3 of 29 - Ashwini

1.                 Why do we call “Moon”, “Sun” as “Gruhams”?

Answer: We should not mix-up “English” terminology with our terminology.  Gruham's root is from Sanskrit which means "that captures”. Sun has captured the planets and Moon is captured by Earth.

In another view we can considered the 9 "gruhams" as “Celestial objects” in this context.  Hence, Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter are all celestial objects.

Now for some trivia related to Sun & Moon. The mean distance of the sun from earth is approximately 108 times the size of the sun. The mean distance of the moon from earth is approximately 108 times the size of the moon. Using law of similar triangles and the slight variations of aphelion-perhelion with apogee-perigee, we can easily see the total eclipse, annular eclipse, etc. 108 is an important number in astrology for various reasons too!

VRVD

(3 of 29 - Ashwini)