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Pollution control is becoming a challenge to the scientist and failure of the recent “Copenhagen Summit” speaks eloquently about the graveness of the situation. A frequently forgotten aspect of this problem is that, the source of the present pollution is none other than our anti- ecological modern science! That is why, the present day since is finding it difficult to solve this problem effectively. Ancient Indian science was always Nature friendly, and hence this problem was not so rampant at that time. Still, our ancient scientists did design some pollution control techniques, which deserve our study. All such matters were generally dealt as parts of other subjects like earth sciences and not as a distinct subject. Hence, we have clubbed the study of ancient earth sciences and ancient pollution controlling methods and designed these R&D projects -
(i) To study the Nature friendly procedures of detecting the wealth hidden in the womb of earth
(ii) To study ancient mining techniques
(iii) To study ancient pollution control methods for environmental purification
EARTHQUAKES IN VARAHAMIHIRA'S BRIHATSAMHITA-
CORRELATION WITH MODERN SCIENCE
Cause of Earthquakes.
The very 1st sloka on signs of earthquakes in Brihat Samhita speaks about the causes of an earthquake. Many people in the ancient times have given different reasons for the earthquakes. Some say that it is due to huge animals living in waters of the ocean. Sage Vasista said that it is caused by the atmospheric wind colliding with another and falling to the earth with a booming sound.
According to Vridha Garga, the cause of an earthquake is due to some unseen power, or by the result of good and bad deeds of human beings. And according to Parasara, it is due to the resultant of karma or action, in the previous life.
Whereas, Garga says, it is due to the heaving that is resorted to by the elephants of the quarters that are tired by the weight of the earth.
Out of all the above, the last one that speaks of the elephants heaving, can, to some extent, be interpreted / explained scientifically. The sage says that the elephants due to overweight of the earth are tired and heaving. This means, due to overweight, the tired elephants are subjected to stress and “heaved”, and that means the stress thus developed due to overweight, is released.
In the modern concepts also earthquake is nothing but the sudden release of energy from within the earth’s inner layers, and resulted in shaking of ground.
The other cause as spelt by Vridha Garga, says that the earthquake is occasioned by unseen power.ie the good and the bad deeds of human beings. This also can be explained to some extent , with scientific touch.
This means that due to greed, the man has been causing ecological imbalances by deforestation, erecting artificial dams etc. Due to construction of dams, according to the modern theory, a concept called reservoir induced seismicity is developed resulting in developing stress in the inner layers of the earths crust due to overloading of reservoir, causing earthquakes. The best example for this type of earthquakes is in our country, ie at Koyna, in Maharashtra. Though Vridha Garga and Garga have not given any clear cut scientific reasons for causing earthquakes, from their verses we may venture to interpret them by decoding some of the words used by them and attribute them as the causes of earthquakes.
Some verses mentioned in BS say that the Eqs are caused by eclipses of the luminaries, unnatural phenomenon occurring in the planets and special movements of the heavenly bodies.
it is a proved scientific fact that the Earthquakes. are caused by the sudden release of energy which is directly related to the inbuilt stress developed due to the movement of blocks along the fault lines / zones, within the interior of earth. The influence of external planets is totally ruled out. Though lot of work has been going on in these lines ie to link up the influence of other planets for triggering earthquakes on earth, till date no positive aspect has come out of such studies.
The present Japan Earthquake occurred when the planet moon and planet earth came very close to each other. The Astrologers have cited few more such instances where in notable earth quakes occurred when ever the moon came closer to the earth in the recent past history. Any how this argument is quite debatable and it is too early to arrive at the conclusion.
Classification of Earth Quakes as narrated in Brihat Samhita
In our stellar constellations there are 27 nakshtras. Varahamihira classified these into four groups; Wind circle, Fire circle, Indra’s circle and Varunas circle. Each circle has got a group of 7 naksahtra and. It is said in BS that earthquakes occur under the influence of these nakshatras in their respective circles. And also it was said in Brihatsamhita that the day and nights are divided into four parts according to the time and the F.N part is called Wind period, the AN part is called Fire period. The first half of the night is said as Indra Period and later part is Varuna period. They also described an earthquake occurring in a circle during a particular period would enhance the effect and give rise to a stronger earthquake and in some particular period cancels / nullifies the effect and there will not be any earthquake.
BS also says that the Eqs occurring under the influence of any of the 7 asterisms of a particular circle are construed as caused by that presiding God of that circle., be it Varuna/Wind/Fire/Indra.
According to the above, Varahamihira classified earthquakes into four groups, originating under the influence of Wind,Varuna, Indra and Fire circles occurring in a particular period. But according to modern seismology, there is no specific classification of earthquakes as is narrated in BS. The modern seismology says that these earthquakes are caused due to either tectonic or volcanic activities. And its difficult to draw any parallels and correlate them with the ancient classifications. Another aspect here to remember is that the classification of EQ in the ancient times is purely based on the influence of the stars and planets and their positioning with respect to earth where as the modern seismology does not subscribe to this idea and described cause of the earthquakes is either tectonic or volcanic which are mainly the activities taking place within the interior of earth and has nothing to do with the stars and planets in space ie above the earth. But in BS, the author not only says that these eq are caused due to stars, planets and their positioning with respect to earth but also made finer classification by dividing them into four groups and talked about their effects occurring in different periods. Hence, by not merely setting Varahamihira’s theory aside as this is not acceptable to the modern science, we should try to conduct more in-depth studies in the ancient angle and try to find out whether there is really any correlation between the planets/stars and the origin of earthquakes.
With this back ground this R&D project is being pursued jointly with Gayatri Vidya Parishat, Visakhapatnam and the following team of scientists are working on this
- Prof. P. Somaraju,(mathematics) Secretary, Gayatri Vidya Paritshat, Visakhapatnam.
- Prof. B. L.Narasayya,(Geologist) Former Director, GSI, (Chennai)
- Prof. D.V.N. Sarma, (Astronomer) Retd. Scientist of NASA, Visakhapatnam
- Prof. G.V.Rama, (meteorologist) Scientist,
DGM, MET Facility, RO (R) , ISRO, Dept of Space, Govt of Inida.
- Sri N.V.R. Sastry, astrologer, Visakhapatnam
And others
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