Makara Sankranti is one of those rare Hindu festivals which is based on a solar event, because the Hindu calendar itself is actually a lunar calendar. This festival is supposed to mark the event of Sun entering Capricorn. This festival is also said to mark the event of Sun beginning its northward journey in the celestial sphere which will also mark the coming of summer.
Having said that, what are the actual facts? Have we missed out something in this ancient practice? Read this book to know more about Makara Sankranti and Uttarayana.
Pre-dated Makara Sankranti-Belated Uttarayana (130 KB)
Hi Guru,
New information. Thanks for sharing.
shweta
You are welcome Shweta.
Guruji..this was interesting info about Makar Sankranti and Uttarayana. I knew about Uttarayana being faulty. Makar Sankranti also being wrong celebration date is news to me. Regards precession – this phenomenon has an interesting impact on climate zones on the planet earth. Apparently, based on archaeological evidence, Sahara Desert not too long ago – just about 7500 years ago – was not a desert. It was a tropical rainforest and had a lot of lakes and rivers. It just turned dramatically a desert in the next 250 years or so. Its got just about (25000 – 7500) 18000 more years after which it will again become a rainforest.
Am not sure if this is the very cause that led the ancient Indian river Saraswati to vanish.
Yes Sachin, Sahara was a lush green region not so long ago and so was the Thar desert. Most mountain tops were submerged in sea water in the past!
The reason for drying up of Saraswati river is that the himalayan plates tectonic shift caused yamuna and sutlej to change their course, Sutlej joined Indus and Yamuna joined Ganga to create Ganga-Yamuna valley. These two were the major sources of water for Saraswati and this caused the river to dry up. You can read only of my earlier articles on this at http://www.hitxp.com/articles/veda/vedic-saraswati-river-civilization/
Then astrlogically and astronomically Jan 21 is the actual day and date,for Makara Smkranti.Makes sense.Our religious calendarical interpretation,then should be shifted accordingly,as scientist Saha had suggested,for Rashtriya Panchangam.Good info gurudev,thnx.
Yes Suresh, the dates of some of our celebrations need to be changed to reflect reality.