Date of Lagadha, Vedanga Jyotisha

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What is Jyotisha?

It is the “science of lights” ie astronomy.

What is Vedanga?

Vedangas are branches of the Vedas, that one must know in order to understand them. They are Siksha, Niruktha, Kalpa, Vyakarana, Chandas and Jyotisha. (More : Vedangas, Learning Vedic Sanskrit (Nirukta Vedanga), Siksha Vedanga, Vedic Rites (Rituals) : kalpa)

How big is the Vedanga Jyotisha?

The Rg Vedic version is 36 verses long. The Yajurvedic version is 44 verses long.

Who was Lagadha?

Lagadha is the Rishi who enunciated Vedanga Jyotisha.

When did he live?

Vedanga Jyotisha tells us that at Lagadha’s time the winter solstice was at the beginning of Sravishta and summer solsitice was in the middle of Aslesha.

Today the winter solstice is in the 2nd pada of mula nakshatra.

(Dhanus Sankramanam, or the start of Dhanur Masam on 17th Dec 2010, is when the sun entered mula nakshatram. The winter solstice was on Dec 21st 2010. The sun crosses one nakshatra pada in about 3.x days. And in 108 such padas crosses all the 27 nakshatras – from a  geo-centric perspective.)

The list of nakshatras from Dhanishta to Mula is given below..

19 Moola (Vichruta) Lambda Scorpio
20 Poorvashadha Delta Sagittari
21 Uttarashadha Sigma sagittari
22 Sravana Alpha Aquiloe
23 Dhanshita (Sravistha) Beta Delphinum

Thus the winter solstice has preceded by approximately 4 nakshatras.

ie by (4/27)*360 degrees.

In 1 year the winter solstice shifts by 50.3 seconds ie by (50.3/3600) degrees/year

{(4/27)*360 degrees}/{(50.3/3600) degrees/year} gives us the number of years between Lagadha and us ie 3817 years approx. This is 3817-2010 = 1807 BCE.

A slightly better approximation gives us,

(3.75/27)*360*3600/50.3 = 3578.5 years between Lagadha and us .. this leads to 3578.5-2010= 1568.5 BCE

Therefore I can accept a date of for Lagadha around 1568 BCE.

Authorship and Copyright Notice : Satya Sarada Kandula : All Rights Reserved.

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