Astronomy Seminar 4

VIHE Seminar: Towaco, NJ - c. 1990 / (208)

Thompson demonstrates that the term translated from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as “planetary height,” corresponds well with “orbital inclination,” a term used in Western astronomy. He then considers how the image of a subway map could prove useful for appreciating various descriptions of Bhū-maṇḍala: the marked stops of a subway map could correspond to geographic features, and likewise, the pathways in between do not always represent a straight line. After further discussion of the similarities found in various ancient accounts, including the Vedic tradition, Thompson concludes, “The naive dismissal of the Purāṇic cosmology given by modern scholars is not really valid.”