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JANUARY, 1985
but for the general public it is a foreteller of calamity, war, epidemic and death of prominent persons. This myth is equally shared by east and west even to this date.
The ancient philosopher Plinny described a comet as of a particularly frightful body which could not be easily stoned. The people looked upon these occasional visitors to our sky with awe and wonder. Pope Calixtus III in the 15th Century ordered general prayer seeking deliverance from the comet. It was generally regarded as precursor of momentous events like war, invasion, death of prominent persons etc.
m Shakespeare rightly referred to this popular superstition in queen Calphurria's comment. About comets Swift remarked 'old men and comets have been reverred for the same reason, their long beards and pretances to forestall event's.'
In the east it is depicted as Bhasma Graha-one who brings destruction or disaster or dhūmketu--one with mysterious tail of smoke. The pandits of Astrology are always ready to predict ominous effects of such events. In this context the prediction of Kalpa Sūtra undoubtedly testified to the appearance of a comet of unprecedented brilliance which was acclaimed to be evil enough to cast bad effect for two millennium.
Talking about the Halley's comet, it last appeared in January 1910 and according to calculation it is to appear again in the year 1986 when it will come nearest to the sun and will be seen for some two-three hours after the sun set in the western sky or before the sun rise in the eastern sky. The American and Russian scientists have confirmed with the aid of gigantic telescopes that the Halley's comet is on its way and it is approaching the sun as per schedule. It is still thousands of millions of kilometers away from the earth, but its schedule is very precisely foracast. Very elaborate arrangements are being made for its thorough study all the world over. America, Russia, Japan and France are among the pioneers in this field. They propose to conduct some crucial experiments on it with the help of satellites and rockets. They hope to get the inside story of the origin of the solar system from these experiments.
The Halley's comet appears regularly after every 76.1 years. How many visits it had already completed is not exactly known. To the scientific world it had certainly completed 29 visits and will be appearing for the thirteenth time in 1986. Though its existence even before 240 B.C. is quite evident from unconfirmed sources, it still requires historical evidence to support this claim and here in this article we are able to establish with concrete proof its existence upto 526 B.C.
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