Fans; A personal saga

 

 

If I tell you that there were no fans of any kind in our house in Pune until late fifties, would you believe me? Probably not, but it's a fact. Well! Though, it's not exactly true, because I had found a small contraption that looked like a fan, in my dad’s junk box, when I was in school. I had cleaned it and when connected to power, it worked.  Therefore, I must modify my statement and say that there were no regular fans in our house till late fifties.

But before I tell you about this thing that looked like a fan, let me go down memory lane and narrate to you about my first encounter with a table fan. This happened, when I was in primary school. I was visiting my grandfather, living in Kalyan. On one evening, he took me  all the way to a relative in Mumbai. The relative’s dwelling was just one room in a Mumbai chawl, but what I was fascinated with there, was a table fan with a gleaming white chromium plated cage, black coloured blades and jet black body. The relative proudly told us that it was an Italian fan with famous brand name” Marelli”,  written in shining chromium plated letters, right at the centre. I was just thrilled with this fan, the little sparks that flew out, as brushes pressed against the armature and the cool breeze it generated. I was too young to know that it was an AC/DC fan having an armature.  For next few years, my dream then, wasalways to own a “Marelli” table fan.  

Coming back to the strange contraption, I had found in the junk box, it was a small fan with an AC/DC motor again, with black rubber blades looked like a ship’s propeller. There was no cage, but the motor was so low powered that one could stop it by pressing with hands against the blades.  The motor was fixed on a little black stand. My dad was unable to tell me, from where he had acquired it.  My guess was that he had either brought it back from his England trip or had picked it up from junk market. Wherever it came from, I just liked that fan. I cleaned it and gave it a position of respect on my study table. I used it for number of years, until I left Pune for further studies. When I came back it was not there and no one knew what had happened to it.

Meanwhile my grandfather had acquired a real ceiling fan for our house. It belonged to Late Raghunath Dhondo Karve, the pioneer of the family planning movement in India. He lived in Mumbai and after his death, his belongings were brought to Pune and passed on to his relatives. No one wanted the fan and the hot water geyser, which he had in his house. His two brothers were not interested at all in such useless pieces of machines. So they were just, sort of forced, on my grandfather, who for sentimental reasons, accepted them. He installed the fan above our dining   table and the geyser in the bathroom. This was a huge fan and rotated with a peculiar sound, yet it matched our large dining hall and made life comfortable for the people, eating on the huge dining table, during summer months.  I still remember the fan regulator with word ‘RAHIM’ embossed on it.

Like my loved “Marelli” table fan of my childhood, I came across another beauty of a fan, during the time, when about twenty  or twenty-five of our extended family members had gone to Mumbai to attend the ceremony, when Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru had come to Mumbai to felicitate Dr. Dhondo Keshav or Annasaheb Karve, who had completed century of his life and also was awarded Bharat Ratna. Besides main function in Brabourne stadium, there were many small visits to some eminent people in Mumbai. One such visit was to the home of an industrialist of a famous business house. I remember that our group was invited for lunch, and we sat in a large living room that had pale green walls. The wide French windows were open and soothing sea breeze made us very comfortable. Then I saw the ceiling fan. It was spotless white and had only two very long blades.  It rotated very slowly and did not hinder the sea breeze at all. It just moved the air. I absolutely loved the scene and the fan and cannot forget it. In my entire life so far, I have  seen that kind of fan again, that just moved the air, without creating a blast.

The fans of long-gone eras of Peshavas and Britishers, were contraptions that similarly only moved the air  and did not blow a blast of air, on people below, like what present fans do. I recently saw one such fan, fixed to the ceiling of the bedroom of famous Maratha statesman, Nana Fadanvis of Peshava era, in his ‘Wada’ at Menavali village, near Wai town.  This fan was in the form of a large fabric piece with laced borders on three sides and a stitched casing on the remaining side. A wooden rod, pushed through this casing, was fixed with brackets to the ceiling.  Two ropes attached to two sides of fabric, were threaded through wooden pulleys fixed to the ceiling and taken out of the room. An attendant sitting outside the room, would swing the fabric fan so air moved inside.

I saw a similar fan, in the officer’s mess of Bombay Engineering group on Alandi road in Pune, where I had gone to attend a small party hosted by an acquaintance.  This was a much larger version of Nana Fadanvis fan. There were four large fabric pieces attached to the ceiling and all of them would move in unison when orderlies standing outside would pull the ropes, while ‘Gore Saheb Lok’ enjoyed their drinks. The fans are no more in use and have been replaced with electric ceiling fans. The old fans have been just retained as a part of the heritage.  

In the early sixties my father installed steel ‘U’ clips in the ceilings of all rooms in our house and indicated that we were fan ready now. Yet, we had no fans in any of the rooms for number of years. The first fan that my father bought had a strange brand name. It was called ‘Castle’, for whatever reasons, I do not know. It was a monster with a close knitted wire cage, through which even a fly won’t pass through.  The speed control switch   was rotary type and at bottom. The fan created a blast of air with great sound, something like what aircrafts produce. I frankly do not know, how my parents slept soundly with that blower on.

 

 

I bought my first ceiling fan after I got married, that too at the insistence of my better half.  I was clear about one thing though. I wanted to buy a Crompton make fan in any case. Those days, ceiling fans was a rarity in Pune and shops only had table fans. Only three companies manufactured Ceiling fans those days in India with brand names, Castle, Usha and Crompton. Looking at my father’s table fan, castle was certainly ruled out. My uncle in Mumbai had a Usha fan and he was not very happy with it. Reviews from Mumbai relatives about Crompton fans were all good. So I decided on a Crompton fan. However, I encountered my first difficulty then. No one knew where Crompton fans were available in Pune, as they made only ceiling fans. After great difficulty, I found that one company on Tilak Road, represented Crompton. I visited them. They had no fans in stock but had the price list. So I paid them full price as advance and ordered the fan. They said, it would be delivered to me after two weeks. However there was some delay and after about three weeks my fan finally arrived. This company also arranged to install it and finally I had my dream fan. The fan was true to its reputation and just kept working for decades and decades before I finally replaced it with modern solid magnet core fan.

During 1980’s I paid a visit to US. One thing I noticed there, were the ceiling fans installed in homes. These looked quite different. The motor was of a large size and there were four or five blades, made not necessarily from aluminium, as is the case in India. There were also some kind of lights fixed below the fan. I studied the fans there and I found out that the motors were slow speed motors and having more blades meant that the volume of air moved, was much larger. The slower speed ensured that there was no blast of air.  Such fans were just not available in India.

In 2008, we renovated the house, and I decided to buy new fans. At that time, I found that Crompton had introduced the slow speed four blade fans with lights in India. I ordered a couple, and they are still working well in my house after 17 long summers.

The weather pattern in Pune is now changing very rapidly. Every summer we are seeing new record temperatures being reached.  I just do not know whether fans would suffice in future to find relief from summer heat. Already I can see air conditioners everywhere. Future of fans looks uncertain for sure at least in Pune.

 

19 April 2025

   

 Orion revisited

About a century ago Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, in his book named Orion, tried to date Rigveda and other Vedic scriptures, by using positions of the sun against star asterisms, at a given season. He understood these sun positions keep changing all the time because of the precession motion of the earth around its axis. I feel that the time has come to revisit this topic, primarily because of one reason.

The reason for this re-look is the successful decipherment of the ancient Indus script in 2024 by a person, who calls himself as Yajnadevam. He is an IT specialist and has great proficiency in Sanskrit and Mathematics. According to me, his find should be called the biggest discovery of 2024, in the Indian context. We can certainly presume his decipherment to be correct, as no one so far has been able to falsify it.

Yajnadevam's major finding is that the IVC language is none other than Vedic Sanskrit and IVC script is the great grandmother of Bramhi, our ancient script. What Yajnadevam has found further, is equally breathtaking. In many cases the texts found on IVC seals and tablets include quotes and words from our oldest scripture, Rigveda.

Yajnadevam's discovery has one major implication for ancient Indian history. It pushes back the Vedic period by an unknown interval of time. Now the question before us is whether we can corroborate this possibility by any other evidence or method? 

Before we start our study and go back to the Vedic period, let me first clarify an important and confusing concept of ‘Rashis’ or ‘Signs of Zodiac’. For more details, I request you, my readers, to refer to my blogpost on this subject, ‘Who introduced Signs of The Zodiac to India?’.  It should suffice to mention here, that the concept of ‘Rashis’ is a much later concept introduced in India, after arrival of Greeks, most probably by ‘King Menander’. Prior to that, we find no references in the scriptures to ‘Rashis”. There are references only to star asterisms, known in our scripturesas ‘Nakshatra’,  that are positioned near ecliptic or path of the sun in the sky round a year. If we refer to any Hindu calendar or ‘Panchang’ today. We can easily find a list of 27 ‘Nakshatras’ or star asterisms. The first star asterism that is mentioned in this list today is ‘Ashvini’ (अश्विनी) or Aries, comprising of three stars, alpha, beta and gamma Ariets. 

Let us turn our attention now, to Two of our ancient scriptures, ‘Taittariya Sanhita of Krlshna Yajurveda’ and ‘Atharva Veda’, believed to be from Vedic period. Both have a ‘sukta’ or Hymn, known as ‘Nakshatra Sukta,’ which lists names of all the ‘Nakshatras’ or star asterisms that are seen along the Zodiac, or ecliptic. This list consists of 28 names instead of 27 mentioned intoday’s ‘Panchang’. The last star asterism mentioned in this list is that of‘Abhijit”.

What is surprising here is that in both these ‘suktas’, thefirst star asterism mentioned is ‘Krittika’ (कृत्तिका)or Pleiades instead of ‘Ashvini’ (अश्विनी), as is done today. A question arises naturally, as to Why does this list begin with Pleiades, instead of Aries, as it is done today?  Obviously, there must be a reason. A simplistic reason for that could probably be  that, when this Hymn was composed, Pleiades was the first asterism, the sun crossed, when the new crop cycle or a solar year began. But things may not be that simple.

Here we come across our first difficulty.  As we just saw above, the Vedic calendar system depended on the sidereal year, linking sun’s position against star asterisms, whereas a crop cycle depended on three principal seasons observed in semi tropical India. Namely Summer, Rains and Winter. To align these two cycles, the Vedic calendar had to begin near about one of the four marker days of a solar year. Any school going lad would tell us that these marker days are obviously Spring equinox, summer solstice, Autumn equinox and winter solstice. If we agree with that, we need to find answers to a further question. Which of these solar markers was used by our ancestors to calculate the beginning day of a solar year? And how could our forefathers exactly mark out the marker days, with only their eyesight or crude primitive instruments, to assist?

To find answer to the latter of these questions, we need to travel to India’s Gujarat state and to ‘Rann of Kutch (officially spelled Kachchh)’, therein, a barren marshy tract of land that gets filled with sea water during rains and remains a marshy wasteland for rest of the year with surface covered with salt. More precisely we need to go to ‘Khadir Island’, a scarcely populated island in this wet salty desert, not very far from India’s border with Pakistan.  

On this desolate island, India’s archeologists led by Mr. Jagat Pati Joshi, made one of the significant discoveries of India’s ancient past, when in 1968, they discovered a city from the Vedic period here, located exactly on the tropic of cancer, consisting of a citadel, bailey and township. The site was near a small village known as ‘Dholavira’. Consequently, the ancient city itself started being called by that name.  What perhaps can be called a unique feature of this sight, was the fact that a huge signboard was found lying near one of the gates, displaying most probably the name of the city itself. There was a small difficulty however, as the signboard was in IVC script, and the language also was unknown. Dholavira’s ancient name remained a mystery until last year. Despite the signboard being discovered.  

In 2024, Yajndevam’s decipherment of IVC script made it possible to read Dholavira’s signboard for the first time. The language used here is classical Vedic Sanskrit and the words are “raka-vararaka-araras” (रक-वरारक-अररस). Yajnadevam translates this as “Gem of chosen gems,entrance”

Let us now return to our subject proper. During my visit to Dholavira, our guide gave us some information about the way basic calendrical information was maintained by the Dholavira people. According to him, certain staircases in the Citadel ruins were found to have 15 and 30 steps. It was easily possible, by using markers, which probably were shifted every day, to know what day of the fortnight or month that day was. By using similar methods, it was possible to know the month. This information is quite useful yet fails to provide any answer to the problem of how Dholavira people managed to align their sidereal Vedic calendar with seasonal calendar. Or in other words, how did they find the marker days mentioned above? How they did it, probably would have remained a mystery forever, but for a chance discovery of two circular structures, by two scientists: Mr. M N Vahia from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai and Mr. Srikumar Menon from Manipal School of Architecture and Planning (Karnataka). 

A group of scientists now say that this discovery is the first identification of a structure used for observational astronomy during the Harappan Civilization or in other words, these two circular structures were parts of a functional astronomical observatory. With help of which, Dholavira people were able to identify marker days of solar calendar such as summer and winter solstices or spring and autumn equinoxes and use that information to conduct business, farming and other activities. My readers, who wish to find out more information about this topic may visit my blogpost “Amazing Dholavira part III”.

There is one more issue, which has much relevance and must be considered first. This is the concept of “Uttarayana” (उत्तरायण). Readers may be well aware, that sun’s position at Zenith above equator, keeps changing all year long from 24.5 degrees south of zenith point to 24.5 degrees to north of zenith point. In fact, the marker points mentioned above are all caused by this traverse.  The period (six months or half year) for which the sun traverses in northern half is called as “Uttarayan” in Hindu Panchang system and was once considered as a suitable time for carrying religious functions like Yajnas etc. Some confusion exists regarding exact period of “Uttarayana”, whether from Winter solstice to summer solstice or from Spring equinox to Autumnal equinox?   Lokamanya gets rid of this confusion by quoting from another scripture, “Shatpath Bramhana”, which says that seasons of Spring, summer and rains comprise of “Uttarayana”, a period when the sun protectsthe Devas. Original quotation has been mentioned below.

With this information in our bag, we can now turn our attention to Lokamanya’s brilliant treatise “Orion” and straight jump to the chapter, which he names as ‘Krittikas’.  Lokamanya quotes here a few important hymns from the ancient scriptures, ‘Taittariya Samhita’ alongwith “Taittariya Bramhana’ and ‘Shatapatha Bramhana’. Some of which I have listed below.

·    “Nakshatras are the houses of Gods…. The Nakhatras of the Devas begin with the Krittikas and end with Vishakha, whereas the Nakshatras of Yama begin with the Anuradhas and end with the apaBharanis” (दे॒व॒गृ॒हा वै नक्ष॑त्त्राणि (………) कृत्ति॑काः प्रथ॒मम् । विशा॑खे उत्त॒मम् । तानि॑ देवनक्ष॒त्त्राणि॑ । अ॒नू॒रा॒धाः प्र॑थ॒मम् । अ॒प॒भर॑णीरुत्त॒मम्तानि॑ यमनक्ष॒त्त्राणि॑ । यानि॑ देवनक्ष॒त्त्राणि॑ । तानि॒ दक्षि॑णेन॒ परि॑यन्ति ।यानि॑ यमनक्ष॒त्त्राणि॑ तान्युत्त॑रेण।) Taittariya Bramhana (1.5.2.7) 

·       Krittikas are the mouth of Nakshatras (कृत्ति॑कास्व॒ग्निमाद॑धीत। (…….) मुखं॒ वा ए॒तन्नक्ष॑त्राणाम्। यत्कृत्ति॑काः।} Taittariya Bramhana (1.1.2.1)

·       Vasanta (spring) is the mouth of seasons (मुखं॒ वा मुखं॒ वा ए॒तदृ॑तू॒नाम् यद्व॑स॒न्तः।) Taittariya Bramhana (1.1.2.6)

·       Phalguni full moon is the mouth of the year.(सं॑वथ्स॒रस्य॒ यत्फ॑ल्गु सं॑वथ्स॒रस्य॒ यत्फ॑ल्गुनीपूर्णमा॒सो मु॑ख॒त) Taittariya Samhita (7.4.10)

·       The sun was to be considered as moving amongst and protecting the Devas, when he turned to the north, in the three seasons of spring, summer and rains. (वसन्तो ग्रीष्मो वर्षाः ते देवा ऋतवः शरद्धेमन्तः शिशिरस्ते पितरो य एवापूर्यतेऽर्धमासः स देवा योऽपक्षीयते स पितरोऽहरेव देवा रात्रिः पितरः अथ यत्र दक्षिणावर्त्तते, पितृषु तर्हि भवति) Shatpath Bramhana (2.1.3, 1-3)

Deducing from this and several other sources, Lokmanya rightly concludes that  when manuscripts of scriptures such as “Taittariya Samhita”, “Taittariya Bramhana”  in our hand were written, the sun must be crossing the asterism of “Krittikas” or Pleiades on the day of spring equinox and a new “Samvatsara’ or year began from full moon day of month of “Falgun”, when the Sun crossed the star asterism of “Purva Bhadrapada”.  Since “Atharva Veda” also puts “Krittika Nakshatra” as first “Nakshatra” in the “Nakshatra Sukta”, obviously it was also manuscripted in that period.

Let me do some quick calculations to find number of years it must have taken the spring equinox to move to  today’s “Uttar Bhadrapada” from period of scripting “Taittariya Samhita”, when spring equinox was in “Krittika Nakshatra”. Principal star of “Uttar Bhadrapada Nakshatra” is “Algenib” or Gamma Pegasus. Its right ascension is 00h13m14s or 3.29 degrees. Whereas principal star of “Krittika Nakshatra” is “Alcyone” or Eta Tauri. Its right ascension is 03h47m29s or 56.8708 degrees. Hence the total shift in position of Spring equinox is  56,8708-3.29= 53.58 degrees. Assuming a time lapse of 72 years for shift of 1 degree, in location of an asterism due to precession, the time lapse works out to about 3858 years. This means that the manuscripts in our hands of scriptures such as Taittariya Samhita” or “Atharva Veda” were written down sometime before 1850 BCE.

It should be interesting now to find out how far back we can go, by making another quick calculation. The “Nakshatra”, which the sun had crossed before Pleiades on spring equinox, would have to be “Mrigashirsh” or Orion. The principal star of this “Nakshatra” is Lambda Orionis. Its right ascension is 05h35m08s or 83.78 degrees. Hence the total shift in this case  would be 83.78-3.29= 80.5 degrees, which works out to 5796 years from today or approximately 3300BCE. This enables us  to say  positively  that these scriptures were certainly composed, sometime afterwards of 3300BCE but not later than 1850 BCE.

It so happens that Lokamanya did not stop here and continued his quest further in past or when the sun crossed Orion on day of spring equinox and arrives at a period of 4000BCE  as the period when earliest of the scriptures must have been composed. However, I would not go to those details, as we already have enough information in our bag.

Indian archaeologists now assign following time periods to major excavations done in Indus and Sarswati Valley civilizations.

·       Mohenjo-daro 2600 to 1900 BCE

·       Harrapa                 3300 to 1600 BCE

·       Rakhigarhi            3300 to 2000 BCE

·       Banavali                2500 to 1750 BCE

·       Chanhudaro 3300 to 1300 BCE

·       Dholavira               3500 to 1800 BCE

·       Sinauli                     2100 to 1800 BCE

It can be seen from this archaeological data, that in all these major sites, the learned people or Rishis should have been well conversant with the scriptures and Yajnadevam’s finding that tabs and seals found in all such places mostly bear words from Rigveda is certainly in the realm of truth.

On broader terms, this dating effort by Lokamanya also confirms the continuity of Indian civilization from 4000 BCE to today and the idea of a dark age before birth of Buddha can be just scrapped forever.

12th March 2025

 

Usha and Ushshakala (ऊषस् देवता आणि उषःकाल)

 

We all know that ' Usha' (उषस्) is the name given to Goddess of Dawn in Vedas. We in India, consider  Usha as the mild morning sun, which lasts for a few minutes before transforming to the blazing hell, called in Sanskrit as  'Aditya' or many other names. However,  was this name 'Usha' really given originally to the morning sun, that lasts for only a few minutes?

 Similarly, 'Ushshakala' (उषःकाल) is thought by us as the dawn or pre-dawn period of first light. However again, is it really that pre-morning hour or something else?

With 'Usha' being a short period phenomenon,  One feels surprised to find as many as 20 'Suktas' (Hymns) of Rigveda ( the oldest Veda), praising this Goddess. Almost all Rigveda 'Mandalas' or books, which are considered as most archaic (nos. 3 to 7), have 'Suktas' that praise 'Usha', some of which, are composed by sages with very unfamiliar names such as Shunah-shepa, Goutamah, Atreya, Angirasah.

Rigveda calls the beauty of Goddess Usha as incomparable, incredible, and describes her as a beautiful dancer, who changes her brilliant glowing attire and jewelry each day. She is described to arrive in a different attire each day and Rigveda even assigns many different names for this Goddess. Her arrival on the horizon from darkness of night is compared to leaving of a cowshed by a cow. As she rises on horizon, Rigveda describes her rise as throwing away of her veil of golden brilliant glow and baring a breast.

Rigveda calls Usha as a sister of the night. In some 'Suktas' she is called wife of the sun and in some, the mother. She is described as very friendly with Asvins, the heavenly twins. She rides a golden chariot pulled by horses, which take her up in the sky.

How long does the Goddess Usha shine in the sky? Any person in India would answer this, as for a few minutes. Maybe some people in Kashmir may opt, for a time duration longer than that. Yet, another archaic book , considered as part of Vedas, 'Taitariya Bramhana' comes up with answers that are quite puzzling. As per this book, 'Usha' or the dawn may last, till all the oblations are done and 'Suktas' recited. Or it may linger on and on. Or it may even be there forever or 'Shashwat'.

After reading what these books say, it's  time to ask some questions. I have made a list of few obvious questions. A few more can be easily added.

What was the need for another deity, when deity called as  Aditya was already there, for the entity we know as the Sun and famous 'Gayatri' hymn to praise him?

Why so much importance was given to a transitory phenomenon of a short duration that took place each day?

Why it is said that this Goddess Usha comes up with changed appearance each day?

How can you call her sister of the night, when both have a large time interval between them in form of a solar day?

How can it linger on or stay forever?

Before we find answers to these questions, let us first do a little travel. We shall move to an open grassland in southern Russia, where horizon is visible on all sides, or precisely at 52 deg. N latitude and find out sunrise, sunset timings for two days in December.

On 1st December the sun rises at 8.17AM and sets at 3.56PM. Noon is at 12.07PM and sun rises only 14.4 degrees above horizon. Sunrise position is 28.4 deg. east of due south.

Next on 22nd December the sun rises at 8.49AM and sets at 3.54PM. Noon is at 12.22PM and sun rises only 12.2 degrees above horizon. Sunrise position is 29.6 deg. Southeast of due east.

With this data, I think we can attempt to find answers to our questions.

The sun at these latitudes and days is so mild and pleasant to look at, that the sages found nothing unusual in naming it as another deity.

 At these latitudes, it is no longer a transitory phenomenon. Goddess Usha stays there at least till noon if not later.

As seen above, the sunrise location, time, and height above horizon at noon, on each progressive day, keeps changing, along with the brightness or dazzle of the sun.

With the sun being so mild, there is no differentiation between dawn and day. We can have therefore, only dawns and nights, eliminating the day altogether. 

Since dawn just lingers on, a poet may as well call it as forever of 'Shashawat'. 

Coming back to the concept of 'Ushshakal' now, at these latitudes, it is no longer just the time of dawn or pre-dawn hour. We can say, it rather begins on some day after autumnal equinox, when sun has become so mild that it couldn't be called 'Aditya' or 'Hiranyagarbha' any longer. 'Ushshakal' should end on some day before spring equinox, when the Sun is back again a blazing hell.

The conclusion therefore, is straight forward and simple, the archaic hymns of Rigveda were obviously composed not in India, but at a place somewhere in the north, like a place at latitude, say around 52 deg. North. Later, when Rigveda came to India, entire concept of the dawn, as a separated entity, from the day, no longer remained appealing or relevant, to sages,  and was soon forgotten. 

Goddess 'Usha' no longer sparkles.

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Copyright for text and images
Chandrashekhar Athavale

References

1. Ancient Indo-Europeans

By Stanislav A Grigoriev

2. Arctic home of the Vedas

By. B.G. Tilak