Author: Smita Mitra
Publication: Outlook
Date: September 13, 2004
URL: http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20040913&fname=Krishna&sid=1
Introduction: With some deft computer
astrology, mythic Krishna gets a date of birth, and some planetary influence
Even gods come to earth with their
destinies chalked out for them. So claims astrology, at any rate.
So when Arun K. Bansal, the father
of computer astrology in India, says that Hindu god Krishna was born on
July 21, 3228 bc, it feels momentous somehow. The date essentially transforms
Krishna in our minds: from a mythological figure of mystery, even if a
much-loved one, into well a flesh and blood entity. You can almost see
him gurgling in Yashoda's lap as Rishi Garg performs his naming ceremony
in a cow shed more than 50 centuries ago.
But backtracking into the past can
be a sloppy misadventure if you don't get your calculations right. So Bansal
rests his claims on two of his software packages-the Leo Gold and the Palm
computer programmes. They can simulate any planetary configuration that
has occurred or could occur in time.
All they need is a date. And July
21, 3228 bc, according to Bansal, satisfies every condition described during
Krishna's birth.
Krishna was born in the Rohini nakshatra,
in the Hindu month of Bhadrapada, on the 8th day of the waning moon at
midnight. Bansal says this was enough information for him to nail the date,
working backwards from Krishna's death, which he says occurred at 2 pm
on February 18, 3102 bc.
His entire case rests on the accuracy
of this date, however. Bansal quotes extensively from the Shrimad Bhagwat
and the Shri Vishnu Puranas, old Hindu calendars and the Mahabharata to
illuminate the clues he chose to follow. "A shloka in the 38th chapter
of the Shri Vishnu Puran, says that Kaliyuga started on the day Krishna
died." He unearths another shloka in the Shrimad Bhagwat Purana (part 11,
chapter 6) where Brahma himself speaks to Krishna about how old he is.
"Brahma says that 125 years have passed since Krishna's birth; this is
just before Krishna plans his death."
Though not empirically verifiable,
the advent of Kaliyuga is traditionally taken to be 3102 bc, because all
our panchangas or astrological journals maintain that 5,100 years of Kaliyuga
had passed before 1999 AD. The belief is supported by mathematician Aryabhatta's
astronomy treatise Aryabhattiya, the Surya Siddhanta, an astronomical text
that dates back to 400 AD, and a 5th century inscription from a temple
in Aihole.
Deleting 125 years from the date,
Bansal figured Krishna was born either in 3327 or 3228 bc. The rest he
left up to his software, merely feeding in the planetary configuration
that Krishna was supposedly born under, to generate the row of figures
that conforms to the epochal moment.
Would astrology have thrown any
light on what such an individual may have been like? Outlook asked Bansal
to create a birth chart based on the date. His computer churns out 15 pages
sectioned under tantalising headings like Love & Romance, Appearance,
Personality, and Journeys. With Saturn in his seventh house, he would have
been fated to court many women-enter Radha, the gopis and later his 16,108
wives. But since the seventh house was also under the sign of Scorpio,
which guarantees a joyful marital life, he'd also have had the power to
keep them happy despite having to divide his attentions among them.
An attractive appearance and personality
would have come from the exalted moon under the sign of Taurus. Jupiter
and the exalted Mercury in the fifth house will have conferred intelligence
and oratory skills. Fame and power would have come from Ketu in the 9th
house, though it would also have forced him to lead a life away from his
birthplace.
Certainly stray statements do conform
eerily to Krishna's attributed qualities. "Endowed with a glowing complexion,
you have bright eyes and an enchanting smile." Under personality comes-"You
have great fancy for music, moonlight and money".
Even the Bhagwad Gita seems to have
its origin in his birth chart; it predicts that a person born under this
astral spread would have been a great believer in karma who would advise
others about karma and noble deeds.
But there are a few adverse planetary
configurations to contend with. The chart describes a life of continuous
strife, peppered with battles and wars because Rahu, Mars and Venus are
in the third house. Due to the location of Jupiter in Leo, he would also
have been destined to be estranged from his mother-or mothers in his case.
With plans to announce the results
of his research at the Somnath temple during this year's Janmashtami festival
for Krishna's birthday, Bansal says that even the temple's priests concur
with his findings. "Another pandit, Shri Gyananda Saraswati in Benaras,
who will come to the celebration in Somnath, has also come up with the
same dates."
At peace with his research, Bansal
prefers to turn a blind eye to the long, long line of astrologers, godmen,
NASA scientists, mathematicians and writers stretching all the way back
to Aryabhatta who have worked on the same thing. They all quote the same
scriptures, taking into account some or all of the astral happenings recorded
in great detail, especially the ones during the calamitous time of the
Mahabharata war, when Krishna was said to have been 90 years old. These
include rare astronomical happenings like the solar and lunar eclipse that
occurred consecutively in the space of a month just before the war, a fortnight
that lasted only for 13 days instead of 15 when the moon was waning, and
a comet that burned through the skies. Also, the planetary positions recorded
during the Mahabharata war were roughly replicated 36 years later, when
Krishna died.
Most scholars prefer to concentrate
on the Mahabharata war where a significant cluster of astronomical events
occurred, before zooming onto their own set of dates that binds down the
life of the eighth avatar of Vishnu in a specific time-frame. But the dates,
while drawn from the same source, strain in opposite directions.
At a colloquium organised by the
Mythic Society in Bangalore in January last year, dates as wide as 1478
bc to 3067 bc were proposed. Contributors included S. Balakrishna (from
NASA, US), using Lodestar Pro software, who proposed 2559 bc as the start
of the war. Prof R.N. Iyengar (from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore)
brought the event closer historically, suggesting the date 1478 bc, while
B.N. Narahari Achar (Department of Physics, University of Memphis, US)
after "critically examining" the astronomical events in the Mahabharata
pointed to 3067 bc.
Authors like P.V. Vartak push back
the date of the Mahabharata much further, to 5561 bc. Swami Prakashanand
Saraswati, in his book, The True History and the Religion of India, comes
up with the same dates as Bansal does.
Considering that there are 150 astronomical
references provided about the characters and events in the Mahabharata
in one lakh-odd shlokas, there is little consensus on what information
is worth concentrating on. In addition, there is reason to believe that
our scriptures "grew" over time, incorporating events of every period.
So there is precious little we can attribute collectively to one age. Many
scholars in fact wonder if all the references to Krishna in the scriptures
refer to one person or whether the Krishna of Vrindavan and the Krishna
of the Mahabharata are two different people. But then searching for that
mythical date wouldn't be half as engaging if the process weren't so complicated.
Any wonder that even though the gods have destinies, they prefer we view
them through fogged glasses?
