Skip to main content

Astronomers discover oldest known eclipse reference in 6,000-year-old Hindu text

 

 From - Live Science 

 By - Paul Sutter

 Editted by - Amal Udawatta

A partial solar eclipse showing the sun as a narrow red crescent
The moon passes in front of the sun during a solar eclipse as seen from the Cleveland Hopkins International Airport on April 8, 2024 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Image credit: Kirby Lee / Contributor via Getty Images)

When astronomers combed through an ancient Hindu text known as the Rig Veda, they discovered that it referenced a total solar eclipse that occurred roughly 6,000 years ago — making it the oldest known mention of an eclipse.

The Rig Veda, a collection of sayings and hymns from various religious and philosophical schools, was compiled around 1500 B.C. Like nearly all religious texts, it mentions historical events. Most are contemporary to when it was written, but some stretch back much further. For example, various passages in the Rig Veda mention the location of the rising sun during the vernal equinox. One reference describes the vernal equinox as occurring in Orion, and another has it occurring in the Pleiades.

These descriptions allow astronomers to date those references, because as Earth spins on its axis, it wobbles like a spinning top, changing the relative position of important astronomical events. Currently, the vernal equinox is in the constellation Pisces. It was in Orion around 4500 B.C. and in the Pleiades around 2230 B.C., meaning the Rig Veda recorded some memories of events far earlier than its compilation.

The Rig Veda's language is highly symbolic and allegorical, making it difficult to discern which stories are myths and which are historical. But two astronomers — Mayank Vahia of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai and Mitsuru Soma of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan — think they've found references to an ancient eclipse. They reported their findings in the Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage.

The passages are flowery but fitting for an eclipse, describing the sun as being "pierced" with darkness and gloom and proposing that evil beings had caused the sun's "magic arts to vanish." The astronomers noted that these passages do not reference the story of Rahu and Ketu, which is a more recent Hindu mythology surrounding the eclipse, indicating that these passages were described before those stories were created.

Further passages helped the astronomers narrow down the time frame of the solar eclipse. It occurred when the vernal equinox was in Orion, and it also happened just three days prior to an autumnal equinox. It was also a total solar eclipse, and it must have happened over the area where the eventual writers of the Rig Veda lived.

The astronomers found that only two possible dates fit these criteria: Oct. 22, 4202 B.C., and Oct. 19, 3811 B.C. Both of these dates are earlier than the current record holders for the oldest mention of an eclipse — a clay tablet, unearthed in Syria, that recorded an eclipse in either 1375 B.C. or 1223 B.C., and a rock carving in Ireland that might reference an eclipse in 3340 B.C.

The newfound reference in the Rig Veda highlights how total solar eclipses captivated people in antiquity and how ancient texts can contribute to our present-day knowledge of celestial events.

Originally posted on Space.com.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why did Homo sapiens outlast all other human species?

  From - Live Science By  Mindy Weisberger Edited by - Amal Udawatta Reproductions of skulls from a Neanderthal (left), Homo sapiens (middle) and Australopithecus afarensis (right)   (Image credit: WHPics, Paul Campbell, and Attie Gerber via Getty Images; collage by Marilyn Perkins) Modern humans ( Homo sapiens ) are the sole surviving representatives of the  human family tree , but we're the last sentence in an evolutionary story that began approximately 6 million years ago and spawned at least 18 species known collectively as hominins.  There were at least nine  Homo  species — including  H. sapiens  —  distributed around Africa, Europe and Asia by about 300,000 years ago, according to the Smithsonian's  National Museum of Nat ural History  in Washington, D.C. One by one, all except  H. sapiens  disappeared.  Neanderthals  and a  Homo  group known as the  Denisovans  lived alongside...
Post a Comment
Read more

New Comet SWAN Now Visible in Small Scopes

     From :- Sky & Telescope  By :- Bob King  Edited by :- Amal Udawatta This spectacular image of Comet SWAN (C/2025 F2) was taken on April 6th and shows a bright, condensed coma 5′ across and dual ion tails. The longer one extends for 2° in PA 298° and the other 30′ in PA 303°. Details: 11"/ 2.2 RASA and QHY600 camera. Michael Jaeger Amateur astronomers have done it again — discovered a comet. Not by looking through a telescope but through close study of  publicly released, low-resolution images  taken by the  Solar Wind Anisotropies  (SWAN) camera on the orbiting  Solar and Heliospheric Observatory  (SOHO). On March 29th, Vladimir Bezugly of Ukraine was the first to report a moving object in SWAN photos taken the week prior. Michael Mattiazzo of Victoria, Australia, independently found "a pretty obvious comet" the same day using the same images, noting that the object was about 11th magnitude and appeared to be brightening. R...
Post a Comment
Read more

Best Double Stars in the Pleiades Cluster

    From -Sky & Telescope By - Bob King  Edited by- Amal Udawatta         The dipper-shaped Pleiades cluster (M45) is also called the Seven Sisters and named for the mythological seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione. The young cluster is between 75 and 150 million years and lies 444 light-years from Earth. Jared-Bowens The Pleiades star cluster is one of the night sky's best-known astronomical sights. Alluring to the naked eye, it's even more amazing through binoculars or a small telescope, both of which reveal dozens more stars. As the cluster plows through space at 6 kilometers per second (13,400 mph), its hot, youthful suns illuminate a happenstance interstellar cloud, turning it into a gossamer nebula that temporarily enshrouds the stellar bunch. Additional treasures lie within its bounds: There are also about a half-dozen double and multiple stars within the Pleiades. You might already be familiar with 2.9-magnitude Alcyone, a choice triple st...
Post a Comment
Read more