[Advaita-l] Sringeri Panchanga

[Anand Hudli]

There are two sides to this debate, which has been going on for quite some time. One side, as you indicate, argues that panchanga elements, such as vAra, tithi, Nakshatra, yoga, and karaNa (these five elements make the basic panchanga), must be as accurate as possible in agreeing with observations. Since modern astronomy provides a higher degree of accuracy, we must rely on modern methods to derive the panchanga elements so as to achieve close agreement with observations.

The other side may now ask: what is the purpose of using a panchanga? Is it to ensure that it agrees with observations as closely as possible? Certainly not, since the average traditional person is not interested in knowing the exact position of heavenly bodies on any given day. Rather, the average traditional person is interested in following traditions as closely as possible to his/ her ancestors' ways of doing so. This is a much broader perspective than astronomical calculations, which is just one aspect of following one's ancestors' customs as closely as possible. For example, one may avoid cooking food on electric or gas stoves or in microwave ovens and choose to cook on an old fashioned coal based stove. Even today there are people who do not use modern cooking methods and appliances. Do we ridicule them for doing so? Following tradition as closely as possible in the footsteps of our ancestors should be the overall goal, even if it means avoiding modern methods where they conflict with tradition. It is in this spirit that traditional methods such as the Surya Siddhanta still find a place in our Panchangas.

Thus the debate goes on.

Anand
________________________________
From: D.V.N.Sarma డి.వి.ఎన్.శర్మ <dvnsarma at gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 12, 2016 6:34:37 AM
To: Anand Hudli; A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Sringeri Panchanga

Astronamy is the science observable objects like Sun, Moon, stars and planets. Any Almanac that does not agree with observation is meaningless
and psuedoscience.

regards,
Sarma.

On Tue, Apr 12, 2016 at 10:44 AM, Anand Hudli via Advaita-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org<mailto:advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>> wrote:
>Is this Driksiddha Panchanga?

This appears to be based on the Surya SiddhAnta.

Anand
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