Monday, April 6, 2015

Why Do We See Arundhati Star (Alcor) In Wedding?


Today, I went in search for answers to the question "Why do we see "Arundati" star after marriage and why this ritual is mandatory in traditional Hindu weddings?". After referring to many resources, I got some interesting answers which I thought of sharing with you. This is a small post and as such, no quick view is added.


By Shri Tulsi Peeth Seva Nyas [CC BY-SA 3.0
 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)],
via Wikimedia Commons


Arundhati :


Arundhati is the wife of sage Vasishta, and considered as an extraordinary women. Due to her remarkable loyalty and devotion to her husband, she is invoked by the "bridegroom" in wedding ceremonies by asking the "bride" to  "see Arundhati star".  There are many stories behind "Arundhati" becoming a star and one such story is this. Once Svaha, wife of Agni, tried to take the forms (physical appearance) of the wives of "saptharishis". She was able to take the forms of all other six Rishipathnis but not that of Arundhati and this revealed her superiority. 


http://www.indianscriptures.com/gurus/rushi-women/arundhati


In Modern Astronomy :


Alcor, is the astronomical name of the star "Arundathi" and it is found in "Ursa Major Constellation", famously known as "Big Dipper". This constellation is what we mention as "Saptharishi Mandala". Vasishta, one among the Saptharishi, is referred as Mizar in modern astronomy. Take a look at the telescopic image of these stars given below. Alcor is just the tiny dot near Mizar as seen in telescope.


By Dipper.jpg: Transferred from en.wikipedia derivative work: Devon1980 
 (Dipper.jpg)  [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons



This is the Big Dipper Constellation properly marked with corresponding Saptharishis :







Mizar and Alcor are sometimes called as Horse and Rider. Mizar was observed to be a double star by Giovnni Battista Riccioli in 1650, but even before that Galileo spotted it in 1617. The proper motions of these stars show that they move together and this video demonstrates that perfectly.....





http://earthsky.org/tonight/ancient-eye-test-relied-on-two-stars-in-big-dipper
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mizar_and_Alcor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_star






What do we think about this part of wedding these days?


Like always, we have two kinds of approach to this "Seeing Arundhati in wedding" too.. The first one is to blindly follow this as told without asking any questions and without wanting to know the real reason behind it. The second approach is to oppose it upfront and  call it weird. The second group of people who call it weird have the following as their arguments..

  • Why only women are always told such (chastity, devotion) things in the society ?
  • This is another trick to suppress women.
  • How can we see a star in the day time? This is a silly ritual.
  • Whether or not we see the star, we are always forced to say yes... What a lie?






We need to look at the Astronomical truth :


Even those who deny the mythological story of Arundhati, cannot deny the astronomical truth of the Binary stars Mizar and Alcor and their proper motions. Just imagine of saying this concept of "movement of binary stars" to a layman. What understanding will he/she get?  For such people, stories come as a rescue. But remember, for believers, the stories are also true. I have a valid reason to say so. They were able to spot such tiny objects in sky and were able to give them names as "saptharishi mandala", "Arundhati" "Dhruva nakshathra" etc, in an age (many many yugas ago) where no modern inventions like telescopes were present and even knew to mark their movements. Their observations are exactly precise and accurate as per today's astronomy, Hence, such stories would also have some in depth meaning which we are not able to interpret properly. This is my sincere view. 

For those non believers (in mythological stories), please understand that we see this star after marriage to understand that the married couple should have mutual understanding in their lifelong journey, like these two binary stars Mizar and Alcor. Just grab a telescope and see these stars in the big dipper constellation in the night sky. You yourself will get the answer. 





The above presentation gives quick answer to another question, "How can we see stars in day time?". Please refer to point number 1. And for those who think that "women were suppressed" by such statements like "chastity" "purity" "devotion" "loyalty" etc, please understand that during Vedic times both women and men were equally tested on different grounds to bring out their great qualities. We can understand this when we read the scriptural stories fully. But as far as I know, I will give few information, how even men faced tough tests....






This list can go extensive. Even for the small list given above, big explanations are needed to understand them fully. I don't want to include them here considering the length of this post, but you can always research and find out.  

I hope this article will change your views about "seeing Arundhati in wedding". Thank you all for reading.


20 comments:

  1. how did ancient rishis knew about Alcor and Mizar binary stars? How equipped with only two eyes, they could see Stars, decide their movements etc? How did they develop such exact astronomical knowledge? Is there any answer to these questions?

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    Replies
    1. If people think with today's logical brain can't understand the scientific knowledge our rishi's had. many Ancient hindu script as provided enough proof of existence of many such objects in all field.

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    2. Mizar and Alcor are visible to naked eye :)
      In fact, the ability to resolve the two stars is often quoted as a test of eye sight.

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    3. Disagree with your statement about Karna. Those who have really read Mahabharat and have understood his character know that he was involved in a lot of Adharma and as such is not deserving of sympathy. Please fix that error as it is misleading.

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  2. Is it not time to challenge western historians'claims in a big way? were humans not supposed to be primitive hunters and gatherers even some 12000 years ago? yet there are so many incongruences. but since these incongruences are mainly connected with India, nobody wants to take note of them, as it might present India in a good (brilliant) light... shouldn't Indians propose the cyclic time frames of the rishis called yugas? so far the rishis were never proven wrong. 'Modern" ancient history makes merely assumption which change with every new find of a sceleton.

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  3. It is said that history is written by the victorious. Indua’s misfortune was that for over thousand years it was ruled by the Islamic invaders and the western colonialists. During this long period, India’s great history of its past was rewritten by the invaders and got it all on the wrong side to suit their religious views and political necessities. Simultaneously Indians lost the drive, the instinct to fight and win and generations after generations were brought up with teachings of wrong history.
    However now, that is after 2014 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi has come to power, things have started changing slightly and the people have found a New vigour to fight back. This exactly is what is causing heartburn to those who lost power, the leftists, the Abrahamic religious faithfuls and the mass media.

    What has happened to India during the last thousand years is now happening to the Islamic State of Pakistan. After its birth in 1947, Pakistan has been hell bent upon iradicating it’s own real history and teaching the kids a convoluted form of it because Pakistan doesn’t want to be seen as a nation if Muslims whose forefathers were Hindus. They instead love to be told that their fathers were Arabs! In future, Pakistanis too may feel the same way and start repenting for such a silly attitude of their government, deep State and the Islamic Clergy.

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  4. I wish t make a point here again. During Hindu weddings, the binary stars are shown to the new couple not to suppress the rights of women or keep her in a lowly position. The purpose is just the opposite. In ancient India, women were more powerful than men, especially in their households. If you read Ramayana or Mahabharata, you will see that the man is often addressed by attaching him to his mother but not father. Arjuna is “Kunti putra”. Srirama is “Kausalya Nandana”.
    Alcoa and Mizar binary stars are a unique set unlike all other known binaries. In other binary stars, one star revolves around another. STOP! In Alcor n Mizar, strangely Alcoa revolves around Mizar and Mizar also revolves around Alcor.
    So, the significance in showing this binary to the couple is that the husband and wife, both should remain compatible and adopt to each other like Alice and Mizar and should not behave like other binaries, where one is running around the other, which is stationary and lording over.
    The only thing I am still dumbstruck about is how the ancient Rishis knew that the Alcor and Mizar were revolving like that unlike other binary stars.

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  5. Ancient India or Bharat was a huge treasure of knowledge. Most of the customs and rituals laid down by those ancestors had solid and valid reasons behind them. Today we do follow many of them but without knowing the reasons. Here lies the problem. If you don’t know why you do something, then it would be called as superstition.
    Unfortunately the younger generation lives to call everything as superstition and doesn’t bother to find out and know the reason and underlying logic behind such customs or rituals. They instead love to find out why that particular Football hero divorced this great Hollywood heroine !!!

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  6. Firstly there's a difference between binary star system and double star. Binary star system is where two stars mutually orbit around a common center. Double star is simply two stars appearing close to each other. You seem to be confusing between the two. Mizar and Alcor are only a double. They're not a binary star system. They're actually a couple of light years apart so they can't gravitationally influence each other.

    Secondly Mizar itself has since been resolved to be a quadruple star system and Alcor is itself a binary star system. So overall, Mizar and Alcor form a sextuple.

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  7. A lot of search has gone into the composition of this article. Well supported by illustrations. Great effort.

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  8. Really nice.. Was looking for such a read on the star Arundathi and Vashishtha. .

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  9. My name is arundhathi. I think I found the meaning of my name. Thank you for your post... ☺

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  10. Thank you for this wonderfull knowledge..

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  11. Thank you very much for all this information in one article.

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  12. Disagree with your statement about Karna. Those who have really read Mahabharat and have understood his character know that he was involved in a lot of Adharma and as such is not deserving of sympathy. Please fix that error as it is misleading.

    ReplyDelete
  13. In a world where weddings have become more modernized and customized, incorporating such cultural traditions like spotting the Arundhati star can serve as a beautiful reminder of our roots, cultural heritage, and the deeper meaning behind the joyous celebration of love and commitment. Best Wedding Photographers in Coimbatore.


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