02-05-2008, 08:17 AM
(This post was last modified: 02-05-2008, 08:20 AM by Hauma Hamiddha.)
The native Andean weather-forecasters and shakadhUmA
I was reading the research by Orlove, Cane and Chiang on the native weather forecasters in mountains of Peru and Bolivia. These farmers forecast the auspicious time for planting potatoes by means of a meteorological/astronomical observation. For a week around the summer solstice they start intently observing the skies. At midnight they climb up to the peaks and start observing the Pleiades a few hours before dawn, noting the apparent brightness and âsizesâ of the stars in the cluster. Dimmer the Pleiades the less will be the rain in the area around during winter. So if the forecast is dry then the farmers delay planting their potatoes to reduce losses. The fluctuation in the local rainfall is attributable to El Nino. What the researchers found was that if an El Nino was to happen later in winter then it was accompanied by high cirrus clouds in the earlier summer, which caused a dimming of the Pleiades around the summer solstice. This use of the Pleiades as meteorological predictor is an interesting twist to the more general use, in many ancient traditions, of the Pleiades as a calendrical marker to determine various seasonal phenomena and agricultural activities.
This research immediately led me to understand the basis for an ancient tradition recorded in veda of the atharvA~Ngirasa, the shakadhUma sUktaM, which to date has been poorly understood. In the vulgate AV text (commonly considered shaunaka) the sUktaM occurs in 6.128, while in AV-paippalAda it occurs in AV-P 19.24.16-19. The paippalAda version is also appended at the end of the nakShatra kalpa (AV-parishiShTa-1) under the title: âkR^ittikA-rohiNI-madhye paippalAdA mantrAHâ. In both texts there are 4 R^ik-s, though they differ somewhat between them. The kR^ittikA-s (Pleiades) have been known in Vedic tradition to possess watery names, which are individually spelled out in the oblations made during the nakShatreShTi: ambA, dulA, nitatnI, abhrayantI, meghayantI, varShayantI and cupuNIkA. It has long been suspected that these names are indicative of their connection with the arrival of monsoons. But were the Pleiades specifically used in weather prognostication in Hindu tradition? Here is where the evidence from the shakadhUma sUktaM comes in. The word shakadhUma is interpreted as smoke (dhUma) from a dung-pat (shaka) fire. But paradoxically we find the AV tradition remembering shakadhUma as a weather-predictor. The word has been rendered as a human weatherman by modern White translators like Whitney and Bloomfield. This is how the late medieval atharva-vedins also seem to have understood the word in ritual context.
However, an examination of the word shows that the AV tradition originally hardly implied an earthly weatherman in the term shakadhUma. The sUktaM it self opens by explicitly terms shakadhUma as being made the king of the nakShatra-s (AV-vulgate: âshakadhUmaM nakShatrANi yad rAjAnam akurvata |â AV-P: âyad rAjAnaM shakadhUmaM nakShatrANy akR^iNvata |â). The purpose of him being chosen as the king was to ensure prognostication of fair weather (âbhadrAham asmai prAyaChanâ). The presence of the paippalAda form of the text in the nakShatra-kalpa also clearly reiterates the close connection of the weather-predictor shakadhUma with the nakShatras. Realizing that a celestial entity is implied, some people have interpreted shakadhUma to mean the moon (as rAjA of the nakShatra-s) or the Milky Way (due to the âsmokyâ allegory). But this specific terminology does not describe the moon ever, and the Milky Way is never seen as the leader of nakShatras. The original meaning of shakadhUma becomes clear from the R^ik found only in the AV-P version:
âyad Ahush shakadhUmaM mahAnakShatrANAM prathamajaM jyotir agre |
tan nas satIM madhumatIM kR^iNotu rayiM ca sarvavIraM ni yacchatAm ||â
Here shakadhUma is plainly termed the first born of the great nakShatra-s and the leader of the celestial lights. This shows that shakadhUma was a constellation and the first in the list. Now in the AV nakShatra sUktaM (AV-S 19.7.2) the first in the list is kR^ittikA. The AV nakShatra-kalpa also explicitly states that kR^ittikA is the first of the nakShatra-s: âsa nakShatrANAM prathamena pAvakaH kR^ittikAbhir jvalano no .anushAmyatAmâ.
So it is likely that the nakShatra implied by shakadhUma was none other than kR^ittikA. This is further confirmed by Charpentierâs finding that in the medieval desha bhASha lexicon of hemachandra-sUrI (the deshI-nAma-mAlA) he gives dhUma as a synonym for kR^ittikA: dhUmad-dhaya-mahisIo kR^ittikAH | DN-5.63
This leads to one other reference to shakadhUma which is found in the great brahmodaya hymn RV 1.164:
âshaka-mayaM dhUmam ArAd apashyaM viShUvatA para enAvareNa |
ukShANaM pR^ishnim apachanta vIrAs tAni dharmANi prathamAny Asan ||â
Based on its deployment in the pravargya ritual some have commented that the shaka-dhUma here refers to the smoke from the fire on which the mahAvIra pot is being fumigated. This external interpretation is of course for the un-enlightened, for the rahasya-s are concealed beneath the ritual actions described in the mantra. That is exactly what this whole sUktaM is about- astronomical rahasya-s. This becomes very clear from use of a technical astronomical term â viShUvat. In Hindu tradition viShUvat meant equinox [Footnote 1] and in this context clearly means the vernal equinox which formed the middle day of the yearly sattra. So the R^ik means: âFrom far I saw the shaka-dhUma at the equinoctial point further off from this lower one. The heroes cooked the speckled bullock; these were the first stations.â Thus, the constellation at the vernal equinox (viShUvAn) was being described as shakdhUma. The lower one, the speckled bullock, the first (previous stations) appear to stand for Taurus. Taurus being the prior station stands for where the equinox lay prior to shakadhUma which is currently being described as being at the vishuvAn. Here too shakadhUma implies the Pleiades. This would also suggest that the brahmodaya belongs to the same period as the core AV composition during which the Pleiades lay at the vernal equinox. Not surprisingly it also occurs in the AV-S as sUktaM 19.10
Finally it leads to the issue why the name shaka-dhUma for the Pleiades?
In the AV context the term shaka-dhUma is specifically applied in the context of predicting good weather. With high cirrus clouds it is quite likely that the Pleiades appeared as a smoky patch in the sky, which was then used for weather prognostication. Under this interpretation the AV shakadhUma tradition is likely to be the earliest surviving record of weather prognostication based on the appearance of the Pleiades. Unfortunately, the original AV tradition is completely dead, hence only experimental verification can test the effectiveness of the method.
While the original AV tradition does not survive, we know from the much later Hindu meteorological traditions recorded in the kR^iShi parAshara that such knowledge did survive in different forms. For example, the KP23 gives a crude formula to determine the nature of the El Nino effects. KP24-25 describes clouds associated with the cycle and mentions the puShkara (cirrus) clouds that appear to prognosticate droughts. KP33 indicates that the predictions were refined using wind-vanes to measure wind direction/speed and predict rain several months later.
Footnote 1: In his kArika on Ishvara-pratyabhij~nA the Kashmirian tantric utpala-deva makes the following statement:
prANa-apAna-mayaH prANaH pratyekaM sUpta-jAgratoH |
tach-Ched-AtmA samAna-akhyaH sauShupta viShuvatsv-iva ||
The metabolism in both the sleeping and waking states is comprised of prANa and apAna processes. Both are suspended in the deep sleep state when the samAna process functions, like what happens on the equinox.
Here the word viShuvan (equinox) is used metaphorically to explain that state of equality or balance when the prANa and apAna are suspended in the deep sleep state.
Report on Orlove, Cane and Chiangâ work:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/S...oudsCrops/
I was reading the research by Orlove, Cane and Chiang on the native weather forecasters in mountains of Peru and Bolivia. These farmers forecast the auspicious time for planting potatoes by means of a meteorological/astronomical observation. For a week around the summer solstice they start intently observing the skies. At midnight they climb up to the peaks and start observing the Pleiades a few hours before dawn, noting the apparent brightness and âsizesâ of the stars in the cluster. Dimmer the Pleiades the less will be the rain in the area around during winter. So if the forecast is dry then the farmers delay planting their potatoes to reduce losses. The fluctuation in the local rainfall is attributable to El Nino. What the researchers found was that if an El Nino was to happen later in winter then it was accompanied by high cirrus clouds in the earlier summer, which caused a dimming of the Pleiades around the summer solstice. This use of the Pleiades as meteorological predictor is an interesting twist to the more general use, in many ancient traditions, of the Pleiades as a calendrical marker to determine various seasonal phenomena and agricultural activities.
This research immediately led me to understand the basis for an ancient tradition recorded in veda of the atharvA~Ngirasa, the shakadhUma sUktaM, which to date has been poorly understood. In the vulgate AV text (commonly considered shaunaka) the sUktaM occurs in 6.128, while in AV-paippalAda it occurs in AV-P 19.24.16-19. The paippalAda version is also appended at the end of the nakShatra kalpa (AV-parishiShTa-1) under the title: âkR^ittikA-rohiNI-madhye paippalAdA mantrAHâ. In both texts there are 4 R^ik-s, though they differ somewhat between them. The kR^ittikA-s (Pleiades) have been known in Vedic tradition to possess watery names, which are individually spelled out in the oblations made during the nakShatreShTi: ambA, dulA, nitatnI, abhrayantI, meghayantI, varShayantI and cupuNIkA. It has long been suspected that these names are indicative of their connection with the arrival of monsoons. But were the Pleiades specifically used in weather prognostication in Hindu tradition? Here is where the evidence from the shakadhUma sUktaM comes in. The word shakadhUma is interpreted as smoke (dhUma) from a dung-pat (shaka) fire. But paradoxically we find the AV tradition remembering shakadhUma as a weather-predictor. The word has been rendered as a human weatherman by modern White translators like Whitney and Bloomfield. This is how the late medieval atharva-vedins also seem to have understood the word in ritual context.
However, an examination of the word shows that the AV tradition originally hardly implied an earthly weatherman in the term shakadhUma. The sUktaM it self opens by explicitly terms shakadhUma as being made the king of the nakShatra-s (AV-vulgate: âshakadhUmaM nakShatrANi yad rAjAnam akurvata |â AV-P: âyad rAjAnaM shakadhUmaM nakShatrANy akR^iNvata |â). The purpose of him being chosen as the king was to ensure prognostication of fair weather (âbhadrAham asmai prAyaChanâ). The presence of the paippalAda form of the text in the nakShatra-kalpa also clearly reiterates the close connection of the weather-predictor shakadhUma with the nakShatras. Realizing that a celestial entity is implied, some people have interpreted shakadhUma to mean the moon (as rAjA of the nakShatra-s) or the Milky Way (due to the âsmokyâ allegory). But this specific terminology does not describe the moon ever, and the Milky Way is never seen as the leader of nakShatras. The original meaning of shakadhUma becomes clear from the R^ik found only in the AV-P version:
âyad Ahush shakadhUmaM mahAnakShatrANAM prathamajaM jyotir agre |
tan nas satIM madhumatIM kR^iNotu rayiM ca sarvavIraM ni yacchatAm ||â
Here shakadhUma is plainly termed the first born of the great nakShatra-s and the leader of the celestial lights. This shows that shakadhUma was a constellation and the first in the list. Now in the AV nakShatra sUktaM (AV-S 19.7.2) the first in the list is kR^ittikA. The AV nakShatra-kalpa also explicitly states that kR^ittikA is the first of the nakShatra-s: âsa nakShatrANAM prathamena pAvakaH kR^ittikAbhir jvalano no .anushAmyatAmâ.
So it is likely that the nakShatra implied by shakadhUma was none other than kR^ittikA. This is further confirmed by Charpentierâs finding that in the medieval desha bhASha lexicon of hemachandra-sUrI (the deshI-nAma-mAlA) he gives dhUma as a synonym for kR^ittikA: dhUmad-dhaya-mahisIo kR^ittikAH | DN-5.63
This leads to one other reference to shakadhUma which is found in the great brahmodaya hymn RV 1.164:
âshaka-mayaM dhUmam ArAd apashyaM viShUvatA para enAvareNa |
ukShANaM pR^ishnim apachanta vIrAs tAni dharmANi prathamAny Asan ||â
Based on its deployment in the pravargya ritual some have commented that the shaka-dhUma here refers to the smoke from the fire on which the mahAvIra pot is being fumigated. This external interpretation is of course for the un-enlightened, for the rahasya-s are concealed beneath the ritual actions described in the mantra. That is exactly what this whole sUktaM is about- astronomical rahasya-s. This becomes very clear from use of a technical astronomical term â viShUvat. In Hindu tradition viShUvat meant equinox [Footnote 1] and in this context clearly means the vernal equinox which formed the middle day of the yearly sattra. So the R^ik means: âFrom far I saw the shaka-dhUma at the equinoctial point further off from this lower one. The heroes cooked the speckled bullock; these were the first stations.â Thus, the constellation at the vernal equinox (viShUvAn) was being described as shakdhUma. The lower one, the speckled bullock, the first (previous stations) appear to stand for Taurus. Taurus being the prior station stands for where the equinox lay prior to shakadhUma which is currently being described as being at the vishuvAn. Here too shakadhUma implies the Pleiades. This would also suggest that the brahmodaya belongs to the same period as the core AV composition during which the Pleiades lay at the vernal equinox. Not surprisingly it also occurs in the AV-S as sUktaM 19.10
Finally it leads to the issue why the name shaka-dhUma for the Pleiades?
In the AV context the term shaka-dhUma is specifically applied in the context of predicting good weather. With high cirrus clouds it is quite likely that the Pleiades appeared as a smoky patch in the sky, which was then used for weather prognostication. Under this interpretation the AV shakadhUma tradition is likely to be the earliest surviving record of weather prognostication based on the appearance of the Pleiades. Unfortunately, the original AV tradition is completely dead, hence only experimental verification can test the effectiveness of the method.
While the original AV tradition does not survive, we know from the much later Hindu meteorological traditions recorded in the kR^iShi parAshara that such knowledge did survive in different forms. For example, the KP23 gives a crude formula to determine the nature of the El Nino effects. KP24-25 describes clouds associated with the cycle and mentions the puShkara (cirrus) clouds that appear to prognosticate droughts. KP33 indicates that the predictions were refined using wind-vanes to measure wind direction/speed and predict rain several months later.
Footnote 1: In his kArika on Ishvara-pratyabhij~nA the Kashmirian tantric utpala-deva makes the following statement:
prANa-apAna-mayaH prANaH pratyekaM sUpta-jAgratoH |
tach-Ched-AtmA samAna-akhyaH sauShupta viShuvatsv-iva ||
The metabolism in both the sleeping and waking states is comprised of prANa and apAna processes. Both are suspended in the deep sleep state when the samAna process functions, like what happens on the equinox.
Here the word viShuvan (equinox) is used metaphorically to explain that state of equality or balance when the prANa and apAna are suspended in the deep sleep state.
Report on Orlove, Cane and Chiangâ work:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/S...oudsCrops/