Science and Indian Culture.
It has been my belief from quite sometime that Indian culture incorporates a lot of science in the rituals performed. There are many which have lost significance with the growth of awareness and other scientific inventions. Like the 'Ashadamasam' ritual, which is my favourite topic to talk to newly weds. For those who don't know what it is. Ashadamasam is a month in the telugu calendar which is typically around July/August in the Gregorian calendar. In this month the married women (for the first certain years of marriage I believe) go to their parents home and the husband is expected to come and take the woman after a month back to his house. The idea behind the ritual is suspected to be linked to the Indian climate. The rationale is that if the couple get into some of the intimate actions in life, the result would be obtained approximately nine months from the time of action and that would end up to be April/May which is a peak summer time in India ! But in the modern era, people know how not to have a result from an action. Even though it is not 100% guaranteed, there are enough ways and as a last resort, summer can be taken care of if the family can afford to have a big house etc. But still for the large group of people in India who live in very poor conditions, this ritual really helps, even though it is unfair on the couple :D (IMHO).
Now recently I have found another of such scientific fact around the sighting of 'Arundathi' in a marriage ritual in an article here.
The logic behind the sighting of 'Arundathi' seems to be to check for eyesight, as it is not very easy to distinguish the star Arundathi from Vasistha.
From the article :
"Other cultures of the world also have historically used the keenness of eyesight to distinguish between the two stars Vasishtha-Arundhathi (Mizar-Alcor) as an asset. In India, it is said anecdotally that people who are approaching death can not separate Arundhathi from Vasishta and hence can not see Arundhathi. Perhaps eye sight has more to do with this."
But there is one thing which is not clear. If this is so, why is this ritual done after marriage and not before marriage ? I thought marriage was consummated the moment the bride and bridegroom put 'Jeelakarra and Bellam' (cumin seeds and Jaggery together on each others heads. Now need to do more home work on this..... May be I will do this when my brother gets married so that I really know what and why I am doing the rituals. Pantuls (Hindu Priests) best of luck .......
Now recently I have found another of such scientific fact around the sighting of 'Arundathi' in a marriage ritual in an article here.
The logic behind the sighting of 'Arundathi' seems to be to check for eyesight, as it is not very easy to distinguish the star Arundathi from Vasistha.
From the article :
"Other cultures of the world also have historically used the keenness of eyesight to distinguish between the two stars Vasishtha-Arundhathi (Mizar-Alcor) as an asset. In India, it is said anecdotally that people who are approaching death can not separate Arundhathi from Vasishta and hence can not see Arundhathi. Perhaps eye sight has more to do with this."
But there is one thing which is not clear. If this is so, why is this ritual done after marriage and not before marriage ? I thought marriage was consummated the moment the bride and bridegroom put 'Jeelakarra and Bellam' (cumin seeds and Jaggery together on each others heads. Now need to do more home work on this..... May be I will do this when my brother gets married so that I really know what and why I am doing the rituals. Pantuls (Hindu Priests) best of luck .......
