Shatapatha Brahamana

The Shatapatha Brahmana is a commentary on the…

Based on a linguistic analysis of the Vedic Sanskrit used in the surviving version of the Shatapatha Brahmana it is dated to between about 700-500 BCE, depending on the scholar. [7] However, there are elements believed to be ‘far older, transmitted orally from unknown antiquity’ [7] which is an important point to remember. Than untold centuries (and even millennia perhaps)

One curious mention in the Shatapatha Brahmana is that when the sun united with Orion at the vernal equinox, this commenced the yearly YajnaVaraha sacrifice. Curiously, the approximate date when Orion and the Sun are close to being united in the sky at the Vernal Equinox (the March Equinox) is around 9000 BCE, as the image at the bottom illustrates.

Within the Shatapatha Brahmana (in addition to other Vedic texts like the Vedas, Samhitas, and Tattiriya Samhita) the astronomy of the Vedic period was at an incredibly high level [7] — on par with Babylonian astronomy and in excess of it in some ways, perhaps. They gave surprisingly accurate values for astromical quantities lke the relative size of planets, the distance of the earth from the sun, the length of the day, the length of the year, using basic measuring devices or the naked eye. [7] Moreover, the Earth was descrived specifically as circular (parimandala). [7]

Shubash Kak also mentions that they provide three separate values for π. [7] Moreover, there is clear evidence that the Vedic peoples at some early date knew the four fundamental mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, division, multiplication).

It seems clear that several avatars and associated Puranic legends of Vishnu either originate (Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, and Narasimha) or were significantly developed (Vamana) in the SB. [7] Notably, all constitue the first five avatars listed in the Dashavatar (the ten principle avatars of Vishnu). [7]

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