Jyothish wheel

Jyotish wheel

The jyotish wheels are used by present day astrologers, this wheel is prepared according to jyotisha vedanga and it shows various days based on Nakshatra (star) constellations. It looks like that jyotisha vedanga had preserved the Indus calendar and is being used in present day for astrology instead of being used as calendar. In the present day secularized calendar, “days” are numbered and counted from 1 to 30 days, whereas in Indus period the days were named after individual names of Nakshatras. These Nakshatra names are still available in present day panchangams and are being used in scheduling of religious festival days. In present day panchangam, two kinds of calendars are being presented together. First is lunar calendar and second is luni–solar calendar. The lunar calendar uses twenty eight names (for 28 days), whereas luni-solar calendar counts the days on number basis as in modern calendar. The luni-solar month is divided into two halves of 14 days each, 14 days of waxing moon and 14 days of waning moon. The existence of two calendars shows that the present day calendar is retaining old lunar calendar and also evolved to adopt the luni-solar calendar. Thus the continuity of Indus culture is being maintained in Indian calendars also. This theory being proposed in this book is that during the Indus period, each of the day was assigned with a Nakshatra name and not number. The details are as given below in the table.

The Indus seals could not be deciphered properly because the context under which these seals were used is not known. Because of that reason the explanations offered so far are unsatisfactory or explains only part of the signs, which are doubtful. Now with the new theory that Indus sites were necropolis not metropolis there should be some proper explanation for the seals. The new theory proposed in this book is that the symbols represent the “star constellations” and in turn the star constellations represent days of the moon calendar month. All these details are listed out and tabulated. The details are as per the table given below:

Jyotish wheel table

Table 1: Jyotish Wheel.

_{(Barbara, 2009)And (Wikipedia, 2009)}

Analysis of these symbols shows that there were two sets of symbols used in IVC. One set of symbol is based on Kalan body parts and other set was based on various kinds of logos depending on the shape of constellations. Out of these two sets of symbols, the Kalan symbols seems to be older and were most likely used by moon-priests of IVC. The other way of interpreting it will be that the Dravidians (M-20) might have used these Kalan symbols. The second set of symbols was based on variegated symbols and was used by later day sun-priests. The exact period, on which the change occurred could not be determined, most probably the Sumerian farmers who entered India after the Dravidians might have used these variegated symbols.

Proper separating out of seals based on age of seal will help in determining the exact time period of this change. This problem is a compounded one because various groups of people for many centuries have used this necropolis as their burial ground. But so far archaeologists have worked on the assumption it was the work of single group of people. The artefacts available for Indus excavation sites should be re-evaluated to arrive at proper conclusion.