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Review of Virodhamardanam

By

Sri Sri Vishwanandana Thirtha Swamiji

An astrologer by name Yajnesvara has composed a work by nameVirudhamardanam is about seventy stanzas. He has also commented on this

work himself. His motto is to remove the contradictions between astrology

and Puranas regarding cosmology. He has dealt with three aspects size

!. "ize of the earth.

#. "hape the earth

$. %unar and solar eclipses.

At the outset& he mentions that this world is an illusion' (othing is

realistic. "o& there is actually no necessity to clear any )ontradiction. *ut&

yet it is useful is attempting to remove the apparent contradictions +(ote that

this is purely a ,-ayaVadins view& which the followers of /vaita school of

philosophy never accept0.

As regarding the size of the earth& he observes that the size mentioned in

Puranas is very much greater than the size mentioned in Antilogy. 1hereas

the Purayas give figure in %acks of Yojanas& the figure given by

suryasiddhanta in only a few thousand yojanas. 2he way he tries to

reconcile the two is as follows3 the astrologers have confined themselves to

the visible earth. Actually& earth e4tends to much more space. 5ust becausewe are unable to perceive these parts of the earth& it is not correct on our part

to deny those parts. 6f the modern discovers go beyond the Polar 7egions

without changing the direction& they would certainly reach those lands. *ut&

unfortunately they are unable to cross the polar regions.

2his solver the second contradiction also. 2he visible smaller earth is

spherical where as the Puranik bigger earth is flat. 2he author staunchly

supports the astrologer view that the earth is global. *ut it is funny that he

tries to e4plain certain anomalies like the sun appearing on our head during

mid8day assuming that the earth is flat. He also observes that the astrologer

have made certain assumption for the purpose of calculation. 2hey conceive

three spheres size. 2erestial sphere& cosmic sphere and celestial sphere. 6t is

possible that people on other parts of the bigger earth will also have their

own astrological calculation suiting to their own confined smaller earth. "o

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it is not night on our part to deny the Puranik version which is gives by sage

Vyasa who is an incarnation of %ord Visnu.

Another topic dealt with by the author is how the earth is being held in

space. 2he moderners feel that it is the gravitational force between the sun

and the earth that is responsible for the stay of earth in its own orbit. 2he

author says that instead of accepting a number of such force between

different planets and sun& it is better to accept one divine force supporting all

the planets including the earth and the sun. 2he modern astrologists say that

the earth is going around the sun and the moon is in turn going around the

earth. 2he author has not give any satisfactory e4planation supporting the

Puranik view and refuting the scientists view.

As far eclipses he remarks that we need not necessarily accept that the

eclipse are caused by moon coming is between sun and earth + solar eclipse0or the earth shadowing the moon +lunar eclipse0. 1e have an alternative

e4planation based on 7ahu and 9etu theory. /rawing our attention to the

differences in sizes it 7ahu and moon& he says that although the actual size

are different& the size of 7ahu projected on lunar orbit would match with the

size of the moon. He does not e4plain how this is the fact.

(ote (either sheshagiri 7ao of -ysore& who has gone through of this

te4t nor 6 are satisfied with the arguments placed forward in

virodhamardanam.

6 personally fed that neither the scientist nor the traditional Puranic

scholars would accept his arguments.