Vedic Cosmography in a Modern Context: Virodha-parihāra Revisited

SYNOPSIS

The Fifth Canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (or Bhāgavata Purāṇa) describes an enormous structure called Bhū-maṇḍala, or “circle of the earth,” which depicts a nearly 4-billion-mile wide cosmic plane comprised of concentric rings, that bifurcates the universe. Without doubt, descriptions such as these offered in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa appear exceedingly different not only from modern astronomy, but from the ancient traditions of observable astronomy identified with either East or West. For example, on the Indian subcontinent, jyotiṣa brāhmaṇas intimately familiar with Vedic cultural traditions also worked with Sanskrit mathematics and astronomy. They were keenly aware of the apparent dichotomy between the esoteric cosmology offered in the Purāṇas and the exoteric visible universe whose accurate charting proved essential for numerous religious activities, all of which were also described in Vedic accounts.

This work will seek to clarify a variety of questions involving the apparent conflict between empirical astronomy and Purāṇic cosmography. The subtitle of this work, “Virodha-parihāra Revisited,” is a nod to a cultural tradition with roots drawing from the ancient world that attempted to reconcile observable accounts identified with Sanskrit mathematical astronomy located in jyotiṣa texts, with the apparently unobservable cosmic features described in literature such as the Purāṇas.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    _________________________________

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