This article aims at establishing Martanda, described in the Indic texts as the Sun of Younger Dryas. In the process, the story of the wives of the Sun, Sanjña who deserted her husband and deputed Chaya in her place, is also deciphered. This story, treated with derision by many from Max Muller to Wendy Doniger, needs to be revealed in the right purport meant by the rishis.

After revealing the climatic feasibility of sustaining human population during the Ice Age, only within a short band around the equator, in South East Asian region, we decipher the story of the two wives. The de-glaciation date by Clark et al gives the upper limit of the birth of Vivsavan, the sun, growing in brightness around 13,400 BP. Since then the growing heat and brightness continued only for 500 years by which time the Younger Dryas (Mini Ice Age) had set in.

Within this 500 year period, Manu and the fraternal twins Yama and Yami were born to Sanjña. Birth of Manu signals the birth of a new haplogroup that, however, suffered reduction in numbers due to natural calamities. The death of many signaled the birth of Yama and Yami. Death was also due to a comet-hit that heralded Younger Dryas. This is symbolized by the entry of Chaya, who by her name indicates shadow and less light.

The birth of Saturn to Chaya refers to the discovery of the planet Saturn for the first time in human history. Her second child was Manu, who represents a new haplogroup capable of surviving the Ice Age, and has a bearing on future manvantras.

Tapati, the third child of Chaya, could refer to the birth of the river Tapati. The root word being ‘tapa’, it is deduced that the Multapi region (source of Tapati) was snow covered during the Ice Age and started melting at the beginning of Younger Dryas.

The decipherment of Yama and Yami is done by means of the Rig Vedic hymn and the desire of Yami to marry her fraternal twin Yama. Interestingly, Natural Selection favours twinning in times of reduction in human population. The marriage between fraternal twins being accepted practice in ancient Bali, we get yet another concurrence to the location of Vishakha (Pura Besakih) in Bali.

The Sun of the Younger Dryas was a modified Vivasvan who was known for spreading light. The ancestral society of the Indic people has realized that the loss of the lustre was only for a brief period. They named the sun of that period as Martanda, one that is not dead within the Anda.

By 11,500 BP, the sun started shining again. That was the birth (or rebirth) of Vivasvan and Vaivasvata Manvantra. So any date of the descendant of Vaivasvata Manu, say of Rama, is possible only after this date.

Martanda coming to be hailed as the Sun of Adhika Maasa signals another revelation, that the 5 year Yuga concept based on Adhika Maasa could have been conceived only after Younger Dryas when Martanda was the sun, that is, after 11500 BP. This brings us to discuss the Yuga concepts in the next episode before we return to Skanda episodes from Tamil sources. 

Understanding the application of the Yuga concept

The mini Ice Age called Younger Dryas (11,000 years ago) when the planet Saturn was discovered and Vivasvan (the sun) was perceived as Martanda place un-challengeable upper limits to the formation of two types of Yuga concepts, namely, the Catur Maha Yuga concept measuring the age of Brahma and the 5-year Yuga concept having practical application in Vedic society. These two are discussed along with the Manvantra concept.

A brief account of the Catur Maha Yuga concept based on planetary revolutions expressed in terms of Time and not applicable to human life shows that the view that Ramayana occurred in Treta Yuga lakhs of years ago has no basis. This is supported by highlighting the fact that the Indian landmass was not where it is now when the current Manvantra of Vaivasvata started.

The purpose of the Catur Maha Yuga is further explored by deciphering the dancing posture of Nataraja. The primary utility of the Catur Maha Yuga concept running into lakhs of years is to measure the entire span of space that is one-fourth of the manifest form of Brahman, in terms of time for which the basic unit is taken as the solar year. This concept could have been conceived only after 11,000 years BP (before present) as this computation demands knowledge of the five Tara grahas that include Saturn (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are known as Tara Grahas).

This Yuga concept, matched with current science on Big Bang, shows that we are in the 2nd day of Brahma after the Big Bang event. This concept also reveals that the night kalpa of Brahma started 1.16 billion years before the Big Bang. Knowledge of the fundamentals of this concept is essential for solving some of the tricky issues found in Mahabharata. Four issues are solved using the fundamentals.

1.      The Amanta system has been in vogue ever since the Yuga concept was perceived. As such the origins of Purnimanta system antedates the discovery of Saturn and could be traced to the south of the equator.

2.     The verses of Mahabharata pertaining to sensing the arrival of Kali during the Mahabharata war are not about the computational Catur Yuga concept that is planet based, but about the nature of Time - as adharmic. In such scenario within a short period, any one of the four yugas can be sensed in any order and even found changing quickly from one to another.

3.     The Rahu-Ketu axis is an essential pre-condition for determining the evidence on an eclipse. This axis comes back to the same signs at the end of 18 years (since they complete one revolution around the zodiac in 18 years). This axis was in Pisces-Virgo at the beginning of the Kali Maha Yuga when all the planets except Rahu congregated at the beginning of Aries. They must have been hovering around the same signs at the time of the Mahabharata war that took place on the 36th year before Kali Yuga began. Unfortunately most research works on Mahabharata date show this axis in Taurus-Scorpio by wrongly interpreting the 13-day twin lunation as twin eclipses.

4.     How lack of knowledge of the fundamentals leads to mis-interpretations is demonstrated in the tithi concept. Amavasya can happen starting from 14th to 15th tithi or from 15th to 16th (technically it is the 1st tithi otherwise), but never from 13th to 14th tithi. If that happens, it means the moon’s path is shortened, which is impossible.

Vyasa (others too including Karna, Krishna, Balarama) was appalled on seeing Amavasya occurring on Trayodashi. He was anxiously watching the next phase which also ended on the 13th tithi, on the same star as in the previous month. This reduction can be caused by a reduction in the circumference of the orbit of the moon, which has no explanation other than a comet smashing on the moon, almost shaking it temporarily. A similar event shook the moon in Raivataka manvantra, as we shall see.

Ancient past until Skanda decoded from Manvantaras

Exploring the meaning of Manvantara, we find Manvantara as a measurement of Time and an Epoch that covers geological events. The story of Madhu and Kaitabha can be deciphered in this context as mantle or ‘medas’ oozing out and ultimately forming the crust of the earth. It is from here that the other meaning of Manvantara becomes relevant.

Manu forms the basis of a Manvantara – Manu being the embodiment of Dharma as per Shiva Purana. The first Manvantara as per Brahmanda Purana was that of Brahma when the wind was the calf and the seeds spread by the wind formed the factor that was milked. Brahma Manvantara is not mentioned in the other Puranas, but this Manvantara gives continuity from Madhu-Kaitabha episode that was followed by the formation of trees on the crust of the earth.

This was followed by Svayambhu Manvantara, designated as the first Manvantara by the other Puranas. By the etymology of the name Svayambhu it is known that he was self-born and not dropped by God on the earth. The etymology concurs with the Darwinian concept of evolution – of man evolving from previously existing life forms. It is for this reason he was known as Svayambhu. He, as the calf, milked all the plants of the earth. This implies that man was not carnivorous by nature.

Svayambhu’s first knowledge was the use of mud, recognized as “Kardama” who along with “Chiklida” (moisture) brought wealth to man. So the western conception of Stone Age has no relevance to the Indic past.

The herbivorous lifestyle of Indic man continues to be revealed in the next Manvantara too, when man became Svarochisha – self-shining by his ability to identify and collect food grains. This resulted in gaining the knowledge of medical and health related benefits of food grains.

Man evolved further by using the grains for growing crops. The period when he started growing crops is known as Uttama Manvantara when the calf was Devabhuja – the ‘hand of Devas’. This could refer to the understanding of the natural forces such as sunshine and rainfall, and their importance in growing crops. Man had now realized the role of forces beyond his control and with this the first concept of Deva – the God, had dawned.

A notable feature of this Manvantara is that cultivation had started very long ago. The role of sunshine in cultivation points to locations in equatorial rainfall regions. In contrast, Ice Age conditions were continuing for very long in the northern parts of the globe, including Europe and West Asia, until the end of Younger Dryas.

Cultivation signals settled life in Uttama Manvantara. This was followed by the 4th Manvantara, namely Tamasa Manvantara that signified darkness. This could be a reference to the Last Glacial Maximum that started 33,000 years ago which brought less warmth to the equatorial regions. There is no mention of what is milked at this time, but Bala-Bandhu was referred to as the calf. This period forced people to be huddled together that resulted in strengthening bonding and family life. Bala-Bandhu is more likely to be Bala Bandhu – of people, mothers and elderly women in particular, becoming guardians and protectors of children. From this, honoring the departed mothers must have started, which gave rise to the concept of Mother Spirits.

Then came the 5th Manvantara, Raivata Manvantara, when speech developed. The family concept that had come up by this time helped in developing speech for communication. The location was in Shaka Dweepa in the equatorial region, where Mount Kumuda was located. It came to be known as Kaumara by the time of Mahabharata, giving us the indication of the role of Kumara or Skanda in developing speech further as proper languages. 

This Manvantara also saw the movement of people, which resulted in the spread of speech to different regions of the world. This was followed by Cakshusha Manvantara, the 6th Manvantara, by which time man started developing deep thinking that is recognized as ‘vision’ or ‘eye sight’; hence the name Cakshusha for the Manvantara.

This Manvantara saw the peak of human intelligence by the discovery of ‘Bhavya’ – the heaven, the celestial sphere. The story of Dhruva happened in this Manvantara. The discovery of Dhruva nakshatra, concept of creation and year was made in this Manvantara by a combination of external and internal vision. Rituals were invented.

Following Dhruva, Daksha came into being – Daksha referring to a time of clever and able persons. The discovery of the zodiac with 27 stars traversed by the moon was made in this time. Puranas say that there were many Daksha-s in the past and all of them were terminated by sudden fire. A similar fate occurred to this Daksha of Cakshusha Manvantara which is encapsulated in the story of Daksha Yagya that was devastated by the fire unleashed by an angry Shiva.

Following Daksha, Skanda was born and that coincided with the end of Ice Age and Melt-water Pulses and followed by Younger Dryas. Skanda re-designed the zodiac and elevated Krittika as a star of the zodiac. The Shraddha ceremony (ancestral oblations) was formalized by then.

This was followed by the current Vaivasvata Manvantara. Thus we find a larger Epoch of a Manvantara (Vaivasvata) with Catur Maha Yugas running into lakhs of years – within which many smaller Manvantaras have occurred. While dealing with references to Manvantaras in ancient texts, we must be clear about what is being talked about.

Courtesy

-        https://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.com/2020/07/indic-past-series-7-martanda-sun-of.html

-        https://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.com/2020/07/indic-past-series-8-understanding.html

-        https://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.com/2020/08/indic-past-series-9-decoding-manvantaras.html

(Concluded)