In the Ramayana, there’s a striking reference to the **star Canopus** (called Agastya in Sanskrit), which is said to become visible only after...
This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/highstrangeness by /u/AwakenedEpochs on 2025-07-09 17:27:05+00:00.

In the Ramayana, there’s a striking reference to the star Canopus (called Agastya in Sanskrit), which is said to become visible only after Rama’s army reaches the southern tip of India. At first glance, this may seem poetic, but it actually reflects a real astronomical phenomenon that only makes sense during the end of the last Ice Age.

Due to Earth’s axial precession, Canopus was positioned near the Southern Celestial Pole around 12,000 BCE. During that period, the star would have been invisible from most of India, becoming visible only from far south, near modern day Tamil Nadu or Sri Lanka, just as the Ramayana describes.

Modern planetarium software simulations confirm this visibility window occurred between ~12,500 to 11,000 BCE. This is further supported by research like the paper “Vega and Canopus – Rare Epoch of Two Bright Pole Stars” (Kumar et al., 2023), which outlines how Canopus’ position shifted significantly during that era.

🔗 Research Gate Paper

This and 600+ astronomical references to eclipses, solstices and planetary alignments in the text point to a much older period, which eventually align to a precise date, i.e. 12,209 BCE. This places the Ramayana in the tail end of the Last Ice Age (around the Younger Dryas period).

This also raises the possibility that the Ramayana isn’t just mythology, but encoded Ice Age astronomy. And one begins to wonder, how many such myths worldwide may contain ancient memory, that’s still undiscovered?

For a detailed breakdown exploring the Ramayana’s dating and Kumari Kandam:

Watch here: https://youtu.be/U4cY8u9ENbA

References & Sources:

  1. Canopus (Agastya) in the Ramayana: Mentioned in Yuddha Kanda, as appearing only after reaching the southern tip of India.

  2. Canopus visibility by latitude: NASA/JPL SkyCal tool and Stellarium simulation (modern software showing horizon rise at different latitudes).

  3. Dr. Nilesh Oak: Astronomical dating of Indian epics using Stellarium and historical sky models.

  4. B.N. Narahari Achar, University of Memphis: Peer reviewed papers on Mahabharata and Ramayana astronomical references.