History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c82.161

v6.c82.161

Even so early as the Ait. Br.⁷³⁷ Vedic Indians had arrived at the conclusion that the Sun was one and never sets. 'This Sun indeed never sets nor rises. When people think that he (the Sun) sets what happens is he reaches the end of the day, reverses himself, creates night below and day above When people think that he rises in the morning, that means that having reached the end of the night he reverses himself, makes day below and night above. He indeed never sets'. This is in very interesting contrast to the Jaina view in Sūryaprajñapti of two suns and two moons or the view of Heraclitus in Greece (6th century B C.) that a new sun was born and died every day (Eisler p. 42.)