By Chi. Shreyas Ravi (taken from Sri Simham Issue 2)
Even in this progressive world, there are still some who believe the Earth is flat. However, even before the flat Earth theory was disproved, the Vedas clearly state that the Earth is spherical.
मध्ये समस्ताण्डस्य भूगोलो व्योम्नि तिष्ठति
In the midst of the Universe, the spherical Earth stays.
This verse from the Rig Veda uses the word भूगोल: instead of just भू:, which denotes the Earth. गोल: means ‘sphere’.
There are many more surprises in store, and this next example is no exception. This verse, also from the Rig Veda, proves two scientific theories simultaneously!
सविता यन्त्रैः पृथिवीमरम्णादस्कम्भने सविता द्यामदृंहत् । अश्वमिवाधुक्षद्धुनिमन्तरिक्षमतूर्ते बद्धं सविता समुद्रम् ॥
“The sun has tied Earth and other planets through attraction and moves them around itself as if a trainer moves newly trained horses around itself, holding their reins.”
The first above-mentioned theory concerns gravity. This verse likens gravitational force to a “trainer mov[ing] newly trained horses around itself”, an apt description of gravity. It also proclaims that the Sun itself is moving the other planets through attraction, proving that we knew about the heliocentric model of our solar system long before Copernicus and other Europeans did.
Another piece of evidence of the ancient Indians’ astronomical knowledge is this Rig Veda verse:
यत् त्वा सूर्य स्वर्भानुस्तमसाविध्यदासुर∶Ι
अक्षेत्रविद् यथा मुग्धो भुवनान्यदीधयुःΙΙ5ΙΙ Rig Veda 5.40.5
“O Sun! When you are blocked by the one whom you gifted your own light (moon), then the earth gets scared by sudden darkness.”
This shows that our elders were aware of how eclipses worked and, even more surprisingly, that the moon is not self-luminous! Although this finding is credited to Anaxagoras, a Greek Philosopher, we now know that our ancestors had known this information long before.
These astronomical discoveries are not limited to just the Vedas. There are even nuggets of information hidden inside the well-known Hanuman Chalisa!
“जुग सहस्त्र योजन पर भानु, लील्यो ताहिमधुर फल जानू”
The above excerpt loosely translates to: ‘[When] Hanuman travelled thousands of kilometres to swallow it (the sun), thinking of it as a fruit’. The word-for-word translation of the same excerpt reveals the exact distance that Hanuman travelled.
1 Yuga = 12000 years. 1 Sahsra Yuga = 12000000 years. Also, 1 Yojan = 8 miles.
Hence, “Yug Sahsra Yojana”, the first 3 words mean 12000*12000000*8 = 153,600,000 kilometres. Interestingly, the actual distance from Earth to the Sun is 152,000,000 km. Both of these values only have a difference of about 1%! This accuracy is very surprising indeed!
The fact that astronomical discoveries that we now know as commonplace have been known ever since the ancient era is simply astonishing!
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