Every time a solar or a lunar eclipse occurs, people's reasoning power is the first casualty in many societies. In India Pujas (devotional prayers) are announced at all temples, purificatory rituals are gone through and the faithful observe fasts. The streets are deserted, pregnant women stay indoors: in short life comes to a standstill. Narendra Nayak writes about this unnatural reaction to a natural occurrence.

Eclipses

What causes an eclipse? A solar eclipse happens when the moon intervenes between the sun and the earth and a lunar eclipse happens when the earth comes between the sun and the moon. These do follow certain rules, so it is not very difficult for even amateur astronomers to predict eclipses.

Solar eclipses can be total, partial or annular ones, depending on the distances at the time of the occurrence. In the case of a total eclipse there can be a few minutes of darkness followed by the diamond ring effect. The annular variety forms what is called the 'ring of fire'. In a country like India, where superstitions abound, a whole group of the priestly class waits with open pockets for the bounty of the eclipse!

The eclipse on the 3rd October 2005, we were told fell on a particularly inauspicious day, the Mahalaya Amavasya. This is the new moon day on which the spirits of the long dead ancestors roam the earth! While every solar eclipse has to be on a new moon day, this particular eclipse, happening on an Amavasya day and that too in the same month when a lunar eclipse too was taking place, was particularly scary one. What a catastrophe for the gullible - and what a bumper crop to the priests!

Averting Disaster

In some temples, announcements were put up a month in advance as to how people should conduct themselves during the eclipse. The last meal was to be had before 10 am, and the next one only on the next day! The explanation for this was that rays emanating from the sun during the eclipse would pollute all water and cooked food. Some claimed that even clothing would be polluted and had to be discarded, and a bath was recommended as soon as the eclipse ended. The more enthusiastic would even throw away all stored water in the house and fill their pots afresh. That they would be filling them with water already exposed to these "rays" was another matter!

We celebrated the solar eclipse by watching this phenomenon with members of the Mangalore Amateur Astronomers Club. They had two telescopes, screens, welding glasses and exposed x-ray films with which to watch the event. Sweets were distributed to celebrate the event and after sunset the crowd dispersed with the happy feeling of having witnessed a natural phenomenon and enjoying it.

Why do people fear eclipses? Primitive man feared that demons were swallowing the sun. All the rituals were aimed at making the demon spit it out. Rahu and Ketu of Indian astrology personify these demons. While it was ritual fasting, pujas and yagnas (sacrificial rituals) in India, in the Far East drums are beaten and crackers are fired to scare the demon and make him release the sun.

And the rituals do work - the sun and the moon are released from the demons within a few hours! Probably, this is because they have been followed religiously since early times. That reminds me of an anecdote quoted by Bertrand Russell. In London, at the height of winter, a man was shouting at the top of his voice at midnight in the Hyde Park. When questioned by a policeman, he replied that he was doing that to scare away wild elephants. When the policeman told him that the nearest wild elephant was thousands of miles away in Africa, his reply was - "See how well it works!"

Pseudoscientific Justifications

So, each and every time, the priests who have performed these rituals (and of course have lined their pockets too) would claim that they have saved mankind from a fate worse than death. In modern times pseudoscience too has been brought in to support superstition. We are told that during the eclipse, poisonous rays are emitted which pollute the atmosphere and cause micro-organisms to multiply and cause disease. Another explanation is that this is caused by the loss of sunlight. When questioned as to what emits these harmful rays, there is no answer. If the absence of sunlight for a few minutes is the cause for organisms multiplying, should that not happen every night when there is no sunlight for nearly 12 hours! When I ask this of the educated people who make such claims, they have no answer and ask me to recognize the wisdom of the ancients!

Is it the celestial body or is it human reason that is eclipsed?

Dr. Narendra Nayak is President of the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations (FIRA) and a Professor of Biochemistry