Vedic Invention of Time, Directions & Tropic Zones & Evolution of Latitudes and Longitudes

 

Unedited, Unfinished Draft Date -  14 May 2014.

 

 

स्वस्तिनः इन्द्रो वृद्धश्रवा: स्वस्ति नः पूषा विश्ववेदाः स्वस्ति नस्तार्क्ष्यो अरिष्टनेमि: स्वस्ति नो बृहस्पतिर्दधातु

 

Exorbitant with youthful energy,  seafaring Vedic age Aryans of India the Aryans have traveled across widespread oceans and thereby having seen all seven continents of earth surrounded by oceans wherein people inhabitiating ( सप्तमानुषः श्रितो विश्वे सिंन्धुषु, Rigveda 8.39.8) .



There are plenty of mantras available in the Rigveda as well as in other Vedas wherein oceanic beauty is described, for instance, the place where revered river Sarasvati meets with sea.

एकाचेतत्सरस्वती नदीनां शुचिर्यती गिरिभ्य आ समुद्रात्  | (Rigveda, 7.95.2)




Vedic Rishis could put it on record that Earth is round like a wheel having an axis, that’s identified with Indra's physic, the mighty god who spins the earth, perhaps, they measured the distance between north and south poles, as the mantra reflects .

Vedic people excelled in making sea boats, large ships such that they were able to travel to deep sea waters and also to perform rescue operations in difficult conditions, Perhaps, in the history of human civilizations, the first recorded incidence of rescuing a young man namely Bhujyu (भुज्यु) left stranded in deep sea waters , comes from the Rigveda, the details of the rescue operation that was performed successfully, helps us knowing the manufacturing qualities of the ship, for instance – अपोदकाभिः that means no impact by sea water, आत्मन्वतीभिः that means having equipped with animated smart navigation system, शतारित्रा that is having a hundred oars, see the select mantras produced below -  

1) तुग्रो ह भुज्युमश्विनोदमेघे रयिं न कश्चिन मम्र्वानवाहाः

तमूहथुर्नौभिरात्मन्वतीभिरन्तरिक्षप्रुद्भिरपोदकाभिः ( Rigveda, 1.116.5)

 

2) अनारम्भणे तद्वीरयेथामनास्थाने अग्रभणे समुद्रे

यदश्विनाऊहथुभुर्ज्युमस्तं शतारित्रां नावमातस्थिवांसम् ( Rigveda 1.116.5)

Navigation into sea requires a coordinate-reference system, comprising knowledge of directions, distance travelled, the time elapsed and sea depth, where a boat sails , the geographical latitude and tropical longitudes helps knowing distance and direction corresponding to time elapsed from the point a boat starts sailing through, among other things, Vedic Aryans love for seafaring might have motivated them to invent and evolve a coordinate reference system as we find in in Vedas.

The genius of Vedic Rishis reflects in their success of measuring the speed of twilight or Usha (उषा) in Yojana that helped them evolving the idea of dividing the globe in traceable longitudinal zones, in sync with time elapsed and tracking the distance, Scientifically, twilight or Usha is created by the sun rays entered into upper atmosphere illuminating the lower atmosphere that humans can observe, after night (रात्रि) ends, the human observable period of twilight begins when geometric center of Sun still remains around 6 degrees below the horizon while going up, getting parallel to horizon at 0 degrees, The twilight period remains around 24-30 minutes and then the Sun rises in the east, during the twilight period, some bright stars are visible.

अनवाद्दास्त्रिंशतं योजनान्येकैका क्रतुं परियन्ति सद्द: | Rigveda (1.123.9)

 With respect to length of Yojana although the mainstream scholars reached on concurrence that one Yojana is equal to nearly 12.5 Kms to 13 Kms, however, there is a small section of scholars who think Yojana is nearly 16 to 16.5 Kms, Therefore, it’s good to make an effort to cross verify the length of yojana against the historical data , In this regard, we find earliest reference to distance measured in Yojana In the Pali-Baudha literature wherein  it’s stated that distance between Shravasti and Saket is 06 Yojanas, Saket is identified with Ayodhya, The straight route that goes from Shravasti to Ayodhya is 95 Kms long, Pls look into road map produced below, by dividing 95 Kms by 06 Yojanas, we get 16 Kms per Yojana is the distance, since, the precise location of Saket’s reference point is not known, I shall go with mainstream scholars view of Yaojana being 12.5 to 13 Kms and for this thesis,  The length of Yojana shall be taken as 16 Kms

Map Source : http://www.distancesbetween.com/distance-between/distance-from-ayodhya-to-shravasti/3339091/r3/?RouteId=3339091&CountryId=93 

 

 

 

Coming  back to Rigvedic mantra that mentioned that Usha travels for 30 Yojanas, we get 480 Kms is the distance that Usha covers and this distance is covered in 24 minutes approximately, thereby, the rate of Usha or twilight’s is 480 Kms in 24 minutes or at rate of 16 Kms in a minute.

Let's review the formula

 

No of miles in 1 degree of longitudes = 69.9 miles * Cos of (latitude degrees)