Dating Mahabharata - Two Eclipses in Thirteen Days

by Dr. S. Balakrishna


Abstract
Mahabharata war is considered by many to be a historical event. The epic states that a
singularly ominous pair of eclipses occurred in - Thirteen days - some time before the war.
Using modern astronomical software, our article shows that a number of Thirteen day eclipse
pairs were visible in Kurukshethra. Article suggests some candidate dates
for Mahabharatawar.

Introduction
Mahabharata is a great epic, and
is one of the pillars of present day Hinduism. The Mahabharatastory and its moral ethos have
had profound influence on millions over many generations.Mahabharata war is said to have
occurred before the transition ofDwapara Yuga to Kali Yuga. Dating the Mahabharata war and
start of Kaliyuga has been elusive and going on for many centuries.

Aryabhata, is a famous early astronomer with contributions to science, whose estimate of p, and
the time of moon revolution around the earth are so accurate, that his works are being
extensively researched. Aryabhata(476-550 AD) stated that Kaliyuga started 3600 years
before, when he was 23 years old, making the start as 3102 BC [Aryabhateeya ref-1]). It would
date Mahabharata war to around circa 3130-3140 BCJ.

Surya Siddhanta [Ref 2], a document evolved from roughly same period, states that sun was 54
degrees away from vernal equinox when Kaliyuga started on a new moon day, corresponding to
February 17/18, 3102 BCJ, at Ujjain (75deg47minE 23deg 15min N).

Varaha Mihira (circa 560 AD), another
famous astronomer, stated that 2526 years before start of Saka count (either Shalivahana saka
starting in 79 AD orVikrama Saka starting in 57 BC) [Brihat Samhita Ref-3].

When Saptarishis (ursa major) was near Magha Yudhistira was king 2526 years
before Sakatime

Presently, traditional Sanatana Dharma followers consider that Kaliyuga started at 3102 BCJ,
when Sri Krishna passed away, and that Mahabharata war occurred in 3138 BCJ. Millennium
year 2000 AD is Kali 5102.

Like Homer's Iliad, another epic poetry from Greece, different scholars have expressed opinions
varying between the story of Mahabharata being either total fiction or true record of historical
facts. It took efforts by Schliemann and others to show physical archeological evidence of
existence of Troy in present day Turkey, and Homer's poems having historical relevance.

Bharata has been continuously and relatively densely lived in for thousands of years and in
Northern Bharata the archeological evidence is difficult to come by because of many 100's of
generations of people living in same area. Hence, it is usual to look
for Puranic and Vedic(written and oral recitation) astronomical evidence to substantiate the
time periods. As is true of all such documents like bible stories, Scandinavian, Chinese,
Japanese, Egyptian and other documented local folklore, the historical truths are likely to be
anywhere between absolute truth to vivid imagination. An objective analysis can help in
determining the likelihood of folklore being a historical fact or not.

Mahabharata
Mahabharata epic story was written by, Vedavyaasa (or Krishna Dwaipaayana) after
theMahabharata war. Vyaasa is also credited with codifying the existing branches of Vedas. It
is perhaps the longest poem of its kind of such antiquity. The presently known oldest version
ofMahabharata, based on its style, grammar and other features was probably written down
before the Gupta period. This Mahabharata text does not refer to any Zodiac's or Raashis (a
western concept probably accommodated in to Jyotishya some time during 300BC to 200AD).
The linguistic style of the oldest version of Mahabharata clearly cannot be the basis for
determining if and when the events of Mahabharata occurred. It probably may have been
rewritten/re-rendered many times as the mode of transference was by oral traditions as in the
case of Vedic chandasprosody. The known oldest version has nearly 90,000 to 100,000 poems
dominantly with 32 syllables Anushtup chandas, in 18 chapters called Parva's [ref-4 and 5].


The Bhishma Parva and Udyoga Parva(specific chapters of Mahabharata) provide
considerable astronomical/astrological descriptions and omens as the Mahabharatawar was
approaching. It describes a period of draught, with many planetary positions. Then there is this
clear reference to pair of eclipses occurring on 13th day as shown below.

Fourteenth day, Fifteenth day and in past sixteenth day, but I have never known
the Amavasya(New Moon day) to occur on the thirteenth day. Lunar eclipse followed by solar
eclipse on thirteenth day is in a single lunar month etc...

This reference to Thirteen day eclipse pair appears to be a unique astronomical observation.

Mahabharata text also refers to retrograde motions of planets prior to war and provides their
location with reference to 27/28 Vedic star locations. Mahabharata Drona Parva also refers
toJayadhratha's killing during a dark episode on 13th day of the war, which some consider as
another short solar eclipse.

This document is basically concerned with analysis of all eclipses visible
at Kurukshethra(Location where Mahabharata war took place, north of New Delhi, Longitude
76 deg 49 min East, Latitude 29 deg 59 Min North) from 3300 BC to about Buddha-Mahavira-
Parshvanaathatime of about 700BC. Analysis of the time between successive eclipses,
specifically time between end of one and beginning of other has been made, with a view to look
at astronomical feasibility of back-to-back eclipses in 13 days, using modern astronomical
computer software.

Another major issue of how did observers of the period define and determine period between
eclipses when no clocks existed, has been addressed.

Eclipses
Lunar eclipse occurs when Earth's shadow falls on the Moon. There are about 150 lunar eclipses
per century. Lunar eclipses can occur only at full moon, and can be either total or partial.
Further they can be umbral and or penumbral. Total lunar eclipses can last up to 2 hours, while
partial lunar eclipses can last up to 4 hours. Any observer on dark face of earth can see when
lunar eclipse when it occurs. During period 3500BC to 700 BC, nearly 4350 lunar eclipses have
probably occurred. A good fraction of these would have been visible inKurukshethra [ref-6].

Solar Eclipse occurs when Moon's shadow falls on earth observer. About 240 solar eclipses
occur every century. During period 3500BC to 700 BC, nearly 6960 Solar Eclipses have
occurred. Solar can occur only at new moon. Solar eclipses may be total or annular. Total solar
eclipses can last up to about 8 minutes, and partial solar eclipses can last up to 115minutes. The
shadow of moon has a limited size of few thousand miles falling on nearly 8000-mile diameter
earth. Hence, solar eclipses can be seen only in a limited range of longitude-latitude where the
shadow falls. Elsewhere, even though sun is visible, eclipse will not be seen.

Eclipse evaluating computational software and its validation in present context
Astronomical calculations have been greatly improved since past 30 years, particularly with
considerable amount of trajectory work conducted in Moon and other scientific projects. High
accuracy computer models and software have been developed. These are validated against
databases from US Naval Observatory's Interactive computer Ephemeris, and Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in California. One such code is LodeStar Pro copy righted by Wayne C Annala in
1994 [Ref- 7]. The Lodestar Pro was checked for historical eclipses of 1000-2500 BC from clay
tablet records of Mesopotamia area presently available with British Museum. Wayne Mitchell
has analyzed this data [Ref-8]. Lodestar Pro provided excellent match with ref-8.

Eclipses at Kurukshethra
During the period of our interest, 3500BC to 700 BC, nearly 4350 Lunar Eclipses and 6960
solar eclipses have occurred on earth. Of these nearly 673 solar and lunar eclipses occurred in
pairs of time gap of about nominal 15 days corresponding to roughly half lunar month. We need
to search amongst these 673 for eclipse pairs visible in Kurukshethra, which occurred in
'Thirteen' days.

A very detailed scan of all the visible lunar and solar eclipses for every year from 3300BC to 700
BC was made on the Lodestar software for Kurukshethra location. These are tabulated and
plotted. Maximum eclipse time gap (end of one eclipse and beginning of next eclipse for naked
eye observers) was found to be about 379 hours while the minimum was about 332 hours. A plot
of time gap between back-to-back eclipses versus eclipse pair number is shown below. (This
time corresponds to maximum to maximum - not end of one to beginning of next as in the
future table).

The plot shows that during the period 3300BC to 700 BC, (Julian year corresponds to zero at
4712 BC- an imaginary date- Our range corresponds to 1412 Julian year to 4012 Julian Year)
nearly 672 pairs of eclipses occurred on earth, which in principle may have been visible
atKurukshethra. Amongst these, nearly 32 pairs would be occurring for period less than 14 days.
Many of these were found to be weak penumbral eclipses of moon, and solar eclipses had such
low obscurity as to raise the issue whether any body could see them. Six pairs of 'thirteen day'
eclipses could be seen unambiguously.
Definition of Day and issue of timing determination

It is easy for us, in present time, to precisely analyze the eclipse times based on a 24 hour per
day time clock. However many thousand years ago, such a time evaluation would clearly be
irrelevant. Hence the count of the day and time had to be based on clear, natural and
unambiguous events such as sunset to sunset or sunrise to sun rise. Hence in all the analyses,
presented below, the time of relevant sun rise or sun set is indicated such that the eclipse
beginning and end can be evaluated with reference to the sun rise or sun set. In modern day
definition, the period from sunrise to next sunrise is never 24 hours except on equinox day. On
all other days, the time will be either less than 24 hours (when day light time is shrinking) and
more than 24 hours (when day light time is increasing). For people of ancient times, sunset-to-
sunset or sunrise-to-sunrise would be the logical definition of a day. Using this definition, it is
possible to determine whether an eclipse pair occurred in 'Thirteen days'.

Kurukshethra eclipses and some planetary retrograde motions

The table below shows six pairs of eclipses, which can be analyzed further to determine whether
Mahabharata war and events could occur then.
Six eclipse pairs visible at Kurukshethra occurring in less than or near 14 days
Events in red not visible due to sun rise (Lunar) or sun set (Solar)
Year BC Eclipse Julian day Initial con Max End Sunrise Sunset end/start date
Year BC Eclipse
Julian
Day
Initial
Con
Max End Sunrise Sunset End/Strt Dt
3129 Solar Aug 11 18:53:48 19:48:04 20:38:54

19:22 13d20h20m
3129 Lunar Aug 25 16:58:50 18:21:36 19:44:21

19:17

2529 Solar Jul 11 03:50:53 04:36:27 05:24:36 05:12

13d20h8m
2529 Lunar Jun 27 03:29:54 05:13:45 06:57:36 05:07

2056 Solar Nov 25 16:50:19 17:52:24 18:48:02

17:38 13d21h40m
2056 Lunar Dec 09 16:27:47 18:12:55 19:58:05

17:32

1853 Solar Dec 30 15:47:28 17:00:02 18:03:38

17:29 13d22h14m
1853 Lunar Jan 13 16:17:56 17:24:16 18:30:37

17:36

1708 Solar Mar 27 04:55:14 05:47:28 06:44:15 06:37

13d20h18m
1708 Lunar Apr 10 03:02:36 04:46:36 06:30:55 06:19

1397 Solar Jul 04 19:00:34 19:36:54 20:11:34

19:21 13d21h30m
1397 Lunar Jul 18 17:41:38 19:34:00 21:26:30

19:23

Location of Kurukshethra 76 deg 49 min East, 29 deg 59 min North
After serious analysis of all the eclipses, six eclipse pairs from 3129 BCJ, 2599 BCJ, 2056 BCJ,
1853 BCJ, 1708 BCJ and 1397 BCJ clearly are the best candidates for Mahabharata war year
from 'thirteen day' eclipse pairs view point. There are others that have low obscurity for solar
eclipse, or have dominant penumbral lunar eclipse content and hence do not constitute strong
candidates for the Mahabharata war.

One typical eclipse pair of the six is illustrated using Lodestar Pro views of the relevant
sunset/sunrise periods. The light/day transition is clearly shown in all the eclipse, which would
form the only method of determining that the eclipses occurred in less than fourteen days,
which has to be called thirteen-day eclipses. Planets Sani (Saturn)
and Brihaspati (Jupiter),Shukra (Venus) in retrograde motion are illustrated for period around
the eclipse pairs.
Solar-Lunar eclipse pair from Julian year 3129 BC


Fourteen days later at same time


Let us now look at how any observer can study these eclipses and conclude that the pair
occurred in 'Thirteen days'. The figures above show the pictures of day/night sky for a pair of
Solar-Lunar eclipses, end of lunar eclipse being only 13 days and 20 hours before start of a solar
eclipse. On Julian August 11 afternoon, a solar eclipse begins 20 minuets before sunset and it is
still on going at sunset. Fourteen days later (On Julian August 25) in the evening at sunset a
lunar eclipse is already occurring. It clearly suggests that eclipse started on the 13th day after the
previous eclipse! Obviously the end of lunar and start of solar eclipses were less than 14 days
period, or occurred in 13 days. This could be concluded without the benefit of modern clocks.

The dates of this eclipse pair are Julian 3129 and Julian month of August. In ancient Bharata,
since the full moon occurred on Proshtapada, the month would be considered as Bhadrapada.
Normally, this is the monsoon rainy season in North India. However, there are many occasions
when monsoon fails. The epic states that draught like conditions existed. Even during normal
monsoon the sky is occasionally clear for the eclipses to have been witnessed.

The two planets Jupiter, and Saturn are in motion (vakri) and these do occur during 3129 JBC
as illustrated below. Motion of Angaraka or Mars is normal.

Items in red show retrograde or Vakri motion
Graha (Planet) 3129BCJ Mahabharata text
Brihaspati (Jupiter) U.Ashada/Shravana Shravana-Vishakha
Sani (Saturn) Revati Shravana-Vishakha
Angaraka (Mars) U.Ashada/Shravana Magha
Shukra (Venus) U Phalguni Poorva Phalguni
Ravi (Sun Solar) U Phalguni Rohini
The location of the planets at the time of eclipse pair is shown in table above. Clearly,
only Brihaspati, and Shukra are the only planets near locations indicated in
the Mahabharata text. This date of 3129 BCJ is a serious candidate date for consideration
of Mahabharata war.

Analysis of the Eclipse tables

The first and oldest eclipse pair from 3129 BC is unique. Aryabhata estimated
thatKaliyuga started in 3102 BC. So does Surya Siddhanta. These fit the Puranicdescription
that Sri Krishna passed away in 3102 BCJ, which is 27 years after the war. Our study confirms
that Kaliyuga could have started in 3102 BCJ.

The second date 2559 BCJ is also unique in that Varaha Mihira stated that 2526 before start
of Saka, Yudhishtira was the ruling king. If it Saka was Vikrama it would make Yudhistira as
king in 2583 BCJ, which is before Mahabharata War.Yudhistira was also king for a short time
before war, before he lost it in a game of dice to Sakuni/Duryodhana. This date is also an
excellent candidate forMahabharata war. There is another event that occurs in 2559 BC. While
the eclipse pair occurred in lunar month Shravana, there is another short solar eclipse
inPushya. On 13th day of Mahabharata war, it is said that Jayadhratha was killed when Sri
Krishna covered the sun for a short time just before the sunset. This event could be looked upon
as a solar eclipse. A study of year 2559 shows that another solar eclipse did occur
in Pushya lunar month (Julian Dec 06, 2559) some 40 days before the winter solstice (Uttara
ayana).

The third candidate is eclipse pair from 2056 BCJ. It occurs in Margashira/pushyamonths, the
lunar eclipse occurring when moon is between Punarvasu/pushya nakshathra, and would be
right in the middle of war. Hence is not a very serious candidate for Mahabharata war.

The fourth candidate is eclipse pair from 1853 BCJ. It occurs in month of Maghavery near the
winter solstice or Uttara Ayana. It is not a very good candidate forMahabharata War

The fifth candidate of eclipse pairs occurred in 1708 BCJ. This eclipse pair occurs in month
of Phalguna, just after Uttara Ayana and is a bad candidate.

The last candidate of eclipse pair occurs in 1397 in the month of Bhadrapada. It is a reasonably
good candidate for Mahabharata war. Again, there was no solar eclipse during the period prior
to Uttara Ayana.

Conclusions
The aim of this work was to analyze the unique statement that Mahabharata war took place
when an ominous pair of eclipses occurred in 'Thirteen days'. Initially,Mahabharata texts,
contemporarily accepted as most authentic were reviewed and relevant data
about Mahabharata and astronomical planetary observations have been presented.

Firstly, a search of all eclipses during the period 3300 BCJ to 700 BCJ visible atKurukshethra,
where Mahabharata war took place was made. Amongst nearly 672 possible eclipse pairs, the
time from end of one to beginning of next eclipse was found to vary between 13.8 days to 15.8
days. Eighteen naked eye visible eclipse pairs with less than 336 hours (14days) of time gap were
found.

The second issue was, what was the definition of a day, and how was the determination that
eclipses occurred in 'thirteen days' made, has been addressed. Day was taken to be the time
between either successive sunrise or successive sunset. This is particularly important when
clocks did not exist. Using this method, it was easy to demonstrate that observers from 3000 to
5000 years ago could identify accurately a 'Thirteen-day' eclipse pair when they occurred.

Six pairs amongst these, found to be good candidates for Mahabharata war, have been
illustrated, showing how any observer could conclude that the eclipse pairs occurred in less than
14 days or in 'thirteen days'. The locations of Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Venus, Sun and Moon,
during the eclipses were identified with reference to 27 star locations. The positions of all these
planets during the eclipse pair do not totally agree with Mahabharata text, but some do agree.

Finally, it is found that two dates suggested by Indian astronomers Aryabhata, Varaha
Mihira are credible dates for Mahabharata war. It would appear that 3129 BCJ is a first
candidate for Mahabharata war followed by 2559 BCJ. Four other dates viz., 2056 BCJ, 1853
BCJ, 1708 BCJ and 1397 BCJ are other candidates which qualify as 'Thirteen day' eclipse pairs.

In conclusion, this article has tried to address the basic issue, whether 'Thirteen day' eclipse
pairs are astronomically possible. The conclusion is that such eclipse pairs have occurred and
observers could easily identify the duration using sunset/sunrise transitions. 3129 BCJ and 2559
BCJ dates appear to be very viable dates forMahabharata war as are a few others. This study
provides modern scientific support one critical astronomical statement made in Mahabharata
Bhishma Parvathat 'Thirteen day' eclipse pair occurred in Kurukshethra before
the Mahabharatawar.

References:
1. Aryabhateeya by Brahmagupta, S.Shukla,New Delhi, INSA 1976
2. Surya Siddhanta: Translation of an Ancient Indian Astronomical Text.
Translation by Bapudeva, Varanasi, 1860.
3. Varahamihira's Brihat Samhita- M Ramakrishna Bhat, Motilal Banarasidas
Publications, 1981
4. Ramashesha Shastry Bhagavata Mahapurana,
10th skanda, Upodghata (in Kannada script), 1930
5. John Smith web page - Mahabharata Text checked by Bhandarakar Oriental
Research Institute
6. Eric Weisstien, World Of Astronomy web page
7. Wayne Annala, Lodestar Pro Manual, 1994
8. Wayne Mitchell
Ancient Astronomical Observations and Near Eastern Chronology
Journal of Ancient Chronology Forum, Volume3


23-Feb-2002

http://astitva.satishankar.com/2012/12/dating-mahabharata-two-eclipses-in.html