RE: Mahabharata Bhishmaparva Plane tary position

August 20, 2009

Dear Chakrabortyji,

You have a pertinent enquiry. When Lord Krishna says "Yojayet" that means to make yojana (ie to make preparation) for the war and that may not be for the actual day of the war. It could also be that due to the trick played by Lord Krishna the date of preparation for the war got postponed. But this version of Lord Krishna performing the pitrikarma on that amavashya is not there in all the versions of the Mahabharata.

Secondly the pitrikarma is best performed in the afternoon (aparahna). So even though the morning started with Chaturdashi the pitrikarya can be done when the Amavashya tithi started in the afternoon.

As Sunil Nairji and Sreenadhji are looking at these aspects we have to give them time. Moreover the departure of Balarama on Pushta before the war and his coming back on the next to next Shravana before the final mace-duel between Bhima and Duryodhana, has also to be accounted for in the scheme of things.

As regards the Uttarayana mentioned there, I think, it has to be nothing other than the Winter solstice, when the Sun starts its Movement (ayana) towards Uttara (north) and that occurred in the middle of January thirty six years before Lord Krishna passed away.

You have mentioned about the precession-data. Some scholars including Dr. Abhyankar used the precession-data to fix the year of the Mahabharata war in 3139 BCE.

Regards,

Sunil Kumar Bhattacharjya

--- On Thu, 8/20/09, CHAKRABORTYP2 <CHAKRABORTYP2 wrote:

CHAKRABORTYP2 <CHAKRABORTYP2RE: Re: Mahabharata Bhishmaparva Plane tary position Date: Thursday, August 20, 2009, 2:13 AM

Dear Sreenadh-ji, Sunil Nair-ji & SK Bhattacharjya- ji,

The discussion has progressed well & i have enriched myself

from the discussion.

However, being slightly retarded type, I have developed some

confusion about the Timeline of the events. Hope you would

help me again.

1) The initial posting by Nair-ji gives the planetary position.

It appears that time-period is Before the final declaration

of war. Am I Right here ?

2) The initial declaration date for war was on Amavasya.

Srikrishna confounded Kaurava-s by performing

Pitri-karma on chaturdashi afternoon when it

became Amavasya. So, confused Kaurava-s shifted the date

by 1 month (This is as discussed by SKB-ji).

My questions are -

a) Which Amavasya are we discussing here ....is it

the Amavasya on which Pitri-paksha tarpan is made,

i.e., when Sun goes to Dakshinayan ?

b) Reckoning of Tithi is generally based on Tithi at

Sun-rise. SriKrishna deviated from this practice.

Was this devaition based on different reckoning

system for Tithi....as observed by Shakti-worshippers ?

3) There were supposed to be three eclipses at that

time, Lunar-Solar- Lunar. The Solar eclipse took

place during the beheading of Jayadratha.

Am I right here .. or am I missing something ?

Were there any other eclipses too ?

BTW, how to understand when the description refers

to actual observation of planets ... and when to

astrological calculated points ?? Any pointers ?

regards

Chakraborty

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