim that such a phenomenon

repeated at certain intervals of time and he called all those imaginary

intervals as beginning dates of yugas---starting from Satyayuga!

Ironically, all the phalit-jyotishis of India lost their common sense and

became mental vegetables since they could never see through the tricks of Maya

as to how, just to propagate the Grecho-Chaldian astrology, he was making a hotchpotch

of Indian astronomy! That is blot number six on the SS!

vii)

To rub more salt to the

wounds of Hindu dharma, phalit jyotishis in India are going to all the absurd

lengths by trying to prove that the Kali Era supposed to have started on

February 17/18, 3102 BCE is actually a shastric or even astronomical era. They

are trying to quote all the shastras and even the Vedas in their support!

It is really sad to see that in order to defend the cunning pranks of Maya the

mlechha, our own Indian especially Hindu scholars are trying to prove the

un-provable that Kali Era really started on that date! Have these

scholars really gone mad or are they just dancing to the tunes of overseas

“Vamadevas” and local “Parasharas”, who do not want to

face the truth that rashi based predictive gimmicks were imported into India from

overseas countries! Kudos to the SS for making us dance to its tunes!

viii) How

ignorant Maya the mlechha was even of basic geography is evident from the fact

that he has given the duration of a year as 365 days 6 hrs 12 mts 36.6

seconds. Since he has stated clearly that the Uttarayana and Makar

Sankranti are one and the same thing, obviously, he was talking of a seasonal,

also known as tropical year! The actual duration of that type of a year,

however, is 365 days 5 hrs 48 mts 45.2 seconds Thus the SS year is

longer by about 24 minutes roughly than its actual duration! By no

stretch of imagination can it be said that Maya followed a sidereal year, since

he has made it clear at several places that Vernal Equinox and Mesha Sankranti

are one and the same thing and so are the Makar Sankranti and Uttarayana!

In spite of such a meager knowledge of Maya, his SS in India was

considered to be a divine work even by Dayananda Saraswati, the founder of Arya

Samaj! Such was the hold of this mlechha work on the Indian mind!

Lots of kudos to Maya the mlechha for making a fool of even Maharshi Dayananda!

ix)

No wonder Varahmihira found

“Spashtataro Savitrah” i.e. “the most accurate among

all the sidhantas”. It means that like most of the jyotshis of today, he

also could make correct predictions only from incorrect date! Hats off to

Maya the mlechha!

More in the next post.

With regards,

A K Kaul