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AN EXAMINATION OF 'ATRI'S ECLIPSE' AS DESCRIBED IN THE RIG VEDA

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 Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 26(2), 405– 410 (2023).

AN EXAMINATION OF ‘ATRI’S ECLIPSE’ AS DESCRIBED

IN THE RIG VEDA
Mayank Vahia
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (Retired), Mumbai 400 005, India.
E-mail: vahia@[Link]
and
Mitsuru Sôma
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan.
E-mail: [Link]@[Link]
Abstract: The earliest written reference in Indian astronomy to a total solar eclipse is in the Rig Veda
where Rishi Atri is said to have demolished the asura Swarbhanu to liberate the Sun from a total solar
eclipse. The Rig Veda describes the occurrence of the eclipse, how the Sun suddenly disappeared in
the daytime under the spell of the Asura. The people and gods were scared but the Great Sage Atri
saved the Sun and restored his full glory. While discussing the eclipse, Tilak refers to the eclipse as
having occurred when the Vernal Equinox was in Orion, and three days prior to the Autumnal Equinox.
Based on these data, we identify ‘Atri’s eclipse’ as the one that occurred on 22 October 4202 BC or on
19 October 3811 BC.
Keywords: ‘Atri’s Eclipse’, Rig Veda, total solar eclipse

1 INTRODUCTION of a total solar eclipse. We quote the verse from

The Rig Veda is one of the oldest known doc- Jemison and Brereton (2014), which states:
uments. It dates from 1500 BC, when its con- • When, O Sun, Svarbhānu Āsura pierced
tents were assimilated and formalised on the you with darkness like a befuddled man not
basis of traditions of different schools of thought. knowing the territory the living beings per-
It was essentially a summary of various relig- ceive. (5)
ious ideas and philosophies, as well as their • Then, O Indra, when you smashed down
image of the world and its working as under- from heaven the circling magic spells of
stood at that time. It comprises a set of 10 Svarbhānu, Atri with the fourth formulation
books associated with 10 different groups of found the sun, hidden by darkness because
priests who assimilated different aspects of the of (an act) contrary to the commandment.
prevailing belief systems (see Dalal, 2014; Don- (6)
igar, 1984). The writing style in the Rig Veda is • [The Sun:] “O Atri, let him not, deceived by
highly poetic and abstract, and sometimes it is jealousy and fear, swallow me, who am one
difficult to understand. It also requires some of yours. You are an ally whose bounty is
experience in order to interpret it. real; do you and King Varuṇa help me
While the Rig Veda dates from 1500 BC, here.” (7)
there is a significant amount of evidence that it • The possessor of the sacred formulation,
incorporates memories of events that were having yoked the pressing stones, serving
much further back in time. For example, it dis- the gods with plain reverence, doing his
cusses events when the Vernal Equinox was in utmost, Atri placed the eye of the sun in
Orion, which occurred around 4500 BC, while heaven. He hid away the magic spells of
the final reference to the Vernal Equinox in the Svarbhānu. (8)
Rig Veda relates to its being in the Pleiades, • Which sun Svarbhānu Āsura pierced with
which happened in 2230 BC. darkness, that one the Atris found, for no
others were able. (9)
There are various other astronomical ref-
erences in the Rig Veda, and one of these Here is another translation of the verse, this
refers to a solar eclipse, which is the subject of time by Griffith (1896):
this paper. • O Surya, when the Asura's descendant
Svarbhanu, pierced thee through and
2 ‘ATRI’S ECLIPSE’ IN THE RIG VEDA through with darkness, All creatures looked
In the Rig Veda (V, 40, 5 –9) there is a mention like one who is bewildered, who knoweth

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Mayank Vahia and Mitsuru Sôma ‘Atri’s Eclipse’ in the Rig Veda

not the place where he is standing. (5) of which it is said to have occurred
• What time thou smotest down Svarbhanu's three days previous to the Vishuvan
magic that spread itself beneath the sky, O (the Autumnal Equinox).
Indra, By his fourth sacred prayer Atri Regarding the mention that the eclipse had
discovered Surya concealed in the gloom occurred three days prior to the Autumnal Equi-
that stayed his function. (6) nox, we quote the original verse in Kaushitiki or
• Let not the oppressor with this dread, Sankhyayana Brahmana. 24.3:
through anger swallow me up, for I am
thine, O Atri. Mitra art thou, the sender of
true blessings: thou and King Varuna be
both my helpers. (7)
• The Brahman Atri, as he set the press
stones, serving the Gods with praise and
adoration, Established in the heaven the Keith (1981) gives a translation of the passage.
eye of Surya, and caused Svarbhanu's He says that Kaushitaki Upanishad, (Chapter
magic arts to vanish. (8) 24, Brahman, [Link] 3) states that:
• The Atris found the Sun again, him whom Swarbhanu, an Asura pierced with dark-
Svarbhanu of the brood Of Asuras had ness the sun; Atri were fain to smite
pierced with gloom. This none besides had away its darkness;
the power to do. (9) they performed before Visuvanta, this
set of three days, with Saptadaca
Note that neither of the two translations sug-
Stoma.
gests the myth of Rahu and Ketu, the more
They smote away the darkness in front
common myth of eclipses in India (cf. Vahia and
of it; that settled behind;
Halkare, 2017). This reinforces the suggestion
they performed the same three-day
that this verse is significantly older than the
(rite) after Visuvat; they smote way the
more common story in the Samudra Manthana,
darkness behind it.
which is a major episode in Hinduism. It also
refers to Indra and not Vishnu, further suggest-
3 PARAMETERS OF THE ECLIPSE
ing that the myth is older than that of Rahu and
Ketu, which is believed to be a Puranic story Based on this we now have, in the Rig Veda (V,
(e.g. see Dimmitt, 2012). 40 verses 5 to 9), a description of the eclipse.
Tilak (1893) further specifies the date of the
The reference to Indra as the possessor of
eclipse as being three days before the Autum-
the Bull and Vrtra slayer is instructive in defining
nal Equinox. We therefore have four details of
the astronomical reference-frame. In the Rig
the eclipse:
Veda, the description of the Canis (Major and
Minor) and Orion regions defines the idea of 1. It occurred when the Vernal Equinox was in
Indra (Sirius) killing the bull in Taurus, sug- Orion;
gesting the end of the year of Pitras (the journey 2. It was a total solar eclipse;
of the Sun from the Autumnal Equinox to the 3. It occurred three days prior to the Autumnal
Spring Equinox) and beginning of a New Year Equinox; and
symbolised by Indra making it easy for the Sun 4. It was total wherever the Rig Vedic people
to come to the world of Devas (from the Spring were living at that time.
to the Autumnal Equinox). This is discussed in We now look at each of these parameters in
detail by Tilak (1893). We discuss Tilak’s inter- detail.
pretation below.
3.1 Vernal Equinox in Orion
2.1 Tilak’s Interpretation
The Vernal Equinox drifts in the sky by about
Tilak (1893: 166–167) gives more details: 83.81 arcmin per century or 50.29 arcsec per
The fortieth hymn in the fifth Mandala year, and hence over a period of about 25,800
of the Rigveda is still more important years the axis returns to the same point (the
in this connection. It shows that an rate changes with time, so the precise period
eclipse of the sun was then first observ- cannot be given). Consequently, the astronomi-
ed with any pretensions to accuracy by cal background of the four cardinal points, the
the sage Atri … This observation of the equinoxes and the solstices changes with time.
solar eclipse is noticed in the Sankhya- Currently the Vernal Equinox is in Pisces,
yana (24, 8) and also in the Tandya but around 4000 BC + 200 it would have been
Brahmana (iv. 5. 2; 6. 14) in the former in Orion (Baity, 1973). The association of the

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Mayank Vahia and Mitsuru Sôma ‘Atri’s Eclipse’ in the Rig Veda

Sun or Moon at that time was referred to aster- gestions. We, therefore, looked for eclipses
isms and not to the boundaries of a region. that would have been visible from Central Asia,
Hence the point of the Vernal Equinox had to be not from the Indian Subcontinent.
within the asterism of Taurus, thus allowing us
to define the time period precisely. 4 SIMULATING THE ECLIPSE
Based on the above discussions, we assume
3.2 Description of Totality
that the eclipse was seen between 4200 and
The 5th verse quoted above clearly states that 3800 BC, was total in Central Asia, and that it
when the Asura's descendant Svarbhanu pierc- occurred three days prior to the Autumnal Equi-
ed thee through and through with darkness, all nox. We assume that people at that time could
creatures looked like one who is bewildered, determine the day of the Autumnal Equinox with
who knew not the place where he is standing. the accuracy of one day by measuring the Sun’s
This clearly describes a total solar eclipse, for a altitude at noon. We use the simulation tech-
partial eclipse would not have bewildered man- niques of Sôma and Tanikawa (2015; 2016) to
kind in this way, as has been confirmed by sev- determine possible eclipses that fitted these cri-
eral interpretations (e.g. see Donier, 1984: 187). teria. For the eclipse calculations and deter-
mination of dates of the Autumnal Equinox, we
3.3 The Autumnal Equinox and the Date use JPL’s planetary ephemerides DE431 (Folk-
of the Eclipse ner et al., 2014) and formulae for the Earth’s
In this paper, we use dates from the Julian Cal- precession by Simon et al. (1994).
endar although they were not used in the era of For the eclipse calculations, we need the
the Rig Veda. It should be noted that since the value of the Earth’s rotational clock error ΔT =
mean length of one year in the Julian Calendar TT － UT, where TT is Terrestrial Time and UT
is 365.25 days, which is longer than the tropical
is Universal Time (Stephenson, 1997). For the
year of 365.2422 days, the dates of the Autum-
period concerned, we had no idea about the
nal Equinox in around 4000 BC were 20 Oc-
value of ΔT, so we searched all total eclipses
tober or so. The precise dates of the Autumnal
which occurred 3 ± 1 days prior to the Autumnal
Equinoxes were calculated as the instants Equinox and we adjusted the value of ΔT so
when the apparent ecliptic longitude of the Sun
that the totality was seen in Central Asia. It
was 180º.
should be noted that, if the ΔT value is increas-
ed, the area where the eclipse can be seen
3.4 The Location of the Observations
moves eastward at the rate of 15° × 1.0027379
The Rig Vedic were a nomadic ethnic group that in longitude per hour in ΔT, where 1.0027379 is
lived in Central Asia (Dalal, 2014). In a later the ratio of sidereal time to mean solar time.
book, TiIak (1903) presents evidence that they We only found two possible candidates—their
originally lived in far northern Central Asia, paths of totality are shown in Figures 1 and 2.
close to the Arctic Circle. This tallies with docu- The parameters of these eclipses are:
mentation in the Rig Veda (for example RV VII,
76, 3), which shows that the Rig Vedic people (1) 22 October 4202 BC, when the Autumnal
experienced several days where only the dawn Equinox was at 11:12 UT on 24 October, and
came and went without the Sun being visible. assuming ΔT = 120,000s; and
This would occur amongst people living in the (2) 9 October 3811 BC, when the Autumnal
Equinox was at 09:42 UT on 21 October, and
northern shadows of the mountains in high lat-
assuming ΔT = 130,000s.
itudes above about 50° N (ibid.).
Both of these eclipses would have been seen
On the basis of archaeological, linguistic
as total or nearly total by people living around
and genetic data, it is generally believed that
the Caspian Sea or in Central Asia, whose des-
the Rig Vedic people came from Central Asia to cendants would eventually migrate to India.
India around 2000 BC during the decay phase
of the Harappan Civilisation (c.f. Joseph, 2018), The ΔT values shown above were obtained
entering the Subcontinent via the Khyber Pass from the condition that the total eclipses were
(Spengler et al., 2014). However, at the time of seen in Central Asia, but since we do not know
the eclipse, the Vedic people were residing in the exact observing sites, they should have er-
Central Asia and hence the eclipse would have rors of about ±5,000s. Stephenson et al. (2016)
been observed from Central Asia. Recent gen- show that the following quadratic equation of
etic data on migrations from Central Asia and time approximates the values of ΔT since 720
West Asia into the Indian Subcontinent (Nara- BC:
simhan et al., 2018; 2019) reinforce these sug- ΔT = {－320＋32.5[(year－1825) /100] 2 }s. (1)

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Mayank Vahia and Mitsuru Sôma ‘Atri’s Eclipse’ in the Rig Veda

Figure 1: Eclipse path of 4202 BC. Figure 2: Eclipse path of 3811 BC.

It should be noted that there is no guarantee Sun only appeared in the sky around the time
that this formula can also be applied to eclipses of the Vernal Equinox, suggesting habitation
dating to around 4000 BC. But if we do use even north of Central Asia. Lazaridis et al.
this formula for the epoch of ‘Atri’s eclipse’, the (2016) point out that farming was carried out in
ΔT values for 4202 BC and 3811 BC become this region as early as 7000 BC, suggesting that
118,000s and 103,000s, respectively. So, if there was a significant settled population in the
Atri’s eclipse was the eclipse in 4202 BC, we Central Asian region.
see that the above quadratic formula of ΔT Ancient literature (e.g., see Mahajani et al.,
gives a good approximation for the value in 2007) is known to include memories of events
4202 BC, but if the eclipse was in 3811 BC the such as the Rohini Shakat Bheda last occurred
quadratic formula gives a value that is too small more than 7000 years ago, which supports the
by about 27,000s. suggestion that ‘Atri’s eclipse’ mentioned in the
Rig Veda refers to a total solar eclipse that was
5 DISCUSSION observed somewhere in Central Asia in either
The conditions for ‘Atri’s eclipse’ have been giv- 4202 BC or 3811 BC.
en by Tilak, who quoted from the Rig Veda and
other literature. He concludes that this eclipse 6 CONCLUDING REMARKS
occurred when the Vernal Equinox was in We propose that the eclipse recorded in the Rig
Orion, indicating that it dates to 4000 + 200 yrs. Veda refers to observations made of an eclipse
Tilak then goes on to state that it was observed around 4000 BC. By analyzing the description,
as a total solar eclipse and occurred three days we propose that the eclipse was the one that
before the Autumnal Equinox. With this specific occurred in 4202 BC or else in 3811 BC. We
information, we looked for possible eclipses
propose that it was observed in Central Asia. To
and found only two that satisfy these three con-
our knowledge, this is one of the oldest known
ditions of Vernal Equinox, the Autumnal Equi-
references to a specific total solar eclipse men-
nox and totality visibility in Central Asia.
tioned in the historical literature.
We then reviewed the option of choosing
Central Asia rather than India. The years 4202 7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
and 3811 BC were before the emergence of the
Harappan Civilisation in the Indian Subcontin- The first author of this paper (MNV) wants to
ent, and this was a time when the Central Asian acknowledge the support of an old and dear
region was active (see Narasimhan et al., 2018; friend, Professor Wayne Orchiston. Over the
2019). Tilak (1893) mentions several astro- years he has helped me with my studies of Ind-
nomical records in the Rig Veda where the ian archaeoastronomy and ethnoastronomy,
observations were made in regions where the and I would like to dedicate this paper to him.

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Mayank Vahia and Mitsuru Sôma ‘Atri’s Eclipse’ in the Rig Veda

MNV also would like to acknowledge the thor (MS) carried out the eclipse calculations
valuable discussions with Dr Devadutta Patta- reported here using the Multi-Wavelength Data
naik and all the references provided by Dr A. Analysis System operated by the Astronomy
Jamkhedkar and Dr Pramod Pandey, Vice Data Center at the National Astronomical Ob-
Chancellor of Deccan College. The other au- servatory of Japan.

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Professor Mayank Vahia was until recently a scientist at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai,
and is now Dean of Mathematical Sciences at the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management
Studies in Mumbai.
He completed his PhD at the University of Mumbai in 1984 and began his career at the
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research with an interest in cosmic rays. He was involved in
an experiment that was flown on NASA’s Space Shuttle Space Lab 3 mission in 1986. After
that he widened his interests and worked on high energy (X-ray and Gamma Ray)
telescopes that were flown on Russian and Indian satellites.
For the past fifteen years or so he has been interested in the origin of astronomy in
India and has studied the astronomical aspects from early rock art, megaliths, coins,
architecture, ancient texts and the astronomy of some of Indian’s oldest tribes. He has
published about 260 papers, around 60 of which are in the history of astronomy and history
of science.
He also has published two books: History of Indian Astronomy: A Handbook (2016, Indian Institute of
Technology and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, co-edited by K. Ramasubramanian and Aniket Sule), and

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 Mayank Vahia and Mitsuru Sôma ‘Atri’s Eclipse’ in the Rig Veda

The Growth and Development of Astronomy and Astrophysics in India and the Asia-Pacific Region: ICOA-9, Pune,
India, 15-18 November 2016 (2019, Hindustan Book Agency and Springer Singapore, co-edited by Wayne
Orchiston and Aniket Sule).
Mayank also spearheaded India’s participation in the International Astronomy Olympiad, a programme that he
initiated in India and that has guided about 30 students to pursue their studies in science for a career.

Dr Mitsuru Sôma was born in Kuroiso (Tochigi Prefecture, Japan) in 1954, and has MSc and PhD degrees in
Astronomy from the University of Tokyo. He is currently a VisitingProfessor at the National
Astronomical Observatory of Japan. Mitsuru was an Organizing Committee member of IAU
Commission 41 (History of Astronomy) during 2009–2015. He is also a member of IAU
Divisions A (Fundamental Astronomy), B (Facilities, Technologies and Data Science), C
(Education, Outreach and Heritage) and F (Planetary Systems and Bioastronomy). In
addition, he is also a Vice President for Grazing Occultation Services of the International
Occultation Timing Association.
His research interests include linkage of stellar reference frames with dynamical
reference frames using observations of lunar occultations and changes in the Earth's
rotation during ancient times using ancient records of eclipses and occultations.
Mitsuru has many publications in history of astronomy, include the book Mapping the
Oriental Sky. Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Oriental Astronomy
(ICOA-7) (2011, co-edited by Tsuko Nakamura, Wayne Orchiston and Richard Strom).

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