The Vishnu Purana: Book II: Chapter VIII | Internet Sacred Text Archive

CHAP. VIII.

Description of the sun: his chariot; its two axles: his horses. The cities of the regents of the cardinal points. The sun's course: nature of his rays: his path along the ecliptic. Length of day and night. Divisions of time: equinoxes and solstices, months, years, the cyclical Yuga, or age of five years. Northern and southern declinations. Saints on the Lokáloka mountain. Celestial paths of the Pitris, gods, Vishńu. Origin of Gangá, and separation, on the top of Meru, into four great rivers.

PARÁŚARA.--Having thus described to you the system of the world in general, I will now explain to you the dimensions and situations of the sun and other luminaries.

The chariot of the sun is nine thousand leagues in length, and the pole is of twice that longitude 1; the axle is fifteen millions and seven hundred thousand leagues long 2; on which is fixed a wheel with three naves, five spokes, and six peripheries, consisting of the ever-during year; the whole constituting the circle or wheel of time 3. The chariot has another axle, which is forty-five thousand five hundred leagues long 4.

[paragraph continues] The two halves of the yoke are of the same length respectively as the two axles (the longer and the shorter). The short axle, with the short yoke, are supported by the pole-star: the end of the longer axle, to which the wheel of the car is attached, moves on the Mánasa mountain 5. The seven horses of the sun's car are the metres of the Vedas, Gáyatrí, Vrihatí, Ushńih, Jayatí, Trisht́ubh, Anusht́ubh, and Pankti.

The city of Indra is situated on the eastern side of the Mánasottara mountain; that of Yama on the southern face; that of Varuńa on the west; and that of Soma on the north: named severally Vaswokasárá, Samyamaní, Mukhyá, and Vibhávarí 6.

The glorious sun, Maitreya, darts like an arrow on his southern course, attended by the constellations of the Zodiac. He causes the difference between day and night, and is the divine vehicle and path of the sages who have overcome the inflictions of the world. Whilst the sun, who is the discriminator of all hours, shines in one continent in midday, in the opposite Dwípas, Maitreya, it will be midnight: rising and setting are at all seasons, and are always (relatively) opposed in the different cardinal and intermediate points of the horizon. When the sun becomes visible to any people, to them he is said to rise; when he disappears from their

view, that is called his setting. There is in truth neither rising nor setting of the sun, for he is always; and these terms merely imply his presence and his disappearance.