The two equinoxes and two solstices are the four distinct positions the earth passes through during its annual cycle around the sun. And they define our seasons. The two equinoxes come in the middle of the Ritus, namely Vasanth and Sharad. The complete Vedic zodiac and the true positions of 28 nakshatras are given in the year chart on the back cover.
We earthlings are conditioned by the seasons on this planet. The vernal equinox (March 21 in 2019) is the direction in the sky where the sun appears to cross the celestial equator moving northward. From the vernal equinox, the sun continues to climb higher in the sky every day towards the summer solstice (June 21 ), when it reaches the farthest north, its declination touching 23.45 degrees. After the summer solstice, the sun sinks lower each day in the sky until the autumnal equinox (Sept 23 in 2019) the point where it again crosses the celestial equator moving southward. Near winter solstice (December 22) the sun reaches its lowest position in the sky where its declination on the celestial sphere is minus 23.45 degrees (For those in the southern hemisphere, the summer and winter solstice will be reversed)
All four Vedas, Puranas, Shastras and Siddhantas go by the seasonal (ritu based) year which is pegged to the four cardinal points as above. While the whole word is practically following the Vedic system of seasonal calendars, it is distressing to find only Hindus are not tuned to it. We continue follow the wrong path well over fourteen centuries now, despite the caution by the Government of India’s 1952 Calendar Reforms Committee that our Panchanga makers following the nirayana system are “actually committing the whole Hindu society toAdharama.”
We have taken into account 28 nakshatras includingAbijith. AII of them are of no equal Span. Their actual positions are marked in the back cover chart. In the Vedic period the first nakshatra was Krithika which was in Mesha Rasi. We now take Aswini in its place. But Ashwini period was over a long time back and it is Purva Bhadrapada that is at true east. After 452 years the period of Shatabhisak will rule for over 858 years. Verify your own janma Nakshatra. Nothing in the sky stands still. So you readers have to decide yourselves if all our calculations based on wrong data can be depended upon forever. Educated youth of this land please understand this and follow the re-aligned cosmic clock based on Bharat’s Vedic moorings.
Author: T.V.Sivaraman