Unruled Notebooknotes & stuff of Arunn

Trisanku Swarga and Alpha Centauri

In Indian mythology Sage Viswamitra is known for his tapOpalam – prowess from penance – and temper. There is a household story from the Ramayana – as a kid, I have heard this from my grandma –  that narrates a super-humanly feat of Sage Viswamitra that led to his name nUthana srishti karthA or creator of new worlds. There is an astronomical phenomenon couched in this story. Read the essay further to see if you agree with the offered interpretation.

Once there was a king named Trisanku, ruler of Ayodhya (where later, Rama divined). He had a desire to reach Heaven with his mortal body. A way to remain immortal, as he perceived. He expressed his wish to his rAja gurU Sage Vasihsta, who promptly refused to fulfill his wish as humans are mortals and that is how they should remain. Now, there is an ongoing tussle between Sage Viswamitra and Sage Vasishta as on an earlier occasion Sage Vasishta has derided Sage Viswamitra by refusing to exalt him to the position of a Brahma Rishi – the highest honor for sages, where you communicate with the Supreme Being directly. So, Viswamitra told Trisanku he would fulfill his wish and send him to Heaven with his mortal body. After an ensuing yagna, Trisanku, to the amazement of all, was lifted up to Heaven by the penance prowess of Viswamitra. However, at the gates of Heaven, Indra the Lord of the Heavens refused to let Trisanku in with his mortal body and sent him packing back to Earth with a literal kick in the butt. Trisanku fell headlong towards Earth, crying out the name of Viswamitra. Enraged, Viswamitra again used his prowess and uttered Stay Trisanku! and he stayed hung mid-way between Heaven and Earth, upside down. Viswamitra proceeded by uttering anya swargam karishyE to create a separate Heaven around Trisanku, known as the trisanku swarga (swarga – heaven in Sanskrit). The story ends in a whimper after this as Viswamitra was assuaged subsequently by Vasishta and Indra and Trisanku was allowed to remain in his heaven, as a constellation in the sky.

The phrase trisanku swarga is used – by those who know this story – nowadays in India to connote a ‘comfortable dilemma’ one gets into hence keeps feeling uneasy.

Now for a follow up astronomical story.

Trisanku Heaven in the sky is identified by Indian Astronomers [1, 2] with the constellation Centaurus; and trisanku is probably Alpha-Ccentauri or Rigel Kent, a triple star system in this constellation. The other star in this triplet is the Proxima-Centauri, the closest star to Earth next to our Sun. Closest as in about 4.3 light years close.

Sage Viswamitra is credited as one of the earliest Indian astronomers [3]. He is credited with for cataloging the nakshatras (means stars, but sometimes constellations) visible in the Southern sky. Viswamitra is also identified by Indian Astronomers with the Southern Cross or the Crux, another prominent constellation in the southern sky. The Wikipedia entry differs in this interpretation. See note [4].

If you are in India and want to see these two constellation (and associated stars), they are visible above the horizon for about eight months spanning early morning, evening and night time. If you keep the direction of the setting Sun to your right, you will be facing South. These constellations are usually visible in the night sky near 3 to 4 o’ clock (not time Jones Senior, the angle) depending on the time (every hour a region of the night sky moves around by 15 degrees). Centaurus is offset from the southern pole and the Crux is further right and below Centaurus. See picture below.

The star-triplet trisanku because of its relative position in the evening sky, is usually up near the zenith the maximum height above the Southern horizon and starts ‘falling’ down as night progresses. The Southern Cross or Viswamitra, due to its relative position under the the trisanku is seen to be holding trisanku up and above it; crux always sees the trisanku up above the horizon as night falls. As the Earth completes its West-East daily 360 degree rotation and before these two constellations come up again the next morning, daylight sets. In the subsequent evening, when these constellations become visible, they are to the right of the South Pole and starts falling. The cycle continues for about eight months. This astronomical phenomenon is supposed to have been couched in the trisanku-viswamitra story by Viswamitra.

It is more than a coincidence to ignore the connection between the ‘mythological story’ and the observed astronomical phenomenon. The book mentioned in [1] mentions the above interpretation without citing any earlier Indian text reference. I don’t have documentary evidence corroborating this connection independently. But the connection is interesting, although may not pass muster when a validation is attempted through scientific method. See also note [4] below.

Interestingly, the next set of nearest stars to Earth after the Proxima-Centauri, (Sirius etc.) are at least twice the distance of Proxima-Centauri away from Earth. Yes, there is an exception in Barnard’s Star, which is the next nearest to Earth after the centauri triplet. But it is not visible to the naked eye.  This observation allows an interpretation that trisanku or Alpha-Centauri triplet is ‘midway’ to Earth and the ‘rest of the skies’, a literal meaning for ‘trisanku swarga‘ to be hung in the middle. Agreed, I am stretching perhaps a coincidence, but is interesting to speculate. Because it is possible to know from naked eye-sightings (without telescopes etc.)  to decipher which star is closer to Earth, as a reasonable guess. Viswamitra, the astronomer, could have done it. (Again, this is just my speculation; see Raytracer’s comment below).

Centaurus houses other interesting astronomical phenomena unraveled by modern astronomy:

• Centaurus – A is an active galaxy that feeds a black hole
• Centaurus contains ω Centauri (NGC 5139), the brightest globular cluster (To the naked eye it is a diffuse star of 3.6th magnitude) and largest of its kind in the Milky Way.
• Centaurus contains the Largest known diamond to man (named Lucy – as in Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds).
• Explore more

Folklore and myths interpreted as interesting scientific facts or new age wisdom is not new. Carl Sagan cites in his Broca’s Brain and Cosmos many such anecdotes. One is about the Dogon people and Sirius. They had their calendar based on the annual cycle of  Sirius, a binary star. They even knew and have recorded that the star is a binary – from naked eye sightings. There have been scholarly interpretation about the Egyptian pyramids as Earthly reconstruction of the constellation Orion (see here and here or search Google with orion and pyramids).

However, in several modern interpretations of such myths by the local populace, there is an underlying desire to prove to the world about the uncanny wisdom of their country’s ancients. See what we achieved in the past without modern technology and world-view and so on. It is unfortunate that attempts to understand myths – remnant treasures of bygone human culture; humanities past – in proper perspective are often mired in such myopic nationalist fervor [5]. I wish I have more time to explore…

Further Notes

[1] Indian Astronomers – K. R. Krishnamurthi, pub. International Society for the Investigation of Ancient Civilizations, Chennai, 1991.

[2] Read the Centaurus – Star Tales page for knowing more on Centaurus in Greek Mythology

[3] I couldn’t establish an earliest reference for this, so as such, am leaving it as a conjecture. Reference I can consult with is welcome.

[4] There are several other interpretations of the above possibly astronomical story. Even the identification of trisanku and viswamitra with constellations has variations. For instance, there is a blog version from an Australian toy maker interprets the Southern Cross as trisanku hanging upside down. There is another blog version that, while referring to the crux as trisanku, interprets the attempt by viswamitra at putting trisanku in the heavens as an eraly attempt to put man on orbit.  One more unverified internet source complies with the crux-trisanku equivalence while predicting dates for the Ramayana.

Other interpretation say alpha-centauri is viswamitra and proxima-centauri is trisanku – as guru and sishya. Some identify more than one trisanku – one in Centaurus and another in the Orion belt. There is a text titled Indo-Aryan mythology in the internet archive that has compiled many of these interpretations.

These interpretations don’t explain the literal position of trisanku swarga as midway between heaven and Earth – as observed in my note above (although, I don’t claim complete originality for this view. It is in circulation since generations; Like turmeric or neem). Further, none of this interpretation could be verified independently by me, say, in a library text at my institute. Let me know if you have something authentic (good translation of a possible Sanskrit source of such lore) that I can read.

[5] There are other such mythological stories with possible explanations – sometimes plausible, many times requiring to stretch our imagination too much. One such collection can be found here in the internet. There is one more on Sage Agastya in the book mentioned in [1].

[5] Images in the above note – modified at places – are from Star Tales, Starry Night Photography, Wikipedia, Sydney Observatory blog, Universe Review, Flying Star Toys (trishanku image). 

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