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Adi AmmAvAsyA

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Sadagopan • August 7, 1999 


>Dear Sriman Sadagopan,
>
>I posted the following note on the Bhakti list. No response.
>Any thoughts on this?
>
>As many of you may know, Solar eclipse will be seen in
>India on the coming Aug 11 (next Wednesday). Also AmmavAsya
>happens to coincide with that day. However both the SriRanga VAkya
>PanchAngam
>and the Sri Nrisimha Priya magazine say that the AmmAvAsya tharpanam has
>to be done only on the following day (Thursday) due to the presence of solar
>eclipse on Wednesday. 
>
>AdiyEn's question is that if we are not going to be seeing solar eclipse
>here in the USA, can we perform the AmmAvAsya tharpanam on Aug 11,
>Wednesday?
>
>AdiyEn
>Lakshmi Narasimhan

Dear Sri Lakshmi Narasimhan :

Thanks very much for your question .
I thought some one might answer and hence 
I did not .

AmAvasyA TharpaNam should be done on Aug 11
instead of Aug 12 for the residents of America .
The reason is that Surya grahaNam ( Total Solar
Eclipse )of Aug 11 is only visible in Great Britain , Europe 
and selected parts of Asia including India .
There is no Surya GrahaNam to be seen in Americas .
Hence there is no GrahaNa tharpaNam on Aug 11 either ,
which is the AmAvAsya Day ( Aayila Nakshathram ).

Aug 11 ,99 solar eclipse is a wonderful and rare event ,
one in the Triple Saros series of Eclipses and is therefore of 
great interst to astronomers tracking them in the above
countries .The narrow track of the total solar eclipse of aug 11,99
has a path width of 115 KM at maximum and the longest period 
of GrahaNam is at Bucharest , Rumania ( total eclipse lasting
2 minutes and 23 seconds ). If our travel takes us to UK ,
France , Germany , Austria , Hungary , Rumania , Turkey , Iraq ,
Iran ,Pakistan and India ( Central and South ), then the issues of 
Aug 11 TharpaNam for grahaNam and Aug 12 TharpaNam for 
AmAvasyaa arise.

The path of this total eclipse starts at 9.30 AM Universal
Time (GMT)in the North Atlantic , south of Novoscotia at 
Sunrise. It does not touch in North America and travels on
a western path and hits Cornwall, UK (Land's end) at 10.10 AM (GMT)
and lasts there for 2 minutes.partial eclipses are seen outside 
the narrow path of the total eclipse .

In India , the eclipse ends with Sunset at the Bay of Bengal 
on Aug 11 at 7.04 PM . 

The Grastham (the beginning 0f the GrahNam ) ,
the darkening ( KrishNa VarNam) and the release
(clearing ) at some south Indian Cities are :

Chennai : 5.12 PM    6.11 PM  7.04 PM
AarkAD  : 5.13 PM    6.13 PM  7.05 PM
Madhurai: 5.16 PM    6.14 PM  7.06 PM
Selam :   5.13 PM    6.12 PM  7.06 PM
Thirucchi:5.14 PM    6.13 PM  7.06 PM

At India , observers are not supposed to consume food after 9AM
and wait until 7.06 PM or Sunset . 

The GrahaNa TharpaNam is called SuryOparAga PuNya Kaala 
SrArdha Prathinithi Thila TharpaNam is for S.India on Aug 11.
Since we are not affected in this continent , we will not
go into the times for performing this TharpaNam on Aug 11
in India .

Hope this helps ,
V.Sadagopan