Archive for population crisis
The population control advocate behind Planned Parenthood's transition to abortion
Posted in Abortion History, Alan F. Guttmacher, Forced Population Control, Forced Sterilization, Guttmacher, Illegal abortion, Lader, Planned Parenthood History with tags Abortion, abortion history, Abortion II, Abortion kills the life, Alan F. Guttmacher, American Eugenics Society, Black Genocide, black militants, black racism, coercion, Force, Fred Jaffe, Guttmacher, Human Betterment Foundation, Illegal Abortion, Larry Lader, Margaret Sanger, Mary S. Calderone, Planned Parenthood History, Planned Parenthood Pamphlet, Planned Parenthood uses Blacks, population crisis, population growth, PPFA, special affiliate, United Nations on April 19, 2018 by saynsumthn
By Carole Novielli | From Live Action News
This article is part two in a series on the history of Planned Parenthood. Read part one here.
Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger's focus was eugenic sterilization and birth control, rather than decriminalizing abortion. But it wasn't a female eugenics crusader who rolled out the abortion agenda of Planned Parenthood  -  that came from Dr. Alan F. Guttmacher, a physician and past vice-president of the American Eugenics Society who was already steeped in abortion prior to his election as president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) in 1962. Guttmacher worked with Mary S. Calderone, who joined Planned Parenthood's staff in 1953 as its medical director, a post she held until 1964. Years earlier, Guttmacher had vowed to work to decriminalize abortion, eventually persuading the PPFA board to commit the procedures.
PPFA president Alan F Guttmacher speaks about abortion, 1965
Planned Parenthood was initially reluctant to perform abortions  -  that is, until Guttmacher came on the scene. Before making millions committing abortions, Planned Parenthood admitted that abortion takes human life. A Planned Parenthood pamphlet from 1952 reads, "Abortion kills the life of a baby after it has begun."
Another pamphlet from Planned Parenthood Federation of America also describes abortion as a procedure that "kills life after it has begun" and one which is "dangerous" to a woman's "life and health."
In the early 1960s, abortion enthusiasts like Larry Lader bemoaned Planned Parenthood's lack of involvement with abortion, noting in his book, "Abortion II," that "Abortion never became a feminist plank in the United States among the suffragettes or depression radicals. It was ignored, even boycotted by Planned Parenthood women in those days."
Lader notes in his book, "Ideas Triumphant" how, other than the National Organization for Women (NOW), few groups were willing to support abortion: "In medicine, only the American Public Health Association (APHA) had taken a stand.... The huge network of Planned Parenthood Federation clinics remained on the sidelines except for its outspoken medical committee under Dr. Alan Guttmacher."
Lawrence Lader, abortion crusader
Lader expounds further in his book, "Abortion II," writing, "Planned Parenthood, with hundreds of chapters and clinics throughout the country, had been a particular disappointment. Legalized abortion, I insisted from the start, was the logical measure for contraception and an essential form of birth control. Under the leadership of Dr. Alan Guttmacher, the medical committee of Planned Parenthood-World Population proposed the 'abolition of existing statutes and criminal laws regarding abortion' in 1968. After this plank was approved by the members in 1969, Planned Parenthood chapters soon started abortion referrals, and even clinics, as an 'integral part of medical care.'"
Guttmacher was an avid eugenicist, who joined others of his day in voicing a concern about rising population growth. In spite of national calls for coercion to slow down the rate of population growth, Guttmacher instead advocated the decriminalization of abortion as an effort that he felt would accomplish the same result. But, although Guttmacher had learned how to finesse the rhetoric, he did not discount the use of coercion altogether. In 1966, Guttmacher compared the world population with the threat of nuclear war, telling the Washington Post that governments may have to act officially to limit families. "It may be taken out of the voluntary category," Guttmacher said.
Guttmacher abortion coercion possible
Population concerns drove public policy
In Michael W. Perry's compilation of one of Sanger's works with others of her period, "The Pivot of Civilization in Historical Perspective: The Birth Control Classic," Perry writes of Alan Guttmacher, "In 1962, Alan Guttmacher, former vice president of the American Eugenics Association, assumed the presidency of Planned Parenthood. Soon, a 'population bomb' hysteria... was driving public policy. In 1969, a medical news magazine revealed what was really going on when it quoted Guttmacher, warning that if 'voluntary means' did not achieve the desired goals, 'Each country will have to decide its own form of coercion and determine when and how it should be employed. At present, the means available are compulsory sterilization and compulsory abortion.'"
"That's what [Margaret] Sanger intended to do with birth control.... So, why should it be surprising that Guttmacher felt the same?" Perry added.
This 1968 interview with Alan Guttmacher and a member of the clergy, which, according to Ball State University, originated from WLBC-TV and was (possibly) a part of a segment titled, "Week in Review," demonstrates the concern the PPFA president had about the so-called "population crisis." Guttmacher began the interview by defining Planned Parenthood as a "movement which tries to make each child a wanted child born to responsible parents...."
In the interview, Alan Guttmacher, addressed the issue of population growth:
"Now, I think everyone is conscious of the fact that in some areas of the world there is explosive type of population increase, unsupportable, in that it is outdistancing food, it retards economic development... and, what we are attempting to do, of course, is to encourage countries to curtail the rate of growth."

He added this about the threat of a global "population crisis:"
Now, I've been in this a really long time and I am encouraged because, we have governments becoming deeply involved. Each year, one or more - many governments make population control part of national policy.
In 1969, after seeking government funding for "family planning" specifically for "low income Americans," Guttmacher responded to criticism from some that population growth could be reduced by "voluntary methods" rather than government coercion. "I do not share their despair," he stated. "The appropriate response, in my view, is to mobilize rapidly a total, coordinated U.S. program by government, in collaboration with voluntary health services, in an all-out maximum effort to demonstrate what voluntary fertility control can accomplish in a free society."
A year later, in 1970, Guttmacher, told Boston Magazine that the United Nations should be the organization the United States used to carry out population control programs worldwide. Guttmacher explained his reasoning:
If you're going to curb population, it's extremely important not to have it done by the dammed Yankees, but by the UN. Because the thing is, then it's not considered genocide. If the United States goes to the black man or the yellow man and says slow down your reproduction rate, we're immediately suspected of having ulterior motives to keep the white man dominant in the world. If you can send in a colorful UN force, you've got much better leverage.
The fact is that Guttmacher understood that coercive means of population control would not be well received, especially by members of the Black community. The eugenics movement, of which he was a part, had come under criticism after the Nazis' implemented their eugenic "final solution" for a "pure race"  -  something many believe originated with American eugenics leaders.
"So even though the plan [of coercion] may be desirable and would make us a stronger nation, a less polluted nation, I feel it would be strategically unwise at this time," the former Planned Parenthood president told Lee McCall, a reporter for the Sarasota Herald Tribune in 1966.
Guttmacher Compulsory Birth Control 1970
The push for taxpayer-funded birth control for the poor and minorities
Guttmacher, who also founded Planned Parenthood's research arm and "special affiliate," the Guttmacher Institute, then proposed a blueprint to force taxpayers to pay for birth control access for the poor, as Live Action News detailed previously.
The plan was highly criticized by the Black community, which saw the move as a means of racist Black genocide. "Among other things, this policy has brought the Planned Parenthood Federation under attack from black militants who see 'family planning' as a euphemism for race genocide," the NYT reported at that time. So, a 1966 internal memo from Alan Guttmacher and Fred Jaffe outlined a new "community relations program" for winning over the Black community by "form[ing] a liaison between Planned Parenthood and minority organizations." The plan, according to Planned Parenthood, was to emphasize that "all people have the opportunity to make their own choices," rather than, as the memo states, "exhortation telling them how many children they should have."
Image from 1940's Birth control pamphlet published by Planned Parenthood
In its 1969 article entitled, "Dr. Guttmacher is the Evangelist of Birth Control," the New York Times was forced to acknowledge that many leaders sitting on Planned Parenthood's board were in favor of coercive measures of population control. While painting the picture of an agency which was pushing birth control on the "ghetto" rather than the "middle-class" who were having more than the optimal amount of children, the paper noted that a "sizable" number of Planned Parenthood's board was made up of "preponderantly white and well-to-do" people. They then quoted a Planned Parenthood board member who admitted the racist attitude of the organization when he stated, "What it all comes down to is that we want the poor to stop breeding while we retain our freedom to have large families. It's strictly a class point of view."
Guttmacher and Sanger were both (as eugenicists) concerned that the world population was a threat, but, Guttmacher, much savvier than Sanger, chose to couch his agenda as a "right." He even told the paper that they were not trying to take away anyone's rights, but trying to "show ghetto families how to space their children and avoid having children they don't want."
"Admittedly Guttmacher is buying time," writes the New York Times in that 1969 report. "He thinks the voluntary movement should set a deadline of 1980. If world population growth has not dropped below 1.5 percent by then, he says, 'we'll have to get tough.'"
Guttmacher on coercive population control New York Times
Whatever Guttmacher meant by getting "tough" never materialized, because he believed decriminalizing abortion was the solution and noted this in a 1970 interview where he stated:
If we could get the abortion law liberalized, most of the 750,000 unwanted pregnancies would not lead to babies - rejected children, battered baby syndrome and illegal abortions.
Proposing the availability of "unlimited abortion" to curb population growth
And, in that same year, Guttmacher admitted to a 1970 Cornell Symposium, (according to an April 7, 1970, article published by the Cedar Rapids Gazette), that although he did not know when life began, he believed that "unlimited abortion" was the only way to reduce population growth, saying, "There is no question that the most effective way of reducing population growth is by unlimited abortion."
According to researcher and author Mary Meehan, "Guttmacher undoubtedly believed that [abortion] helped women; in fact, he had referred patients to an illegal abortionist as early as 1941. Yet he also had other motives, indicated by his service as vice president and board member of the American Eugenics Society."
The Case for Legalized Abortion Now, edited by Alan F Guttmacher
In 1967, Guttmacher edited a book on legalizing abortion, where he admitted, "Today it is possible for almost any patient to be brought through pregnancy alive, unless she suffers from a fatal illness such as cancer or leukemia, and, if so, abortion would be unlikely to prolong, much less save, life." Former abortionist Dr. Anthony Levatino agrees with this, stating that there is never a valid medical reason for abortion:
Guttmacher became Chief of Obstetrics at Baltimore's Sinai Hospital in 1942, eventually creating a staff committee of five to make decisions about abortion. Like Sanger, Guttmacher allegedly watched a woman die from an illegal abortion while serving as an intern in Baltimore. He later wrote of other women, "In a short period I witnessed three deaths from illegal abortions: a 16-year old with a multiperforated uterus, a mother of four who died of sepsis rejecting another child, and a patient in early menopause who fatally misinterpreted amenorrhea."
Alan Guttmacher 1973 (Image credit: WGBH)
For years, Guttmacher referred women to physicians for illegal abortion procedures. He once wrotehow an illegal abortionist, nicknamed Dr. T, showed him the abortion technique. "His technique was to pack one inch gauze strips into the cervix and lower uterine segment the night before he was to evacuate the conceptus," Guttmacher wrote. "After 12 hours of packing, the cervix was wide open, and he was able to empty the uterus with an ovum forceps, followed by currettage without anesthesia. In advanced pregnancies he inserted intrauterine bougies, held in place by a vaginal pack until strong contractions commenced, which not infrequently took several days."
"These early medical experiences with the unavailability of abortions in reputable hospitals and the incidence of illegal abortions convinced me that permitting abortion only 'to preserve the life of the mother' was undesirable and unenforceable.... My sentiment was that as long as the law was as restrictive as it was, doctors should not breach it, but work to change the law - a position which I forthrightly espoused in the classroom," Guttmacher stated.
Dr. T later attended a 1950's Abortion in the United States conference sponsored by PPFA, which focused on abortion. PPFA leader Mary Calderone writes, "Those very concerned with the problem of abortion will be full of gratitude for this report; gratitude to the P.P.F.A. for convening the conference and for the frankness of the thirty-eight participants, who comprised eminent gynaecologists, psychiatrists and a few social workers. The highlight of the proceedings was an M.D.'s testimony as a convicted (but not imprisoned) abortionist. The chairman stated that Dr. T. was his valued friend, known for nearly three decades, and described him as 'an extremely competent abortionist ... who some years ago fell into disagreement with the law and is no longer in practice".'"
The PPFA group heard from abortion advocates worldwide, and in the end, Calderone indicates that there was no clarion call to push for abortion reform.
In his book, "Babies by Choice or by Chance," published in 1959, Guttmacher allegedly deplored "the performance of abortion on virtual demand." But Guttmacher also noted how he had learned from experience how hospitals were "allowed to interpret and administer the abortion law of their respective states without supervision or interference from either the police, the courts or medical agencies."
Babies by Choice or By Chance, by Alan F Guttmcher
In 1952, Guttmacher had relocated from Baltimore to New York, where he became the first Director of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Mount Sinai Hospital, which had already been approving and performing abortions. "I was told that if a private patient was denied abortion in another institution, she frequently sought abortion at Mt. Sinai because of its well-known, relatively liberal policy," Guttmacher claimed.
Alan Guttmacher appointed head of obstetrics at Mount Sinai Hospital (Image New York Times June 27,1952)
By 1962, Guttmacher was at the helm of Planned Parenthood and he was positioned to put his dream of decriminalizing abortion into action. That same year, as chairman of the medical and scientific committee of the Human Betterment Foundation, Guttmacher called the existing abortion laws "archaic" and "idiotic."
Guttmacher named president of Planned Parenthood, 1967 (Image: New York Times)
"The idea that the fetus has a sacred right to survive from the moment of fertilization is a Judeo Christian creation," he said according to a May 2, 1962, Poughkeepsie Miscellany News report.
Alan Guttmacher calls 1960 abortion laws archaic
"I believe that a new abortion statute for New York and each of the other states is needed.... I think it is high time that a commission of physicians, lawyers, judges, sociologists, and religionists convened in an attempt to wrestle with the problem realistically.... The only way progress can be made is through an aroused citizenry. What we need in the United States is a uniform abortion law," Guttmacher wrote in "Babies by Choice."
A few years later, during a 1965 "Abortion and the Law" BBC program, Guttmacher, then president of PPFA, put forth the infamous "health" exception for abortion, stating (36:20):
Now, the law as you know is simply to preserve the life of the mother. This is wholly inadequate.
Number one, I'd preserve the life or health of the mother. And, as you know, health could be interpreted quite broadly and I think it should be. In 1960, the World Health Organization gave us splendid definition of health. They said health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well being. Not simply the absence of illness and disease.
Second, I feel that abortion should be done, when competent medical opinion feels that there's strong likelihood of the current [inaudible] to result in the malformed or abnormal child. I think whenever pregnancy is the result of proved rape, incest, or the impregnation of a child of sixteen or less, with or without the consent, that we have legal grounds for interrupting this pregnancy.
Interestingly, this language comes directly from the 1959 American Law Institute's Model Penal Code on abortion. In our next report in this series, we will learn Guttmacher's connection to that organization and detail what led up to Planned Parenthood's decision to push for the decriminalization of abortion and begin referring for the procedure.
This article is reprinted with permission. The original appeared here at Live Action News.
This was part two in Live Action News' series on the history of Planned Parenthood's move to committing abortions. You can read part one ,(1) part three, and part four in additional articles.


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Exclusive: One Planet Summit showcases Africa's role against climate change (from Maria Macharia)
NAIROBI, Kenya, March 9, 2019/APO Group/ --
From Maria Macharia
While Africa is responsible for merely 4 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, 65 percent of the continent's estimated population of 1,3 billion people is considered to be directly impacted by climate change.
It is against the backdrop of this irony that global leaders, entrepreneurs, international organizations, and civil society meet in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Thursday next week to help accelerate focus and attention on climate investments in line with the Paris Agreement objectives.
The stakeholders will meet under the auspices of the One Planet Summit (OPS), which also focuses on promoting renewable energies, fostering resilience and adaptation and protecting biodiversity in the continent.
"OPS, which is in its third edition, is the French initiative to engage states and global ministers to implement climate policies," said Mr Lõhmus. Nairobi will be the first first regional host of the OPS.
French President, Emmanuel Macron, and his Kenyan counterpart, Uhuru Kenyatta, as well as World Bank Group Interim President Kristalina Georgieva and UN Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed, will co-chair the conference, which will be among the highlights will co-chair the conference, which will be among the highlights of the fourth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-4) running from March 11-15.
Ado Lohmus, a UNEA special envoy, this week confirmed Macron will be in the East African country next week.
"On the 14th, he (Macron) will open the OPS, which will also be meeting here in Kenya alongside UNEA," Lohmus said in Nairobi this week.
More than 2000 delegates from around the world have registered to attend UNEA-4 and are to be a key part of OPS proceedings.
OPS is one in a series of some climate events this year leading up to the UN 2019 Climate Summit and to the 25th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 25) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
In December 2018, the World Bank Group announced a major new set of climate targets for 2021-2025, doubling its current 5-year investments to around $200 billion in support for countries to take ambitious climate action.
The new plan significantly boosts support for adaptation and resilience, recognizing mounting climate change impacts on lives and livelihoods, especially in the world's poorest countries. The plan also represents significantly ramped up ambition from the World Bank Group, sending an important signal to the wider global community to do the same.
Ahead of the OPS, Kenya government officials assured preparations for the OPS were progressing well, with the country having previously held international events of this nature.
Last year, Kenya co-hosted the first-ever global conference on the sustainable blue economy, alongside Canada.
OPS is held following the realization that resources and solutions for renewable energy already exist in Africa but there is a need to speed their financing and mainstream their development.
Judy Wakhungu, Kenya's Ambassador to France, and French State Minister for Ecological and Inclusive Transition, Brune Poirson, recently held meetings to finalise plans for the OPS and UNEA-4.
Macron has previously spoken of his government's goal to be a strategic partner to Africa in the field of climate change adaptation.
France is the largest financial contributor to the Africa Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI), alongside Germany and followed by the Council of the European Union.
At the Africa-France Summit held in Mali in 2017, the French president announced that financing for renewable energy in Africa would be increased from €2 billion to €3 billion, implemented by the Agence Française de Développement (French Development Agency) over the 2016-2020 period.
"Africa, from the shores of Lake Chad to the Congo Basin, is being hardest hit by the effects of climate change but it can also be at the forefront of solutions. It can succeed where Europe has not always been able to," Macron prominently said during a state visit to Burkina Faso in late 2017.
This week, the World Bank, a partner for the OPS, stated cities in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly Nairobi, could inform global action on climate change.
Nairobi already has a strong private sector presence as the eighth most attractive city in Africa for foreign direct investment, according to the global institution.
"As such, it can share important lessons learned with other cities in the region and around the world. The One Planet Summit provides the perfect space to do just that by actively inviting new partners to collaborate and launch new initiatives," the World Bank stated.
- CAJ News


Tag Archives: Varahamihira
What are Rahu and Ketu?
31/08/2012 Blogs (Articles)Aryabhata, Buddha, calamity, graha, Ketu, Mahabharata, navagraha, planet, Rahu, utpata, VarahamihiraRajesh Kochhar
Rahu and Ketu are two astro-mythological terms of Vedic vintage which underwent change and expansion of meaning in 6th century CE.
Contrary to many statements in print and on the internet, the Rgveda does not mention Rahu. In the Rgveda, eclipses of the Sun and the Moon take place when they are swallowed by an asura named Svarbhanu.
The Atharvaveda onwards, the eclipse-causing demon is called Rahu. In the Buddhist Pali literature, the Sun and the Moon successfully appeal to Buddha to rescue them from Rahu.
In the vast Mahabharata text, believed to have been by-and-large frozen in 4th century CE, Rahu is the eclipse-causing demon.
Unlike Rahu which was a proper noun exclusively associated with eclipses, ketu in this period was a common noun denoting a number of related phenomena rather than a particular event. Ketu, in plural stood for comets, meteors and the like. It has even been suggested that at places ketu denotes sunspots.
Astro-mythology changes after Aryabhata (born 476 CE) whose influential text Aryabhatiyam propounds the mathematical theory of eclipses. Note that this is a first for India not the whole world.
According to this theory, eclipses take place when the Moon is at one of the nodes of its orbit. The movement of these nodes can be calculated mathematically so that it now became possible to predict eclipses.
The movable part of the cosmos, what is now recognized as the solar system comprised two class of objects: planets (graha) and calamities (utpata)Since the planets could be mathematically described, they represented cosmic order and were source of comfort.
In contrast, objects like comets appeared from nowhere without warning and thus cause of concern.
Aryabhata's work transferred eclipses from the category of utpata to that of the grahas.Since eclipses could be mathematically predicted, the two lunar nodes were designated grahas. Since they were not real, they were called shadow planets.
Varahamihira names these shadow planets. The ascending node was called Rahu and the descending node Ketu. Note that since the two nodes are 180 degrees apart, naming one would have been sufficient. But both were included so that the number of planets could be fixed at nine, considered to be a powerful and mysterious number.
While, for Rahu it was a re-definition of his old role, for Ketu it was a new assignment. It continued to be used in the old sense of comets, meteors, etc.
To sum up, when we seek to interpret the terms Rahu and Ketu in the old literature, we must first check what the time period is. Before 6th century, Rahu and Ketu are NOT planets. Rahu is a demon and Ketu a comet or a meteor. Beginning with 6th century CE, Rahu and Ketu become planets. In addition Ketu, continues to denote a comet or a meteor
Rahu and Ketu in mythological and "astronomological" contexts
13/08/2010 Blogs (Articles)Aryabhata, Atharvaveda, Buddha, comets, eclipse, graha, Ketu, Mahabharata, meteors, mythology, Rahu, Rigveda, Sardulakaranavadana, scriptures, Svabhanu, utpata, VarahamihiraRajesh Kochhar
Indian Journal of History of Science, Vol, 45, no.2, June 2010, pp. 287-297
Rahu and Katu were deployed as planetary deities in the sixth century CE immediately after the mathematical theory of eclipses was propounded by Aryabhata. Their literary credentials however go back to early Vedic times. Here our aim is to examine, in a joint mythological and astronomical-astrological ("astronomological") context, how the textual meanings of Rahu and Ketu have evolved with time. There are clear stages in their evolutionary histories, which must be borne in mind while interpreting early references.
The legend of Rahu shows signs of internal development. Successor to the Rgvedic Svarbhanu, Rahu as eclipse-causing demon was reduced to a body-less head so that the swallowed sun or moon had an escape route. Rahu's identification with the lunar ascending node represents an attempt to connect new scientific developments with traditional beliefs. Ketu, in contrast, was a dictionary word used to denote a variety of related phenomenon especially comets. The promotion of the head-less body as a demon represents expansion of mythology in the light of new scientific developments. Ketu was now given an additional entirely new role, creating avoidable confusion. Significantly, Ketu's iconography represents efforts at reconciling its two disparate roles.
Key words: mathematical theory of eclipses, astrology, Vedic mythology, planetary deities, Buddhist mythology, astronomical omens, ritual
Ancient Indian perception of the moving cosmic environment two millennia ago was bipolar. Orbits of the seven geocentric planets (graha) by virtue of their predictability represented cosmic order, while phenomena like meteors, comets and eclipses which did not fit into any pattern were classified as utpata, portent or calamity. This world view is preserved in a Buddhist Sanskrit text, Sardulakarnavadana, the legend contained in which is known to have been translated in an abridged form into Chinese in 265 CE (Vaidya 199,p.xi) . As the 5th century CE came to a close, the status of eclipses was modified.
Mathematical theory of eclipses was propounded in India in 499CE by Aryabhata (born 476 CE) in his influential Siddhantic treatise simply known as Aryabhatiyam (See Ohashi 2009 for a recent review). According to this theory, solar and lunar eclipses occur when the moon is at either of its orbital nodes. These theoretical points move in a direction opposite to that of the planets and complete an orbit in the rather short period of 18.6 years. This development was immediately taken note of in astrological literature, which classified the two nodes as planets, implying that they were now amenable to mathematics. Since they were hypothetical they were dubbed shadow planets. The 6th century CE text Brihajjataka (2.2-3) by Varahamihira (died 587 CE) includes Rahu and Ketu in the list of planets, and even gives their synonyms: Tamas, Agu and Asura for Rahu; and Shikhi for Ketu (Rao 1986, p.76), which however never gained currency. The two nodes are 180 degrees apart so that specifying one fixes the other. It would thus have sufficed to include just one of them. Both were listed no doubt to bring the planetary number up to nine which was considered sacred.
If new words had been coined to designate the two nodes, matter would have rested there. But both Rahu and Ketu are terms of Vedic vintage. The term Rahu had previously been used as a proper noun and exclusively in connection with eclipse so that its deployment represents an attempt at integrating new scientific developments with ancient tradition. On the other hand Ketu was merely a common noun employed variously but never in association with eclipse. Here then was an old term which was given an entirely new identity, representing expansion of mythology in the light of new scientific developments.
It is not uncommon to see even earlier references to Rahu and Ketu being interpreted in terms of their later status. This is unfortunate, because it distorts the history of the evolution of "astronomological" thought. The new coinage is advisedly used in preference to the extant terms astronomical and astrological to avoid backdating the present differentiation into earlier times when they would have been essentially seen as one. Our aim is to investigate how the textual meanings of the terms Rahu and Ketu have evolved with time. We must keep in mind some notable features of the available source material. Most texts remained open for a long time and were contributed to by generations of authors. There is no reason to expect or demand internal self- consistency from them. The texts were often composed in metrical poetry and were meant for a select audience. Very often the meaning assigned to a particular word depends on the context in which it is used.
An important source of information on ancient India is the Mahabharata which was expanded over a long period of time to include matter that went beyond the description of the Bharata battle which it had originally set out to describe. The astronomical content of the Mahabharata is consistent with Vedic astronomy in that it marks sky positions with the help of bright stars or star groups known as naksatra. The Mahabharata is not familiar with the twelve zodiacal signs which make their appearance in post-Mauryan India in about the first century BCE at Baudha Gaya where they are depicted on the railing pillars (Kane 1975, p. 598). Given the size and the nature of the contents of the Mahabharata it is reasonable to assume that if zodiacal signs had been introduced into India when the Mahabharata text was still open they would have found their way into it. We thus conclude that the Mahabharata text had been closed by about 1st century BCE (Kochhar 2000, p.56). This is an important datum. At one place the Mahabharata (Vanaparva 188. 87-88) does say that "when the moon, the sun and Jupiter in Tisya come together in one rasi, krta age will begin". The term rasi is used here in the general sense of a portion of sky, not in the precise sense of a zodiacal sign.
The Mahabharata does not make any reference to the week days either. There is no unanimity on the epoch when they were introduced into India. Varahamihira, already referred to, in his other works , Pancasiddhantika and Brihatsamhita, mentions week days while quoting authorities who had lived much earlier . From this it has been inferred that week days were introduced into India in the first century CE(Kane 1975, pp. 680-1). A more plausible case has been built by Markel (1991) to suggest that the week made its appearance in India only in forth century CE.
Vedic Rahu and Ketu
The Rgveda does not know of Rahu. Rgveda (5.40:5-9) describes how Svarbhanu, son of an asura, pierced the sun "through and through with darkness". The eclipse caused great distress among observers: "All creatures looked like one who is bewildered, who knoweth not the place where he is standing". The sun himself appealed to Atri: "Let not the oppressor with this dread, through anger, swallow me up, for I am thine, O Atri". In response, "By his fourth sacred prayer Atri discovered Surya concealed in gloom that stayed his function". "The Brahmana Atri, as he set the press-stones, serving the Gods with praise and adoration, established in the heavens the eye of Surya, and caused Svarbhanu's magic arts to vanish. The Atris found the Sun again, him whom Svarbhanu of the brood of Asuras had pierced with gloom. This none besides had the power to do." (Griffith 1896, p. 255) .The Atris were prominent contributors to the Rgveda. The whole of the fifth mandala is authored by them. The passage quoted above is mentioned and embellished at a number of places in the Vedic literature :Tandya Brahmana (4.5.2; 4.6.13; 6.6.8; 14.11. 14-15; 23.16.2), Gopatha Brahmana (8.19), Satapatha Brahmana (5.3.2.2), and Sankhayana Brahmana (24.3) ( Dikshit 1896, Vol.1, p.58; Kane 1975, pp. 241-242). What the Atris probably did was to chant mantras while the eclipse lasted. The Rgvedic description is significant. An eclipse was seen as the demon's work in disrupting the cosmic order. Propitiation was needed to restore that order.
Dikshit (1896, Vol. 1, p. 57) while translating a passage from the Rgveda renders Svarbhanu as Rahu and goes on to give its meaning as the lunar ascending node. Similarly Kane (1975, p.569), while discussing a reference in the Maitrayani Upanisad, equates Rahu and Ketu with the ascending and descending node respectively. Svarbhanu's career as an asura did not last long. It is not clear when and how Svarbhanu made way for Rahu, who appears for the first time, and as the sun's enemy, in Atharvaveda (19, 9-10). Chandogya Upanisad (8.13) makes an interesting analogy: The "soul that has acquired true knowledge is said to shake off the body after casting off all evil" like "the moon becoming free from the mouth of Rahu" (Kane 1975, p.569).The Pali Buddhist sources refer to the moon and the sun freeing themselves from the clutches of Rahu by invoking Buddha's name (Candima Sutta, Samyutta-nikaya 2.9; Suriya Sutta, Samyutta-nikaya 2.10).
Mahabharata (Bhismaparva 13.39-45) uses both Svarbhanu and Rahu as interchangeable names. Rahu is a graha, 12000 yojanas in diameter, bigger than both the moon (11000 yojanas) and the sun (10000 yojanas). Rahu had to be bigger than the sun and the moon so that it could grab them. Note that the term graha here carries the sense of a grabber and not that of a body in orbit. In course of time, the name Svarbhanu came to be de-stigmatized so much so that a son of Lord Krsna was given the name (Mani 1975, p. 778).
Atharvaveda (13.16-24) employs Ketu to mean ray of light. These nine verses are taken from Rgveda (1.50.1-9) in the same order and more or less in the same form. They are also found "in one or more other Vedic texts" (Whitney 1905, Vol.2, p.722). More typically Ketu meant combination of fire and smoke. The Atharvaveda passage (19.9.10) quoted above refers to Dhumaketu as an epithet of mrtyu [death]. It either means a comet or literally as "smoke-bannered" to the smoke rising from a funeral pyre (Whitney 1905,Vol. 2, p. 914). Atharvaveda (11.10.1-2, 7) uses Ketu in the plural, as arunah ketavah [ruddy Ketus]. Here the reference seems to be to comets or meteors. Varahamihira's Brihatsamhita, composed in 6th century CE but containing much older material, quotes a still earlier astronomer Garga on a class of 77 comets, called Aruna, which are dark red in colour (Bhat 1981,Vol. 1, p.138).
Puranic Rahu and Ketu
If the demon Rahu devours the sun or the moon to cause an eclipse, how do they become visible again? The answer is provided by the well - known story samudramanthana (churning of ocean), described in Mahabharata, Visnupurana and elsewhere. In the story, the demon Rahu's head is chopped off, which survives. It is the Rahu head which causes an eclipse. Since the rest of the body is missing, there is an escape route for the sun and the moon. Note that the name Rahu now belonged to the body-less head. The head-less body would remain unclaimed, till the 6th century CE; see below. Brhatsammhita (5:1-3) while narrating this story also refers to a prevalent alternative belief that Rahu is of a serpentine form with only the head and the tail. The ancient Iranian text Bundahishn talks of goshir, an eclipse-causing serpent. It is not clear whether Varahamihira is referring to the Iranian legend or an un-recorded Indian one. Al Biruni writing in the 11th century reserves the name Rahu for the dragon's head and calls the tail Ketu (Sachau 1888, Vol. 2, p.234).There were some half-hearted attempts to relate eclipses to predictable phenomena. Thus it was speculated that an eclipse took place when five planets get together (Brihatsamhita 5.17)
Mahabharata (Adiparva 65. 11-12, 31) names Kasyapa as the father and Simhika as the mother of Rahu, who is at times designated Simihkeya after her. His three other real brothers are also mentioned, their given names, Sucandra, Candraharta and Candrapramardana, all being associated with moon. Kasyapa from another wife Danu had 34 named sons including one called Ketuman (not Ketu).Curiously the names Surya, Candramas and Svarbhanu figure in the list (Adiparva 65.22-26).These 34 demons are thus Rahu's half brothers. This naming is an exrecise in meaningless creativity. This association may have an astronomical basis which does not seem to have been noted before. Varahamihira in his Brihatsamhita (3.7; 11.22) mentions a class of 33 comets known as Tamaskilakas (dark shafts), called children of Rahu. They were noticed by the 11th century astronomer and chronicler Al-Biruni also. Described as black, and shaped like a crow or a beheaded man or a sword, or bow and arrow, they are always in the neighbourhood of the sun and the moon. It is likely that this category include sunspots (Bhat 1981, pp.25-26). An ancient authority quoted by Varahamihira on Tamaskilaka is Garga, who figures in Mahabharata also as an astronomer and advisor ( Mani 1975, p. 280). He may well have been responsible for constructing a myth about 34 half-brothers of Rahu out of the description of Tamaskilakas. It is noteworthy that from independent considerations Garga has been place at about 100 BCE (Kane 1975, p.681), the epoch we have assigned to the closure of the Mahabharata.
Inverted astronomy in Mahabharata
The Mahabharata talks about the prevalent astronomical knowledge albeit often in an inverted manner. It will be useful to inspect the context in which these references were made.
When the two rival armies stood confronting each other, and the Bharata war looked imminent, last ditch efforts were made to avert it by appealing to the ineffectual king Dhrtarastra whose villainous sons were widely held responsible for bringing things to such a pass. To convey the enormity of the sense of impending genocide, the king was told that in anticipation of the war the natural order had already broken down. The effect was heightened by the fact that the so-called eye witness account was brought to the sightless king by his own biological father. The revered Ved Vyasa tells Dhrtarastra (Bhismaparva 3.46) as follows.
"Cows are giving birth to asses; and elephants to dogs. Sons are enjoying sexual pleasures with their mothers. Idols of gods are laughing, vomiting blood, feeling sad, and falling off their pedestals on their own. Animals are being born with three horns, four eyes, five feet, two urinary organs, and two tails. Women are giving simultaneous birth to four -five girls, who immediately start singing, dancing and laughing. Trees are flowering out of season. Lotus and water-lily are blossoming on tree tops. Even koel, peacock and parrot are making fearsome sounds. There is a downpour of blood and bones from the sky."
The imagined weirdness of the world in anticipation of the fratricidal war was extended to the skies as well. "Arundhati well known for her devotion to her husband Vasistha has left him behind. [The reference here seems to be the star pair in Ursa Major rather than to individuals.] Dawn and the dusk look like as if they are on fire. Vyasa tells Dhrtarastra that he could not make out the difference between day and night, because the sun, moon and the stars all were burning bright throughout. This is a fearsome sign. Although it was the Kartika full moon night, the moon was not visible; its luster had given way to fire.
It is in this background that even the more-reasonable sounding descriptions of celestial phenomenon should be seen. A recurring theme is the reference at various places in the Mahabharata to Rahu, as if the occurrence of an eclipse was at par with holocaust on earth. "Rahu has seized the sun" (Bhismaparva 3.11). "Rahu is approaching the sun" (Bhismaparva 141.10)."Rahu swallowed the sun most untimely" (Salyaparva 55.10). "Rahu eclipsed the sun and the moon simultaneously" (Asvamedhaparva 76. 15, 16, 18). Meteors (ulka) and earthquakes are also similarly invoked. As part of the celestial foreboding it is stated that a very dangerous Dhumaketu has overcome the naksatra Pusya. This will bring destruction to both sides. (This ill-omen appears in the 4th century CE Buddhist text Sardulakarnavadana as well; see below).
Continuing, his listing of ill omens, Ved Vyasa tells Dhrtarastra that the sveta graha (white planet) has transgressed Citra, while the parusa graha (harsh planet) has established itself between Citra and Svati (Bhismaparva 3.11, 16). The translators have exercised their own discretion in rendering these terms. Sveta graha has been left untranslated (Sathe et al. 1985, p.39) or equated with Ketu (Ganguli 1884-1896, Book 6, p.12). Parusa graha has been identified with Rahu by one translator ( Ganguli 1884-1896, Book 6, p.12) and with Ketu by ANOTHER (Sathe et al. 1985, p.39).. The arbitrariness is obvious. As we have argued it would be anachronistic to associate Rahu and Ketu with a planet in pre-Varahamihira times.
Greek astronomical elements made their documented appearance in India in 149 CE when a Greek astro-text was translated into Sanskrit by Yavanesvara. It was versified in 269CE by Sphujidhvaja under the title Yavanajataka (Pingree, p. 1959). The versification was a significant development, because it signifies assimilation of Greco-Babylonian elements into Indian tradition. And yet, Vedic astronomical tradition remained extant even after the introduction of Yavana texts, as can be seen from passages in Sardulakarnavadana, already referred to. "Irrespective of the naksatra, when the sun or the moon is seized by Rahu, the king along with his subjects comes to pain." "Irrespective of the naksatra when Ketu enters the moon, the neighbouring enemy king gets the upper hand." "When Dhumaketu establishes itself in the Pusya naksatra, then defeat in enemy's assault from all four directions is guaranteed" (Vaidya 1999, p. 374, couplets 462,463, 466). As we have already noted, Dhumaketu in Pusya as a bad omen is mentioned in the Mahabharata also. It is significant that Ketu and Dhumaketu are listed separately and along with Rahu under utpata.
Once the mathematical theory of eclipse was propounded, Rahu ceased to be an utpata; its predictability however did not remove the fear associated with it. On the other hand, Ketu as comet continued to be an utpata. Brihatsamhita assigns separate chapters to a discussion on eclipses under the heading Rahu and on comets under Ketu. Brihatsamhita does not mention Ketu in the context of eclipse. As mentioned earlier, it is Varahamihira's other text Brihajjataka which twins Ketu with Rahu as the eclipse-causing shadow planets, introducing the concept of navagraha. Ketu was now given a brand new identity; the torso which had been lying lifeless after the detachment of the Rahu head was now resurrected and named Ketu.
We have argued that inclusion of the demon Rahu in the list of mathematically tractable planets took place after 499CE. Support for this conclusion comes from iconographic data. The " first surviving depiction of Rahu occurs in a relief of the 'Churning of the Ocean' carved over the façade of the doorway of cave-temple number nineteen at Udayagiri in the Vidisha district of Madhya Pradesh, which can be dated to ca. A.D.430-450. Earliest known representations of Rahu as a member of the planetary deities are those on two stone lintels, 100cm by 20cm, originally from the villages of Nachna and Kuthara in the Panna district in the Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh, most likely sculpted during the reign of the Uccakalpa king Jayanatha (r. ca. A.D.490-510)" ( Markel 1990, pp.11-13). If the assigned dates are correct, it is remarkable that Rahu's planetization occurred within a decade of Aryabhata's theory. Ketu as a planetary deity appears in about 600 CE or a little later, in Uttar Pradesh. In the eastern state of Orissa, Ketu was not counted in until the tenth century, which thus had only eight grahas till then (Markel 1990, p.21). One wonders whether it was from Orissa that Rahu as Yahu travelled to Burma as one of the eight nats (spirits).
Astronomical literature employs the term Rahu in connection with eclipse but in a number of ways. Aryabhata does not use either Rahu or Ketu; he and following him many others refer to a node as pata. Brahmagupta (b.598CE) in his long career displays signs of intellectual evolution. Taking a position contrary to Aryabhata, he in his Brahmasphutasiddhanta, prepared in 628 CE, expresses his faith in the demon Rahu as the cause of eclipse . Al Biruni noted this (Sachau 1888,Vol. 2, p.110). His later text, Khandakhadyaka (665 CE), however, calculates eclipses in a matter-of-fact way employing the technical term pata and without naming Rahu or Ketu (Chatterjee 1970, pp. 80-85).
The 689 CE astronomical handbook Karanaratna by Devacarya (Shukla 1979) uses Rahu to denote the eclipse shadow (2.2) as well as the ascending node (e.g.1.15). Significantly, at one place (1.13) the latter is called Rahumukha (Rahu head). A tersely written basic astronomical text will have no reason to mention Ketu. As comet, meteor or the like Ketu lay outside the scope of theory while as descending node it would be redundant once the ascending node Rahu or pata was mentioned.
In later Iranian (and Arabic) mythology the ascending node Rahu and the descending node Ketu become the head and the tail of the dragon Al -Djawzahr. Ketu as comet is not forgotten; he figures as al-Kayd (Hartner 1965). Rahu and Ketu as part of mathematical astronomy were introduced into China during the Tang dynasty (618-907CE), but with modified meaning. While Rahu was retained in the sense of the lunar ascending node, Ketu was used as a designation for lunar apogee (Niu 1995)
The imagery and iconography of Rahu and Ketu have evolved over time, with the latter having been more difficult to conceptualize. While Rahu has been well-defined since the days of the samudramanthana story, Ketu had in the sixth century CE the eclipse role thrust upon him in addition to the cometary ( and not the other way round as Neugebauer (1957, p.211) suggests).
The tradition of eclipse calculation has continued uninterrupted till relatively recent times. A copper plate inscription tells us about the grant of a village by the Kalachuri king Ratnadeva II to an astronomer , Jagannatha by name, for correctly predicting the lunar eclipse of 1128CE. He knew two Siddhantas and succeeded where other astronomers in the court failed. Hence the reward ( Mirashi 1933-34,p.161).Seven centuries later, a Pondicherry-based traditional astronomer calculated for the benefit of John Warren the lunar eclipse of 1825 May 31-June 1, with the help of shells, placed on the ground, and from tables memorized "by means of certain artificial words and syllables". The results were remarkably accurate for the time. There was an error of +4 minutes for the beginning, -23 minutes for the middle and -52 minutes for the end (Neugebauer 1983, p.436). Traditional almanacs still use old algorithms for their planetary position calculations, but have taken to using modern methods for calculating eclipses as a concession to the greater time consciousness of the present times.
To sum up, the terms Rahu and Ketu have been continuously in use since the early Vedic times, but their meaning has not remained static. Rahu was an eclipse-causing demon whose name was confined to the severed head in the samudramanthana story. In the sixth century CE, Rahu was identified with the ascending node of lunar orbit and designated the eighth planet.
From the earliest time till the sixth century CE, Ketu was not a proper noun but a dictionary word used to denote phenomena like comets and meteors. This meaning continued later as well. But in the sixth century CE, Ketu was made into a proper noun by identifying it with the descending node of the lunar orbit and designating it the ninth planet. The headless body of the demon left behind from the samudramanthana days was retrospectively named Ketu. This evolutionary sequence needs to be kept in mind while interpreting textual references. More specifically, identification of Rahu or Ketu with a planet in a text prior to Varahamihira would be an exercise in anachronism.
I thank Yukio Ohashi, K.T.S. Sarao, B.V. Subbarayappa, K. Ramaubramaniam and Michio Yano for help and useful conversations.
(To help place an author's work in context, date of original publication is cited in the text. For convenience, date of translation or reprint, mostly facsimile, is added.)
Bhat, M. Ramakrishna (1981) Varahamihira's Brihat Samhita (Delhi: Motilal Banarasidass).
Chatterjee, Bina (1970) The Khandakhadyaka of Brahmagupta with the commentary of Bhattotpla, Vol. I. ( Delhi: Motilal Banarasidass).
Dikshit, Sankar Balakrishna (1896) History of Indian Astronomy (English translation by R.V. Vaidya, Pt I,1968; Pt II, 1981. New Delhi: India Meteorological Department).
Ganguli, Kisari Mohan (1884-1896) Mahabharata of Krishna-Dvaipayana Vyasa ( on-line)
Griffith, Ralph T. H. (1896 ) The Hymns of the Rgveda ( Reprint, Delhi : Motilal Banarasidass, 1973).
Hartner, W. (1965) " Al-Djawzahar". In :Encyclopedia of Islam,Vol.2 ( Leiden: Brill), pp.501-502.
Kane, Pandurang Vaman. (1975) History of Dharmasastra, Vol. 5 (Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute).
Kochhar, Rajesh (2000) The Vedic People (Hyderabad: Orient Longman).
Mani, Vettam (1975) Puranic Encyclopaedia (Delhi: Motilal Banarasidass).
Ohashi, Yukio (2009) "The mathematical and observational astronomy in traditional India". In: Science in India, Vol. 13, Pt.8 (ed. J.V. Narlikar) (New Delhi: Viva Books), pp 1-88.
Markel, Stephen (1991) "The genesis of the Indian planetary deities". East and West, Vol. 41. pp. 173-188)
Markel, Stephen (1990): "The Imagery and Iconographic Development of the Indian Planetary Deities Rahu and Ketu". South Asian Studies, 6:9-26.
Mirashi, V.V. (1933-34) Epigraphia India, Vol. XXII, 159-165.
Neugebauer, Otto (1957) "Notes on Al-Kaid". J. Amer. Oriental Soc., 77, 211-215.
Neugebauer, Otto (1983) Astronomy and History : Selected Essays ( New York : Springer-Verlag).
Rao , Bangalore Suryanarain (1986) Varahamihira's Brihat Jataka ( Delhi : Motilal Banarasidass, Reprint 2008).
Sachau, Edward C. (1888) AlBeruni's India, ( 2 vols reprinted as one , Delhi : Atlantic Publishers)
Sathe, Shriram: Deshmukh, Vijaya; and Joshi Prabhakar ( 1983) Bhartiya Yuddha: Astronomical References ( Pune : Shri Babasaheb Apte Smarak Samiti).
Shukla, Kripa Shankar (1979) Karana-Ratna of Devacarya ( Lucknow : Lucknow University).
Vaidya, P. K. (ed.) (1999) Divyavadana ( Darbhanga: Mithila Institute).
Whitney, William Dwight (1905) Atharva-veda-samhita, 2 vols. (Cambridge, USA: Harvard University).
Yano, Michio (2003)"Calendars, astronomy and astrology" .Blackwell Companion to Hinduism (ed.:Cavin Flood)( Oxford: Blackwell)
Aryabhata reinstalled
16/08/2009 Blogs (Articles)"Hindu" astronomy, Ancient India, Aryabhata, Aryabhatiyam, Bhaskara, bhramarikaPatna, Brahmagupta, eclipse, oral tradition, patliputra, planetary orbits, Prthudhaka, Siddhantic astronomy, Skandapurana, Taregna, VarahamihiraRajesh Kochhar
Aryabhata (born AD 476) is the founder of Siddhantic astronomy which focused on developing mathematical algorithms for calculating planetary orbits and for predicting lunar and solar eclipses. His concise text, composed in AD 499 and known simply as Aryabhatiyam ( Aryabhata's), influenced all subsequent work on the subject. From Aryabhata's time till that of Kepler's laws, Siddhantic astronomers were probably the only ones in the world who could calculate eclipses with any degree of accuracy.
Very little is known about Aryabhata himself. This is so because of the inherent limitations of the oral tradition. Astronomical texts were composed in terse metrical poetry, which was memorized and transmitted from one generation to the next by word of mouth. What was not considered worth preserving for the moment was lost for ever. It is thus not possible to construct a connected account of ancient astronomy or for that matter of any aspect of ancient India.
Internet has given birth to a flourishing industry of concocting details about Aryabhata and others and giving such details wide currency. By attributing to Aryabhata what he did not do , we would be belittling what he actually did.
Here is some authentic information on Aryabhata arranged in question- and- answer form.
Q1. What do we know about Aryabhata, the person?
A. First note that his name is spelt with a single t and not two. He was born in AD 476 and composed his work Aryabhatiyam in AD 499. This we learn from the book itself. The year of his death is not known.
Aryabhata says that he " sets forth here the knowledge honoured at Kusumpura". This has been interpreted to mean that Kusumpura was his work place. It has been identified with Patliputra which in turn has been equated with modern Patna.
This is all what we know about Aryabhata from him. Some additional information comes from his commentators ( e.g. the earliest, Bhaskara I ( AD 629)), who declared that Aryabhata hailed from a place , or district, called As'maka. It has not been possible to identify Asmaka. Legend prevails that Aryabhata hailed from Kerala. There is no basis for this. It is a well known fact that Aryabhata's work was followed and improved upon in Kerala. Attempts to place Asmaka in Kerala may simply be manifestation of a desire to give physical basis to this intellectual relationship.
Bhaskara I also calls Aryabhata Kulapa. By a long shot this has been interpreted to mean that he was the vice-chancellor of Nalanda University! Kulapa could simply mean founder of a school, which Aryabhata certainly was.
The press coverage of 22 July 2009 total solar eclipse claimed that Aryabhata maintained an observatory at Taregna near Patna. This is an instance of history driven by tourism.
Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune, has erected a statue of Aryabhata to keep company with Galileo, Newton and Einstein. Bare-chested, stocky Aryabhata wearing a sacred thread is of course a figment of imagination. We have no way whatever of knowing what Aryabhata looked like.
Q2. Did Aryabhata believe in the spin of the earth?
A. He certainly did. But the whole thing should not be blown out of proportion.
We do not sense the spin of the earth under our feet. Instead the whole celestial sphere seems to be going around the earth. This indeed was the prevalent world view. Aryabhata boldly asserted that the earth was not static but spun on its axis.
He was severely criticized for this by friends and foes alike. His own follower Varahamihira died AD 587) believed that the earth was static. The otherwise brilliant mathematician astronomer Brahmagupta ( ) severely castigated Aryabhata for believing in the spin of the earth. Such was the onslaught of mainstream criticism that even followers of Aryabhata's own school retreated. They rather ineffectually changed a word in the Aryabhatiyam text to argue that Aryabhata indeed considered the earth to be static.
If the scientific tradition had been based on written-down prose rather than on oral metrical poetry, Aryabhata's reasons why he believed the earth spun would have been on record, and might have been considered convincing by later generations.
While today we give credit to Aryabhata for this, we should keep in mind that we know of Aryabhata's belief in the spin of the earth not from his work or that of his followers but from the charge sheet maintained against him by his opponents. ( Just as we know about many nationalist heroes from the criminal complaint against them recorded by the colonial government.)
It is noteworthy that only a handful of later Indian astronomers believed that the earth rotated on its axis : Prthudaka (AD 860) and Makkibhatta ( AD 1377). Significantly , a religious text , Skandapurana (1.1.31.71) , following Aryabhata, describes the earth as a bhramarika ( spinning top).
It should be borne in mind that belief in spin of the earth or otherwise was not relevant for Siddhantic calculations. Brahmagupta did not believe in in it . But that does not mean that he was any the lesser astronomer. Aryabhata himself , like everybody else, maintained that the sun revolved around the earth. As far as kinematics is concerned it matters not who goes around whom.
Aryabhata believed that the earth was all water south of equator ( Gola 12) and that it expanded in size by one yojana during a day of Brahma and contracted during a night( Gola 8).
As Thoreau put it , " A man is wise with the wisdom of his age only and ignorant with its ignorance".
Q3. Did Aryabhata believe in heliocentrism?
A. As discussed above , no , he did not. WE take heliocentrism for granted. In its time, it had profound philosophical implications that went beyond planetary theory.Impact of heliocentrism on human thinking should not be under-estimated.
Q4. Did Aryabhata invent zero?
A. No, zero had been known long before that.
Q5.Is Aryabhata the founder of the eclipse theory?
A. No. He is probably the first one to apply it in India. Such theories were already known in Greece and China


Category Archives: Father Laurence Soper
Fugitive Catholic priest at centre of five-year manhunt arrested in Britain over historic sex abuse
22 AUGUST 2016 • 1:04AM
From the Link:
Father Lawrence Soper has been arrested on suspicion of nine counts of historic sexual assaults CREDIT: MET POLICE
A Catholic priest who skipped bail five years ago has been arrested on suspicion of nine counts of historic sexual assaults.
Father Laurence Soper, 72, the former abbot of Ealing Abbey, was wanted on a European Arrest Warrant over allegations of child abuse.
The accusations date back to when he taught at St Benedict's School, a private independent Catholic school which is part of Ealing Abbey in west London.
In March 2011, Fr Soper was believed to have been living in a monastery in Rome and was due to return to London to answer bail but he failed to show up, sparking an international search.
After spending five years living as a fugitive, he was arrested in Kosovo in May.
However, attempts to bring him back the UK to face charges were thwarted when a Kosovan judge blocked the extradition order on the basis that his alleged crimes have expired in Kosovo, which has a 30-year statute of limitation.
On Sunday night, Scotland Yard announced that Fr Soper was arrested as he arrived back in the UK at Luton Airport from Kosovo.
A spokesman said he was "arrested on suspicion of nine offences of sexual assault committed over a period from 1972 to 1986".
In 2011, Lord Carlile of Berriew stripped monks of control at St Benedict's School, which offered a "heartfelt apology for past failures".
The peer said he hoped his decision to take powers away from Ealing Abbey would "set a template" for other schools.
In his inquiry into the sexual abuse, Lord Carlile outlined a catalogue of failures by the abbey to intervene as allegations of abuses came to light.
"I have come to the firm conclusion ... that the form of governance of St Benedict's School is wholly outdated and demonstrably unacceptable," he wrote.
"The abbot himself has accepted that it is 'opaque to outsiders'."
The report added: "In a school where there has been abuse, mostly - but not exclusively - as a result of the activities of the monastic community, any semblance of a conflict of interest, of lack of independent scrutiny, must be removed."
Posted in Child Sex Abuse, Christianity, Christians, Clergy Abuse, Clergy Sex Abuse, Father Laurence Soper, Pedophile, Pedophile Priests, Perverted Priests, Priest Child Sex Abuse, Religion, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church Sex Abuse, Uncategorized
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Ricky Skaggs Rides Hot Pickin' From Rural Poverty to the Country Hall Of Fame
Billboard article
7/18/2018 by Tom Roland
Ricky Skaggs is celebrating his 64th birthday today in a slightly different atmosphere than he has ever observed it before, knowing that sometime this fall the Country Music Association will officially induct him into the Country Music Hall of Fame, placing his bronzed visage alongside plaques of some of his mentors, including Bill Monroe, Emmylou Harris and Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs.
"I was doing something the other day and I thought, 'Hall of Fame, CMA, are you kidding?' " he says. "You know, it's a nice title, but gosh, it shouldn't change any of us. I'm still taking out the garbage and everything like that."
Skaggs enters the Hall in a unique position: a master of two genres. After Monroe's death in 1996, Skaggs recommitted himself to bluegrass, using his masterful pickin' ability to carry on the acoustic traditions set forth by Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs and Ralph Stanley, for whom he worked as a teenage member of The Clinch Mountain Boys in the 1970s.
But between that first run as a 'grasser and his efforts over the last two decades -- mostly with his own band, Kentucky Thunder -- there was an impressive, maybe even unlikely, detour into mainstream country where Skaggs successfully injected spiky mountain harmony into the genre during the Urban Cowboy era. It was a period when pop-tinged songs and even disco-associated Linn drums were the rule of the day, making Skaggs' triumphs then a bit of an anomaly.
Chalk that success up to sheer naivete. After touring with Stanley and a couple of his own bands, Skaggs joined Harris' Hot Band as a replacement for Rodney Crowell in 1977, working with her as she veered from country/rock toward the 'grass inflections of her Roses in the Snow album. So even though the format was slanted toward mass-appeal music at the time, Skaggs innocently chipped at the genre's flanks with covers of Flatt & Scruggs' "Don't Get Above Your Raisin'," Webb Pierce's "I Don't Care" and Monroe's "Uncle Pen."
"I honestly thought that everybody would love country and bluegrass like I did," he reflects.
He joined Reba McEntire and George Strait to form a trio of young artists who bucked the predominant trend and helped keep trad country alive in the early 1980s. While McEntire and Strait eased into their icon status, Skaggs rocketed in those early years, joining the Opry and winning two CMA awards in 1982 and claiming the CMA's entertainer of the year in 1985.
Skaggs managed the feat by balancing old-timey ideals -- lightnin' licks on mandolin, his rural-based lead voice and complex Stanley Brothers-influenced harmonies -- with clean production and then-modern country tones.
The idea, he says, was to make traditional country music that was fitting for radio but still stir it up a bit with the banjo, mandolin and fiddle while keeping pedal steel guitar and electric guitar solos prominent, not to mention finding good songs that had good harmonies. "I just had a sixth sense that something really, really different and really good could happen."
He went after it with a workaholic frenzy, developed in the lean atmosphere of Cordell, Ky., an Appalachian hole in the wall just 25 miles north of Loretta Lynn's birthplace in East Kentucky.
"Have you ever been to Ricky's house?" Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum CEO Kyle Young asked rhetorically when Skaggs' induction was announced in March. "It's amazing that he got out of there."
Talent helped. The prodigious Skaggs made his syndicated TV debut at the tender age of 6. His father, Hobert Skaggs, meanwhile provided a model for American pride, gritting through excruciating pain for years after a debilitating injury. "My dad had hurt his back really bad at that nuclear, atomic-energy plant over there in western Kentucky," recalls Skaggs. "As hard as it was for him to do much of anything -- he busted two vertebrae -- he just pushed through pain and he worked, because he knew he had responsibility. He didn't expect the government, or anybody, to take care of him."
Skaggs reached his own workaholic height in 1988 and 1989, simultaneously producing Dolly Parton's White Limozeen album and recording his own Kentucky Thunder. He has continued to stay fresh through occasional outside collaborations, recording a bluegrass-influenced album with Bruce Hornsby, teaming with Jack White's Raconteurs and Ashley Monroe on a CMA-nominated version of "Old Enough" and co-producing Hillary Scott & The Scott Family's Christian album Love Remains.
In the meantime, Skaggs is experiencing a little rebirth with some members of the younger generation. CMA CEO Sarah Trahern saw that firsthand when she watched the response to his CMA Music Festival performance at Nissan Stadium in June.
"People were singing along to 'Highway 40 Blues' that were probably not even born when it came out [in 1983]," she says. "That speaks to the generational interest, whether they learned something from their parents or they just hear it in their vernacular."
After years of playing bluegrass almost exclusively, Skaggs is doing a bit more of a balancing act between bluegrass and country as this fall's induction approaches. Thus, Nashvillians can expect a little of both when he plays a Bluegrass at the Ryman show on July 26. The concert will likely be a fair summation of the legacy that girds his coming induction in the Country Hall, just blocks away from that Ryman stage.
"It's still soaking in slowly," he says of the achievement. "I'm not making a big, big deal out of it, but it is a big deal."

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