SUPERSTITITIONS HINDU MYTHOLOGY DO AND DON’TS
Introduction To Solar Eclipses
Eclipses are among those few
celestial phenomena that cannot go unnoticed even by plants and animals, let
alone humans, particularly when it is a total solar eclipse. The partial
eclipses of the Sun may go unnoticed, but not so those of the Moon. Eclipses do
not last long; they occur all of a sudden, without any warning, and disappear
altogether within a few hours leaving the viewer totally bewildered. The
disturbance in the regular, clockwork, precise celestial motions of the Moon
and the Sun caused by eclipses evoke a feeling of awe--the sense that almighty
gods such as the Sun and the Moon can be temporarily overpowered by 'something'
akin to celestial 'demons'. It was not the natural occurrences of floods or
droughts or earthquakes that were originally thought to be demonic, but the
mere evidence of celestial phenomena, such as the unwarranted appearance of a
comet, a shower of shooting stars, the retrograde motion of planets and, most
dramatic of all, the occurrence of total solar eclipses of the Sun and the
Moon. In their desperate attempts to reason out such unusual celestial
happenings, it was therefore natural for our primitive ancestors to ascribe
anything and everything ominous to irregularities in the heavenly order.
Surely, the human brain is
fertile enough to establish what are called statistical correlations between
terrestrial disasters and celestial oddities. But statistical correlations are
of two kinds: spurious and physical. The physical ones are those that can be
explained through a chain of cause and effect relations, and the magnitudes of
the claimed effects can be well justified quantitatively. But spurious
statistical correlations are those that defy the criterion of quantitative
justification, even if they are seemingly connected by a chain of cause and
effect relations. This is how a lay person can be fooled--by presenting
arguments with very obvious qualitative links between two sets of information
or events, without adequate quantitative substantiation.
In the context of eclipses, we
shall demonstrate the gross differences between physical and spurious
correlations in order to understand not only the phenomenon itself, but also
the plausible origin and institutionalisation of certain superstitious
practices prevailing over several thousands of years.
We generally tend to opine that
with the advent of modern science, many events, otherwise inexplicable, have
been successfully explained; the expanding frontiers of our knowledge have
pushed all of us into a bewildering world of technological innovations, where
the pace of change has accelerated from several decades to years and even
months. Unlike in the previous centuries, the parents today have a tough time
dealing with the inquisitiveness of their offsprings who are exposed to a wide
range of media networks. It is not an easy task to completely break away from
the traditions of the older generations; it is equally difficult to assert
their validity, particularly when the youngsters are equipped with razor-sharp
arguments backed by proper scientific explanations.
Of course, we know that the
ordinary high school textbooks give fairly clear cause and effect explanations
of eclipses, yet the majority of the people in India still shy away from
viewing them. But this is not something that ancient Indians did not know
about. Even fifteen hundred years ago, Aryabhata I (499 A.D.), the celebrated
Indian astronomer, had clearly stated in the chapter 'Goladhyaya' of his book
Aryabhatiya: The shadow of the earth falling on the Moon causes the phenomenon
of lunar eclipse and the shadow of the Moon falling on the surface of the earth
causes a solar eclipse thereafter, he gives the formula for calculating the
time and durations of eclipses. If nothing much has changed in the attitude of
the common man towards viewing the eclipses, we had better seek the cause for
the perpetuation of this particular irrational tradition in a different
perspective, rather than solely blaming the ignorance of the people.
How deep-rooted these
eclipse-related superstitions are becomes evident when a special event such as
a total solar eclipse hits the headlines of all the newspapers. Unfortunately,
and quite regrettably, the general attitude of the mass media in India has
remained democratic enough to reflect the majority's viewpoint! This was amply
exemplified during the last total solar eclipse of 16 February 1980. When the
eclipse became visible over some parts of southern India, Doordarshan felt
obliged to telecast a film during those few hours in order to encourage the
viewers to stay indoors. The streets of the big metropolitan cities in India
appeared deserted, not because of their inhabitants' mission of viewing the
total solar eclipse in its narrow belt of totality, but primarily because of
the age-old taboo on viewing eclipses directly. Remember that the
above-mentioned total solar eclipse embraced the Indian subcontinent after a
long pause of 82 years!
