[Abhinavagupta] Secrets of the Earth

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Dear AKK,

 

Namaste,

 

1)

You may not be aware that at the time Colbrook made his dating of VJ the Max Mullerian date of the Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT) in the 15th century BCE was accepted by all the western scholars and Colebrooke was no exception. Colebrooke therefore gave the 15th century as the date of VJ as he could not have given a date for VJ earlier than the 15 th century BCE. We now know from the Archaeological evidences and the Astronomical work of Prof. Sengupta, Prof. Achar and others that the date of the Veda was much before the 15th century BCE. Moreover there was equal division of the Nakshatras in the times of VJ and we know that the Winter solstice started occurring in Dhanistha from 2400 BCE. While I put the date of VJ sometime around 2400 BCE Prof. Achar puts it aroung 1800 BCE. Don't you realise that your contention that VJ was composed in <1400 BCE, ie. after the 15th century BCE, has no justification?

 

2)

You are dating the Mahabharata in <1400 BCE to 400 BCE. Any genuine Kashmiri scholar knows about the tradition of the Saptarshi calendar and to my understanding even now the year of birth is noted in Kashmiri horoscopes in terms of the Saparshi kala. Saptarshi kala started in 3076 BCE, when Yudhisthira went on his Swargayatra, ie. 25 years after the Kali yuga started in 3102 BCE. In fact Kalhana too mentions about the Saptarshi calendar and even Alberuni also mentioned about the Saptarshi calendar. So do you think, in all your wisdom, that the Kashmiris have been following a fake calendar from the ancient past?

 

Dhanyavad,

 

Sunil K. Bhattacharjya

 

 

 

Response to AKK's post on May 24, 2009 at

 

Abhinavagupta/message/5036

 

--- On Sun, 5/24/09, Avtar <Avtar wrote:

Avtar <Avtar[Abhinavagupta] Re: Secrets of the Earthabhinavagupta Cc: hinducalendar , indiaarchaeology , hinducivilization Date: Sunday, May 24, 2009, 10:12 AM

 

 

Dear Francesco Brighenti,Namaskar!Many thanks for your enquiries #5001 of May 10, 09 regarding my ascribingcertain dates to the Vedas and the VJ etc.Let me start from “upside downâ€.1 < 1400 BCE to 400 BCE: The Mahabharata>a). Mbh is a voluminous work of about one hundred thousand verses. It hasfollowed the Vedanga Jyotisha system of five year yuga, determining thenomenclature of months and tithis/nakshatras etc. The VJ is a work of anera of at least fourteenth century BCE. As such, the Mbh, to start with, ismost probably a work of the VJ era.b) Since Mesha, Vrisha etc. rashis are conspicuous by their absence from theMbh, it is certainly a work of an era of prior to about 400 BCE, when rashibased Grecho-Chaldean astrology had not gained foothold in India. c) There is no mention of any weekdays in the Mbh. That also confirms thedate as prior to

4th century BCE.d) All the planets right from Budha to Shani being mentioned vis-à-visvarious nakshatras, is certainly a “side effect†of works likeAtharva-Veda- Parishsita etc. which is a work of about sixth century BCE. All these factors prove that the MBh is a work of a “steady development†of14th century BCE to 4th century BCE.2 <1400 BCE: [...] Vedanga Jyotisha>a) The VJ has said in the fifth mantra, “When the sun and the moonwhile moving in the sky, come to Vasava (Dhanishtha, Alpha Delphini), thenthe yuga, the Magha and Tapas months, the light half of the month and thewinter solstice, all commence togetherâ€.b) The VJ has followed a pattern of 27 equal nakshatra divisions,starting from Krittika. Presuming that Alpha Delphini is supposed to be inthe middle of Dhanishshta nakshtra division, it had an almost exactlongitude of about 270 degrees as per FK5

catalogue on January 1, 1400 BCE.The winter solstice was thus in exact conjunction with Alpha Delphini(Dhanishtha) star then. Hence it can safely be deduced that the VJ is awork of at least fourteenth century BCE, if not earlier. 3. <3000 BCE: Taittiriya Samhita>< 3000 BCE: Vajasaneya Samhita><3000 BCE: [...] Shatapatha Brahmana>a) Shatapatha Brahmana 2/1/2/1-4 says, “One should getconsecrated in Krittikas…Krittikas alone consist of many stars. Otherasterisms consist of only one or two or three or four stars but Krittikashave many. These are the only stars which do not deviate from the eastwhereas all the other nakshatras do deviate from the East but notKrittikas…â€b) This is what S B Dikshit has said on page 128 ofHistory of Indian Astronomy, “The statement ‘kritikas never deviate from theeast, implies that these stars always rise in the east, that

is they aresituated on the equator or their declination is zero. At present they donot appear to rise exactly in the east but at a point north of east; thishappens because of precessional motion of equinoxes. Assuming 50†as annualmotion, the time when the junction star of the krittika had zerodeclination, comes to be 3068 years before Shaka and even 150 years earlierbefore i.e. the approximate time of commencement of Kali era. If 48†beadopted as the precessional annual motionâ€.c) Dikshit is quite correct even through his roughestimates since as per FK5 catalogue, the declination of Alcyone, theJunction Star of Krittika was about 24 arc minutes south as on January 1,3000 BCE!d) We have to bear in mind that as per these Mantras ofthe Shatapatha Brahmana, Krittika nakshatra had maximum number of stars.That means that nakshatra divisions in the Vedic time were of unequaldimensions

unlike that of the Vedanga Jyotisha! And it also means thatapart from Alcyone, there were several other prominent stars in thatdivision. e) Krittikas are a part of the Constellation (and notastrological sign!) Taurus. They are a part of Pleiades, and there is everypossibility that quite a few other prominent stars, about which we have noinformation, are a part of Krittikas, as per the Vedas. That means that oneor the other star of Kritikas had a zero degree declination for quitesometime, much before and even after 3000 BCE. f) We can, therefore, safely conclude that MadhyanhdinaShukla Yajurveda, of which Shatapatha Brahmana is a part, is a work of about3000 BCE and maybe even earlier. g) Taittiriya Samhita and Vajasneya Samhita are more orless contemporaneous of Shukla Yajurveda! Thus they also are of about 3000BCE, if not earlier.3. <4000 BCE: [...] Rigveda>a) As

is common knowledge by now, Rigveda is a muchearlier work than all the other Vedas!b) There is no doubt, thus, that the Rigveda is of atleast 4000 BCE, if not earlier!Q.E.D. (or is it QEF?)With regards,A K KaulPS1. All the remaining claptrap of your post is “immaterial,inconsequential and irrelevantâ€. with due apologies to good old Perry Mason!2. Declinations/ longitudes of Stars can be checked by anybody from10000 BCE to 12030 AD after downloading “Vasistha†program fromHinduCalendar forum, for free and without any obligation!AKK[Response to Francesco's post (10 May 2009) athttp://groups. / group/Abhinavagu pta/message/ 5001]------------ ------Please delete the previous post and append the relevant link as other are doing and

as I've done for your post above. I realize you are cross-posting to several other lists, but you can easily re-send your message separately to this list after modifying per our guidelines.Sunthar