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JANUARY, 1985
71
The time of Halley's comet approaching its perihelien (nearest point to the sun) as arrived from calculation and shown in the chart is likely to differ from the time of its sighting from the earth. The reasons for the time lag are as under :
1.
The earth itself rotates round the sun ;
2.
The earth and the comet do not travel in the same plane;
3.
The direction of the rotation of the comet is opposite to that of the earth;
4. The gravitational pull of some of the heavier planets would have
affected the rotational period of the comet.
Yet the difference or time lag as stated above is not more than a few months only. As such it can be said with sufficient degree of certitude that the comet which appeared in the night of November 526 B.C. was none else than the well-known Halley's comet.
What is Bhasma Rasi Graha :
This comet has been named as Bhasma Rasi Graha in Jaina literature. Bhasma Rasi Graha is purely a Jaina mythological term and its reference is no where found even in the contemporary literature. The Jaina mythology enumerates 88 grahas or planets and each graha is taken as double. The names of 88 grahas are found in Thānānga, Tiloyapannatti and Sūryapannatti. Besides, the familiar names of Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn the other names in the list are quite unfamiliar to the modern age. Moreover, the lists in the above three Agamas do not concur exactly. The names of Bhasma Rasi Graha and Bhasma Graha only appear in the list forming part of the Thānanga while other Sūtras give different names in their places. The name of dhūmketu also appear in all the three lists.
The probable reason for the different names in three Agamas :
The inquisitiveness in human mind urged him since the inception to look into the night sky and study the stars round him. From his prolonged study and watching he could differentiate the innumerable stars into two categories. Stars which have no relative motion and stars which have relative motions. The first category is termed as nakşatras while the latter
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