Thread by @Bharathgyan

Triple #Eclipse – An Ominous Sign

Lunar eclipses occur only on Full Moon & Solar eclipses occur only on New Moon. Eclipses by nature, do not occur on every Full Moon or New Moon. Generally in a year, there occur around 5 to 6 eclipses & not all r usually visible from same place.

3 eclipses occurring back to back, in 2 successive fortnights, in a 30 day span, is a bit rare indeed.
Krishna Dwaipayana observes such a celestial event & records this with amazement.
A Paksha, fortnight is the duration between a New Moon to Full Moon or a Full Moon to New Moon

This duration is normally 14 to 15 days depending on lunation.

In the particular eclipse sequence that occurred then, Krishna Dwaipayana observes that not only is it a triple eclipse, but one of the eclipses in the series, was occurring within a gap of just 13 days.

Here, the author is speaking of a unique occurrence of a New Moon & a Full Moon within a gap of 13 days. This is a rarest of rare case.

Krishna Dwaipayana explains in detail the occurrences of the 3 eclipses in a month & expresses amazement as well as apprehension at the same.

This eclipse season is described as a sequence of

1. a lunar eclipse,
2. followed by a solar eclipse,
3. then followed by another lunar eclipse,
all in one month.

We also find specific data on the astronomical position of each of these eclipses.

• 1st lunar eclipse is described as having occurred in the nakshatra called Bharani Kartika, the Pleiades group of stars.
• 2nd occurrence of the eclipse in the sequel, is the Solar eclipse which is described as having occurred near the nakshatra Jyeshta, the star Antares.

• 3rd eclipse, which is again a lunar eclipse, occurred
in the nakshatra Margashira, a group of stars, in the Orion
constellation.

It was also a paksha of 13 days with an eclipse at either end.

This detailed description found in the Mahabharata text, not only helps us to understand the sequence of the eclipses, but also fixes the star near which the eclipse actually happened.

These are very stringent parameters.
• Equinox near star, Jyeshta
• A Triple eclipse sequence
• Solar eclipse only at that particular star, Jyeshta & not
anywhere in the sky
• Solar eclipse flanked by 2 lunar eclipses
• 13 days prior to 2nd lunar eclipse was a solar eclipse

Today, using the planetarium software we can find out with relative ease if indeed such astronomical occurrences did really take place.

We find that such a set of Triple Eclipse did occur in 3067 BCE.

What is fascinating to note here is that, the sky charts thrown up by the planetarium software meet all these stringent requirements.

This verse suggestively describes it to be a penumbral eclipse with a lotus hue.

Such a lunar eclipse took place on 29th September, 3067 BCE as indicated by the planetarium software and it was a penumbral eclipse indeed, tallying with the text.

Dr. Narahari Achar, who has worked on this dating using the Planetarium software says,

This sequence of astronomical events happening together, makes the repetition of it rare, thereby increasing the probability of its occurrence on this date of 29th Sep, 3067 BCE. This along with the other sequence of events helps fix the date even tighter.

The differential of 14 days between the dates shown by the Planetarium software in contrast to 13 days mentioned in the text, is understood to arise because of the difference in the concept of calculating days in the
Gregorian and the Indian calendrical systems.

The Gregorian calendar date change is calculated from midnight to midnight whereas in the Indian traditional system, the day calculation is from sunrise to sunrise
and the Nakshatra at sunrise is taken as the Nakshatra for the day.