Guys you must have heard about the eclipses like Solar and Lunar Eclipse or grahans like Surya and Chandra Grahan. This phenomenon has many scientific and mythological aspects attached to it. Scientists say that this phenomenon happens when the Sun, Moon and Earth are in a straight line. Scientists use many of their devices to calculate and determine the time of Eclipses.
But do you know how eclipses were predicted before the scientific discoveries ?
Before any scientific discovery, the eclipses were determined by the panchang. The Panchang has been passed through generations and still they can tell the exact time and date of the eclipse. That means the million dollar machines and many scientists’ predictions of an eclipse are the same as the prediction of a swami reading panchang.
Isn’t it amazing ?
Our Mythology isn’t wrong anywhere, it is just that the science is catching up now.
Lunar Eclipse in Mythology
According to Hindu Mythology, the demon named Rahu drank the nectar of immortality (Amrit) by deceiving everybody so he was punished by Lord Vishnu. As a punishment his head was severed from his body with the Sudarshan Chakra but because of his immortality he didn’t die.
Although his head was severed from his body and later his head became Rahu and the body was called Ketu. He holds a grudge against the sun and the moon because they were the ones who exposed his deceit. So he took an oath that he will cast a shadow on the sun and the moon in order to punish them. The time duration in which Rahu casts a shadow on the moon is called the Lunar eclipse or Chandra Grahan.
There is no mention of the name Rahu in Rigveda, Yajurveda and Samaveda also. But Ketu is mentioned in Atharvaveda, whose form is similar to the tail star. In the case of the Atri sage getting rid of the eclipse, the reason for the eclipse is believed to be a demon named Swarbhanu. Later this is called Swarbhanu Rahu. In the Mahabharata and Shrimad Bhagwat, Swarbhanu is confirmed to be Rahu.
