In a previous article I had shown why 3K dates for Mahabharata dating should not claim Magha Shukla Ashtami to be in Uttarayan. Any date claiming otherwise can easily be disproved by studying the full moons in the year. I have previously shown this for the dates 3067BCE and 3163BCE. In this article, I will demonstrate it for -3139/3140BCE date as proposed by Smt. Saroj Bala in her book Mahabharata retold with scientific evidence.
The Day of Winter Solstice
The day of winter solstice for -3139 as put forth by Smt. Saroj Bala is Dec19 in the Gregorian calendar which would be -3138 Jan 14 in the Julian calendar. Figure 1, is a snapshot from Stellarium for the winter solstice day on -3138 highlighting the position of sun and moon.
Figure1. Jan 14 -3138 (Julian) or Dec 19 -3139 (Gregorian). Winter solstice
The figure shows that the sun is at 270Degree in the ecliptic. Hence it is the winter solstice day. The moon is in the Krittika nakshatra. The author claims that the day after the solstice (Dec 20 -3139) is the Magha Shukla Ashtami Rohini nakshatra or the day of Bhishma Nirvana.
Is Dec 20 -3139 (Gregorian) Magha Shukla Ashtami?
Let us check if the date Dec 20 -3139 (Gregorian) or Jan 15 -3138 (Julian) is Magha Shukla Ashtami. Jan 15 -3138 precedes a full moon at Jan 23 -3138(Julian). This full moon is shown in Figure 2. It is clearly a Phalguna Purnima. Hence Jan 15 -3138 (Julian) is Phalguna Shukla Ashtami. It is not Magha Shukla Ashtami as claimed by the author.
Chaitra, Vaisakha and Jyeshta Purnima
Let us look at the next 3 full moons that follow Jan 23 -3138 (Julian). These are shown in the figure 3,4 and 5. They occur on the dates Feb 21, March 22 and April 21 -3138 (Julian).
Figure 4. March 22 -3138 (Julian). Vaisakha Purnima
As per the author it should be Phalguna Purnima, Chaitra Purnima and Vaisakha Purnima. The figures make is clear that they are instead Chaitra Purnima, Vaisakha Purnima and Jyeshta Purnima.
Figure 5. April 21 -3138 (Julian). Jyeshta Purnima
