Hindu festivals

[Guest guest]

Dear Raj ji,

 

Many thanks for your post regarding the above topic.

 

I am really glad that a jyotishi also is taking interest in calendar reform!

 

 

<You have categorically and critically claimed that we are celebrating

festivals on the wrong dates or in other words, the dates chosen for our

festivals (by the panchanga makers - including the govt of india) do not

follow the criteria available in our ancient texts for determining the dates

for each festival. >

 

You are absolutely right. These days we are celebrating all our festivals

neither as per the Vedas, nor Puranas nor sidhantas, and surprisingly, not

even as per Primary School level geography but only as per the whims and

fancies of some “almighties” like Lahiriwalas and Ramanawalas and so on. I

have made quite a few representations to all those who matter, including the

President of India, New Delhi; Postional Astronomy Centre and the India

Meteorological Department (publishers of Rashtriya Panchanga) etc. etc. in

this regard, as will be clear from the papers in the files section of

Hinducalendar forum.

The calendar reform has been a process of evolution for me personally on the

lines of the Vedas and the Puranas. To start with, I was totally enamoured

of Grahalghava etc. Makar Sankrantis and other festivals, and believe it or

not, it was through predictive astrology---nirayana, with

Lahiri/Grahalaghava ayanamsha, of course!----that I started delving deep

into calendar reform! It was an inadvertent wake-up call for me, since when

I found quite a few predictions not coming true because of one ayanamsha, I

experimented with other ayanamshas, and finally delved deep into sidhantas

and the Puranas!

 

From a perusal of all those puranas and sidhantas, I concluded that it was

the " Tropical zodiac " (Sayana Rashichakra) that was being followed by all

of them for festivals and by implication, the Pauranic and sidhantic

authorities must have been following it even for astrological predictions!

I therefore started a crusade for Tropical Zodiac i.e. Sayana Rashichakra,

presuming that since that was the basis of Pauranic festivals, it must be

the basis of not only Vedic festivals but even the real Vedic astrology.

That crusade lasted for a considerable period through my Panchangas and

surprisingly, I even made quite a few correct predictions on the basis of

Sayana Rashichakra and secondary progressions etc. For one of those

predictions, I was awarded NOSTRADAMUS Award by His Holiness of Kanchi

Kamakoti, Swami Jayendra Saraswati, at Kanchi, (and not at Delhi!). My to

and fro expenses of air-fair and stay at a five-star hotel in Chennai etc.

etc. apart from a cheque for Rs. 11000/- as back as 1995, also were borne

by Express Star Teller Magazine, who had started that award. That

strengthened my view that Tropical astrology was the real Vedic astrology,

which it is not, as we shall see shortly!

 

Since " the greatest Vedic astrologer of the twentieth century " viz. Dr. B.

V. Raman etc. called the nirayana astrology as Vedic, I was intrigued as to

how could the Vedic Rashis be different from the Paurnic and sidhantic! I,

therefore, went through all the Vedas and the Vedanga Jyotisha etc. with a

tooth comb!

 

As is common knowledge by now, there were/are absolutely no Mesha, Vrisha

etc. Rashis in the Vedas! So to call them sayana or nirayana was just

meaningless and tacking at the air!

 

In my panchangas, I had been clubbing Ashvini, Bharni etc. nakshatras also

with Sayana Rashichakra since that was what was done by the Hindu

astrologers on the basis of the Surya Sidhanta. That very practice of

Ashvini etc. nakshatras being clubbed with Sayana rashis continued to be

followed at the time of Alberuni i.e. eleventh century in India. But a

member of Indiaarchaeology forum, Shri Paul Kekai Manansala, drew my

attention to the fact that Tropical Rashis could never be clubbed with

Ashvini, Bharni etc. nakshatras!

 

That set me thinking again as to how the Puranas had talked of a sayana

rashichakra and also nakshatras, in one and the same breath, whereas the

Vedas talked about the nakshatras times without number but did not mention,

much less link them, with any Mesha etc. rashis, which were conspicuous by

their absence from the same! There was yet another dichotomy: The year as

per the Vedanga Jyotisha started from Uttarayana but the nakshatras started

from Kritiika as against Ashvini (as is happening these days) or Dhanishtha

where the Uttarayana was located then!

 

It dawned on me much later in the day that nakshatras had nothing to do with

Madhu, Madhava etc. months---the real Vedic months instead of Mesha, Vrisha

etc. rashis---since the latter were/are seasonal and immune to the effects

of precession of equinoxes! Thus if the Vernal Equinox was the Vasanta

Sampat i.e when the day was equal to night in 10000 BCE, it will remain so

in 10000 AD as well, when the day will be equal to night again, irrespective

of the fact that if the VE was in nakshatra “A” (the first nakshatra of the

nakshatra chakra) in 10000 BCE, it may be in nakshatra “Z” (the last

nakshatra of that very nakshatra chakra) in 10000 AD, but Vernal Equinox

would continue to be Vasanta Sampat i.e., when day is equal to night!

Similarly, if Madhu was the first month of Vasanta Ritu (the month before

the VE) in 10000 BCE, it will be the first month of that very Vasanta Ritu

in 10000 AD as well, since the Vasanta Ritu (Spring season) will always

start a month prior to the Vernal Equinox, unaffected by precession of

equinoxes!

 

It means that it is only Mesha, Vrisha etc. rashis that are creating the

confusion of so called sayana and nirayana and so on whereas there are no

such confusions and dichotomies in the Vedas or the Vedic months, much less

the Vedic seasons!

 

In fact, the Vedic calendar is the most scientific and the most wonderful as

well beautiful calendar the world could ever have! It is unlike all the

other calendars the world over! It is directly linked to the four cardinal

points viz. the two equinoxes and two solstices and to the resulting Madhu,

Madhava etc. months. It is to those very Madhu, Madhava months to which the

synodic months are pegged! Thus the real Vedic synodic (what most people

call lunar) months are also immune to precession, since they are directly

linked to seasonal solar months! Thus if the lunar Vasanti Navratra

started with the first New Moon (Amanta---Shukla pratipat) after the month

of Madhu in 10000 BCE, it will start similarly in 10000 AD also, i.e., the

first New Moon after the month of Madhu---you may as well say the last new

Moon before the Vernal Equinox----will be the start of the lunar

Vasanti-Navratra-cum-Chaitra in 10000 AD also just as it was so in 10000 BC.

That will be the first month of Vasanta Ritu therefore in 10000 AD, as it

was in 10000 BCE.

 

Thus when we say that Bhagwan Ram was born on Chaitra Shukla Navmi in

Vasanta Ritu, it was thus Shukla_navmi of the first lunar month of Vasanta

Ritu---the last New Moon before the Vernal Equinox---known as the month of

Madhu in the Vedanga Jyotisha---where there is no confusion of any Mesha,

Vrisha etc. rashis nor the so called sayana or nirayana etc. cacophony!

 

This was a revelation to me that the Vedas were really without Mesha etc.

Rashis and that is why the Vedic calendar is the most scientific and a

durable one! If you peruse the history of Vedic calendar, it is only after

the introduction of Mehsa, Vrisha etc. rashis through the Surya Sidhanta of

Maya the mlechha that things have gone helter-skelter! We have become

completely delinked from the Madhu, Madhaa etc. months and the four cardinal

points and got hooked to Mesha, Vrisha etc. Rashis about which nobody knows

as to which rashi starts from where, if at all it starts from any point!

 

Since I could not find any Mesha, Vrisha etc. rashis in the Vedas and the

Vedanga Jyotisha etc., I was just mad with rage as to how the Vedic seers

had been so negligent as not to talk about them at all, as all the

astrologers the world over had been dinning it into my ears that Mesha,

Vrisha etc. rashis were astronomical twelve equal divisions of the zodiac,

which in itself was “rock solid”!

 

I had therefore to delve deeper into astronomical works as well so as to see

as to what had gone wrong and where about the Vedic lore as to why the Seers

had not talked about Mesha, Vrisha etc. Rashis and Mangal, Shanie etc.

planets, when the whole world had been talking about the same over the last

at least two thousand years!

 

To my surprise, I found that the Vedic seers were more advanced than all the

astronomers the world over put together a few thousand years back!

Astronomically, zodiac (the famous Rashichakra/bhachakra of the sidhantas

and Puranas and jyotishis!) is nothing but “an imaginary belt of the heavens

centering on the ecliptic, within which are the apparent paths of the sun,

moon and principal planets”. Zodiac is actually a Greek word which in

itself means a “circle of animals”. It was actually divided into many more

parts---all of them unequal----than twelve and each part was known as a

constellation by Greek astronomers. Prominent among those constellations

were Aries, Taurus etc. thirteen (including Ophuchius) Greek

constellations----none equal to one another. These constellations are

supposed to have resembled some figures in the past e.g. a cluster of

millions and billions of stars is supposed to have resembled a Ram in the

hoary past by Babylonian astrologers, and yet another part resembled a Bull

and so on. That is why they named those portions as Aries, Taurus and so

on. Even those constellations no longer resemble those figures these days,

because of the Proper Motion of stars, but somehow, IAU is sill calling

those constellations by those very names.

 

Those very unequal constellations were used by Greco-Chaldean astrologers

for astrological predictions, under the impression that since those “groups”

contained stars they were affecting every Tom, Dick and Harry through

“divine entities” like Mars, Jupiter, Saturn etc. etc. Instead of

considering the actual unequal imaginary constellations even for

predictions, they just divided the already imaginary zodiac into twelve

imaginary divisions, and called each division by the original name of Aries,

Taurus etc. Thus you will not find any astrological sign Aries, Taurus etc.

corresponding at all with the exact constellation of that very name e.g.

Astrological sign Aries is away by light years from the constellation Aries

and astrological sign Taurus is away by Light years from the constellation

Taurus and so on! Still jyotishis claim to be making correct predictions

from those very imaginary “equal animals” (Rashis) of imaginary “unequal

animals” (constellations) of a still more imaginary circle named zodiac

which extends about nine/ten degrees above and below of yet another

imaginary circle known as Ecliptic! My God! It is real imagination run

riot!

 

NATURALLY, THE VEDIC SEERS WERE REAL SCIENTISTS NOT TO HAVE THOUGHT OF SUCH

IMAGINARY “TWELVE EQUAL ANIMAL DIVISIONS” OF “UNEQUAL ANIMALS”!

 

Anyway, coming back to our Vedic calendar, it was the same imaginary circle

of imaginary twelve imaginary animals that Maya the mlechha thrust on us and

we got dislodged completely from Madhu, Madhava etc. months and the real

Vedic nakshtras like Krittika, Mrigasira etc.

 

Thus, if we really want to streamline our Vedic calendar and put it back on

the real Vedic track, we have to completely eliminate Mesha, Vrisha etc.

rashis from our vocabulary, just as the Vedic seers had done it, and delink

nakshatras completely from not only the non-existent rashis but even Madhu,

Madhava etc. months to which they were never linked, in the first place.

 

If because of our infatuation with predictive gimmicks, we are unable to

forget Mesha, Vrisha etc. Rashis, then we must at the best or even at the

worst use the so called Sayana Rashis for the real Vedic months like Mina

for Madhu, Mesha for Madhava and so on, since that is what all the Puranas

and sidhantas have done.

 

That way we can at least claim that we are celebrating our festivals in

accordance with the Puranas if not the Vedas! Nakshatras have to be

completely delinked from Rashis, whether sayana or nirayana, and after a

thorough debate, they may be pegged to the Junction Stars, if it is found

that they have really anything to do with their namesake nakshatra divisions

of the Vedas. If the scholars decide that the name-sake Junction stars also

were thrust by Maya the mlechha on us on the basis of Hipparchus’ Star

catalogue or some other source and they have nothing to do with the Vedic

nakshatras, we may as well shun them and find some other way to decide the

Vedic nakshatras.

 

The beauty of the Vedic calendar lies in the fact that it combines both the

lunar (synodic) and the solar months and years and pegs them to the natural

phenomenon of seasons.

 

For example, the Muslim calendar is based purely on synodic months, and

since a synodic twelve month cycle is always short by about eleven days from

a solar year, that is why we find Muslim festivals receding back every year

by 11 days! Thus, if Id-uz-Zuha was (say) on December 31 in 1990, it would

have been on December 20 in 1991, on December 9 in 1992, November 29 in 1993

and so on, with the result that after a period of about 33 years, it may be

back on December 31 in around 2023! Thus none of the festivals of Hejira

calendar remains stable!

 

On the other hand, a Vedic Vasanti Navratra always starts with the first New

Moon after the start of Vasanta Ritu, since the “shortfall” of eleven days

in a lunar cycle of twelve months vis-à-vis a solar year is compensated by

an adhika-masa every 32/33 solar months. This adhika masa concept is in

fact found in the ancient most work viz. the Rigveda “Veda maso dhrita vrato

dwadasha prajavatah, veda ya upajayate” (Rigveda 1/25/8) i.e. “Varuna

knows the twelve months, it also knows the thirteenth (adhika) month”.

 

If on the other hand, we peg the Hindu calendar to so called Lahiri or Raman

or Muladhara etc. Rashichakra, we are faced with a peculiar situation! We

are not following either Islamic calendar of a pure synodic months, nor are

we following the real Vedic calendar pegged to seasons! It is not even the

Pauranic calendar as that is aligned with sayana rashis! Nor is it a

geographical calendar, since that is dependent on the two Vishuvas and

Ayanasa! We are just between two stools---and have fallen to the ground

already! We are not celebrating Vasanta Navratras with the start of the

Vasanta Ritu, but after one month of that ritu is already over! WE are not

celebrating Sharadiya Navratras with the start of Sharad ritu but after one

month of that ritu is already over. If we continue to follow this pattern,

a day will come when we will celebrate Vasanti Navratras in Sharad Ritu and

vice-versa!

 

If at all we have to hug any Makar or Mehsa or karkata etc. Sankrantis, we

must choose the lesser of two evils and embrace pauranic and sidhanti Makar,

Mesha etc. Sankrantis, which are all so called Sayana--- and shun Lahiri etc

Sankrantis.

 

< I would like to request you to kindly make a post (or direct me to a post)

where we can identify the criteria for ascertaining the dates for the major

festivals of India.>

 

I find that is not open to uploading files. Nor does it store

any attachments. I would request you to change this orientation so that

documents can be uploaded in the files section. That way, instead of

repeating everything in individual posts, it would be easier for me to give

the members all the information that is already stored in the files section

of Hinducalendar forum. As an alternative, since you are already a member

of the Hinducalendar forum, you can upload any file you want to from that

forum to jyotishgoup. Personally, I would recommend “koshur6.doc”,

BVB6.doc; rashi5.doc., npj3.doc, BVB5.doc, PAC3.doc, shankar1.doc etc. etc.

Kindly take time out to go through them and see it for yourself as to what

progress, if any, has already been made in the direction of calendar reform.

 

<I would like to invite some of the scholars (and panchanga experts) to

comment on these criteria and also delve on how far have we moved away from

these criteria (rightly or wrongly).>

 

You are most welcome to invite any scholar etc. to comment on these criteria

since that is what I actually want and that is why I am posting my mails on

every forum. I am posting separately “raman.doc” which will give you an

idea about the efforts that I have been making in this direction.

 

< Just one thing, lets keep 'Vedic Astrologer' and 'Rashis' out of this

discussion as these are highly charged words!!>

 

There is a saying in Hindi, “main to kambal ko chhod raha hoon, lekin kambal

mujhe nahin chhod raa hai”. The story goes like this: Some one mistook a

drowning bear for a woolen blanket of black colour and he jumped to collect

that blanket. The bear, like a drowning man catching at a straw, caught

hold of the savoir and would not leave him. A friend of the savoir from the

river-bank shouted, “Why don’t you let the blanket go?” and pat came the

reply from the “man who mistook the bear for blanket, “I am trying to let

the ‘blanket’ go, but it is not allowing me to go”. It is a similar story

with “Vedic astrology” and rashis vis-à-vis calendar reform.

 

It is on record that over the last at least three centuries efforts have

been going on to put the “dismantled” Vedic calendar back on the track.

This is evident from S. B. Dikshit’s “Bharatiya Jyotisha Shastra”. Similar

panchanga standardization committees were held in Varanasi, Ujjain etc. etc.

so much so that the Shankaracharya of Dwarka, more than a hundred years

back, even issued an aadesha patra that all the festivals should be

celebrated on the basis of sayana rashichakra. That aadesha patra also is

in Hinducalenar forum. The last such committee was the “Saha calendar

reform committee” appointed by the GOI in 1953. Unfortunately for India,

the net result of all such committees has been a fall back upon the same

Grahalaghava ayanamsha, which late N. C. Lahiri cunningly manipulated by his

devious methods by pegging it to an imaginary point that was conjunct the

Vernal Equinox of 285 AD that was supposed to be opposite the Spica star

then! It was actually a backdoor entry for Grahlaghava ayanamsha simply

because Lahiri’s Indian Ephemeris (English) and his Vishudha Sidhanti

Panjika (Bangla) would not sell if he had switched over to zero ayanamsha or

even Revati Ayanamsha, as was suggested by all the stalwarts!

 

This sabotage of the recommendations of the Saha Calenar Reform Committee

will be clear from PAC3.doc in the files section of Hinducalendar forum!

 

As such, it is a humble request to all the jyotishis, whether they call

themselves Vedic or non-Vedic or even anti-Vedic, that they may use whatever

ayanamsha or whatever system of prediction they choose for making correct

predictions or patri melapak etc. etc., but they must leave calendar reform

alone and not thrust the “almighty” Lahiri or Muladhara etc. Rashichakra

down the throat of every Hindu. That is also a request to the Government of

India.

 

Anybody who can do such a Herculean task will really be the messiah of the

real Vedic calendar.

 

With regards,

 

A K Kaul

 

 

 

 

 

, " jyotishi " <raj wrote:

>

> Dear Kaul ji,

> You have categorically and critically claimed that we are celebrating

festivals on the wrong dates or in other words, the dates chosen for our

festivals (by the panchanga makers - including the govt of india) do not

follow the criteria available in our ancient texts for determining the dates

for each festival.

>

> I think we should have an open mind to review whether and to what extent

we are adhering to the criteria given in the ancient texts. In order to do

this, we need to first identify those criteria.

>

> Kaulji, I would like to request you to kindly make a post (or direct me to

a post) where we can identify the criteria for ascertaining the dates for

the major festivals of India.

>

> I would like to invite some of the scholars (and panchanga experts) to

comment on these criteria and also delve on how far have we moved away from

these criteria (rightly or wrongly).

>

> Just one thing, lets keep 'Vedic Astrologer' and 'Rashis' out of this

discussion as these are highly charged words!!

>

> regards,

> raj

>