|
The first six months of 889 Saka
(967 AD) was a period marked by a series of rare celestial shows on
the eastern sky taking place every morning in the hours before
sunrise. Of these the planetary transit in April was the most
spectacular of them.
Banteay Srey (Isvarapura) is a Shivaite temple located 25 km
north of Angkor Wat and the stone inscription K.842, dated 968 AD,
found on site informs that a lingam was erected coinciding with the
transit. |
|
All five planets (navagrahas) – April 967 A.D. (1510
B.E.) |
The Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in June was another rare event and a finale
for the celestial show.
Jupiter and Saturn conjunctions follow a 20-years cycle
and on some occasions Mars, Venus and Mercury join, but the frequency for
all 5 to join in a cluster can be centuries.
Navagrahas.
The naked eye can only perceive these five planets,
which also are known as the 'five wanderers', because they change position
every night as compared to the stars. Occasions when all five stood close
to one another mankind has noticed it since dawn of time and in some cases
noted it down, like at Banteay Srey.
The five planets played a crucial role in Hindu
religion. Together with the sun, the moon, Rahu and Ketu (astronomically
the nodes of the moon) they formed the 'Nine Celestial Deities', the
Navagrahas, who still are depicted and worshipped in present day India,
especially in Shivaite temples.
The 'Nine Celestial Deities' are also depicted in
ancient Khmer art and at least half a dozen depictions are found in Isan,
where they are described as Navagrahas, but are different from the Indian
Navagrahas: The two first deities are the Sun and the Moon and the last
two Rahu and Ketu, but the five in the middle seem to have been replaced
by various 'Guardians of the Cardinal Directions', the Dikpalas – and
always with Indra, the guardian the eastern direction, on his 3-headed
elephant Airavata in the middle.
The Banteay Srey
Inscription
The last of the 44 stanzas on stele K.842 from Banteay
Srey describes the positions of the Sun, the Moon, and the five planets
and informs us that the lingam was installed the ''first day in the second
month, 889 Saka'' (967 A.D.).
Adding Rahu and Ketu, who in the Hindu mythology devour
the moon at lunar eclipse then all 9 Navagrahas attended the consecration
of the Shiva lingam.
Stanza 44 of inscription K. 842: ''The God was erected
here when Aquarius rose, on a Saturday, the first day of Madhava, 889
Saka. Mars, Jupiter and Venus were in the 5th sign of the zodiac. Mercury,
Saturn and the Sun were in the 6th and the moon was in the 10th' (Ref. 1)
Present astronomic calculations confirm that the five planets did pass one
another in mid April 967 (fig. 1) and that the chronology of the planets
changed from week to week.
''The 1st day of Madhava, 889 Saka'' must be the 16th of April 967 AD,
because Madhava is the 2nd solar month in the Vedic calendar starting from
vernal equinox the 16th of March with Madhu.
''The God was erected here when Aquarius rose''
indicates that the consecration ceremony started after midnight, recalling
the consecration ceremony at Lolei which took place ''after two measures
of water having flown since midnight'' (p. 269, ref. 3),
calculated by the author to be the 9th
of July 893 AD at 00:51:40.
The use of Vedic astronomical terminology as the solar
month Madhava is interesting because most other inscriptions use Sidhantic
terminology from mid first millennium on.
The information about the positions of the planets in the various zodiacal
signs is puzzling when compared to modern computation – maybe due to the
translation from Sanskrit to French: On the 16th of March 967 the sun was
in the middle of the first rasi, the zodiacal sign Aries and all five
planets were in the 12th, Pisces.
Counting in the 27 lunar houses, the Naksastras, which
have been in use since early Vedic times, does not solve the puzzle
either.
The planets are rarely
mentioned in Vedic astronomy. The 5th century (11th BE) India saw a new
tradition of astronomical manuals, the Siddhantas. With the Siddhantas
vernal equinox replaced winter solstice as New Year. The lunar month was
set to start from new moon instead of full moon. The zodiac started at the
first point of Aries: The star Sheratan (next to Mercury – fig. 2).
Aryabhata I (born 476 AD) took ''the beginning of Mahayuga as the epoch,
that is, as the zero day.'', but ''later astronomers counted from the
beginning of Kali era'' (Ref. 2, p. 291).
''The beginning of Kaliyuga was taken to be the epoch
when the Sun, Moon, and the planets were together in the beginning of the
Mesa rasi (equinox, ed.) which is the starting point of the Indian zodiac.
The beginning of Kaliyuga era was the midnight at Ujjani (Lanka) at the
end of 17th February of 3102 BC'' (Ref. 2, p. 298).
The inscription at Banteay
Srey was made by Jayavarman V the year after the consecration and on
request of the king's guru Yajñavaraha, a Brahmin of royal descent who
also was a counsellor of the previous king Rayendravarman II (944–968 AD).
We can only guess about whether the temple was planned
and build with the intention of synchronising the instalment of the linga
with the rare occasion when the Navagrahas were grouped, or whether the
planetary transit was observed and then afterwards decided to be the
auspicious moment for the linga.
Of these alternatives, the first seems most probable.
Temporary astronomers in India had sufficient knowledge to predict the
event so most probably Khmer astronomers and Brahmins had too. Banteay
Srey was built by the king's guru Yajñavaraha and demonstrates all the
knowledge of this Khmer scholar.
Decorations from the temple also refer to astronomy. The Navagrahas are
depicted on a lintel and the guardians of the cardinal directions, the
Dikpalas, are represented too. And the design of the structure has
embedded alignments towards equinox and the solstices.
The important astronomical
information from the stele is that the calendric year started at vernal
equinox in mid-March and that the five-planet transit was perceived as
auspicious.
Not only the ancient Khmers and Indians regarded the
five-planet transits as auspicious. The Chinese calendric system starts
from a five-planet transit in 1953 BC, and the Star of Bethlehem, marking
the birth of Jesus Christ, has by some scholars been related to the same
event too.
|
The next time the five planets will
meet will be the 9th of September 2040 A.D. The celestial show will be
clearly visible after sunset over the western horizon. And the
crescent moon (one of Shiva's symbols) will join the group too (Fig.
2).
The planetary show will be visible from most places on Earth, but
the author hopes to see the event from the top of Prasat Phanom Rung
in Buriram province, Thailand, because the 9th of September is also
one of the occasions when it is possible to observe the rising sun
visible through all 15 gates of the temple. |
|
All five planets (navagrahas) – September 2040 AD
(2583) |
References:
(1): Coèdes, George. 1937-66.
Inscription du Cambodge,
8 vol. École française d'Extrême-Orient. Collection
de Textes et Documents sur l'Indochine,
Paris.
(2): Sen, S. N. & Shukla K. S.
(editors). 1985. History of Astronomy in
India,
Indian National Science Academy, New Dehli, 525 p.
(3): Aymonier, Etienne. 1999.
Khmer heritage in the old Siamese
provinces of
Cambodia : with special
emphasis on temples, inscriptions, and etymology.
White Lotus, Bangkok, 302 p.
(4): Information on the author's
research on astro-archaeology:
www.thai-isan-lao.com
INTERIM PICTURES
for discussion
At sunrise 13 April 967 AD
At sunrise 16 April 967 AD
When Aquarius rose - and 'the God was erected'?
INDEX
30 November 2004
macsida@thai-isan-lao.com
www.thai-isan-lao.com
|