Astronomical & Yoga Symbolism in Ramayana

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Astronomical & Samkhya Symbolism –Truth of Ramayana

 

1. No single author could be identified for Ramayana. Symbolic narrative on Samkhya had drawn characters from the Heavens with disguising names like Rama for Sun and Sita for Moon. Bhargava U´sanas and his lineage had preserved the story through ages before it fell into the hands of redactors who manipulated original account to give the impression of history.

2. As the epic was the legacy of the Bhargava lineage, authorship was credited to a mythical character Valmiki, symbolism of the summer solstice (Sun at maximum declination, Sun getting coroneted as king in the Heavens).

3. According to Karandikar ĀśỊesï€¤Ä has received not only the appellation of snake but also of snake-pit and has quoted KÄỊidasa in support who has used the term Valmika for ĀśỊesÄ. This identification of ĀśỊesï€¤Ä with Valmika is quite significant when we think of a date for Ramayana, supposedly authored by someone born of Valmika and hence known by the name Valmiki. The legend that describes the transformation of a robber into Rsi involves the Saptarsis (Great Bear) also and as such an astronomical identity for Valmika is justified.

4. Rama as personification of Spring Equinox

Ramayana attempts symbolic narration of Samkhya precepts with characters bearing correlations to the calendar and astronomical phenomena of the period around 500-900BC. Narrative is couched in allegory and Rama personified the spring equinox corresponding to the Year beginning that coincided with full moon on ´SrÄvana and summer solstice on Pusya. In other words, when the year began on ´SrÄvana Krsna (16) the spring equinox coincided with Caitra ´sukỊa-navami. The epoch achieved significance as to undergo personification perhaps because of the assumption that the solstice on Pusya and ´SrÄvana Krsna (16) marked the midpoint of the sign Cancer and spring equinox of Caitra ´sukỊa navami was at the middle of Aries. The configuration repeated at intervals of 19 years and also roughly at intervals of 11/ 8 years and hence there were many Rama epochs but the one of 964 BC achieved importance in mythological speculations because of the astrological significance of planetary positions.

5. In the Ramayana, Ayodhya [possessed of Iron] in fact represents the Earth, Da´saratha the Sun spanning the ten directions, His wives probably the Equator, Ecliptic and the Horizon – the celestial circles that bring forth the four children, the equinoxes and solstices.

6. Balakanda of Ramayana provides a vivid account of the circumstances in which four sons were born to Da´saratha. In the ninth Canto Charioteer Sumantra recollects the prophecy of Sanatkumara before the king that his son-in-law Rsya´srňga shall get him sons by performing A´svamedha. After the completion of an year –"punaprapte vasante tu purnah samvatsaro¦bhavat" – when the horse returned Da´saratha met Vasistha and Arundhati for their blessings and as instructed by him invites kings of Kekaya, Magadha, Anga, Sindhusauvira, Saurastra and south for the sacrifice. Sacrifice was performed on the northern bank of Sarayu and twenty-one sacrificial pillars were erected which shone like the constellation of Great Bear. At the end of the sacrifice by Rsya´srňga Visnu decides to have his descent at Ayodhya as the four sons of Dasaratha.

7. We have seen earlier the meaning of A´svamedha in the context of calendar. Leaving aside the details of the sacrifice, it is easy to realize that the story is a cryptic commentary on some calendar reform that took place in antiquity. The name of the Rsi, Rsya´srňga itself offers the necessary clue: Rsya´srňga literally means `having the horns of an antelope' or it is a term equivalent of `Mrga´sirsa', the 5th constellation of the Hindu zodiac. Charioteer of Da´saratha who speaks of the prophecy of Sanatkumara may be identified with Aurigae and as regards Vasistha and Arundhati, there cannot be any confusion. According to Padmapurana during the A´svamedha performed in Rama's reign he had to be in a state of consecration for a year holding the horn of a deer. This significance of Mrga´siras in the A´svamedha or sacrifice of the sun arises out of the fact that the heliacal rising of Bellatrix or g - Orionis marked the summer solstice. In the sacrifice performed by Da´saratha, the number of beasts sacrificed were 300, which considered as the days after summer solstice takes sun to the end of the spring season marked by transit over Rohinī or Prajapati and this fact got allegorically described as the appearance of Prajapati or Visnu as Nara at the end of the Putrakamesti sacrifice.

8. Symbolic Characters of Ramayana

 

Da´saratha is Sun who spans over the 10 directions

´Sri Rama too partakes the features of Sun but represents a calendar beginning at the vernal equinox and Ramayana is the allegorical profile of the six months of Devayana in which Sun is in the northern hemisphere.

§ Ramayana or the Course of Rama as Sun in Uttarayana

§ Ayodhya – Middle of Aries: Middle of spring season: Prthvi is the location of Vasantha & ´Sarad and they represent the Kingdoms/ populace as per Niruktam.

 

Grisma and Hemantha represent atmosphere and forests, nature in its fury. Rama leaves Ayodhay for forest as Sun advances to the Grismam that begins at the middle of Vrsbha or over Rohinī.

New moon happens on Krttika and the Krsnpaksa probably got personified as Tamasa river and in the same `night' or dark half Sun reaches the Ganga.

Between Rohinī [Aldebaran] and Citraratha [Capella] Sun finds the Ganga after which the forests begin. Guha, the NisÄda King of ´Srňgaverapura who takes Sun across the Ganges `next morning' or bright half [140 transit of Sun] in his boat is Alcyone [Karttika] as is evident from the appellation Guha of Lord Karttikeya.

After crossing the Ganga, Rama enters the forest and finds smoke – flag of Agni – an allegorical reference to Elnath [b- Tauri: 57059'] and then reaches the hermitage of Bharadvaja in Prayaga, between the Ganga and Yamuna. Bharadvaja's A´srama is probably the Punarvasu ruled by Jupiter.

Yamuna may be ecliptic or the sign Cancer that has another branch of the galaxy and there another boat is used and as suggested by Bharadvaja Rama walks further south to reach Citrakut where Valmiki has got his A´sram. The terms Citrakut and Valmiki are quite significant – Citrakut may mean a serpent house or literally `star puzzle' and Valmiki as explained earlier means the ĀśỊesï€¤Ä naksatra. From the eulogy made of the place in the Ramayana, it is evident that it was the location of summer solstice. For solstice Sun was in rapt conjunction with Jupiter and perhaps this conjunction was interpreted as a meeting with Bharadvaja and his guidance to move towards Citrakutam - the precise location of solstice. The maximum declination at the solstices has given the description of a mountain peak [Meru] for the location of solstices.

Times had solstice sidereally at 106032' - almost midway between d-Cancri [Pusya: 104008'] and a-Cancri [ĀśỊesÄ: 109003'].

Ramayana apparently depicts a mix-up of the description of the solar course from vernal equinox to autumnal equinox and the heliacal phenomena at equinoxes and the solstices.

Heliacal phenomena at the vernal equinox got described as the palace intrigues at Ayodhya with the major characters:

Square of Pegasus: A´svapati, King of Kekaya country

Andromeda: Kaikeyi, daughter of A´svapati and mother of Bharata [Perseus]

Perseus rising heliacally after the great square and Andromeda became Bharata

Cygnus, high up in the sky became the hunch-backed Manthara

As Sun advanced further, the constellations Ursae Major [seven Sages] and Canis Minor and Canis Major heliacally rose followed by Agastya [Canopus] for southern latitudes. These constellations find mention in the story respectively as Atri [one of the seven sages], Sutisnï€¤Ä [Procyon,] Viradha [a monster holding different creatures: Sirius surrounded by many animal figures like monocerotis, Lepus, Puppis etc.], and Agastya. Agastya guides him to Pancavati, where Rama meets with ´Surpanakha and Khara [Ass], which are the Monocerotis and the g & d Cancri known as Asses.

Rama saw Agastya from the A´srama of Sutisna [Procyon] – this is impossible if it meant the longitudinal transit of sun over Procyon. In fact Agastya becomes visible only after Procyon gains considerable altitude for New Delhi. According to Agastya, Pancavati was in the north, beyond the trees of ambrosia in Gemini and Lynx when viewed from the southern location of Canopus - the direction opposite to the one Rama had traveled to reach Citrakutam. This change of direction in the course of Rama is evidently due to the description of the heliacal phenomena of the period after summer solstice.

Pancavati, is the constellation Aurigae made up of five stars on the side of the galaxy which appear here as Godavari and the principal star a-Aurigae approaching its upper transit around the time of sunrise – after a month from the solstice for New Delhi. Same constellation also appears as the Puspaka flying chariot of Ravana in which he took away Sita.

Towards north of Pancavati Rama could see Prśravana mountain – author may be referring to the winter solstice located in that direction from where the Uttarayana had the beginning – and Agastya was in the southerly direction. Incidents at Pancavati took place between Aurigae and Canopus where we can find the Marica [Mrga in Orion], JatÄyu [Monocerotis], and Sirius, Leporis and Columbae constituting the other creatures that confronted Rama.

Moving further, Rama meets ´Sabari, Vindemiatrix [drÄksa-kanya] at the beginning of Virgo.

 

 

Rama's course over the ecliptic is described in terms of Matanga´srama and Kiskindha which form the northern precincts of Leo while Rsyamukacalam where Sugriva takes refuge is Ursae Major, the Saptarsis. Coma Bernices could be imagined as elephant leading to the name Matangavana for the area and the monkeys may be located in Urase Major. Bali can be identified as the full Moon of autumnal equinox that set eclipsed. Or may be some other object over the ecliptic like Saturn who was near Citra [spica]. There is confusion in the profile given that makes a unique identification impossible. Sugriva is mentioned as son of Surya and Bali son of Indra but these descriptions make no sense in the signs Virgo and Libra. May be they respectively represented the solar and lunar months vis-à-vis calendar and the lunar calendar was abandoned in favor of a solar one after the autumnal equinox that nearly coincided with full moon on A´svini.

§ The `ayana' described should have ended with the autumnal equinox as the six months are over. But the story – may be because modifications over a long course of antiquity – is devoid of such a precise astronomical time frame. So it is recorded in the Ramayana that Bali was killed before the month of ´SrÄvana and the monkeys will set off in search of Sita after the rains with the advent of Karttika. In fact a sojourn over Karttika cannot be avoided as the seat of Nirrta Ravana is at the junction of Scorpio and Sagittarius, i.e., solar months of Karttika and Mrga´sirsa.

§ The shift of the autumnal equinox to A´svina pournÄmi was not properly incorporated in the story. [A´svina pournÄmi was three days before the autumnal equinox and so the moon was in Taurus for the moment of equinox. Bharata considered as Moon was obviously in Nandi-grama [Nandi ºBull], waiting for the epoch of Rama to turn up].

 

May be that the story incorporates the phenomena over the whole of zodiac – not precisely of any half year. Even though Rama's horoscope and the allegory of palace intrigues had their origin around 500- 900BC, the description of solstice that we find in the epoch stretches over a long period of time prior to that. This is evident from the story line that Rama begins the final journey to south in ´SrÄvana ´sukỊapaksa[1] beginning with Uttaraphalguni naksatra, as the days gradually became shorter and reaches Mahendra Mountain [allegorical reference to summer solstice] in due course.

This is possible only in deeper antiquity around 3000 BC or may be due to some unknown calendar considerations. A supporting fact is that it is after Rama's arrival at Mahendra that Ravana orders for the waking up of Kumbhakarna, which must coincide with the beginning of DaksinÄyana[2], day of the demons.

Rama's victory over Ravana is depicted as on A´svina Krsna [10] or Vijayada´sami – this is an impossibility when the monkeys had set off in search of Sita in the month of Karttika.

Sita is the personification of Aka´saganga. As sun leaves Aurigae [Pa´ncavati], he is able to meet her only after crossing Mula, which is at the galactic center. This is the reason for the legend that Sita was the daughter of Ravana, born in Lankapuri and abandoned on the advice of Brahmarsi Narada.

· Author of the story is Valmiki – solstice transiting over ĀśỊesa. The twin sons of Sita who is brought up in his A´srama are the stars Castor and Pollux, the stars that heliacally rise at the summer solstice. Cardinal points constituted the four sons of Da´saratha – Laksmana: summer solstice and Bharata that of winter.

Rama's sojourn was in the sky and the Lanka of Ravana was the junction point of Scorpio and Sagittarius which marks the Muladhara in the sky. It is the seat of Prana and has nothing to do with the geographical Sri Lanka.

Setubandhanam is a Yoga practice for bridging the Prana and Apana in the human body. Lanka on the human body corresponding to Mula nakshatra in the sky is called Muladharam.

 

 

 

 

[1] This must be of the Purnimantha system and may be Adhimasa.

 

[2] This is a wrong identification that was prevalent since ancient times. Actual DaksinÄyana that is the day of the demons is from autumnal equinox to vernal equinox, when the sun is in the south of equator.