Wednesday, January 27, 2010

The restaurant at the end of the Universe

Came across a wonderful blog explaining the advances we had made - which is now lost in the mists of time - and by the burning down of our heritage - Nalanda and Somnath and all other places which fell under he sword and flame of the heathen barbarians.

This is the link

http://slezall.blogspot.com/

I would recommend everyone have a look, lots and lots of good stuff here

Here i reproduce verbatim one blog, just to show the extent of advancement we had

Value of Pye in Atharva Veda


Value of Pye in Athrava Veda

The transliteration would be as follows -


GoPeeBHaagYa MaDHuvRaaTa SHrunGiSHoDaDHiSanDHiGa
KHaLaJeeViTaKHaaTaaVa GaLaHaaLaaRaSanDHaRa

I have used capitals for those consonants which have to be deciphered for the values. Some consonants which have the emphatic pronunciation have been spelt along with H.

Tamilians are at a disadvantage. Unfortunately Tamil script has very few consonants. I know that Ka in Tamil is written for as many as four sounds - Ka, KHa, Ga and also GHa. So for writing GanGaa in Tamil, one would write KanKaa. Yet Tamil has two "na"s and two "LLa"s. They say that the second "LLa" is difficult to explain to a non-Tamilian.


Devanagaree script has better distinction. Kannada is even more detailed on the vowels, since it also distinguishes "ey" both as short and long, i.e. "ey" in "get" is written differently than "ey" in "Gate". Likewise there are short and long "oe"s in Kannada, to spell "notice" and "goat" differently.

Coming back to value of Pye, Values of identified consonants are to be put in by the "Sootra"s, which are also embedded in the jpg file. They are -
Kaa-di Nava, i.e. Ka =1, KHa = 2, Ga = 3, GHa = 4, GNa = 5, Cha = 6, ChHa = 7, Ja = 8 and JHa =9
Taa-di Nava, i.e. Ta =1, THa = 2, Da = 3, DHa = 4, NNa = 5, ta = 6, tHa = 7, da = 8 and dHa =9
Paa-di Panchak i.e. Pa =1, PHa = 2, Ba = 3, BHa = 4, Ma = 5
Yaa-dyashtaka i.e. Ya =1, Ra = 2, La = 3, Wa = 4, sha = 5, SHa = 6, Sa = 7, Ha = 8
Ksha-sh Shoonyam i.e. Ksha = 0

So, the sootras provide 4 options each for 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, three options each for 6, 7, 8, two options for 9 and only one option for zero. Options help to put values into verse form. In Americapeople get telephone numbers which can be spelled to denote the activity of the company. For example, the company publishing a magazine “SkyMall” has its number 1-800-759-6255. When spelled, it becomes 1-800-SkyMall, because number 7 on telephones stands for letter S, number 5 for K and so on.

In this shloka for value of Pye, the first line is also an ode to Lord Krishna, as is clear from the mention of Gopi-Bhagya. The second line is ode to Lord Shiva, as can be read from "Gala-Haalaarasam-Dhara", one who wears a serpent around his neck. So, the shloka is both, prayers and value of Pye!!!

From the scientific mode of calculator available on computers the value is

3.1 41 59 26 53 58 97 93 23 84 62 64 33 83 27 95

Value from Shloka as deciphered is -

Go Pee BHaag Ya Ma DHuv Raa Ta SHrun Gi SHo Da DHi San DHi Ga
3 1 4 1 5 9 2 6 5 3 5 8 9 7 9 3
KHa La Jee Vi Ta KHaa Taa Va Ga La Haa Laa Ra San DHa Ra
2 3 8 4 6 2 6 4 3 3 8 3 2 7 9 2

In the shloka, the last digit denoted by the letter Ra becomes 2. In the calculator it is 5. All the rest 31 digits are identical.

The point of curiosity is, why did Rushees of Athrva-Veda need such accurate value of Pye to the thirty-second digit? Simple explanation is that they have been great astronomers. Most eminent among them was Maharshi Bhrugu, as acknowledged by none other than Lord Krishna in the tenth chapter in Geetaa. "MaharsheeNNaam Bhruguraham"!! He composed Bhrugu-samhitaa, which is the reference work for all uses of astronomy, most common being in Astrology.

Astronomy is study of Universe, Geography is study of only the Earth. And to get exactitude in the study of astronomy, orbits, spatial positions and velocities of different planets with reference to a fixed reference, the Sun, such value of Pye was needed. How such accurate value was derived is another curiosity. But we know that the mathematics of Indian almanacs gives accurate prediction of eclipses, their exact timings - sparsh-kaala, moksha-kaala and geographical boundaries of areas from where an eclipse would be visible, also whether it will be a whole eclipse, Kha-graasa or partial, Khanda-graasa. The base for all this is Bhrugu-Samhitaa, the sage, who had the grasp of the whole Universe, MaharsheeNNaam Bhruguraham!!