Myths About Comets in Chinese & Indian Civilization

Comets have always been associated with dread, suspicion, and portends of evil. Ancient Chinese writers the first to leave accounts of comets sorted them into two types, the Po (did not have a tail), and Hui (had a tail). For them comets were heavenly brooms used to sweep the sky off evil. The ancient Celts feared that the sky would fall on their heads. Comets have been imagined to be great dragons and gigantic snakes darting across the sky.

It is possible that the fear would have etched in human memory after a huge comet crashed on Earth. Imagine the effect-there would have been smoke and fire, loss of life and property. Trees and crops would have been destroyed. People would have starved to death. The smoke would have darkened the skies for a long time. Chinese, Hindu, and Mayan myths tell the story of the great flood, which destroyed all life. There are allusions in the Bible too of the Great Flood. Plato refers to the lost world of Atlantis. Could a huge comet or asteroid cause the Deluge?

Were all these references about a single calamity that befell Earth or were there many? Are these exaggerated fears of the unknown or a reflection of a possibility? Historians looking for an explanation to the similarities in myths would ask these questions. What about the Star of Bethlehem, which appeared when Christ was born-could it have been a comet?

The appearance of comets in historic times was regarded as an ill omen. The Jewish historian was of the opinion that Halley's Comet foretold the fall of Jerusalem by being appearing four years before it happened in A.D 66. In 1456, the Turks captured Constantinople; the Christian world blamed the Halley's Comet for the misfortune and added a prayer to the Ave Maria, "Lord save us from the devil, the Turks, and the comet". The comet, it seems, had a knack of appearing on momentous occasions-Norman conquest began in 1066, the year the Battle of Hastings began, the death of Attila , the Great London fire and the Birth of Napoleon.

From literary works, too we understand the terror that these objects evoked. Mark Twain was born in 1835 when Halley's Comet came. In his inimitable style, he remarked in 1909, "I came with Halley's comet in 1835. It is coming next year, and I expect to out with it. The Almighty has said, no doubt, now here are these two unaccountable freaks: they came together, they must go out together". The great man's words did come true and he died on April 21, 1910 when the comet was once again visible in the sky! Jonathan Swift amazed by the coincidences of events and the arrival of comets wrote "Old men and comets have been reverenced for the same reason; their long beards, and the pretences to foretell events".

While twain and Swift may have made off the cuff remarks about comets, there is some seriousness in what William Shakespeare wrote. Shakespeare refers to a comet in his Julius Caesar.-When beggars die there are no comets seen; the heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes. Shakespeare was alluding to a biography of Julius Caesar by Suetonius that mentions a comet was seen just after the assassination of Caesar in 44BC, which Seutonius believed was his soul rising to heaven. Shakespeare's lines reflected the cometary myths of his century. The stigma attached to comets continued during modern times. In 1910, the residents of Chicago prepared themselves for death from toxic gases from the tail of Halley's Comet

We have to look beyond the myths for the basis of their fears. Geologist discovered a crater in Yucatan caused when an asteroid struck and wiped out all the dinosaurs. Archaeologists have been taking serious notice of the theory that civilizations like the Mesopotamian and the Indus Valley civilization, could have declined or been destroyed due to comet impact. There is a possibility, however remote, that Comets may collide on our planet and wipe out life. Therefore, the fears of the ancients may not be entirely unfounded.