124 



G. Thibaut — On the St'iryaprajnapti. 



[No. 3 



know of one sun only) moving round Meru. " The suii is stationed at all 

 times in the middle of the day {i. e., it is always midday at that place 

 above which the sun is) and over against midnight in all dvipas. In the 

 same manner rising and setting are at all times opposite to each other in 

 all the cardinal and intermediate points. When the sun becomes visible to 

 any people, to them he is said to rise, and wherever he disappears from the 

 view there his setting is said to take place. Of the sun whieli is always 

 (above the earth) there is neither setting nor rising ; his appearance and 

 disappearance are called his setting and rising."* 



The Suryaprajfiapti adds an interesting account of other views regard- 

 ing the sideway-motion (tiryag-gati) of the sun. According to some the 

 sun is not a divinity, but only a mass of rays which in the morning form 

 themselves in the East into a globular shape, pass sideways along this visible 

 world, and in the evening dissolve again in the West. This process repeats 

 itself daily. According to others the sun is the well-known divinity ; but 

 each morning he is born anew according to his nature in the ether in the 

 East (svabhavad akasa utpadyate), passes along this world and dissolves 

 (vidhvamsate) at evening in the ether in the West. According to others 

 the sun is the mighty everlasting god known from the Puranas ; in the 

 morning he rises in the East, passes over this world, and at evening sets in 

 the West ; from thence he returns below to the East, illuminating the parts 

 below. This — the commentator says — is the opinion of those who hold the 

 earth to be a globe ; it finds great favour at present among the tirthantari- 

 yas and is thoroughly to be studied in their Puranas. This opinion has 

 three sub-divisions. Some say the sun returning at daybreak from the 

 parts below rises in the etlier (akase) and sets in the ether ; others say he 

 rises or originates (uttishthati utpadyate) in the morning on the summit 

 of the mountain of rising (udaya-bhudhara-sirasi) and perishes (? vidhvam- 

 sate) in the evening on the summit of the mountain of setting (astamaya- 

 bhudhara-sirasi) ; this repeats itself daily. (But, if he " utpadyate" and 

 " vidhvamsate," how can he pass under the earth during the night ?). 

 Others say he rises in the morning on the mountain of rising and enters in 

 the evening into the mountain of setting, illuminates during the night the 

 subterraneous world and rises again from the mountain of rising. Others 

 say, he rises, that is, originates from the eastern ocean in the moi-ning, pe- 



• Mr. Fitz-Edward Hall (Wilson's Vishnu Purana, Vol. II, p. 242) directs 

 our attention to the " heliocentricism" taught in this passage. But clearly there is 

 no trace of heliocentricism to be found in it. He apparently is misled by the words 

 ^T^iT* : which he translates " of the sun which is always in one and the 

 same place." But this translation is quite untenable, since the Vishnu Purana most 

 unambiguously teaches the sun's revolution round Mount Meru. 



