Old books and manuscripts provide a measure of the intellectual maturity of the society that produced them. Spread over centuries, they generate a credible story of the evolution of the society.
Old books and manuscripts provide a measure of the intellectual maturity of the society that produced them. Spread over centuries, they generate a credible story of the evolution of the society. Unfortunately, civilisations are prone to external threats and may lose these intellectual treasures. The libraries at Alexandria, Taxashila and Nalanda were witness to such destructive losses.
An example of interesting links with the past is provided by the Chinese records of a “guest star” first seen on July 4, 1054. The reason why the Chinese happen to possess such a record is linked with the beliefs of those times. When China was ruled by the Sung dynasty, one of the prevailing beliefs was that the ruling emperor would be warned by a heavenly sign in case he had strayed from the path of righteousness. So as not to miss the warning, the emperor had appointed observers of the sky whose duty was to bring to the ruler’s attention any significant happening in the heavens above.
That is how there are meticulously kept records of the sky, which revealed the very unusual sight that the Chinese called a “guest star”. This star apparently appeared in the sky one night and became bright enough to be seen in daylight but faded in the coming weeks. The date of appearance as recorded turns out to be July 4, 1054. Like a guest, the star came and went after a few days. Thus, it was called a guest star.
Subsequent searches by astronomer William C. Miller of Mount Wilson and Palomar Observatories have shown that the event may have been seen by the Pueblo tribes on the American continent and the same was recorded by diagrams etched on the rocks in the caves in the Navajo Canyon in south-west America. There is some controversy as to whether the pictures refer to the same event but the evidence is certainly suggestive.
In 1978, Professor Kenneth Brecher from the Massachussets Institute of Technology and the couple Alfred and Elinor Lieber from Jerusalem presented evidence that the event was seen and recorded in West Asia. The writings of the physician Ibn Butan mention the event in the context of his searches for evidence for his belief that epidemics on Earth may be caused by cosmic events.
Modern studies of the phenomenon lead us to the spectacular event of an exploding star. A star, like the Sun, maintains equilibrium that lasts for billions of years, whereas much more massive stars cannot do so beyond times of the order of a few lakhs of years. Such stars explode and spray their contents in the neighbourhood. They are called supernovae by astronomers. What the Chinese saw was such a star which brightened up prior to explosion.
Today, astronomical observations reveal the remnants of the explosion. Known as the Crab Nebula, the neighbourhood of that event is rich in the debris which also shines although it is not visible to the naked eye. Indeed, nearly a thousand years after the Chinese saw the exploding star, its debris is still providing rich evidence to the astronomers of various astronomical processes.
Given this background, one begins to wonder why we find no documented reference to the exploding star in Europe. Even if one considers that the 11th century Europe was not as enlightened as it was during the Renaissance period, this silence seems significant. Nevertheless, there was a well-established Christian religion and a tradition of keeping manuscripts for records and for preserving thoughts considered to be important. So, why was there no reference to the supernova
Fred Hoyle, one of the most imaginative astronomers of the 20th century, has argued that the lack of reference probably came from the perceived “anti-religious” nature of the event. For prima facie it indicated the birth of a new type of star. If you are brought up to believe that God created the Universe in one go, some 6,000 years ago, then the questions arised as to how this new star was born so many years later. Judging it to be potentially hostile to the usual religious belief, the monks who kept all the records may have been instructed not to mention this heretical event.
What about the Indian subcontinent Why don’t we find any record of the Crab supernova In the prevailing religions of India, there was no contradiction vis-a-vis this event. Moreover, the Indian astronomy was in its golden age and theory as well as instrumentation in astronomy were flourishing.
Taking the view that despite the monsoon, the Crab Nebula event was visible in some parts of the Indian subcontinent, there may have been some record of it. There may have been questions put to the leading astronomy scholars asking them to clarify what it was all about. Or, there may have been records of it amongst the list of “sinister” events like eclipses. To find if this were so, I proposed a study sponsored by the Indian National Science Academy. My colleague on this project was Professor Saroja Bhate, then the head of the Sanskrit and Prakrit department of Pune University. We were assisted by a team of Sanskrit scholars, who went around leading libraries of Sanskrit volumes. Their work was to scan the volumes to look for allusions or references to events remotely suggesting what the Chinese saw.
Lists of ominous events were specially looked for. The volumes looked at belonged to the era following the year 1054. It was not unlikely that past events of a mysterious kind would be noted and perhaps recorded.
Alas, we drew negative result from this wide but admittedly superficial survey. It would not have been unlikely if the event were reported to Bhaskaracharya, the leading astronomer and mathematician of the 12th century for an explanation. But the relevant literature does not seem to have any reference to the “visiting star”.
In retrospect, we may not be surprised. Manuscript writing and preserving was not common in the Indian tradition that largely depended on oral transmission of knowledge. So even if some scholar witnessed the event he may not have thought it significant enough to investigate or just write down for posterity.
The writer, a renowned astrophysicist, is professor emeritus at Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune
