{Probably OT} - Speed of light in Rig Veda

[keerthi kiran]

Hi all,
I saw this article on Wikipedia. it claims that the sped of light was calculated with good accuracy by our ancestors of the Rig Veda period. I had seen the same on HC Varma's Physics books. Is this real or cooked up? If real, how could they have made such measurements?

Speed of Light in Rig Veda

One of the Pundits employed by Sayan for translating the Rigveda explains at what speed the sun light spreads on the earth. Rig Veda(I, 50-4) following sloka’s state about the speed of light

“Yojananam Dwe Dwe Shate Dwe Cha Yojane Aken Nimishardhena Krammana Namostute” (Rig-veda I,50-4)

in this verse, the speaker pays respect the Sun Light who moves 2202 yojans in Half of the Nimish. Nimisharda means half a nimesh.

In ancient Sanskrit "nimish" itself means "blink of an eye" and that "nimisharda" is used to represent how far light travels in half of the blink of an eye i.e. "within the blink of an eye" !!

In the Vedas, Yojana is a unit of distance and Nimisha is a unit of time.

Unit of Time: Nimish

The Moksha Dharma Parva of Shanti Parva in Mahabharata describes Nimish as follows:

15 Nimisha = 1 Kastha 30 Kashta = 1 Kala 30.3 Kala = 1 Muhurta 30 Muhurtas = 1 Diva-Ratri (Day-Night)

We know Day-Night is 24 hours

So, we get 24 hours = 30 x 30.3 x 30 x 15 nimish in other words 409050 nimish

We know 1 hour = 60 x 60 = 3600 seconds So 24 hours = 24 x 3600 seconds = 409050 nimish

409050 nimesh = 86,400 approx seconds

1/2 nimesh = 0.1065 approx seconds

Unit of Distance: Yojana

Yojana is defined in Chapter 6 of Book 1 of the ancient vedic text “Vishnu Purana” as follows

10 Paramáńus = 1 Parasúkshma 10 Parasúkshmas = 1 Trasareńu 10 Trasareńus = 1 Mahírajas (particle of dust) 10 Mahírajasas = 1 Bálágra 10 Bálágras = 1 Likhyá 10 Likhyás= 1 Yúka 1o Yúkas = 1 Yavodara 10 Yavodaras = 1 Yava 10 Yava = 1 Angula (1.89 cm or approx 3/4 inch) 6 fingers = 1 Pada (the breadth of it) 2 Padas = 1 Vitasti(span) 2 Vitasti = 1 Hasta (cubit) 4 Hastas = a Dhanu, a Danda, or pauruSa (a man’s height), or 2 Nárikás = 6 feet 2000 Dhanus = 1 Gavyúti (distance to which a cow’s call or lowing can be heard)= 12000 feet 4 Gavyútis = 1 Yojana = 9.09 miles

Calculation of the Speed of Light:

Thus, we can now calculate what is the value of the speed of light in modern units based on the value given as 2202 yojanas in 1/2 nimesh.

= 2202 x 9.09 miles per 0.1065 seconds

= 20016.18 miles per 0.1065 seconds

= 187945 miles per second

As per the modern science speed of light is 186000 miles per second.

Inconsistency occur due to inability to convert the Units Correctly.

Regards,

Keerthi

[Sanath Kumar]

Hii Keerthi ,

                 I have read this before but i always wonder what is the basis behind this ,i mean we all know how difficult it was in the Michelson-Morley experiment ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelson_Morley_Experiment ) with all those huge mirrors used, how is all this written without any experimentation , well i don't say experimentation is important but this is the way it is done now a days so i asked.

Regards,

Sanath Kumar. 

[Pavan Keshavamurthy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_picking_%28fallacy%29

There're claims of such divine omniscience about everybody's favorite
holy book. Most should be taken with generous doses of NaCl;

One question that should be asked about all such claims is whether the
ancients in their capacity had the means or the background to have
experimentally confirmed such a supposition.

In this case, who knows what a yojana meant anyway? Nobody standardized
it..

Wikipedia quotes -

"The length of the Yojana varied depending on the different standards
adopted by different Indian astronomers. It was taken to be the distance
covered by an ox cart in one day. In the Surya Siddhanta of the 5th
century, for example, a Yojana was equivalent to 5 miles,[1] and the
same was true for Aryabhata's Aryabhatiya (499).[2] By the time of
Paramesvara in the 14th century, the Yojana was more than 1.5 times
larger than it was in Aryabhata's time, thus a Yojana was equivalent to
at least 8 miles by Paramesvara's time.[1]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yojana#Variations_on_length

Some other source quotes: 1 yojana is said to comprise either 4 or 8
krosha (a cry or shout, or the range of the voice in calling); and 1
krosha (or goruta ~ as far as a cow’s lowing may be heard, or a bull’s
roar) may represent either 1000 or 2000 daNDa (a rod or staff).

And 'nimiṣhārdha" is itself more a figure of speech than an actual
estimate of time.

--
/P
http://grahana.net/

[Harshad RJ]

I guess doing direct experiments that measure the speed of light would have been difficult at that time.

But if they had used the speed of light in some calculations to predict natural phenomena, it would be confirmation that they had indeed known and worked with the constant of speed of light. Was there such use of the value in any equations? I can't think of any commonly occurring natural phenomenon where the speed of light is discernible except maybe refraction? They could have known about lenses and perhaps predicted refraction from some theory about speed of light through different mediums.

Even if they didn't know the exact speed of light, knowing it within an error margin of 50% is astounding. And it is amazing that they thought that the speed of light is finite, to begin with!

--
Harshad RJ
http://lavadip.com

[keerthi kiran]

Hi,
I wanted to see the context in which these verses are mentioned in the Rig Veda. So I downloaded the whole rig veda text from here http://www.sanskritweb.net/rigveda/
Then, I tried to search the verse given in my original post. Could not find it. I did not do a thorough search (since I am in office). Can anybody search and tell me where it is?

Regards,
Keerthi

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[Pavan Keshavamurthy]

Hi,

On Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 12:35:29PM +0530, keerthi kiran wrote:
> Hi,
> I wanted to see the context in which these verses are mentioned in the Rig
> Veda. So I downloaded the whole rig veda text from here
> http://www.sanskritweb.net/rigveda/
> Then, I tried to search the verse given in my original post. Could not
> find it. I did not do a thorough search (since I am in office). Can
> anybody search and tell me where it is?

Griffith's translation available on WikiSource:
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Rig_Veda/Mandala_1/Hymn_50

I initially wondered if that was Griffith's interpretation, but it's
quite straightforward and literal.

"taraNirvishvadarshato jyotiShkR^idasi sUrya | vishvamA bhAsi rochanam"

The quoted verse in the original posting seems like a troll attribution
to the Rgveda. Whoever rigged it however, has pointed to the right
section though (Hymn 50 is about sUrya).

--
/P
http://grahana.net/

[Amit]

Hi,
Though I agree that the degree of inconsistency is debatable, I've to
correct the argument with the Michelson-Morley experiment.
The aim of the experiment was to find if light travelled through a
medium or not. If it did then there should have been a preferential
drift along some direction. This drift could have been observed via
fringes that occur in a interference pattern.
At times its nice to read from what you cite. The speed of light in
most civilizations and even till about 1600s was assumed to be
infinite or 'very fast'. Then Galileo tried to do some experiments and
figured it was very fast indeed. Later using eclipses of Jupiter's
satellites, the first estimate of a finite speed of light (available
in European literature) was made.

I'm sure people much before that would have tried to infer the speed
of light but their efforts would have been hampered by inaccuracies in
both timing and distance measures. For eg. Have two people on 2
neighbouring hills with an hourglass, open and close the shutter of a
lantern such that the second person initiates the flash only after he
sees the flash from the first person. Measure the amount of sand
fallen through and estimate the distance between the hills. for a
better statistics, measure the amount of sand after a large number of
flash exchanges - to minimize timing inaccuracy. Not that hard an
experiment and people back then were very smart.

-
Amit

On Feb 27, 12:45 am, Sanath Kumar <25san...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hii Keerthi ,
>                  I have read this before but i always wonder what is the
> basis behind this ,i mean we all know how difficult it was in

> the Michelson-Morley experiment (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelson_Morley_Experiment) with all

[keerthi kiran]

1. Agreed that MM experiment was to detect ether. There were experiments by Fizeau and Foucault to measure the velocity of light.
2. Lets not debate on the "smartness" of our ancestors. That is not the point of this thread. I have tremendous respect for our forefathers.
Lets discuss about the authenticity of the sanskrit verse and its meaning.

Thanks and Regards,
Keerthi

[pradeep]

Absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence..

I am eagerly awaiting Dr.Balachander Rao sir's thoughts on this particular topic.. :)

Best regards,
Pradeep
--

Perspective Dimension, Technically Speaking, and Opinion and Editorials

[Harshad RJ]

On Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 2:02 PM, Amit <amit.v...@gmail.com> wrote:

I'm sure people much before that would have tried to infer the speed
of light but their efforts would have been hampered by inaccuracies in
both timing and distance measures. For eg. Have two people on 2
neighbouring hills with an hourglass, open and close the shutter of a
lantern such that the second person initiates the flash only after he
sees the flash from the first person. Measure the amount of sand
fallen through and estimate the distance between the hills. for a
better statistics, measure the amount of sand after a large number of
flash exchanges - to minimize timing inaccuracy. Not that hard an
experiment and people back then were very smart.

I am not sure if you are proposing this seriously. If it's meant jokingly, it is fun to carry on in the same vein.

The time for perception of the flash will be in the order of tens of milli-seconds, while what they are trying to measure is within micro-seconds. They could eliminate the human perception part and use mirrors to automatically trigger the hour glass off. But for that you would need some sort of photo-detector. And to measure micro-seconds you would need really fine sand, and count the individual grains. Or you could weight the sand collected in the hour glass, but you will need a very fine balance :)

Isn't it wonderful how much progress we have made in just the last 1000 years. We can now measure time in nano-seconds and beyond.

I could even measure the speed of light crudely with my hand-held phone. The clock speed of the processor inside it is about 1 GHz. That means it can execute one instruction every nano-second. It has a camera which can act as a photo-detector. And the LED flash can serve as the photo-emitter. So I will just need to place a mirror say 2-3 kms away, emit a pulsed pattern of light from the LED and measure how much time it takes for the camera to register the pattern. By varying the experiment with different distances, I can deduce the constant latency in this loop. The residue will be the actual time taken by the light to travel.

I would have to also measure the distances to a fair degree of accuracy, but that is much easier than measuring time.

[Narendra Kumar S.S]

To understand Vedas, it is not enough if you know Samskrita.

Today people talk about Veda by just reading the english translation.

How do we know that these translations are not faulty?

To understand Vedas we should first know that they are written in Veda Bhasha.

Veda Bhasha is not Samskrita - We have used Devanagari script to document Vedas, that's all.

So, without knowing Veda Bhasha, understanding Vedas is impossible and it will lead to errors.

For example, many people have translated "Ashwa Medha" as eating of horses!

Ashwa means horse in Samskrita. But, in Veda Bhasha it has a different meaning.

It has come from the "Ash" dhathu - it means, eat.

So, Ashwa means one that eats.

I don't want to go deep into this - I just want to point out that, "Ashwa Medha" means controlling of senses.

Look at the meaning people have written about Ashwa Medha and the correct meaning.

So, please don't try to look at Samskrita meaning or translated works to understand Vedas and derive your interpretation.

Without knowing the background of when this shloka (regarding speed of light) came into existence, in what context, we can never say whether it is correct or wrong.

Also, we don't have any way to say that the ancestors didn't have the knowledge or the tools to measure the speed of light. We are basing our argument on the fact that no proof is available today - that only shows our ignorance.

Remember that, the same people had ventured into all the fields of mathematics (including indeterminate equations) and astronomy (predicting the eclipse of other planets also), etc.

So, please don't underestimate them with our ignorant views.

Warm Regards,
Narendra

Visit my blogs at:
http://ssnarendrakumar.blogspot.com/
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[Narendra Kumar S.S]

> Wikipedia quotes -

>
> "The length of the Yojana varied depending on the different standards
> adopted by different Indian astronomers. It was taken to be the distance
> covered by an ox cart in one day.

So, with regard to Speed of light in Rigveda, Wiki source is not authentic.

But, to know what is "Yojana", wiki is a respected source and if it says that there are different definitions, we should believe it!

Great!!!!

Warm Regards,
Narendra

Visit my blogs at:
http://ssnarendrakumar.blogspot.com/
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[Sunil G.R.]

Last week there was a 3 day series of talk by Shatavadhani Dr.R.Ganesh on "Indian Research Methodology".
Will try to share the audio if i get it.

Well for those who do not know Dr.Ganesh, basically he is a poet, but have extensive knowledge on most of the ancient works (literary & technical works).
He warned against some of the beliefs due to false-pride.
Ofcourse, we did lot of great things and achieved many important things.
But that does not mean we must try to show everything which are achieved today was there from centuries before.
Some of the examples which are prevelant today are:
1) Vimaanashaastra - Saying we had rocket technology in those days itself.
2) Test-tube baby - Giving example of birth of Kauravas.
3) Plastic Surgery - Ofcourse some kind of surgery was there, but we cannot say it was of present type of plastic surgery.

He did said an important thing. Lets take pride in whatever that was achieved 'truly'. i.e. if we can prove them by present global standards or some basis.
Domains like Spiritual-works & Grammer will even today passes the current standards.
Even some part of Ayurveda & a part of Yoga can still stand.

And lets accept the limitations of certain domains that we achieved like Astronomy, Mathematics.

A best example he gave is, we did lot of research in studying the stars/planets, its distances, eclipses etc. But we could not study the proper weight ratios of a bullock cart which was in daily need! We could not get a simple formula like F=ma.

There may be some works on it, but still we did not get them. So we must not say "ABSENSE OF EVIDENCE does not mean it is not existed". Lets get the proof and talk.

I personally request for those who want to study the old works to go over some of the talks of Dr.Ganesh in this regard. It will set a strong base for us to continue, rather than 'ASSUMING' certain things and study.

Regards,
Sunil.

--

[praveen kulkarni]

|In ancient Sanskrit "nimish" itself means ...

in science, this means cherry picking

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[keerthi kiran]

Thanks a lot for your insightful replies. Please let's stick to the topic.

>>Without knowing the background of when this shloka (regarding speed of light) came into existence, in what context, we can never say whether it is correct or wrong.

This is exactly what I am trying to do. I am trying to find the context and the meaning of the shloka. Please reply to this thread if you know the answer or have a clue about where to find it.

Regards,
Keerthi

[Narendra Kumar S.S]

It is not "nimish" - it is "nimesh".

Look at the following table showing the conversions and where Nimesh shands:

2 Paramaanu = 1 Anu

3 Anu = 1 Trisarenu

3 Trasarenu = 1 Truti

100 Truti = 1 Vedh

3 Vedh = 1 Lav

3 Lav = 1 Nimesh

3 Nimesh = 1 Kshan

5 Kshan = 1 Kaashthaa

15 Kaashthaa = 1 Laghu

15 Laghu = 1 Naadikaa

2 Naadikaa = 1 Muhoort

6-7 Naadikaa = 1 Prahar, or Yaam

4 Prahar = 1 human-day (or night)

8 Prahar = 1 human-day + human-night

15 human-days = 1 Paksh (fortnight)

2 Paksh = 1 Maas

2 Maas = 1 Rutu

6 Maas = 1 Ayan

2 Ayan = 1 Samvatsara

12 Maas = 1 Samvatsara

1 Nimesh comes to 8/15 parts of a second

Warm Regards,
Narendra

Visit my blogs at:
http://ssnarendrakumar.blogspot.com/
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On Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 4:23 PM, praveen kulkarni <pitu.p...@gmail.com> wrote:

[praveen kulkarni]

@Keerthi Kiran

Is this real or cooked up? If real, how could they have made such measurements?  

You asked this in the first thread of this chain. I replied that it's cooked up.

How is this off-topic?

For the sake of fun, let's speculate on how they could have measured speed of light in the absence of modern precision instruments. I think they would need a telescope to look at Jupiter and its moons like Romer did.

On Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 4:29 PM, keerthi kiran <info...@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks a lot for your insightful replies. Please let's stick to the topic.

>>Without knowing the background of when this shloka (regarding speed of light) came into existence, in what context, we can never say whether it is correct or wrong.

This is exactly what I am trying to do. I am trying to find the context and the meaning of the shloka. Please reply to this thread if you know the answer or have a clue about where to find it.

Regards,
Keerthi

On Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 4:23 PM, praveen kulkarni <pitu.p...@gmail.com> wrote:

|In ancient Sanskrit "nimish" itself means ...

in science, this means cherry picking

[Narendra Kumar S.S]

Hello Keerthi,

    Thanks for clarifying. This thread started in right earnest.

    But, in the middle I saw some sarcastic comments and it pained to see educated people talking like that.

    That's why I had to intervene.

Warm Regards,
Narendra

Visit my blogs at:
http://ssnarendrakumar.blogspot.com/
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On Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 4:29 PM, keerthi kiran <info...@gmail.com> wrote:

[keerthi kiran]

Hello Praveen,
I am very sorry for my lack of communication skills.
Let's not speculate anything for the sake of fun.

>>Is this real or cooked up? If real, how could they have made such measurements? 

My intent here was to know whether the calculation shown in the Wiki page was genuine. Thanks for your opinion on the topic.

Regards,
Keerthi

[Chandrashekar]

Ive read this before too and wondered how they made such measurements. But , 

If the above is a proper verse obeying grammar rules , the following points figure : 

1)If one looks at the sanskrit of the verse , it doesnt appear "vedic". ie. it quite sounds like panini's grammar . Though im not a sanskrit "expert" , this verse might not be present in rigveda ( Im only speculating).

2) The meter of the second line is called Anustup having eight alphabets . But line 1 has thirteen . A proper verse in anushtup has 24 letters in 4 sections , each consisting of eight alphabets . So one might question the authenticity of this verse .

If this is not a verse , just prose, the above possibilities are eliminated .

And , I dont think 2202yojanas and 0.5minutes can be figurative , they are precisely mentioned. 

--

Regards , 

Chandrashekar 
  

[Chandrashekar]

I

Regards , 

Chandrashekar 
  

[Chandrashekar]

Its not a verse , checked it up . 

@Sunil GR : What Dr. Ganesh told is right assuming that the old sanskrit works available today is what our ancients wrote. But we know that libraries of  Nalanda were burnt . So F=ma might have existed then too .  

--

Regards , 

Chandrashekar 
  

[Balachandra Rao]

As regards the speed of light in our ancient Indian texts (like the
Rigveda), I agree with Pavan Keshavamurthy.
We have to take these claims with huge pinches (or fistful!) of NaCl
! On the internet we do come by several websites on things Indian or
Hindu where all sorts of hype-claims are made. These are generally by
incorrigible fanatics.
In arriving at the speed of light they have cleverly manipulated
the difinitions of "yojana" and units of time like "kshana",
"muhurta" etc. As already pointed out by some of our friends, "yojana"
is taken differently by different authors like Chanakya in his
"Arthashastra", Aryabhata, Bhaskara II et al. Of course, each author
is consistent in using a unit thro'out his text. That is why in Indian
astronomy we are concerned seriously
with angular distances but not with linear distances.
For example, classical Indian astronomers were correct in their
procedure for computing the Moon's parallax and its components along
the ecliptic and perpendicular to it. They called them respectively
"lambana" and "nati" which are essential for obtaining the local
circumstance of a solar eclipses.

On Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 2:19 PM, pradeep <pradeep...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Sanath Kumar]

Hii,

       I agree with sunil about Dr. R Ganesh  and his views , @ Chandrasekhar : (might have) doesn't make any sense i think , i am a student of Sanskrit and very much appreciate the huge amount of knowledge in the literature and grammar ,but  the problem here is that  the explanation maybe available but the reasoning is missing for which we really need someone of experience like Dr. Balachandra Rao who can correctly explain us in detail the mystery behind this whole thing ,i think it  will be irrelevant if all of us are guessing things by reading a little from wiki links etc.

Regards,

Sanath Kumar.

[praveen kulkarni]

|i think it  will be irrelevant if all of us are guessing things by reading a little |from wiki links

I don't see anything inherently wrong in wiki information. Speculating about a phenomenon is fine as long as we don't confuse the speculation with empiricaly verified truth. It is still an awesome thought experiment to put ourselves in the shoes of our ancestors. But we should be cautious.

It's really tough to uncover the authenticity of a claim with the benefit of hindsight.  (Nostradamus comes to mind). That's why only testable claims can be investigated by science. We can say that the Mayans had knowledge of lasers and bosons, and that all this knowledge was lost in the Spanish Inquisition. Or that the fire in Alexandrian library destroyed earlier discoveries of relativity. Or that the superhumans of Atlantis had discovered Nuclear Energy long before any other civilization. 

Every civilization exaggerates its past. the Egyptians, the Chinese, us Indians. While there is no harm in mining the incorruptible "inherited books" to gather information on social matters of those ages, we must guard against unnecessary glorification. Ours is the Golden age.

I am not picking our Indian ancestors to ridicule them.

This applies to String theory as well. Even string theorists like Prof Brian Greene call it a hypothesis because they know that we don't yet have the high energy instruments to experimentally verify the claims of the "mathematically elegant hypothesis". (sorry Sheldon  )

On Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 10:25 PM, Sanath Kumar <25sa...@gmail.com> wrote:

i think it  will be irrelevant if all of us are guessing things by reading a little from wiki links

[keerthi kiran]

Hello all,

I think we should close this thread with this brief summary.

My intent in starting the thread was to know whether this particular shloka is authentic and whether the calculations mentioned are authentic.

The answer I have deduced (after some basic research and reading expert opinions) is as follows.
1. This shloka could not be found in the rig veda texts. Probably these were written in some commentary works on Vedas.
2. The definition of "Yojana" is different according to different authors. Therefore, it would be impossible to establish the authenticity of the calculations.

Thanks a lot for all your inputs and opinions.

Regards,
Keerthi

[mys universe]

hi keerthi!

ive fwd ur mail to 2 sanskrit scholars and am awaiting their reply!!!
leela

On Feb 27, 10:15 am, keerthi kiran <infosi...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
> I saw this article on Wikipedia. it claims that the sped of light was
> calculated with good accuracy by our ancestors of the Rig Veda period. I
> had seen the same on HC Varma's Physics books. Is this real or cooked up?

> If real, how could they have made such measurements?
>

> Speed of Light in Rig Veda
>
> One of the Pundits employed by Sayan for translating the Rigveda explains
> at what speed the sun light spreads on the earth. Rig
> Veda<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rig_Veda>(I,
> 50-4) following sloka’s state about the speed of light
>
> “Yojananam Dwe Dwe Shate Dwe Cha Yojane Aken Nimishardhena Krammana
> Namostute” (Rig-veda I,50-4)
>
> in this verse, the speaker pays respect the Sun Light who moves 2202 yojans
> in Half of the Nimish. Nimisharda means half a nimesh.
>
> In ancient Sanskrit "nimish" itself means "blink of an eye" and that
> "nimisharda" is used to represent how far light travels in half of the
> blink of an eye i.e. "within the blink of an eye" !!
>
> In the Vedas, Yojana is a unit of distance and Nimisha is a unit of time.
>
> Unit of Time: Nimish
>
> The Moksha Dharma Parva of Shanti Parva in Mahabharata describes Nimish as
> follows:
>
> 15 Nimisha = 1 Kastha 30 Kashta = 1 Kala 30.3 Kala = 1 Muhurta 30 Muhurtas
> = 1 Diva-Ratri (Day-Night)
>
> We know Day-Night is 24 hours
>
> So, we get 24 hours = 30 x 30.3 x 30 x 15 nimish in other words 409050
> nimish
>
> We know 1 hour = 60 x 60 = 3600 seconds So 24 hours = 24 x 3600 seconds =
> 409050 nimish
>
> 409050 nimesh = 86,400 approx seconds
>
> 1/2 nimesh = 0.1065 approx seconds
>
> Unit of Distance: Yojana
>
> Yojana is defined in Chapter 6 of Book 1 of the ancient vedic text “Vishnu
> Purana” as follows
>
> 10 Paramáńus = 1 Parasúkshma 10 Parasúkshmas = 1 Trasareńu 10 Trasareńus
> = 1 Mahírajas (particle of dust) 10 Mahírajasas = 1 Bálágra 10 Bálágras = 1
> Likhyá 10 Likhyás= 1 Yúka 1o Yúkas = 1 Yavodara 10 Yavodaras = 1 Yava 10
> Yava = 1 Angula (1.89 cm or approx 3/4 inch) 6 fingers = 1 Pada (the
> breadth of it) 2 Padas = 1 Vitasti(span) 2 Vitasti = 1 Hasta (cubit) 4
> Hastas = a Dhanu, a Danda, or pauruSa (a man’s height), or 2 Nárikás = 6
> feet 2000 Dhanus = 1 Gavyúti (distance to which a cow’s call or lowing can
> be heard)= 12000 feet 4 Gavyútis = 1 Yojana = 9.09 miles
>
> Calculation of the Speed of Light:
>
> Thus, we can now calculate what is the value of the speed of light in
> modern units based on the value given as 2202 yojanas in 1/2 nimesh.
>
> = 2202 x 9.09 miles per 0.1065 seconds
>
> = 20016.18 miles per 0.1065 seconds
>
> = 187945 miles per second
>
> As per the modern science speed of light is 186000 miles per second.
>
> Inconsistency occur due to inability to convert the Units Correctly.
>
> Regards,
>
> Keerthi

[mys universe]

am sorry, i mean pavan! by accident wrote keerthi. leela

On Feb 27, 10:52 am, Pavan Keshavamurthy <pavan.k.mur...@gmail.com>
wrote:

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