The Hindu Temple v1.c5.s2.1

v1.c5.s2.1

The earth is round. The Brāhmaṇas repeatedly say that the whole earth, once floating and mobile remained in this condition until the cardinal points, becoming fixed themselves, also fixed the earth. In its fixed position it is spoken of as four-cornered (caturbhṛṣṭi; RV. X. 58. 3) or four pointed (catussrakti, Ś.B. VI. 1. 2. 29). These points are where heaven and earth seem to meet, where the sun appears to rise and set; East and West, and the other cardinal points complete the square. The earth, in its contact with heaven of which the sky is the figure, is kept in position by this contact, by the regular appearance and disappearance of the sun, at these points, which are the seal on the marriage of heaven and earth then contracted. The four cardinal points, the four orients, are beheld periodically and become known as perpetually recurring, permanent in a cyclical sense, by which the days are measured and time. In Indian symbolism, the earth, fixed and ruled over by time, is known as, and correspondingly drawn as, four-cornered, each side of the square ruled over by the regent of the cardinal point situated at its middle. Whereas the earth, as the surface of this world which supports the movements and weight of our bodies, is round, the earth held in the embrace of the sky and subject to its laws is represented as fixed four-fold. The Pṛthivī-maṇḍala, therefore, is a square maṇḍala or cakra (‘Vāstuvidhāna’, 1. c.).