For my ChronoMapia project, I was studying the orbits, motions, and positions of the planets. I was implementing the ‘classic orbital elements’ to my 3d planetary model. While I was observing Mars, I found a few interesting things about its positions and sightings during the Mahabharat war year. I dug deeper and the results were fascinating. Let me brief you about that.
While I am writing this article, i.e., in Jan 2025, Mars is having retrograde motion. Mars is seen bigger in the night sky and is brighter than usual. This is also called the ‘Earth-Mars opposition’. It is a well-known astronomical phenomenon.
In the Mahabharata’s Bhishma Parva Ch. 03, verse 16-17,
Vyasa mentions about Mars being stationary between Chitra and Swati Nakshatra and is seen very bright:
धृवं प्रज्वलितो घोरम् अपसव्यं प्रवर्तते । चित्रास्वात्यन्तरे चैव धिष्ठित: परुषग्रह: ।। १७ ।।
Using similar astronomical pieces of evidence, Itihas researcher Nilesh Oak has deciphered the period of the Mahabharata War to be 5561 BC. The empirical evidence shows that, Mars was indeed going retrograde near Chitra and Swati. During the first quarter of the year 5561 BC, Mars was very close to Earth and must have been ‘प्रज्वलितं घोरं’, or was ‘shinning very bright,’ as described by Vyasa.
The Earth-Mars opposition happens when Earth is positioned directly between the Sun and Mars, making Mars appear very bright and large. Mars is a superior planet to Earth, it revolves the Sun from outside the Earth’s orbit. The duration of Earth’s revolution is one year. Mars is slower and takes almost two years. So, after about every 2.2 years, Earth catches up with Mars, and both come very close to each other. This is called their opposition. It makes Mars seem larger and brighter. It also makes it look stationary or sometimes going in reverse direction. This is what is happening right now, in Jan 2025.
Every planet orbits or revolves around the Sun. But these orbits are not always circular. In fact, for most planets the orbit is elliptical. This means that while orbiting, sometimes the planets come closer to the Sun and sometimes they go away from it. This is true for Earth, for Mars and for all other planets.
When a planet is at the closest point to the Sun, it is called its perihelion (peri = closer, helio = Sun). On the other hand, when it is at the farthest point in the orbit, it is called its aphelion (apo = farther). As we have already seen, whenever Earth comes in between the Sun and Mars, the distance between Earth and Mars reduces drastically. Mars looks bigger and brighter.
During 5561 BC, the Earth-Mars opposition occurred on 22 Feb. i.e. on this day, Mars was closest to Earth.
I noticed that Mars was also very much closer to its perihelion. i.e. it was closer to the Sun as well as the Earth’s orbit. This is called Earth-Mars Perihelic Opposition. During this, Mars looks even bigger and brighter than usual oppositions. Just like the super moon, we can call it the ‘Super Mars’.
I also noticed that the Earth was approaching its aphelion. i.e. farther from the Sun, which makes Earth even closer to Mars. So there were both the phenomena- 1. Earth near aphelion and 2. Mars near perihelion, in addition to the regular retrograde. That must have been a very rare sighting.
Observation of 22 Feb 5561 BC (Earth-Mars opposition) (before MB war)
Mars Nakshatra: Swati / Chitra
Mars Mean Anomaly: 279.262° (nearer to 0° 0r 360° = nearer to perihelion) closer to Sun and Earth
Earth Mean Anomaly: 138.718° (approaching Aphelion) farther from the Sun, closer to Mars
Mars Magnitude: -2.1 (Very bright) (This is much brighter as compared to today’s opposition)
Mars Size: 19.0 arcsec (much bigger than today)
This observation corroborates with the MB war year to be 5561 BC.
Now the orbits of Planets turn over time, causing the perihelion / Aphelion points to undergo precession. The perihelion-opposition also revolves over time. Let’s see the current-day observations. Currently (Jan 2025), Mars is already in Earth’s opposition. But Mars is not near its perihelion. So this is not a perihelic opposition. Also, Earth is near its perihelion, which makes it closer to the Sun but a little away from Mars.
Observation of: 15 Jan 2025 CE (recent opposition)
Mars Nakshatra: Punarvasu
Mars Mean Anomaly: 132.038° (away from Sun)
Earth Mean Anomaly: 11.776° (closer to the Sun, away from Mars than usual oppositions)
Mars Magnitude: -1.4
Mars Size: 14.6 arcsec (Not as big as 5561 BC)
So even if Earth and Mars are in opposition now, Mars is not as close as it was during 5561 BC. This makes the mars appear less as bright and large than the Mahabharata times.
I will try to make visualisation for the above mentioned phenomenon, hopefully shortly, so that it becomes easy to understand. The astronomical records found in the Itihas texts, like the Ramayan and the Mahabharat, are really fascinating. And the research and decipherment done by Sri Nilesh Oak is equally amazing. What do you think?