Age of the Rigveda

[S.Kalyanaraman]

I just finished reading a fascinating, extremely referenced, booklet from the
Adyar Library; this may have some nexus in the context of the recent queries
regarding the date of the Rigveda since Pargiter's geneaology tables, with
quotes from the Maha Bharata and the Pura_n.as, do take off from RV textual
references.

>From Prof. K. Srinivasa Raghavan, 1969, The Date of the Maha Bharata War and
the Kali Yugadhi, Madras, Srinivasa Gandhi Nilayaman, pp. 22-23:

"Solar eclipse is indicated on both the occasions just before the Maha Bharata
War and before the Yadava Civil war, 35 years after the MB war. It is stated
that both amavasyas came on the 13th day. Again three tithis in a day is
indicated by the words: Caturdas'i was made Poorn.ima_. These conditions are
satisfied on the dates shown below�

New Moon Date 13 October 3067 BC, Julian Day 601488, Week Day Sunday 0-25, 
Sun 224-89, Rahu 219-74
Full Moon Date 27 October 3067 BC, Julian Day 601502, Sun 0-99, Sun 239-46,
Rahu 218-93
New Moon Date 11 November 3067 BC, Julian Day 601517, Monday 1-78, Sun 254-02,
Rahu 218-13
New Moon Date 11 December 3067 BC, Julian Day 601547, Wednesday 3-31, Sun
283-15, Rahu 216-52

�The day following the amavasya of 11 November 3067 BC is the first s'ukla
prathama of the year, at the beginning of Margas'ira month and s'arad
rithu�Therefore Durga Puja or Navarathri started on Tuesday 12 November 3067
BC�Hence the Maha Bharata War was started on Friday, Margas'ira month, s'ukla
ekadas'I tithi, krittika naks.atra, 22 November 3067 BC---601528 Julian Day,
ekadas'I ending at Friday 5.60 and the Moon at 37.74 or Krittika on Friday
morning. This is in complete accord with the tradition."

MB Udyoga P:arva Ch. 142 notes: Kris.n.a left Hastina_pura on uttara phalguni
day with Karn.a in his chariot�Kris.n.a told Karn.a that the seventh day from
then, Jyes.t.ha Day, was Amavasya, and asked him to advise Duryodhana to begin
the war preparations on that day�On this Jyes.t.ha day mentioned by Kris.n.a,
the sun and the moon were at 225 degrees. So, on the uttara phalguni day, the
day of the conversation, the sun was at 218 degrees and Rahu at 220 degrees
was approaching the sun, and the moon was approaching the sun from behind.

The question is: from the data provided by modern astronomical computations,
did such a confluence of solar eclipse and the start of s'ukla prathama occur
on any other dates in the past, say over 2 millennia before present?

Dr. S. Kalyanaraman



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