I have a book called "Nakshatra Veedhullo = In the streets of stars" by Sri Dr. Mahidhara Nalini Mohan (MNM). MNM did his masters in Physics from Osmania Univ and Phd from Moscow univ then did research in few western space observatories. He worked as Deputy Director in National Physical Laboratory, Delhi and participated in 18 racket experiments.
This is my free translation of that book per Ramanaji's advise. I hope this helps this discussion. I will try to post each section of that book (has 40 parts) as separate post. Once complete we can make it into a separate thread if needed.
A picture on precision of Equinox and various Indic stars. Please note Abhijit star. Some Veda mantras talk about this. IIRC the story I posted earlier talks about this star. If that is correct then the early vedic times can be at least before ~14,000 BC.Part 1: Ursula Minor or Laghu Rukshamu (Small Bear)
Scandinavian gods formed this universe like a huge ball and nailed (with diamond nails) the defeated demons on various places on that ball. They took a long spear and put it from one side of that ball, thru Earth to the other end of the universe.
Pole star is the last star in the tail of this Small Bear.
Not all stars in this Laghu Rukshamu are bright. They got prominence only due to the bright Dhruva star.
Phoenicians (1200-539 BC) [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenicia ] are the first ones to use Dhruva star for navigation. Greeks, who used the less accurate Big Bear (Saptarshi Mandala) for Navigation till then, got this knowledge from Phoenicians. They called it Cynosura (later got the meaning Centre of Attraction).
Arabs called this Small Bear as a hearse. They imagined the Big Bear to be the coffin and Dhruva to be the murderer!
Like Arabs, Egyptians too imagined the Dhruva start to be a bad-star (perhaps due to the fact they used to worship Tuba – the previous pole star, whose fame was taken away by Dhruva).
Chinese called Dhruva the king of heavens.
Bharatiyas have a story on Dhruva (Son of Uttana Pada & Suniti). This story is told in Bharatam, Bhagavatam and Matsya, Vishnu Puranas. Sri Mahavishnu gave the following boon to Dhruva
Vedahante Vyavasitam, Hrudirajanya balaka!
Yatragrahaarsha taaraanaam,jyotishaam chakramaahitam
Medhyaam gochakravatsthaasnu, parastaat kalpavaasinaam
Dharmogni: Kasyapa: sukro, munayoyeva naukasa:
Charanti dakshineekrutya, bhramantOyatsa taarakaa:
Shadvimsadvarsha saahasram, rakshitaavyaahatemdriya:
Modern history tells us that a Greek scientist called Hipparchus found about Earth’s precession of equinox and that it takes 26,000 years for one cycle to complete.
Bharatiyas made this astronomical observation long before Hiipparchus – perhaps at least before ~3000BC, when the star in universal pole changed from Mrugasiras to Kruttikas.
We have a story that Sri Krishna killed Narakasura (Drako) in Pragjyotishapura and gave the Kundalas (ear rings) to Aditi and then made Dhruva to be the pole star.
Upanishads say “Dhruvasya SthaanaadapasaraNam”. Apasaranam means movement. That means the pole start itself changes for every 1000 years.
Also read the story of Yayaati (ancestor of MB family). If he was mentioned as Pole start (need to search) then we are going back to at least ~21,000 BC.
