Happy Pongal/Makara Sankranti - Rare Surya Stuti By Lord Shiva/Vishnu

[K.N.RAMESH]

Courtesy:Sri.K.Muralidharan Iyengar

Dear All,

Greetings and Namaste. As Makara Sankranti (Pongal) and the start of Uttarayana is just a couple of days away, I am happy to share a beautiful hymn on Lord Surya by Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu taken from Bhavishya Puranam, Saptami Kalpam, Chapter 153. These two hymns appear together in the same chapter and I have omitted a few lines in between these two hymns which are not stotra related.

As we have seen before in the previous years, Samba Purana and Saptami Kalpa in Bhavishya Purana are devoted entirely to Lord Surya although there are many Surya stotras in almost all puranas. These two puranas extol Lord Surya as the Supreme-being and all other forms including the Trinity (Brahma/Vishnu/Shiva) are said to emanate from Surya.

As we can see in the attached stotra itself, Lord Vishnu mentions this unequivocally (tvatta eva samutpannam sadevAsura mAnuSham | brahmA cA.ahaM rudrashca samutpannA jagatpate || Meaning : ... Lord Surya! From you emanated everything including Devas, Asuras and Human beings. Brahma, myself and Rudra originated from you ...). In fact Lord Vishnu prays him as Lord Shanmukha, Rudra, and Navagrahas, Digpalakas, etc. And this is exactly the same message Sage Agastya gives in the famous Aditya Hrudayam in Ramayana to Lord Rama.

We have also seen that Sage Vyasa claims that there is none beyond Lord Surya and there is no greater refuge than Lord Surya (nAsti sUrya-samo devo nAsti sUrya-samA gatiH) in Bhavishya Puranam. Such superlatives are given for almost every deity form and one can only pity the childishness/immaturity of those who feel elitistic and proud of owing to allegiance of one such form! It has established beyond doubt in puranas that one who keeps looking for differences in vital statistics of deity forms live in delusion and invite sojourn in hell.

May I wish a very Happy Pongal and festivities to all you! May We Pray To Lord Surya on this auspicious day!

English

Malayalam

Kannada

Telugu

Tamil

Samskritam

[R. N. iyengar]

Thanks for the beautiful hymns.A correction I like to point out: Uttarayana already started on 21 December.

RN Iyengar

[G S S Murthy]

If Uttarayana has started on Dec21st, can we work back and determine when our panchanga system started taking one cycle of precession of the equinoxes as 23000 years? At that time in the past uttarayana would have come on or around 15th January.

Regards,

Murthy 

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "samskrita" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to samskrita+...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to sams...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/samskrita.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--

My web site : http://murthygss.tripod.com/index.htm
and also my Sanskrit blog :

http://simplesanskrit.blogspot.com/

http://gssmurthy.blogspot.com

[Arvind_Kolhatkar]

Murthyji,

You say "If Uttarayana has started on Dec21st, can we work back and determine when our panchanga system started taking one cycle of precession of the equinoxes as 23000 years? At that time in the past uttarayana would have come on or around 15th January."

The issue of the history of Panchanga is a very complex one.  Some idea of its complexity can be gathered from standard books like the classic 'भारतीय ज्योतिषशास्त्राचा इतिहास' by Shankar Balkrishna Dixit, published in 1896.  This book is in Marathi, although an English translation by RV Vaidya, authorized by the Department of Meteorology, Government of India, (under whom the observatories in India fall,) is available.  Its digital version is also available on the internet at several places, including at scribd.com.  A perusal of this book will give you some idea as to when did Hindu astronomers become aware of the precession of equinoxes - अयनचलन - and what was their measure of it.

The subject is further complicated by the lack of any all-India non-regional system of reckoning, its synchronization with solar reckoning and also by the complex history of the Christian calendar and its progress from the Julian to the Gregorian.  

One small instance of this complication is present even today.  Lokmanya Tilak, apart from being the leader of masses in the freedom struggle, was also a recognized scholar in Indian Jyotisha.  He and his followers were trying to reform the Panchanga as it was traditionally being drawn in Maharashtra.  They called it the Shuddha Nirayana - निरयन - Pamchanga.  (I do not understand why it was so called, except that it had something to do with the calculation of the precession.)  Tilak's Nirayana Panchanga never achieved any mass following.  Only die-hard followers of Tilak, a minority, followed it. It was followed in my household.  One oddity of that Panchanga was that its Makarasankranti fell on the 10th January each year, and not on the 14th as with the traditional Panchanga.

Arvind Kolhatkar.

[G S S Murthy]

Thanks, Aravindji, for your very informative note. I have very  little knowledge of Astronomy in general, and Hindu Astronomy in particular. My query was more like from that of a layman than a competent person. Given all the uncertainties associated with the various calendar systems, it could still be meaningful to fix an upper and a lower bound to when our ancients started reckoning Uttarayana. I believe this exercise would be too evident for not having been attempted so far.

Regards,

Murthy

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "samskrita" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to samskrita+...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to sams...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/samskrita.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[R. N. iyengar]

Dear Sri Murthy,

Sorry for the delay in responding. I am not an astronomer by profession. But having spent number of years investigating Hindu astronomy prior to the siddhanta period, I venture to add a few points in response:

 

Uttarayana is defined as the movement of Sun (as seen from earth) towards North. This day is also the shortest daylight day of the year. That Sun has movement not only E-W but also N-S is evidenced in the Rigveda itself.  But I will not go into that now.  The Pnchangas (Five elements)  to which you refer are too recent in our history. If you see the work Parashara tantra (ISBN 978-81-9209-924-8) and Vrddhagaargiya (unpublished) there were only four elements in their calendar without Vāra or week days.  The earliest unambiguous reference to Uttarayana is in the Maitrayani Aranyaka

 

“Of the year one half (when the sun moves northward) belongs to Agni, the other to Varuna (when the sun moves southward). That which belongs to Agni begins with the asterism of Maghâ, and ends with half of the asterism of Sravishthâ, the sun stepping down northward. That which belongs to Soma (instead of Varuna) begins with the asterism (of Asleshâ), sacred to the Serpents, and ends with half of the asterism of Sravishthâ, the sun stepping up southward..”

Here it is said that the Uttarayana  started when Sun was at the middle of the star Dhanishtha.  In the more famous Vedanga Jyotisha  of Lagadha

Here, the Uttarayana, shortest day and the sun being with the beginning of star Dhanishtha are unambiguously mentioned. This event has been dated to c1400 BC. From this it follows the Maitrayani Aranyaka statement belongs to 1600-1800 BC. 

Varaha mihira mentions that during his time uttarayana started with sun at ¼  of uttarashadha,  but in ancient times  winter solstice was at the start of Dhanishtha. Varaha mihira lived during 505-590 AD. From this statement also the ancient date alluded by him can be shown to be 1300-1400 BC. For his time, as per his convention, the Makarasankranti coincided with uttarayana.

To discuss how the error has crept in between observation of the shortest day and the current panchangas, one has to go into too many other details and history of the present day “Raashi”. One reason in my opinion is “too much reverence to the letter at the cost of the spirit”.

When you have free time you may like to read my paper

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237247119_Monsoon_rainfall_cycles_as_depicted_in_ancient_Sanskrit_texts

 

thanks

RN Iyengar

[G S S Murthy]

Dear Sri. Iyengar,

I am inadequately equipped knowledge-wise to understand your note let alone respond adequately. My logic, perhaps simplistic, is as follows.Sometime during the hoary past our astrologers/astronomers determined that Uttarayana occurs on 14th/15th of January. I assume that 21st December which is known to be the shortest day of the year is the same as Uttarayana. Over the years what was occurring on 14th/15th January now occurs on 21st December. This is due to the precession of the equinoxes, which has a period of around 23000 years. The slip of about 22 days corresponds to 365/22 degrees. If precession is 360 degrees for 23000 years, 365/22 corresponds to 23000x22/365 years 1386 years. That means about 1386 years back, shortest day occurred on 14th/15th January. I am aware this is a ball-park figure and may need several corrections associated with calendar systems.

I shall attempt to read your paper a leisure.

Thanks and regards,

Murthy 

[R. N. iyengar]

Dear Sri Murthy,

You are correct in your own way of extending the present western civil calendar backwards into Indian history. In any case about 1500-1700 years back, Makara sankranti and Uttarayana coincided. 

Thanks

RNI