| So far no ancient drawings of comets have come to light. There are
however, several references to comets in the ancient literature. The Atharva Veda contains
a prayer seeking protection from comets and meteorites. Appearance of comets are also
mentioned in the Mahabharata and Ramayana. Varahamihira collected and classified the
shapes and colours of 1000 comets and comet like objects in a book written in the 6th
century A.D. called Brihat Samhita. The Brihat Samhita contains very detailed descriptions
of the colour and shapes of comets. The paths taken by some comets in the sky have been
described in the same book. It records a comet calaketu occulting the star Vega. The
Mughal king Jahangir was an ardent naturalist. He kept a detailed diary of all his
observations in the book Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri. In this he has recorded the appearance of a
comet in the skies of October 1618. It sported a tail of 24 degrees and was observed for
16 days. The Tamil poet Subramanya Bharathi wrote a verse welcoming comet Halley in 1910
when there was general panic. |
Jehangir observing a comet in the skies of October 1618. It
sported a tail of 24 degrees and was observed for 16 days.
|
