Question about astronomical significance of Maha Kumbha Mela

[Sudheer Tumuluru]

Hi Friends-of-CAHC:

       With the Kumbha Mela being in the news, I am trying to get a greater understanding of the astronomical significance of the Kumbha Mela, specifically the Maha Kumbha Mela.

Since Jupiter's one revolution around the Sun is ~12yrs, Jupiter will stay in one rashi for 1 year seems easy to understand. Also, the Sun moves from one raashi to the next in 1 month is also well known. So the Kumbha Mela coinciding with Jupiter coming into a specific raasi and the Sun being in another specific raasi also is easily understandable.

This is the schedule as I read:

Haridwar: When Jupiter is in Aquarius (Kumbha) and the Sun enters Aries (Mesha)

Prayagraj: When Jupiter is in Taurus (Vrishabha) and the Sun enters Capricorn (Makara)

Nasik:  When Jupiter is in Leo (Simha) and the Sun enters Leo (Simha)

Ujjain:  When Jupiter is in Leo (Simha) and the Sun enters Aries (Mesha)

Maybe there are a few corrections to the above. Kindly correct if anything is wrong.

So at each of the above 4 places, every 12yrs a Kumbha Mela would happen. And the Poorna Kumbha Mela is always at Prayagraj.

My primary question is what is the significance of 12x12 = 144 yrs for the Maha Kumbha Mela. 12 full cycles of Jupiter - why is that significant?

Could Prof. RN Iyengar or someone else throw some light on it, and maybe give some Vedic or other Indian Astronomy book references?

Thanks!

Sudheer

[K Gopinath काञ्ची गोपीनाथ]

-------- Forwarded Message --------

Subject:	Re: Question about astronomical significance of Maha Kumbha Mela
Date:	Sun, 9 Feb 2025 23:33:19 +0530
From:	K Gopinath काञ्ची गोपीनाथ <go...@iisc.ac.in>
Reply-To:	go...@iisc.ac.in
To:	Sudheer Tumuluru <tsud...@gmail.com>

On 2/9/25 18:19, Sudheer Tumuluru wrote:

someone else throw some light on it

Quoting from my article in the book "Computation Meme" p. 273:

Simpler versions of these algorithms occur in calendrical calculations.
For example, the Kumbhamela is held when Sun and Jupiter are in
specific zodiac signs. If Jupiter takes, say “exactly”, 11.8618 years to be
in conjunction again with the sun, and as 12 - 1/7 + 1/120 - 1/210*45 is close
to this value (11.861799), every 7th instance it will need to wait only for
11 years instead of 12, while every 30th instance (210 years), it will need to wait for the regular 12 years rather than 11 years, and every 30*45th
instance (210*45 years), it needs to wait for only 11 years.

footnote (A much better approximation is 12 - 1/7 + 1/215 + 1/167222 - 1/125826990036 but not
useful as 215 is not a multiple of 7 (as we need cycles for calendrical purposes)).

-- 
धन्यवादाः
काञ्ची गोपीनाथ

[K Gopinath काञ्ची गोपीनाथ]

On 2/9/25 23:35, 'K Gopinath काञ्ची गोपीनाथ' via Friends of CAHC wrote:
> 12 - 1/7 + 1/120 - 1/210*45

sorry, it should be 12 - 1/7 + 1/210 - 1/210*45

[Sudheer Tumuluru]

Thanks Gopinath mahodaya for the detailed math on the Jupiter cycle and the approximation. I had seen a similar explanation on Twitter by Sri Nityananda Mishra: https://x.com/MisraNityanand/status/1878817509710967292?t=7p4NHEl65Z5qAjwvDaiSlw&s=19

But where does the 144 years number for the Maha Kumbha Mela come from? Haven't seen a satisfactory explanation hence asking.

I see lot of false info floated around in news articles saying it is the specific alignment of Sun, Moon, Jupiter and Saturn in specific raashis... but the Moon changes raasi every 3 days or so, and Saturn's raashi is not specified even though it is mentioned in the headings and so on.

These kinds of false / vague claims take away from / dliute the true significance - so I wanted to cut through the noise. 

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