The historical significance of the total solar eclipse of Oct 17, 1762 that passed over Panjab

Abstract

In this communication we present the circumstances of the total solar eclipse of Oct 17, 1762 that passed over India, specific to Amritsar to recreate the ambience that may serve as a definitive input to certain perceptions that the total eclipse affected a fierce battle on the day between Ahmed Shah Abdali’s forces and the Sikhs at Amritsar, forcing an early retreat by the former. The eclipse took place in the afternoon. However, at Amritsar it was partial, not total as is understood in the astronomical sense and erroneously written about so in the historical accounts. Here, the magnitude of the eclipse, the fraction of the Sun’s disc as covered by the Moon, was 0.99 while the path of totality missed the town by over 50 km. In comparison to a total, the near miss however does not dilute its large impact factor over the human psyche nor does it affect the inferences that can be drawn about the battle circumstances. At Delhi, the eclipse was total, with a magnitude 1.02. The year 1762 was one of the sunspot maximum phase of the Solar Cycle 1 when the solar corona presumably would have shown up as fairly symmetrical during the brief moments of totality.