Madhuvidya

Author(s): S D Laddu, T N Dharmadhikari, Madhvi Kolhatkar, Pratibha Pingle
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 734

THE ASTRONOMICAL CODE OF THE RGVEDA : by Subhash Kak;
Aditya Prakashan, New Delhi; 1994; Pp. xi, 144; Price : Rs. 175/
While reading an essay is a popular magazine the author of this book suddenly got the idea that the identical size of the sun and the moon when viewed from the earth had something to do with the structure of the Rgveda. In the year 1997 he discovered that the number of hymns in the Magdalas of the Rgveda encoded certain facts about the passage of the sun and the moon. His later investigations with the help of a computer convinced him that this correspondence was not a coincidence but was deliberately achieved. (p. x).
The book deals with a variety of subjects related to Vedic astronomy. After taking a review of the context in which Vedic studies were carried out in the nineteenth century, the author deals with the chronology of the Vedic texts and astronomy of the fire aliars.. Next, he deals with the proper subject of the book viz. the architecture of the Rgveda' and the Rigvedic code. In the end he also analyzes the text of the Atharvaveda and the Bhagavadgită to point out that they also reveal a kaowledge of the code.
The author has based his calculations on the number of hymns and their internal groupings in each Mandala. But as has been long recognized the number of hymns in each Mandala as found in the text today cannot be the same in the original collection of the ten Mandalas. The present collection violates at several places the principle of arranging the hymns. in the descending number of stanzas. To restore the arrangement to its proper order it is necessary to split the longer hymns into shorter ones. To give a single cxample, in the present arrangement of the Rgveda Samhita the number of hymns in Magdala 3 is 62. The last hymn consits of 18 stanzas, whereas the one immediately preceding it has 7 stanzas. This violates the principle of arrangement referred to above. To restore the proper order it is necessary to split the last hymn of eigbteen stanzas into six trcas which are addressed to different deities. When this is done the number of hymns in the third Mandala becomes 67, instead of 62 as at present. If the author's conclu. sions are to be accepted it would mean that the redactor who gave the final shape to the Samhita deliberately combined the six frcos nientioned above into a single hymd so that the iotal number of hyains in Mandala three becomes 62 as is required for the code discovered by the author. This nust have been a very bold and purposeful act of the redactor and it is difficult to imagine that such a significant step left no trace bebind it. The author himself is aware of the fact that the astronomical code discovered' by him as the basis for the
i The author does not give any details about this magazine,
Madhu Vidyā/709