i will refrain to comment on note below which is very interesting, though on the
borders of astronomy. am yet to understand what Prafulla and Aniket are talking
about. However about Horses in Harappan period was a big debate few years back
and i refer u to an article in Hindu below. There was one in frontline as well.
unfortunately, much data is not easily available out oF GSI and ASI however it
might be worth to ponder and look at the excellent article.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/op/2002/07/02/stories/2002070200110200.htm

regards
Abhay
 Abhay Deshpande
ATF, KEK,
1-1 Oho, Tsukuba-Shi
Ibaraki-Ken, Japan
305 0801




________________________________
From: Aniket Sule <aniket.sule@...>
To: khagolmandal2@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2009 4:55:41 PM
Subject: Re: [Khagol Mandal] Astronomy in Ramayana and Mahabharata


I have major objections to this work. I have read Mr. Mendki's book
and have pointed the flaws in arguments to several people earlier.

The archaeoastronomical work by most authors lack credibility because
they treat astronomy as the sole thread of evidence. However, in
reality, historical research should never be done in this manner but
should be taking inputs from all parallel streams. Mendki's work also
fails on same count.

To give a simple example, in any problem, when you reach a solution,
one is expected to do a reality check. For e.g. the famous age of
universe paradox of early 20th century. In that case, the age of
universe was turning out to be less than that of earth. That was the
ground enough to reject that result and do more research on the
subject which resulted in different populations of stars.

Mendki has worked on a commercially available star charting software
and fed in some data to get some results. He has however failed to do
a reality check. Lets go to his arguments one by one:

> Indian astronomy is 24000years' old.However due to following

Last ice age ended about 13000 years ago. The "civilisations" are less
than 12000 years old. Farming began only 10000 years ago in Turkey
(and much later in other parts). There is no evidence of any
civilisation in Indian subcontinent before about 9000 years. (Note:
First habitants may have come to India as back as 50,000 years but
they were not a "civilised" culture). Where does the date of 24000
years old fit in this context?

> 1) Moon is going away from the earth.As per Kepler's Law, lunar
> month
> is increasing. In the past, synodic month was smaller than present
> value.

Those who have studied mechanics of planetary orbits know that this
effect is extremely small for the scale of 5000 years or smaller which
is the correct scale for cultures we are looking for. To say that this
is important source of error is completely ridiculous.

> 2)Speed of ascending and descending nodes were also more in the past.

Same as above.

> 3)Speed of rotation of earth around it's own axis is
> decreasing.Therefor e
> delta T correction is to be done for historical times.
> Some western astronomical softwares are incorrect for historical

Jean Muese (check spelling?) gives rigorous calculation algorithm for
planetary positions. It is not correct to blame this software or that
software. If accuracy of commercial softwares is not upto the mark
(not that they are not made for this kind of work in the first place),
who has prevented researchers from writing their own ephemeris
calculation programmes? Also if searched, better ready made ephemeris
packages are available on internet, which give accuracy of upto few
arcminutes till start of julian date.

> times because they have not used correct synodic month in the past.
> I have considered these factors in doing calculations and fixed
> following
> Gregarian dates:
> Krutyug started on 6th April 13904BC,Kartik Shukla 9,on Vernal
> equinox
> day at 197 deg.

That was still ice age. Kuch bhi kya....

> Tretayug started on 28th December 9102BC,Vaishakh( Jyestha) Shukla 3
> at winter solastice 39 deg.
> ShriRam was born on 6th Jan,5648BC,Chaitra Shukla9 ,when Moon was
> in Pushya,Jupiter in Punervasu and five planets had exalted.

This was the time when the concept of "Kings" or "Kingdoms" was yet to
evolve anywhere in the world. We get physical evidence of first
"kingdom" from Mesopotamia from about 3300BCE.

Note: Figuratively speaking, BC (which stands for Before Christ) and
BCE (which stands for Before Common Era) are the same thing. However,
most research community prefers to use BCE as it is no religion
specific and there are still debates on the date of birth of Christ.

> Kaliyug started on 25 Jan 3101BC,Chaita Shukla 1 at 351 deg.
> Mahabharata war started on 10th Sept 3008BC,Kartik Krishna 13,No
> Moon day and solar eclipse day.

3101BC was in early centuries of Harappan Urbanisation. There was no
significant civilisation in Ganges valley or towards eastern India.
There is no evidence of mass population extinction (as you would
expect from Mahabharata war) in this period. Mahabharata uses Iron and
Horses. Both were absent from Indian subcontinent in this period.

It is because of such half baked works, which are dished out as
"scientific theory", the field of arcaheoastronomy is not getting its
due recognition. To say in short, just because a common man uses a GPS
enabled mobile does not mean that he becomes expert in GPS technology
or satellite communication.

--
Microsoft is not the answer. Microsoft is the question. "NO" is the answer.

- Dr. Aniket Sule
www.hbcse.tifr. res.in/





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