Saptarshi’s visit to different Nakshatras（nakshatra Saptarshi访问不同）.pdfVIP

Saptarshi’s visit to different Nakshatras : Subtle effect of Earth‟s precession1 1 2 3 4 Aniket Sule , Mayank Vahia , Hrishikesh Joglekar , Sudha Bhujle 1 Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam, Germany, D – 14482 asule@aip.de 2 Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai 400 005, vahia@tifr.res.in 3 14 Dhus Wadi, Lakshmi Niketan, Thakurdwar, Mumbai 400 002, astrohrishi@ 4A 203 Sun Glory ,Raheja Vihar, Powai, Mumbai 400 072, sbhujle@ Summary In several ancient Indian texts a mention is made of the movement of the Saptarshi constellation (Big Bear or Big Dipper) in the sky, visiting each nakshatras for 100 years. Saptarshi is said to visit a nakshatra if the nakshatra is in the middle of the stars in the first part of Saptarshi. Since astronomical objects except planets are more or less stationary in the sky, this is generally considered a fanciful statement devoid of astronomical meaning. We show that this may not be so. We show that the visit of Saptarshi to different nakshatras may be a very significant astronomical observation. The transition is not a constant of time since it depends on the proximity of the Saptarshi to the North Pole, which changes due to Earth‟s precession and relative sizes of different nakshatras. We show that since 8000 BC, Saptarshi has visited 5 different nakshatras and for one of them, the transition happening in the span of roughly 100 years. We show that this interpretation allows dating of this belief which is consistent with other evidences of the Harappan civilisation and date different Saptarshi Era with calendar dates. Introduction In some of the most ancient texts, a mention is m