(Image source from: Detechter)

Hanuman Chalisa, the dedicated prayer and an ode to Shri Hanuman written by Saint Goswami Tulasidas unveils another big secret of science.

The distance between the earth’s orbit and the sun is said to be revealed in this mythological prayer.

In the 18th chaupai of Hanuman Chalisa, Tulsidasa writes the apparent distance between the earth and the sun. By now we know that the earth's orbit around the sun is elliptical so the distance between the two varies at different points throughout the year. Hanuman Chalisa has a line which tells the approximate distance between our planet and our source of energy.

As per the calculations of the modern scientists, the distance between the Sun and Earth is 147 million km. This is at the nearest point in the earth's orbit called the Perihelion. The longest distance between the two called Apoapsis is 152 million km. This was measured first time in the 16th century by Jean Richer and Giovanni Domenico Cassini.

But interestingly Tulsidas was competent to give out the calculation in about two lines of Hanuman Chalisa.

A mythological tale says that Hanuman in his childhood assumed the Sun to be a fruit of mango. He was hungry and jumped to eat it. Tulasidasa writes, "yuga-sahasra-yojana para bhanu leelyo tahi madhura phala janu". The line means, "Sun is at the distance of sahastra (thousand) yojan (unit of distance)

Here is how the conversion practices were used in the Vedic literature,

1 Juug = 12000, 1 Sahastra= 1000, 1 Yojan= 8 Miles

Yuga x Sahastra x Yojana+ Para Bhanu

Thus, 12000 X 1000 X 8=  96,000,000 miles

and 1 mile = 1.6 kms

So 96,000,000 * 1.6 kms = 153,600,000 kms

Therefore, it is said that Hanuman Chalisa accurately provides the distance between the Sun and the Earth. It is yet surprising that almost 2 centuries before the modern scientists, Tulsidas foretold the distance.

By Sowmya Sangam