The total solar eclipse in the Bhagavata: its depiction in words and in images

Abstract

There is reference to a total solar eclipse over Kurukshetra in an ancient Indian text, the Srimadbhagvata (also the Bhagavata). The occasion drew not just Lord Krsṇa, his brother Balarama and their clan from Dwarka, but also their parents and the folk from the Braj region, the Pandava family and all the prominent characters of the epic Mahabharata, including many kings from far and wide. The eclipse had been predicted to be a total, like the one that happens at Kalpakshaye, i.e., the End of Time. The congregation took a dip in the sacred pond, fasted, and gave away cows and valuables as charity. The same eclipse features in a thirteenth century Marathi commentary on the tenth Canto of the Bhagavata by Bahira Jataveda and in an illustration in a late eighteenth century Bhagavata manuscript from the Punjab Hills. Lastly, there is a Guler painting from late eighteenth century depicting the religious bath at Kurukshetra during a solar eclipse, which also shows the eclipsed Sun. It probably is a leaf from the book of a Hindi play, Karuna Bharana Nataka by Krishna Jiwan Lachchiram, ca. 1780 CE, whose theme is the Bhagavata eclipse. Extracting history out of mythology is risky since the inferences drawn seldom have independent supporting evidence. However, the emphasis of the authors of the Bhagavata on the eclipse having been predicted, a total at that, calls for attention. It seems that the references by the authors were inspired from eclipses that occurred in their own times. In this paper we try to see if these eclipses can be identified. We find that there are three total eclipses of the Sun from different times that can represent the Bhagavata eclipse in the respective texts and the paintings. These were on 2 February 892 CE, visible over Kurukshetra; on 1 March 1253 CE, visible over the Ahmednagar area of Maharashtra; and on 17 October 1762 CE, visible from the Punjab. We believe that during the time-period when the Bhagavata was being written or emended (i.e., from 500 CE to ~tenth century), it was impossible to predict total solar eclipses with precision for specific locations. All we can conclude is that a total solar eclipse was visible over Kurukshetra, and it inspired people down the ages to work a beautiful legend around Lord Krsna, in words as well as in images.