Establishing a year for Mabharata war: 3067 BCE

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HinduThought, "S.Kalyanaraman" <kalyan97>

wrote:

The exploratory works by Dr. Varthak and others prior to Dr.

Srinivasa Raghavan and Prof. Narahari Achar had failed in taking

into account ALL the astronomical observations recorded in the text.

Many scholars like Prof. Sen Gupta, Holay and others have attempted

the dating using a variety of astronomical computations,but

essentially restricted to one or two astronomy references.

 

The uniqueness of Dr. Raghavan's and Prof. Achar's work is that they

have sought to establish CONSISTENCY of a date with almost ALL the

astronomical observations: planetary positions, solar-lunar eclipse

sequences, uttara_yan.a (winter solstice), Haley's comet

(dhu_maketu), naks.atra-s and tithis related to Bhi_s.ma_s.t.ami,

start and end of Balarama's journey along R. Sarasvati for 42 days,

Kr.s.n.a-Karn.a samva_da on the significance of astronomical events

and so on.

 

What Prof. Achar has done is to replicate the brilliant manual

computations of Dr. Raghavan. Prof. Achar has the tools of Red Shift

and Planetarium Software to reconstruct the skies for any given

date, 7000 years back and forth. Prof. Achar's simulations of the

skies produce an astonishing validation of Dr. Raghavan's

computations.s He has also used only the Critical Edition of the

text (Bhandarkar Oriental Institute, Pune). There are many variant

texts in out of 50 manuscripts obtained from all parts of the

country. Many differences of opinion among scholars is caused by

these variant texts and variant interpretations of these texts.

 

In my view, Prof. Achar's presentation is a path-breaking effort in

validating the sky epigraphs observed by Veda Vya_sa and recorded

with such fidelity. This makes Mahabharata is the most accurate

historical text of all civilizations with precise dating of events

using the celestial calendar in use in the fourth millennium BCE.

 

Yes. But, more archaeological work is needed. The many sinkings of

Dwaraka have to be archaeologically attested. The so-called

concordance of PGW and Mahabharata sites is a hasty conclusion by

some archaeologists. One evidence is emphatic. The war was fought on

the banks of R. Sarasvati. The Jaina history states this with

absolute clarity.

 

Kalhana's Rajatarangini which starts with the Mahabharata date has

to be validated by studies such as those of Pargiter. The sequence

of migrations after the desiccation of R. Sarasvati towards Magadha

and towards Konkan-Kerala coastline, has yet to unravel.

 

Here is a note from Prof. Narahari Achar. The two key celestial

events, the motion of s'ani and the occurrence of winter solstice

match with just one date: 3067 BCE and for more arguments

see the texts from Mahabharata cited in the papers of International

Colloquium held in Jan. 2003 in Bangalore. The sky epigraphs were

observed events from the banks of River Sarasvati and recorded in

the context of terrestrial events.

http://www.hindunet.org/saraswati/colloquium/mahabharata01.htm

 

Here is the stellar contribution to our understanding of history.

Thanks and regards. Kalyanaraman

 

Establishing a unique year for the MahAbhArata war

B. N. Narahari Achar

 

Abstract

A methodology using the planetarium software and the most reliable

astronomical references from the epic is presented and it projects a

unique year, 3067 BCE for the events.

 

Introduction

A war literally as big as the MahAbhArata war has been

fought on the internet to establish the date of the epic war. Here

is my latest contribution to this effort.

 

Astronomical references

It is regarded that planetary positions are most reliable and

eclipses and comets are not so reliable. The most important

planetary position for purposes of this exercise is considered to be

shani at rohiNi. (Saturn at Aldeberan) This configuration has been

stressed both by KarNa in udyogaparva and by VyAsa in BhIShmaparva.

A solar eclipse at JyeShTha (Antares)is considered to be the next

important event. For, the new moon at Antares, has been mentioned by

KRShNa, and the solar eclipse has been mentioned by both KarNa and

VyAsa. The preceding full moon at kArtika (Pleiades) was a lunar

eclipse day, again mentioned by both KarNa and VyAsa. Retrograde

motion of Mars before reaching Antares and the occurrence of the

winter solstice in mAgha shukla pakSa complete the list of required

astronomical events, the references to the original in Sanskrit can

be found in the work of Sathe et al.

 

Methodology

A search was made using the planetarium software SkyMap

Pro6, from 3500 BCE to 1000 BCE, for the years in which Saturn was

in conjunction with Aldeberan. There are a hundred conjunctions in

this interval. Then a search was made from among these 100

conjunction years to find the years in which there was also a solar

eclipse at Antares. The planetarium software RedShift 3 was used for

this purpose. It turned out that there are 11 years in which Saturn

was at Aldeberan, and a solar eclipse at Antares occurred. A further

search was made from among these 11 years to find those in which

there was a lunar eclipse at Pleiades immediately before the solar

eclipse at Antares. This reduced the set from 11 to six. These years

are: 3244 BCE, 3067 BCE, 2890 BCE, 2360 BCE, 2183 BCE, and 1682 BCE.

Then a search was made for those years in which Mars executed a

retrograde motion before reaching Antares and became prograde again

by the time the solar eclipse occurred. Out of these six, there were

two years in which Mars did not execute retrograde motion and two

years in which Mars became retrograde much later or in some position

other than near Antares.

 

There were only two years, 3067 BCE and 2183 BCE, in which Saturn

was at Aldeberan, there was a solar eclipse at Antares, preceded by

a lunar eclipse at Pleiades, and Mars had executed retrograde motion

before reaching Antares. These two years could be the possible years

for the MahAbhArata war. The final choice could be made by appealing

to the occurrence of the winter solstice. The winter solstice

occurred on January 7, 2182 BCE in the month of mAgha, but it was

kRSNa caturthi and the NakSatra was citrA. But, the winter solstice

in 3066 BCE occurred on shuklapancami, and the aSTami occurred at

rohiNi just as required for the date of expiry of BhISma Thus, we

get a unique year for the occurrence of all the events described in

the epic. I have already given proofs of the adhimAsa earlier. The

simulations and star maps have also shown graphically that every

event described in the epic can be simulated. Now we have the proof

of a unique year as well.

 

Conclusion

The year of the astronomical events in MahAbhArata is

conclusively shown to be 3067 BCE.

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