AN ANCIENT ESTIMATE OF THE SPEED OF LIGHT
Although there is no archaeological evidence to suggest that the ancients possessed technological instruments capable of measuring the speed of light, there is textual evidence that they nevertheless possessed an accurate knowledge of that speed long before it was discovered by modern scientists.
In a commentary on the Rig Veda dated to the fourteenth century, the author named Sayana recalls a saying that was considered ancient in his day: “Thus it is remembered: you who traverse 2,202 yojanas in half a nimesha.”This passage occurs in Sayana’s commentary on a hymn dedicated to the sun, the primary source of light in our solar system. Because a yojana is a Vedic unit of distance and a nimesha is a Vedic unit of time, the saying represents an algorithm indicating a speed. Subhash Kak, an electrical engineer at Louisiana State University, wondered if this algorithm might actually be an ancient reference to the speed of light.1
We can examine this possibility here. The Vedic units of distance are well documented in the ancient texts:
Units of Distance
8 yava (barleycorns) = 1 angula (digit; ¾ inch)
12 angulas = 1 vitasti (hand span or half-cubit; 9 inches)
2 vitastis = 1 aratni (elbow or cubit; 18 inches)
4 aratnis = 1 danda (rod) or dhanu (bow; 6 feet)
2,000 dhanus = 1 krosha (cry) or goruta (cow call; 2 ¼ miles)
4 kroshas = 1 yojana (stage; approximately 9 miles)
The Vedic units of time are also well documented. In the Vangabashi edition of the Vishnu Purana (2.8.55), the units of time are listed as:
Units of Time
1 nimesha = 1 blink of an eye (0.213 seconds)
1 kastha = 15 nimesha (3.2 seconds)
1 kala = 30 kastha (96 seconds)
1 muhurta = 30 kala (48 minutes)
1 ahoratra = 30 muhurta (24 hours)
According to the ancient saying recalled by Sayana, the mysterious speed is 2,202 yojanas per half nimesha. Given the units above, it is apparent that a half nimesha is equal to.1066 seconds. A simple calculation reveals that the speed is:
Modern calculations tell us that the speed of light is approximately 186,000 miles per second. Therefore, the ancient estimate is extremely accurate—more accurate than the first modern estimate Roemer obtained in 1675, yet this algorithm was recorded in a text written some three hundred years prior to 1675, and even at that time it was remembered as extremely ancient.
Exactly how the ancient seers obtained an accurate estimate of the speed of light without the use of sophisticated electronic equipment or powerful telescopes remains a profound mystery for which we have no answers. Given this algorithm, however, the interpretation of the life span of the Creator (expressed in solar years) as the light span of the cosmic egg (expressed in light-years) becomes inherently plausible.