Dear Matthew,

Thanks. It’s certainly possible that the author of my source misunderstood the opinion he paraphrases and took “cart-shaped” to refer to the entire earth, whereas only a portion of the earth was intended.

In Hindu cosmography, Jambudvīpa refers to a circular continent surrounded by annular oceans and continents. Since the author rejects that the earth is cart-shaped, it’s possibly a refutation of a Buddhist idea.

The triangular or trapezoidal shape in the Buddhist sources you refer to agrees with the drawing in the Śilpa-prakāśa manuscript. I’m not sure where Bose got “quadrangular, with a long triangular projection on one side” from.

This begs the question, of course, of whether carts in ancient India were generally trapezoidal-shaped?

Best wishes,
Toke



> On Apr 5, 2018, at 13:15, Matthew Kapstein <mkapstei@uchicago.edu> wrote:
>
> Dear Toke.
>
> I've never seen this referring to "the earth." But  in Buddhist sources frequently to the triangular or trapezoidal shape attributed to Jambudvīpa, the southern continent.
>
> best,
> Matthew
>
> Matthew Kapstein
> EPHE
>
> Get Outlook for Android
>

> From: INDOLOGY <indology-bounces@list.indology.info> on behalf of Toke Lindegaard Knudsen via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info>
> Sent: Thursday, April 5, 2018 12:53:40 PM
> To: Indology
> Subject: [INDOLOGY] Cart-shaped, śakaṭākāra
>
> Hi all,
>
> In a passage of interest to me, the author attributes to “some” the idea that the earth resembles or is shaped like a cart (bhuvam … śakaṭākārām). I’m trying to understand (1) what precisely is understood by “cart-shaped” (śakaṭākāra or śakaṭākṛti) and (2) how the earth can have the shape of a cart.
>
> In Phanindra Nath Bose’s _Principles of Indian Silpasastra_ from 1926, śakaṭākṛti is explained (p. 75) as, “cart-shaped or quadrangular, with a long triangular projection on one side.”
>
> In the Śilpa-prakāśa (Alice Boner and Sadāśiva Rath Śarmā’s edition, translation, and study, second revised edition, 2005), a list of shapes of building sites is given. One such shape is śakaṭākṛti (verse 1.39), which is translated as “a tapering bullock-cart (śakaṭākṛti kuñcita).” The book contains facsimiles of the palm leaf pages of a manuscript, which includes drawings to illustrate the building-site shapes (plate I). The drawing of the cart-shaped building site doesn’t look like what Bose describes (see above), but rather looks like an isosceles trapezoid.
>
> I also found that “cart-shaped” is included in a list of possible shapes of the sacred śālagrāma stones. This particular shape is undesirable.
>
> Would any of you have any clues or thoughts on which geometrical figure (or figures) “cart-shaped” refers to? Or further references in this regard?
>
> Best wishes,
> Toke
>
> -----
> Toke Lindegaard Knudsen, Ph.D.
>
> Associate Professor and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow
> Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies
> University of Copenhagen
>
> <toke.knudsen@hum.ku.dk>
> _______________________________________________
> INDOLOGY mailing list
> INDOLOGY@list.indology.info
> indology-owner@list.indology.info (messages to the list's managing committee)
> http://listinfo.indology.info (where you can change your list options or unsubscribe)
_______________________________________________
INDOLOGY mailing list
INDOLOGY@list.indology.info
indology-owner@list.indology.info (messages to the list's managing committee)
http://listinfo.indology.info (where you can change your list options or unsubscribe)