Astronomy in ViSNupurANa

[Paul (Kekai) Manansala]

On Fri, 27 Feb 1998, DEVARAKONDA VENKATA NARAYANA SARMA wrote:

> At 09:14 PM 2/26/98 +0500, I wrote:
> >parAzarA is supposed to be one of the famous ancient astronomers.
> >But in viSNupurANa he appears to believe that the Sun in addition to  going
> >round the zodaic once in an year, goes round the zodaic once
> >in a day also as can be seen from the following verses in viSNupurANa.
> >
> >        ahOrAtrENa yO bhuKktE samastA rAzayO dvija  2.45.(2)
> >        SaDEva rAzIn yO bhuKktE rAtrAvanyAJsca SaDdivA 2.46(1)
> >
> >But this could have been easily found to be incorrect by the observation
> >at the time of a total solar eclipse.
> >
> >Thank you in advance for any elucidation of this.
> >
> >regards,
> >
> >sarma.
> >
>
> The sloka numbers are given wrongly. They should be
>
>          ahOrAtrENa yO bhuKktE samastA rAzayO dvija  2.8.45.(2)
>          SaDEva rAzIn yO bhuKktE rAtrAvanyAJsca SaDdivA 2.8.46(1)
>
> Observation of the stars just after sunset also should convince one
> that Sun does not go round the zodiac daily.

Possibly it means the Sun goes around with the zodiac daily?
Of course, this is also not quite correct as the Sun moves about
a degree from one sunrise/sunset to another.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala