CHAPTER XXVI.                              267

and the conditions of the planets and of their rotations
would be quite different from what they are.

"The position of the earth is central. Half of it is
clay, half water. Mount Meru is in the dry half, the
home of the Deva, the angels, and above it is the pole.
In the other half, which is covered by water, lies Vada¬
vamukha, under the south pole, a continent like an
island, inhabited by the Daitya and Naga, relatives of
the Deva on Meru. Therefore it is also called Dait-
yantara,

"The line which divides the two earth-halves, the
dry and the wet, from each other, is called Niraksha, i.e.
having no latitude, being identical with our equator. In
the four cardinal directions with relation to this line
there are four great cities :—

Yamakoti, in the east.            I     Eomaka, in the west.

Laiika, in the south.               |      Siddhapura, in the north.

" The earth is fastened on the two poles, and held by
the axis. When the sun rises over the line which
passes both through Meru and Lanka, that moment is
noon to Yamakoti, midnight to the Greeks, and evening
to Siddhapura."

In the same manner things are represented by Arya¬
bhata,

Brahmagupta, the son of Jishnu, a native of Bhilla- Quotation
mala, says in his Brahmasiddhdnta:  " Many are the BraUmasid-

(.              T        T               IT                f,    ,                1                .   ,,      dhdnta of

sayings ot people about the shape oi the earth, specially B.ahma-
among those who study the Puranas and the religious
books. Some say that it is level like a mirror, others Page 134.
say that it is hollow like a bowl. Others maintain that
it is level like a mirror, inclosed by a sea, this sea being
inclosed by an earth, this earth being inclosed by a sea,
&c., all of them being round like collars. Each sea
or earth has the double size of that which it incloses.
The outside earth is sixty-four times as large as the
central earth, and the sea inclosing the outside earth is