The egg-shaped earth or: more fun from Vedic science
Jacques Guy
Wherein you will learn that:
1. The Earth is egg-shaped.
2. Latitudes of places between the tropics
vary from place to place.
I found three books on Indian astrology on my shelves. Each
contains several examples of charts. One of them, "Astro
Sutras" by J.N. Bhasin, Sagar Publications, New Delhi, 1982,
has 52 charts in tabular form and several dozens more
scattered throughout the book in one of the several
traditional Indian formats. All those charts have one thing in
common: the exact positions of the Sun, Moon, planets, and
nodes are *never* given. The entire information they convey
consists of which planets etc appear in which signs.
Just for fun, here is the entire information out of my birth
chart, Indian-style:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
SA LA MA SU VE MO
RA ME KE
In which 1, 2, 3 etc = Aries, Taurus, Gemini; SA = Saturn,
RA = Rahu (north node), KE = Kethu (south node), LA = Lagna
(Ascendent), and the rest you can easily guess. That is how,
like J.N. Bhasin, you can pack 52 horoscopes in eight and a
half pages.
In one of those books, however, I found the instructions for
casting a horoscope, South-Indian style, and the results
of one's efforts, to one minute of arc of accuracy.
("Astrology for Everybody", Pandit Lakshmidoss, Balaji
Publications, Madras, 1982, pp.61-67). Here, then, is the
natal chart of a child born at 7:30, Indian Standard Time,
in Madras on November 1st 1980 (p.67):
deg min
Sun 195.16 i.e. 15.16 Libra
Moon 120.17 0.17 Leo
Mars 230.49 20.49 Scorpio
Mercury 200.45 20.45 Libra
Jupiter 157.26 7.26 Virgo
Venus 158.25 8.25 Virgo
Saturn 161.24 11.24 Virgo
Rahu 112.18 22.18 Cancer
Kethu 247.42 7.42 Sagittarius
Everything is roughly one sign off because this particular
variety of Indian astrology uses the fixed-star zodiac,
that is, it consider Aries to start at some fixed star in
the constellation of Aries, rather than at the vernal point.
To quote Pandit Lakshmidoss on this matter: "There are two
methods [known] as Sayana and Nirayana which means moving and
fixed point of Aries. The difference between them is known
as Ayanamsa. It varies from 19 to 24 degrees. For practical
purposes it can be taken as 23 or 24." (Wonderful, wonderful
Vedic accuracy!). So let us add 24 degrees to everything:
Sun 9.16 Scorpio
Moon 24.17 Leo
Mars 14.49 Sagittarius
Mercury 14.45 Scorpio
Jupiter 1.26 Libra
Venus 2.25 Libra
Saturn 5.24 Libra
Rahu 16.18 Leo
Kethu 1.42 Capricorn
Rather more like it, isn't it? You now understand why Western
science can be 90 minutes off predicting an eclipse. In our
crass ignorance, we do not allow the south node of the moon
to wander independently of the north node. Western science
would do well indeed to model itself after Ancient Vedic
Wisdom, of which I excerpt a few pearls for you out of
Pandit Lakshmidoss's "Astrology for Everybody":
"The line CD is the tropic of cancer and the line EF [the]
tropic of capricorn. The belt between these two lines is
[the] torrid zone. The latitudes of places in this zone
vary from place to place" (pp.24-25)
Am I glad I do not live in that torrid zone! It must be
awfully confusing when the latitudes of places vary from
place to place!
I learnt things I never knew about the shape of the earth:
p.24: "Earth is not a perfect circular round ball but more
a sphere slightly flattened at the poles." (I knew that)
p.33: " The earth is not a complete sp[h]erical circular
but somewhat egg shaped." (I didn't know that)
Put the two together and your mind boggles -- like the
spinning egg-shaped Earth. The egg-shaped Earth might explain
why the apparent path of the sun bobs up and down once
a month (which I did not know either):
p.31: "The sun in his motion on the ecliptical crosses
the celestial equator from south to north. That point is
called the first point of Aries and the other Taurus etc."
Ahren Reed
Um, no it's not. "Egg shaped" implies that it is longer than it
is tall. The Earth--according to my Astronomy textbook--is more
PEAR shaped. We live on a spinning liquid in a vacuum. It is wider
at the equator than a "perfect sphere" would be, slightly narrower
at the top, and slightly wider at the bottom, in reference thereto.
--Ahren
Ahren Reed
HF....@forsythe.stanford.edu (Ahren Reed) writes:
>> 1. The Earth is egg shaped.
>
>
> Um, no it's not. "Egg shaped" implies that it is longer than it
>is tall.
>
(Please forgive me, I got up at 4:30am.) I meant that
"egg shaped" implies something that is thinner about the
equator, (horizontal circumference,) and taller on a meridian,
(vertical circumference,) than a perfect sphere of equal volume.
--Ahren
Monee C. Kidd
In a previous note, j...@tardis.trl.OZ.AU (Jacques Guy) writes very
eloquently about Vedic astrology. I think most will agree that his
explanation was clear and conscise with examples to back him up. Even I
understood it! Jai, take note.
--
"It's a dog eat dog world out there - and I'm wearing Milkbone underwear"
-Norm Peterson
~~~mc kidd~~~
~ cr...@cleveland.Freenet.Edu ~ kid...@wilma.wharton.upenn.edu ~