Understanding the Ayana in depth

For the next few minutes, let us visualize and sail through the ancient observations. Let us walk to a farm land where there are no modern high-rise buildings, no obstruction to observe the sky. All the horizons, meridean and the complete sky (within reach) are visible with the naked eye.

The first observation would be that of the Sun during day time, moving from the eastern part of the sky to the western part of the sky. Similarly, during night time, stars along with the Moon would move from east to west.

Let us move our observations to the Sun since it is the Sun who forms the ecliptic of the zodiac. As the days pass and progress to a month and then to a year, we would observe that sunrise happens differently in the eastern horizon. It would move from East (on vernal equinox day around March 21) towards North until the summer solstice day (around June, 21). And then would move back to East on autumn equinox (around September 22) and towards South until the winter solstice day (around December 21). Let us say the maximum position attained by the Sun in the Northern or Southern direction is "X". This phenomenon is represented in the diagram below for easy reference:

Apart from the above, what are we going to observe when we progress from a particular year to the next year, and the next year, and so on...?

Nothing significant in the first few years, but as the span increases to 100 years and then to 200 years and so on, we would observe the following two changes:

A) During night time, we would observe that stars have moved backwards in the observations when referenced to the vernal equinox day of the previous years. We understand this phenomenon as precession.

B) During day time, we would observe that the maximum position attained by the Sun on the solstice days (as defined above as "X") has also changed little bit.

These two phenomena A and B that we would observe are the ones that are defined in the slokas (verses) 3.9 and 3.10 respectively in Surya Siddhanta.

Let us have a look at the slokas again:

Sloka 3.9 is mentioning the phenomenon A and sloka 3.10 is mentioning the phenomenon B.

Remember, ayanamsha is representation of the ayana and the ayana are the solstice points.

We may contend the validity of this model; may question the accuracy of the model, may augment it, modify it; but cannot run away from the fact that Surya Siddhanta is representing the model as observed and is in conformity from an observer point of view.

The above understanding of the slokas 3.9 and 3.10 is what is missed by all the commentators of the siddhanta and has been the prime driver of my main research as explained in the first part of my book "The Unanswered".

Click the following link for the next article in this series:

Missing Links: The real Surya Siddhanta ayanamsa