Chaitra=Madhu, Vaishakha=Madhava, etc. as per Amarakosha also.

[Guest guest]

Dear friends,

 

Jai Shri Ram!

 

While searching for the correct Sanskrit equivalents/synonyms of Madhu,

Madhava etc. months, I was asked to consult one of the most authentic

reference works, viz. Amarakosha, by Amarsingh. He is said to have been

around in 400 or 700 AD as per Wikipedia.

 

As usual, the gentleman concerned does not want to be identified! However,

he is proud to announce that he is from Nepal! (Shri Hari Malla, pl. note!)

 

Those who have even a smattering of Sanskrit, will be able to see it for

themselves without any difficulty whatsoever that as per this kosha also,

days are said to be equal to nights on Mesha and Tula Sankrantis! Thus it

is just a literal translation of the relevant shlokas of the Vishnupurana,

Bhagawata and other puranas, besides, of course, the much talked about Surya

Sidhanta by Maya the mlechha!

 

The year appears to be starting with Margasheersha as per Amarakosha. Four

equivalents for the same are, " margasheersha, Sahah, Margah, agrahayanikah,

iti chatvari margasheershasya " i.e. " margasheersha, sahah, margah and

agrahayanikah are the four names of Margasheershah " . Sahah is a seasonal

month as per the Vedas and the VJ! Then " Paushah, Taishah, Sahasya treeni

paushasya " which means, " Pausha, Taisha and Sahasya are the three

equivalents of Pausha " . Sahasya is again the Vedic seasonal month. " Tapah

Maghah dve maghasya " i.e. Tapah and Maghah are the two synonyms of Magha.

Tapah is the Vedic seasonal first month of Shisira Ritu. " Phalgunah,

tapasyah, phalgunikah trayam " i.e. Phalgurna, tapasya and Phalgunika are the

three names of Phalguna. " Chaitrah, chaitrika, madhu trayam " ---i.e.

" Chaitra, Madhu and chaitrika are the three names of Chaitra " . Further,

" Vaishakhah madhavah radhah " which means Vaishakha is a synonym of Madhav,

and so on. We must remember that Madhu is the first month of Vasanta ritu

and as such, Chaitra Shukla Navmi, the day of Rama-navmi also must fall in

the month of Madhu since Chaitra is another name of Madhu!

 

The statements of Amarakosha are, therefore, almost exactly the statements

of the Vedanga Jyotisha as far as Madhu, Madhava etc. months are concerned

 

What is to be noted is that these very months have been clubbed with ritus

and then ayanas! And it has even been said that on the day of Mesha and

Tula Sankrantis days and nights are equal!

 

The commentator has also said it categorically, " maghadi upkramastu

ayanarambha vashaj-jneyah " i.e. with the month of Magha starts the Ayana

i.e. Uttarayana. Two months comprise each ritu. And three ritius comprise

one ayana. Thus there is no doubt that even in around 400 AD India was

following the pattern of the Vedanga Jyotisha and clubbing Madhu with

Chaitra, which were seasonal months and so on. . Similarly, Madhava, the

second month of Vasanta Ritu is known as Vaishakha and since Vishuva is the

first day of Vaishakha-cum-Madhava, it means Mesha and Madhava and Vaishakha

are synonyms!

 

Year is definitely seasonal as it is said to be consisting of two ayanas,

with each ayana of three ritus-cum-six months.

 

We have, as such, an unbroken chain of so called sayana rashis from the day

they were introduced in India with the advent of the Surya Sidhanta by maya

the mlechha. All the puranas club Mesha and Tula sankrantis with the days

of Vishuva, Makar and Karkata sankrantis with the days of Ayanas and Madhu

is also known as Chaitra and so on according to Puranas and sidhantas as

well as clarified in BVB6.doc.

 

We have already seen as to how Munjala had introduced beeja corrections for

making the longitudes of the Surya Sidhanta drik tulya by adding the

ayanamsha @ one arc-minute per year from 444 Shaka. We have also seen as to

how Alberuni has observed Karkadi and Meshadi as the starting points of

Ayanas and thus clubbed Makar Sankranti with the shortest day of the year

and karkata Sankranti with the longest day of the year! We have also noted

that the world famous Shaiva scholar and yogi, Acharya Abhinavagupta in his

Tantraloka and his commentator Jayaratha in twelfth century AD have linked

the Mesha and Tula. rashis to vishuvas and then seasons and then to yogic

kriyas, leaving no doubt in anybody's mind that there was no nirayana mess

at that point of time in India.

 

We also find that as late as 17th century AD, Neelakantha, the famous

commentator on the Mahbharata and the author of " Tazika Neelakanthi " , the

famous work of solar return, saying:

 

" meshadav chai tuladav chai maitreyaa vishuvatsthitih; tada tulyam ahoratram

karoti timirapahah " (Pauranika jyotisham, page 5, published by Sampurnanda

Sanskrit Vishvavidyalaya, Varanasi 1989)

 

And the meaning is very clear that on the days of Tula and Mesha Sankrantis,

it is Vishuva when the days are equal to nights.

 

(BTW It also means that Varshaphal i.e. solar return also has to be on the

basis of a sayana rashichakra!)

 

We have also the aadesha patra of Shaka 1814 (1892-3 AD) of H. H. Jagadguru

Shankaracharya of Dwarka that sayana rashichakra is the one sanctioned by

shastras!

 

I hope it will clear all the doubts from the minds of sincere seekers of

Truth and facts that to start with, since there were no Mesha etc. rashis in

the Vedas and the VJ etc., there was no confusion about sayana versus

nirayana, and as and when such a confusion started because of the Surya

Sidhanta by Maya the mlechha, all the Puranas, sidhantas and shabdakoshas

etc. point to the fact that till about seventeenth century AD, India had

never opted for any so called nirayana rashis, and even when it had done so

under some erroneous concepts because of Grahalaghava by Ganesha Daivajnya,

it was advised by no less an authority than Jagadguru Shankaracharya that we

must not deviate from the Pauranic and sidhantic sayana rashis.

 

We must therefore, put our derailed calendar back on the right track.

 

Jai Shri Ram.

 

A K Kaul

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

IndiaArchaeology , " Koenraad " <koenraad.elst

wrote:

 

 

Jyotirved,

 

I sympathize with your enthusiasm about yet another Hindu source

confirming that the sayana rashichakra (tropical zodiac) is the original

one, in India as much as in Greece. And yet, you should see this in

perspective.

 

There is only a choice between sayana/tropical and nirayana/sidereal as

soon as the distinction is understood, i.e. from the reception of

Hipparchos' discovery of the precession onwards. While Siddhantic

astronomers had learned about the precession, it is not certain that the

Amarakosha and Purana and Tantra authors had. Or at least their

understanding of it was hazy. In the mid-1st millennium CE, the question

wasn't acute yet, for the two zodiacs were still nearly coinciding. So,

it was easy to mistake the constellations (sidereal) for definite and

unchangeable markers of the seasons (tropical), just as had been done in

the Hellenistic world before Hipparchos' discovery sank in. Then when

the two diverged, Hindus stuck to the constellations instead of

sidelining them and sticking to abstract tropical rashi-s.

 

This mistake was facilitated by the fact that the lunar months were

named after constellations, unlike in China where they were simply

numbered, with month 11 always and by definition containing the winter

solstice, regardless of any stellar background. You jubilate over

equating the tropical Vedic month Madhu with the lunar-sidereal month

Chaitra, but of course Chaitra is not tied to the season or tropical

month named Madhu. It happens to coincide with a season during about one

twelfth of the precession cycle, and not during the rest (= most) of the

time. Chaitra is the month when the full moon is close to Chitra/Spica,

which siderealists take as the marker of the midpoint of the Zodiac,

opposite its starting-point (which therefore is marked as a New Year's

Day in many Indian and SE-Asian calendars). But today, Chitra/Spica is

already 24° past the midpoint/equinox.

 

Considering the tendency of Hindus to mistake words for reality and to

be the prisoners of language, I don't expect them to break free from the

mistake of siderealism (New Year on 14 April instead of 21 March, Makar

Sankranti on 14 January etc.) until they abolish this sidereal

nomenclature of the months. As long as Hindus speak of Chaitra, they

will link it to Chitra, a sidereal entity shifting away from its

one-time tropical pendant, the equinox axis of 21 March/September. Madhu

equals tropical Pisces/Mina, when the full moon is in tropical

Virgo/Kanya, which is where Chitra/Spica was when the Hellenistic

12-part zodiac was populaized in India. Back then, it temporarily made

sense to link Madhu to Chitra. But no longer.

 

Kind regards,

 

KE

 

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