Ancient Hindu text Rig Veda contains oldest-known reference to total solar eclipse

The ancient Hindu spiritual text Rig Veda mentions a total solar eclipse that occurred roughly 6,000 years ago. Researchers say this is the oldest known reference to an eclipse in history.

The Rig Veda was compiled around 1500 BC and is the oldest known Vedic Sanskrit text. It contains hymns and philosophical anecdotes, along with several historical events. Most of these events are from the time the text was compiled, but some also date back to previous years.

For example, various passages in the Rig Veda mention the location of the rising sun during the vernal equinox. Astronomical events like this change in different time periods because the Earth is spinning on its axis. One such reference mentions the vernal equinox as occurring in Orion, and another has it occurring in the Pleiades.

At this moment, the vernal equinox is in the constellation Pisces. It was in Orion around 4500 BC and in the Pleiades around 2230 BC. This means that the Rig Veda recorded events that occurred much earlier than its compilation.

Astronomers Mayank Vahia of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai and Mitsuru Soma of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan published their findings in the Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage.

They discerned the stories in the Veda and say that they have found a reference to an ancient solar eclipse.

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In one of the passages, a decorated description talks about the sun being "pierced" with darkness and gloom while proposing that the sun's "magic arts" vanished because of evil beings.

Different from Rahu and Ketu

Rahu and Ketu, a mythological tale linking the shadow planets to the eclipse, are more recent, the two astronomers say. In astronomy, Rahu and Ketu are called the north and south lunar nodes and eclipses occur when the Sun and the Moon are at one of these points. Mythology talks about it as the swallowing of the Sun and the Moon by the snake.

However, the passages deciphered by the two astronomers were written much earlier than the tales creating Rahu and Ketu.

They said the solar eclipse occurred when the vernal equinox was in Orion, and just three days before an autumnal equinox. They say that the Rig Veda passage refers to a total solar eclipse and it likely happened in the region where the writers lived.

The current oldest mention of an eclipse was on a clay tablet, unearthed in Syria, which mentions an eclipse in either 1375 BC or 1223 BC. A rock carving in Ireland references an eclipse in 3340 B.C.

The eclipse mentioned in the Rig Veda likely occurred on October 22, 4202 BC or October 19, 3811 BC. Both of these dates go way back than the current records, making it the oldest reference to a total solar eclipse.