A Possible Ancient City of Stars : TARAKA (India

Megaliths have long been associated with astronomy in the public imagination. In this paper we take a look at megaliths in India, their chronology and distribution , and examine the possibility that at least some of them may have intentional alignments to celestial targets embedded in their design and layout.

Orchiston, W., Sule, A., and Vahia, M.N. (eds.), 2018. Growth and Development of Astronomy and Astrophysics in India and the Asia-Pacific Region. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Oriental Astronomy. Mumbai, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research., 2018

India has a long history of monuments built in stone—from prehistoric megaliths to later religious monuments like stupas, temples etc. covering a period of nearly four millennia. In this paper we discuss the influence of astronomy on the design and layout of some of these monuments, as well as depiction and incorporation of astronomical objects and phenomena in several of these or their components. In several instances, prehistoric rock art features Sun and Moon motifs, which are also seen in later sculptural art in temples, hero stones, etc. Megaliths, which are mostly the sepulchral and commemorative monuments of the Iron Age, have a variety of forms, ranging from the simple upright stone to relatively complex constructions like dolmens etc. We demonstrate that at least some megaliths have sightlines to astronomical phenomena on the local horizon deliberately incorporated into their layout. It is quite possible that these early monuments evolved into later monumental structures like stupas and temples. Temple architecture in southern India followed two main evolutionary trajectories that spanned roughly 800 years. Temples often feature sculptural panels of deities, myths and legends on their outer walls. We examine some of the legends, such as the Tripurantaka legend of Shiva, commonly depicted on temple walls, for astronomical symbolism. Heavenly bodies, such as the Sun, Moon and planets, are deified in traditions of the Indic religions, and we examine some of these deities depicted in temple sculptures. We also discuss the Dikpalas—guardians of the directions—often depicted to safeguard temple precincts. The phenomena of Sun Temples, depictions of eclipses, zodiacal stones and navagraha worship are also dealt with. Finally, we examine Sun-facing structures, such as rock-cut temples and structural temples, which are designed to interact with the rising or setting Sun on given days of the year.

Throughout the Indian sub-continent, there are regions where culture and geography join to create a landscape that is infused with meaning and power. These sites are often tirthas, places of extensive mythological associations where many believe that spirit can cross between different realms. Tirthas may be important fords of rivers, summits of hills where the heaven and the earth seem unusually close, or locations where Hindu deities have entered the world. Many contain a symbolic cosmology or visual astronomical sightlines, primarily to the solstices. Two tirthas are discussed: Varanasi, the most important pilgrimage destination for the whole of Hindu India and Vijayanagara, once a major pilgrimage center of southern India, which became the capital city of the Hindu empire that controlled the southern part of the sub continent. The concept of self-organized criticality is introduced as a useful technique for analyzing pilgrimage systems. Varanasi The sun is one of the most ancient objects of devotion in India, first as a natural feature of the celestial hemisphere and later as an icon within temples (Srivastava 1986; Pandey 1971). Every morning of the year, the power and significance of the sun is revealed on the banks of the Ganga at Varanasi. At special days of the solar-lunar calendar, the rising sun, accompanied by chanting of mantras, oil lamps, bells, and ritual bathing, commands the attention of multitudes on the ghats (Singh 1994).

The megalithic monuments of peninsular India, believed to have been erected in the Iron Age (1500BC – 200AD), can be broadly categorized into sepulchral and non-sepulchral in purpose. Though a lot of work has gone into the study of these monuments since Babington first reported megaliths in India in 1823, not much has been understood about the knowledge systems extant in the period these were built – in science and engineering, especially mathematics and astronomy. We take a brief look at the archaeological understanding of megaliths, before taking a detailed assessment of a group of megaliths (in the south Canara region of Karnataka state in South India) that were hitherto assumed to be haphazard clusters of menhirs. Our surveys have indicated positive correlation of sight-lines with sunrise and sunset points on the horizon for both summer and winter solstices. We identify 5 such monuments in the region and present the survey results for one of the sites, demonstrating the astronomical implications. We also discuss the possible use of the typologies of megaliths known as stone alignments/avenues as calendar devices.

Investigation of the astronomical content of ancient Vedic texts along with historically constrained texts of the first and second millennium CE shows that the sky pictures of the most ancient period get contrasted with later ones due to the phenomenon of precession of earth’s rotational axis. Most important among such observations is the fixed Pole Star, named Abhaya-Dhruva at the tail end of the constellation known as Śiśumāra (whale or dolphin) described in the Taittirīya Āraṇyaka (II.19) of the Kṛṣṇa-yajurveda branch. With passage of time, in the Maitrāyaṇīya Āraṇyaka, a question arises, why even Dhruva moves. The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa declares that star Dhruva rotates in the same position, like the nave of a potter’s wheel. This and a few other Purāṇas extol Dhruva as the fourteenth star on the tail of the constellation Śiśumara, as in the Vedic text. Al-Biruni (973–1048 CE) mentions that devout Hindus, during his time, believed their Pole Star to be in the constellation that looks like an aquatic animal called, Śiśumāra. This paper updates my previous work published in IJHS-2011.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH, 2019

Astronomy is the oldest subject when compared to the other science subjects. Even before the invention of script, ancient man started recording the observational knowledge of the heavenly changes, the rising and setting of the Sun, its annual northward and southward movements in the sky, the phases of the Moon, the motions of the other wanderers relative to the background of the fixed stars, the diurnal movements of the stars, and the changing face of the sky throughout the year, etc., In by putting impressions on stone (carving) and painting in caves. From the very early times, men sought to explain these phenomena and to be able to predict the positions of these heavenly wonders. The first ideas about the structure of the universe gradually took shape, with the earth fixed and immovable at its center and everything else rotating around it in a small compact universe, with the stars in outer sphere, just beyond the orbit of Saturn, most distant from the known planets. The striking spectacles presented to mankind by the varied appearances of a sky, covered with thousands of shining objects of different degrees of brightness, all apparently revolving around the earth; the changing phases of the moon; the bright morning and evening stars; comets and shooting stars; and the surprising phenomena of eclipses of the Sun and the Moon, have, from the very earliest times, raised feelings of admiration and often of superstitious alarm. Even the most primitive of peoples must have found it desirable to take note of the configurations and movements of the stars and the Sun and the Moon, the two latter objects being obviously very closely connected with the subsistence and the wellbeing of the human race. And the stars were found to be guides for the travelers by land or sea, while the fixing of the changes of the seasons, so essential to the farmers, was at a later date found to be possible by means of the times of their rising and setting throughout the year. Mankind had to relate all activities to the daily alterations of light and darkness, and to the daily and seasonal alterations of warmth and cold, and soon saw that these were due to the

Journal of Skyscape Archaeology

Stars are ubiquitous; the Sun and Moon are singletons. The Sun and the Moon visually dominate the sky. They change in the amount of light they produce, either monthly or yearly. They also rhythmically change how they embrace the horizon, creating a measure of time and seasons. In contrast, the stars are many and their light is small. Their place in the sky is fixed and, ignoring precession, their relationship to the horizon is constant, always rising or setting at the same point. They are different in almost every way to the luminaries, in their multiplicity, light, fixed spatial relationship to each other and fixity in a landscape. These distinct characteristics mean that the stars are a catalyst for sky narratives quite different from those of the luminaries. The most easily recognisable stellar sky narratives are the constellation stories. The multiplicity of the stars produces a scattering of lights across the night sky according to a fixed pattern which, to the human mind - wit...

Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 2011

The navaranga in the medieval stone temple of Vidyasankara at Sringeri, built around A.D. 1350, has twelve zodiacal pillars arranged in a square with the zodiacal signs carved on them. It has been claimed that the morning sunrise lights up the pillar that corresponds to the zodiacal constellation in which Sun is located at that time, so the temple can be used as an instrument to predict calendar days. We carried out observations to investigate this aspect by monitoring both sunrises and sunsets, and found that the correspondence between the illumination of specific pillars and the zodiacal sign of the Sun could only be maintained if the epoch for such an arrangement was around 2000 B.C. The implications of this finding are discussed in this paper.

Abstract. Like many ancient cultures, in Hindu tradition too Sun is considered to be the most prominent divinity in the cosmos and has been part of invocation and festivities since the ancient past. While testing the hypothesis that the city plan of Varanasi has developed according to a cosmic order, it is observed that the temples and shrines related to Sun (Aditya) are placed in a meaningful spatially manifested pattern corresponding to the cosmic geometry and the movement of sun, the association of cosmic north and Kashi-North, and the celebrating seasonal festivities in a sequential order referring to solstices and equinoxes. Probably, this pattern had grown in pre-Brahmanical tradition, and later on superseded by the Shaiva tradition, however they are still part of active veneration and festivities. The nomenclature and iconographic features of all the fourteen Sun images in Varanasi further indicate the mythological links to belief systems and the inherent scientific meanings that were codified in the mystical tradition and continued as part of religious tradition. Keywords: cosmic order, equinox, mythology, sacred geometry, spatial pattern, solstice, sun images, zodiac.