We hold out in an age where things like “ the Earth revolve the sunlight ” and “ Kepler ’s third law ” are well known , and yet the majesty of a solar occultation is still something that can make even the most powerful humans in the worldstop and stare . How much more fear - inspiring must this cosmogonic phenomenon have look , then , to our root many millenary ago ?

Well , thanks to a young study of an ancient textbook , we do actually have some musical theme .

“ O Surya , when the Asura ’s descendent Svarbhanu , pierce thee through and through with darkness , All creatures look like one who is bewildered , who knoweth not the place where he is standing .

“ What time thou smotest down Svarbhanu ’s magic that spread itself beneath the sky , O Indra , By his fourth sacred prayer Atri discovered Surya concealed in the gloom that stayed his mapping .

“ rent not the oppressor with this dread , through anger unsay me up , for I am thine , O Atri . Mitra art thou , the transmitter of honest blessings : 1000 and King Varuna be both my helpers .

“ The Brahman Atri , as he set the press stones , serve the Gods with praise and idolisation , Established in the Eden the eye of Surya , and induce Svarbhanu ’s magic humanistic discipline to vanish .

“ The Atris incur the Sun again , him whom Svarbhanu of the brood Of Asuras had pierce with gloom . This none besides had the power to do . ”

That’san excerptfrom theRig Veda , an ancient collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns , one of the four consecrated canonical texts in Hinduism , and one of the oldest known documents in the world .

If you search for the date it was produce , you ’ll most likely get an estimate of around 1500 BCE , but the truth is much more complex : “ [ T]here is a significant amount of evidence that it incorporates memory of events that were much further back in time , ” explain the fresh newspaper .

“ For example , it discusses events when the Vernal Equinox was in Orion , which occurred around 4500 BC , ” the authors excuse , “ while the concluding source to the Vernal Equinox in theRig Vedarelates to its being in the Pleiades , which fall out in 2230 BC . ”

And the above excerpt is an example of exactly this , report authors Mayank Vahia , formerly of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai , and Mitsuru Sôma , a researcher at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan , trust .

The passing identify an ancientsolar eclipse – albeit using what the couple pronto admit is “ highly poetical and nonobjective ” language – but not one find by whomever it was that recorded it in the Veda . Using astronomical , geographic , and literary clues , the researchers instead place the referenced consequence some 2,500 years in the first place than theRig Vedaitself .

“ [ We have in theRig Veda]four details of the occultation , ” the yoke write . “ 1 . It occurred when the Vernal Equinox was in Orion ; 2 . It was a total solar occultation ; 3 . It occurred three twenty-four hours prior to the Autumnal equinox ; and 4 . It was total wherever the Rig Vedic multitude were living at that time . ”

From there , it was just a simple matter of , uh , scour 400 years ’ worth of potential eclipses to find one that fit those standard . Luckily , only two candidates exhibit themselves : 22 October , 4202 BCE , and 9 October , 3811 BCE – both far originally than the previously oldest - sleep together references to solar occultation .

Now , that ’s already a headline - worthy breakthrough – but could the pair pin down it down any further ? In fact , they could : using a niggling bit of math based on the fact that the Earth rotate faster now than it did G of years ago , the researchers deduced that one date – the one in 4202 BCE – had slightly more evidence in its favor than the other .

That said , when dealing with events from this long ago , nothing is set in stone ( ironically ) – and the pair therefore do n’t go so far as to say the occultation wasdefinitelyin 4202 BCE rather than 3811 BCE . Either way , though , it ’s still a remarkable discovery : not only a concrete date for an ancient cosmogenic marvel , but a fantastic penetration into how the people of the time sympathise and swear out the event – through the creation of myth and caption that have survive for more than 6,000 years .

The cogitation is published in theJournal of astronomic History and Heritage .