Math. formulae used since vedic times for telling time from the night sky

[Guest guest]

praNAms to all advaitins. On the very first day I

resume my advaitin

mail, (after a break of two months) I notice a

very interesting

discussion on maths., science, vedic maths. and

holograms. I

know nothing about holograms. I have the

following comments on

the postings regarding the other topics. There

has been much

(unjustified?) noise even in the math. world

about vedic maths. But

as Ravi says, Vedic maths. aims just at fantastic

fastness in

calculation and cannot be claimed to contain the

extraordinary

mathematical concepts of the past three

centuries, which have

deeply influenced and also characterised modern

science. But the

remarkable thing about those vedic times is: they

knew so much

and could do so much with so little equipment,

compared to

modern times. To illustrate this I give below a

meagre sample of

how they could tell time at night by a simple

quick look at the night

sky right above them.

First Pre-requisite: You must know how to

identify the 27

asterisms (nakshatras) - aSvati; bharaNi, ... ,

revati - when they

pass over you in the sky. In other words you must

be familiar with

their approximate location, description and

geometrical shape, if

any. For example, krittikA is a cluster of six

stars, known by the

name of Pliedes in Astronomical maps, so close to

each other that

they look like a sprinkling of crystal-white rice

flour crystals over

the blue background of the sky, a little to the

northwest of the

famous Orion Constellation.

Second Prerequisite: You must know in what sign

of the zodiac the

Sun is on the day (night!) of your observation

and approximately

how far into it the Sun has advanced. If you know

the basics of the

annual 'movement' of the Sun through the zodiacal

signs, the very

date of your observation would tell you this.

For example, on

March 21, the Sun enters Aries and stays there

for a month

traversing through it at the rate of

approximately one thirtieth of the

span of Aries each day.

Third prerequisite: The knowledge that every day

the Sun lags

behind 4 minutes (approx.) with respect to the

stars. This 4

minutes is because, it is 24 x 60 / 360 . In

about 360 days the

Sun comes to the same position.

In ancient times everybody (probably!) had the

first two

prerequisites! And the educated had the third

prerequisite

information. So they used 27 formulae (one for

each of the 27

nakshatras) to tell the time. Each formula is so

short and cryptic

that you have to know how to decode it. Here is

one, corresponding

to the krittikA nakshatra:

krittikA simhe kAyA.

This formula is a symbolism for saying the

following: When krittikA

is seen on (or near, - there are certain nuances

here, which I am

skipping) the meridian, the constellation simha

(= Leo) has risen

above the (eastern) horizon an amount given by

the word 'kAyA'.

'kA' stands for the number 'one' in the age-old

(vedic old?) ka-Ta-pa-

yA sankhyA; and 'yA' stands also for the number

'one' in the same

notation. By a built-in tradition of the

interpretation of the formula, it

is supposed to say that, at the time of

observation, the simha

constellation has risen one and one-eighth

ghaTikA. A ghaTikA is

24 minutes of modern time-calculation. So it is

27 minutes of time

past the rising of simha.

Now telling the time depends on the day of your

observation.

Suppose the date is January 7. The Sun is in

Dhanur Rasi

(Constellation Sagittarius) with 10 days to go.

When the sun is

setting, the seventh rASi from Dhanur, namely

Mithuna (Gemini)

has therefore 40 minutes (10 days of annual

motion of the Sun is

equivalent to 40 minutes of daily rotation) to

rise on the eastern

horizon, then there is kaTaka (Cancer) which has

a 2-hour span,

and then simha (Leo) in which we have to take 27

minutes to

come to the location at the time of the

observation. So the

observation time is: 40 minutes + 2 hours + 27

minutes and this

gives 3 hours and 7 minutes. This is the time

past sunset at the

time of observation. Roughly, it is 9-07 p.m.

 

I have taken so much time to explain this, but

the ancients did this

calculation mentally, all in no time. My father

used to do it and he

taught me this when I was eleven years old. Every

day we used to

go to the river for early morning bath, and he

used to teach me

these formulae. The formulae are applicable even

today at any

position in the world, except perhaps in the

arctic and antarctic

zones.

Those who are interested to see the formulae in

all detail may refer

to the book: The Clock of the Night Sky, authored

by me and

published by UBSPD, New Delhi (1998) (ISBN -

81-7476-207-8).

With praNAms,

profvk

 

 

 

 

=====

Prof. V. Krishnamurthy

The simplified URL of my website on Science and Spirituality is

http://www.geocities.com/profvk/

You can also access my book on Gems from the Ocean of Hindu Thought Vision and

Practice from the same address.

 

 

 

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