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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.