 | Exegesis Issue #33
|
Exegesis Digest Sun, 04 Aug 1996 Volume 1 Issue 33 |
| Exegesis Issue #33
|
Exegesis Digest Sun, 04 Aug 1996 Volume 1 Issue 33 |
I recently posted the following on an esoteric list, but feel that Exegetes might also appreciate this example of popular astrology from an entirely different culture than our own Sun sign astrology comes from.
A friend who has recently returned from travelling abroad brought back as a gift for me a Hindu Pictorial Calendar, brightly printed on light canvas. It is about 42 cms deep and 55 cms wide. It contains an upper panel of seven slightly different pictures of a god being approached by a human. There follow five rows of shallower pictures [35 in all] and a final row of seven pictures similar in size to the top row, each depicting a pair of animals. Eacg picture includes writing in a cursive Indian script. My guess it is not Sanskrit.
Accompanying it was a very poorly photocopied [on both sides of the page] foolscap guide to the Calendar.. It is very neatly hand
lettered. On one side of the guide is a set of b/w sketches of the calendar panels, with god-names in each of the panels of the top row. A
panel at the side is headed:
The Gods of Birth,
the day on which you are born
Determines your god and your fate."
I wont type out the full interpretations that follow, but I will insert in the appropriate place in the next paragraph, the first line of each.
Here are the God names printed in each picture of the first row [plus a few words from the text panel. I interpret a C with a line through the lower curve as 'Sh'. Am I right?
INDRA, GOD OF Sun
Cri, Goddess of rice [I think this is Shri]
Brahma, God of fire
Wishnu, God of water
CIWA, God wind [I guess this Shiva]
Uma, God of earth
Durga.Goddess of died temple
The sketches of the central 35 pictures each have a number from 1 to 35 on them.
The sketches of pairs of animals on the bottom row are identified as:
Garude - Elephant
Lion - Dog
Dog - Horse
Snake - CYoul. or it could be Crouh.
The original picture is of a snake and some kind of animal, that sort of resembles a pregant woman with a rat or mouse's head.
Man - Cat
Goat - Cow
Cow -Buffalo
On the reverse side of the key text sheet are 35 numbered panels, each with a personality description.
Written across the bottom of the sheet is:
"The Traditional Pictorial hindu Calendar is different from the International Calendar. in the hindu Calendar every month has 35 days whereas the Calendar has a max. of 31/days/month."
The writer was running out of room by the end of the sentence.
Does anyone know anything more about this Calendar and its 35-day month? Encyclopedia Britannica talks about Hindu calendars but doesnt mention a 35 day month. The seven gods and seven pairs of animals clearly refer to a seven day week, IMO.
A five week month would mean either a 60 week, 420 day year, or a 10 month year with 15 or 16 days over. Or the 35 day month has no relation to an annual calendar at all.
Be blessed.
Michael Freedman, S.G. <freedman@ihug.co.nz>
Unless otherwise indicated, articles and submissions above are copyright © 1996 their respective authors.