Information about opinion of indus valley civilization on constellation
Answers
Answer:
The origin of the ancient Indian astronomy has remained one of the
most seriously debated questions of oriental studies for about the last
two centuries. A well documented history of the disputes and discussions
was published by James Burgess', who summarised the state of research
on the subject from the time of discovery of the Siamese tables in 1687 to
the end of the 19th century. The antiquity given to the beginning of the
Indian astronomical system has ranged from 4300 B.C. to the 11 th century
A.D. -dates which may conveniently be termed as Bailly-Bentley extremes after their respective proponents.
Answer:
Unicorn symbol is the most discussed symbol and no conclusion is arrived at on its meaning. Benght Hemtun says that the unicorn symbol indicates the Taurus constellation and the horns of unicorn points towards the star Aldebaran. His explanation seems to be correct and the picture in the seal beautifully coincides with the star constellation. The International Astronomical Union website has an interesting observation on this Taurus constellation. The narration on the topic “origin of constellations” starts with the remark that the cave paintings at Lascaux in southern France could have been the earliest known sky map depicting the Taurus constellation (The bull figure in the painting). The Pleiades constellation (six stars cluster) is also depicted by way of six dots near the bull head. The painting is 17,300 years old and it shows that the study of constellations have started a full 10,000 years ahead of the emergence of farmers in Anatolia. Man was at hunter stage of civilisation at this time period (20,000BC).
Closer look of the vessel shows that it is some kind of ritual vessel, and most probably it was used for collecting the blood of the bull, before slaughtering the bull. Blood was considered as the only food and source of nourishment for the spirits of the dead persons. Most probably the blood was collected in this kind of vessel and offered to the spirits by way of pouring blood into holes made on graves (or) stem of the vessel itself acted like a tube and the blood was directed towards the inner cavities of the tomb. After the blood is drained out the animal could have been slaughtered and the meat would have been consumed by the people. All the depictions in the seal have two parallels, one heavenly event and another earthly event. So far we discussed about the earthly nature of the vessel symbol. Now it is the time to think about the heavenly meaning of this vessel symbol. Careful observation of sky map shows that the ritual vessel coincides with that of Orion constellation. The orientation direction of Orion is different from the orientation in the “hunter on tree” symbolism.