Makar Sankranti is an event of the sidereal solar calendar while Uttarayana is a matter of tropical solar reckoning
Makar Sankranti marks the Sun’s entry into Makar raashi, identified with the sign of Capricorn. The reference here is merely to the apparent motion of the Sun resulting from Earth’s yearly revolution. Annually, there would be a dozen such Sankrantis, because of the Sun’s transit across 12 signs of the celestial zodiac. No other Sankranti enjoys religious significance, though each of them marks the beginning of a new month in the sidereal solar calendar. In India, several States like Tripura, Assam, West Bengal, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Punjab, Haryana and so on follow a sidereal solar calendar. Several other States like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh-Telangana in addition to the Hindi-speaking belt follow the luni-solar calendar.
In the luni-solar calendar, the months are based upon a lunar cycle of 29-½ days, resulting in a year length of 354 days. Therefore, it has to be adjusted against the solar year by insertion of intercalary month (Adhimasa) every three years. The luni-solar calendar, besides being expressly followed in several parts of India, is also implicit to the solar calendar because of its religious significance. All Hindu religious festivals including vrats, parvas and most jayantis are determined as per the 354-day lunar calendar. This results in a drift of dates for religious festivities and austerities (within a bracket of 25 days) vis-a-vis the Gregorian calendar.
Why is Makar Sankranti celebrated with such great fanfare even in parts of India where the writ of solar calendar does not run? This is due to a belief that Makar Sankranti marks Uttarayana (literally meaning sun turning north). Uttarayana is a function of a tropical solar calendar like the Gregorian calendar. Tropical calendar has zero connection with zodiac background. It stands on four pillars — Vernal Equinox (March 21), Summer Solstice (June 21), Autumn Equinox (September 21) and Winter Solstice (December 21). In the two equinoxes, the day and night are of equal length all over the world. In June solstice, the day is longest across the northern hemisphere, shortest in the southern. In December solstice, the day is shortest in the northern hemisphere and longest in the southern. This interplay of ‘light and shadow’ is due to the fact that the axis of Earth’s rotation is inclined to the plane of Earth’s revolution at 23.50. As a result, different zones of the globe receive direct light whereas others pass into shadow. This, in the extreme, results in six months of day and six months of night between one equinox to the other in alternating polar zones — the Arctic and Antarctic.
In winter, the sun travels low across the sky in the northern hemisphere. On December 21, the declination is the least and the Sun is directly overhead the Tropic of Capricorn (23.50 S) at the local noon. The trend is, however, reversed on the morrow of Solstice. The Sun, figuratively speaking, turns northwards. Thus, as per one belief, December 22 should be the real Uttarayana. A common factor, coincidental at first sight, is the name Capricorn. On December 21, the Sun is overhead the Tropic of Capricorn, an imaginary line; and on January 14 it enters the Sign of Capricorn. However, we realise that it is more than mere coincidence when the same thing is repeated in the summer. While on June 21 the Sun is directly overhead at the Tropic of Cancer, it enters the Sign of Cancer on July 16. The gap is 24 days.
Now, 24 days seems to be the new common factor. What explains this 24 days’ time lag that links the name of a tropic (an imaginary line) with a constellation? The secret might lie in the factor called “precession of equinoxes” or “axial precession” called ayana-chalan in Sanskrit. The axis of the Earth is not exactly stable but describes a conical motion. This motion, similar to the wobble of a spinning top, results from the Sun’s gravitational pull acting differently at the equator from the poles. The conical motion would be complete in 28,500 years during which the North Pole would point at several different stars — like Thuban, Polaris and Vega. During the same interval the point of the equinox, where the plane of revolution intersects the plane of rotation, goes round the entire zodiac. The amount of precession is 50” (less than 1/60th of one degree, when one segment of zodiac is of 30 degrees).
We get the seasons from the Sun, not from the zodiacal background. Thus, measuring seasons from the zodiac signs by ignoring the effect of precession (the Nirayana calendar) is not the best way. The sidereal or Nirayana year (365 d 06 hrs 09 m 10 s) is 21 minutes longer than tropical year (365 d 05 h 48 m 46 s). A sidereal year, therefore, would disengage from the seasons twice as fast as Julian calendar (which assumed year length to be flat 365 d and 6 hrs) did before being reformed by Pope Gregorian XIII in 1582.
“The difference between the sidereal and the tropical year is 20.4 minutes,” says Bal Gangadhar Tilak, “which causes the seasons to fall back nearly one lunar month in about 2,000 years, if the sidereal solar year is to be taken as the standard of measurement” (The Orion, P.19). This would explain the mystery of the lost 24 days. Possibly two millennia ago, the Sun went overhead in the southernmost tropic when it entered the sign of Capricorn. In the ancient times, Uttarayana and Sun’s entry into Capricorn would have coincided. That is no longer true.
Tilak (1856-1920), however, hinted at a different possibility on Uttarayana. Known as a tough politician, he was also a noted Sanskrit scholar who found time to delve deep into Hindu astronomy to reconstruct Vedic history. It is reflected in his books like The Orion, or, Researches Into The Antiquity of the Vedas (1893) and Arctic Home in the Vedas (1903). In his book, viz., The Orion, the author says that Uttarayana is susceptible to two meanings. Tilak states: “It might mean ‘turning towards the north from the southernmost point’ or it may indicate ‘the passage of the Sun into the northern hemisphere, i.e. to the north of the equator’. If we adopt the first meaning, Uttarayana and the year must be held to commence from the winter solstice while, if the second interpretation is correct, Uttarayana and the year must have commenced with the vernal equinox.” Citing the Rig Veda, Tilak says: “The facts that the central day of annual satra was called vishuvan, the Vasant or spring was considered the first of the seasons and the agrayaneshtis or the half-year sacrifices were required to be performed every Vasant (Spring) and Sharad (autumn) clearly show that the second interpretation is more likely to be correct (The Orion, P.22).”
Tilak, thus, maintained that Uttarayana was the vernal equinox (March 21). He further believed that the six-month period from vernal equinox to autumn equinox, when the Sun moves along the northern latitude, is Devayana (way of the gods) in the Rig Veda and from autumn equinox to vernal equinox Pitriyana (way of the dead ancestors) as mentioned in the Rig Veda.
(The writer is an author and independent researcher. The opinions expressed are personal.)
