THE COSMOLOGY OF ANGKOR (Featuring gist of brilliant articles by Subhash Kak) Neither being (sat) nor non-being was as yet. What was concealed? And where? And in whose protection?…Who really knows? Who can declare it? Whence was it born, and whence came this creation? The devas (gods) were born later than this world's creation, so who knows from where it came into existence? None can know from where creation has arisen, and whether he has or has not produced it. He who surveys it in the highest heavens, He alone knows or perhaps He does not know." — Rig Veda 10. 129 Connecting the universal with the physical, Angkor Wat, as a moon temple, is a surrealist impression of the link between the individual and universal worlds. It is an artistic embodiment of the patterns of destiny; and the geometric and mathematical knowledge employed are a product of Vedic Astrology and Hindu Cosmology. The cultural significance of the monument cannot be understated. Angkor Wat is a prime example of traditional Khmer 12th century building techniques. It is the world's largest temple, a world heritage site and the best preserved Khmer temple in the Angkor complex. Arising  from the dense jungle in Northwest Cambodia to touch the setting sun over a vast expanse, it is an awe-inspiring vision that captivates the viewer and prepares the mind for a transcendent experience. The complex layout was designed to mark the passing of time, as a place of pilgrimage, a path to purification, and a place to contemplate the meaning of life. It is an expression of grandeur which helped solidify Khmer cultural dominance over the area. Using the elements and natural order of life to mirror cosmic and societal ideologies, Angkor Wat`s design speaks to the original questions of our creation and place in the cosmos.   From its very inception Angkor Wat was legendary.  It was built in an estimated 37 years. Builders today estimate that by current standards, it would take almost 300 years to complete a project of this scale.  The world heritage site was commissioned sometime between 1100 and 1150 CE, by King Suryavarman II (Shield of the Sun) of the Khmer Empire, after military victories that united neighboring areas. The  immense 5 million tons of sandstone used, was quarried from one spot 25 miles away. Angkor Wat was built as the Khmer capital and lies 5.5 kilometres north Siem Reap. It was dedicated to the Hindu protector god Vishnu. Workers were brought in from the surrounding areas, and,  as well combination of elephants, coir ropes, pulleys and bamboo scaffolding were used to ensure the temple would be completed in record time. The monument and surrounding landscaping are dramatic enough to make a footprint visible from space. Few written records survive of the people who built it. We aren't even sure about its original name. The  information available from the temple reliefs at Angkor Wat offer the best available insight into the culture and time period, almost like an art and engineering time capsule for the 12th century Khmer civilization.   The city of Angkor was a prosperous city of approximately 1,000,000 people. It had a complex irrigation system, paved roads and beautiful wooden buildings. The kingdom could support a huge population with surplus bounty. There was an extensive rectangular grid system of canals carved across the landscape, improving agricultural yields to  2 to 3 times a year. Communication was an important aspect to the Khmer's regional domination and a sophisticated network of roads lead from across the kingdom directly to Angkor.   Angkor Wat “was at once the symbolic centre of the nation and the actual centre where secular and sacred power joined forces,” Eleanor Mannikka writes in her book Angkor: Celestial Temples of the Khmer Empire. She continues “In the central sanctuary, Vishnu is not only placed at the latitude of Angkor Wat, he is also placed along the axis of the earth.” She points out the Khmer knew the earth was round. This was mapped astrologically in the Vedic tradition. The Vedic religion came from the Indo-Aryans of northern India. It is the predecessor of Hinduism, the main religion in the Khmer culture. Angkor Wat sits at the centre of the Khmer universe, marking at least eighteen astronomical alignments. The central spire points perfectly to the sun on the vernal equinox, or zero point of the Sun's path across the sky. It functions as a calendar. The solar year divides into four major sections by alignments from inside the entrance. "as the measurements of solar and lunar time cycles were built into the sacred space of Angkor Wat, this divine mandate to rule was anchored to consecrated chambers and corridors meant to perpetuate the king's power and to honor and placate the deities manifest in the heavens above."   Set on an east-west axis, along a straight causeway that extends into the horizon, the structure was built in very grand terms. The faced oriented structure dictates a precise route for a processional walk. The building only reveals itself as you progress along the route. One passes through the adorned post and lintel gopuras located at the cardinal points, to the concentric series of walls, through the four courtyards lined by cruciform galleries, to the quincunx shaped sanctuary. Vishnu is thought to reside under the central spire where the vertical axis of the buildings are centred, know as the sacred cave. Half galleries buttress the temple as Angkorian architects have yet to discover the true arch. The corbeled arch without mortar was used, which could not span wide spaces adding to the need for the concentric walls. Some of the blocks are fastened by mortise and tenon joints.   The buildings along the route are placed axially according to their hierarchy of importance. This mirrors the social order of the Hindu demigod-king tradition. The linga and yoni shaped spire and bases that the temple represents is a rapturous union between male and female evoking Shatapatha cosmology of the union between the individual and the universal, which is the goal of Hinduism. The spire is adorned with lotus flowers. Stories state the lotus arose from Vishnu’s navel, with Brahma the creator at the centre. There are accounts of the world born through a "Golden Lotus" and Padmakalpa, the Lotus Age in the Padmapurana (678 ce). "Hindu texts describe that water represents the procreative aspect of the Absolute, and the cosmic lotus, the generative." As an artistic representation of the Hindu concept of the cosmos, the moat symbolizes the oceans. The temple is Mount Meru. The verandas leading to the sanctum are continents. “The constant upward movement of the building from one gallery to the next represents the spiritual path of a human being. The final destination is the sanctum sanctorum where one comes face to face with divinity." The stone materials used for the Angkor monuments are made from sandstone and laterite. This  was a common choice for Khmer architects for a temple material. It is fairly weather resistant  and easy to work with. "Grey to yellowish-brown sandstone, consisting mainly of quartz, plagioclase, alkali feldspar, biotite, muscovite and rock fragments, is the main sandstone used for almost of the monuments in the surrounding area. As for laterite, two types can be distinguished: porous laterite and pisolitic laterite. Types of laterite consist of the same minerals: kaolinite, quartz, hematite and goethite. However, the sandstone blocks of Angkor Wat show a homogeneous magnetic susceptibility despite the large scale. This may suggest that the sandstone blocks were supplied from one quarry keeping its consistency." According to metaphysical mythology, sandstone enhances creativity, helps bring people together, promotes truth, clarity, balance and facilitates energy flow. It removes abrasiveness while encouraging compassion. Laterite, a soft clay that hardens, was used in the hidden structural parts and  for the outer wall. The surface of laterite is uneven, thus unsuitable for decorative carvings, so it is dressed with stucco. This stone has a higher concentration of magnetism, because it contains a high percentage of iron. "Hindus once believed that the use of iron in buildings would spread epidemics." It is still unlucky today although it was used and worn in magical protective rituals. Its associated stones are quartz and holey stones such as the lingam. Quartz is also known as the star stone, while Hematite was the blood stone. All have been ascribed protective properties.  “Aspects of the cosmos are incorporated into the temple by the use of specific forms, sacred geometry, careful orientation and axial alignments.”   Angkor Wat is built on a grid like subdivided-square mandala pattern. The square shape being a symbol for the earthly realm, while the circle represents the heavens. Yantric buildings in the form of mandalas, dated to about 2000 BCE, have been discovered in North Afghanistan that belong to a period that corresponds to the late stage of the Harappan tradition “Numbers associated with the gods are important in constructing and interpreting the mandala which provides link to divine proportions, hence harmony with the cosmos." It is likely that the astronomical basis of the Stupa was inspired by the Vedic altar that represented the circuit of the sun. It has been shown elsewhere how this representation of the sun's motion remained common knowledge and it was used in Angkor Wat."   In Vedic Astrology the sun's movements are marked against the backdrop of constellations, which are of unequal distance. The earth, as an imperfect sphere experiences pole shifts every "Great Year" or processional age which occurs every 2,160 years. According to Graham Hancock and precise computer mapping, the area around Angkor Wat is part of an “Angkor-Draco” alignment and is a “symbolic diagram of the universe”. There are several temples that line up to reflect the early beacon point. When the Rig Vedas were thought to be conceived, the Pole Star was Draconis, meaning the point at which the Sun returns to has changed since the beginning of time. Knowing the exact date when the point of the vernal equinox and the sidereal zodiac meet is knowing the date of the birth of the universe. Angkor Wat marks the passing of these events and is an excellent place from which to observe the solar system. Perhaps the temple monks were using Angkor Wat to map the changes in order to help calculate this sacred date.   The Rig Vedas offer insight into the answer with the four ages of man or yugas.  These periods follow the rise and decent of man and last 1,728,000 years; 1,296,000 years; 864,000 years; and 432,000 years respectively. Angkor Wat`s causeway has axial lengths that approximate extremely closely to 1,728 hat, 1,296 hat, 864 hat, and 432 hat – the yuga lengths scaled down by 1000. The temple dimensions are based on the hat or Cambodian cubit measurement unit. In the central sanctuary, the sets of steps are approximately 12 hat apart, like the 12 lunar mansions, or annual months. The length and width of the central tower add up to approximately 91 hat. On average, there are 91 days between any solstice and the next equinox, or any equinox and the next solstice. The yugas are represented in the moat water level, and various distances.   As an example of one of the many stunning carved scenes, the continuous series of relief's in the third gallery take you through the four seasons. Entrance to this space was based on a hierarchy of importance. On the East wall the creation scene is symbolic of the renewal of spring, the bright summer, the west has a great battle as the autumn decline, followed by the dormancy or the lifeless winter. As the sun passes through its annual round, it lights parts of scene. The first light of the year shines on the creation story of the Churning of the Ocean of Milk and the creation of the elixir of immortality. At the Fall equinox, the battle of Kurukshtra is hit by the setting sun. In the dry season, the north gallery is dark, the relief's on the south gallery are lit of the kingdom of death.   Measuring the impermanence of time, Angkor Wat is a literal and artistic expression of walking a path to purification toward transmigration of the soul, the cyclical nature of time, and the law of natural order, cause and effect. Angkor Wat serves as tool for mapping of Vedic destiny and sacred geometry. It directs us along a path which can deliver us from unhappiness, even if simply to bask in its splendor. Through hard work and spiritual purification as well as the veneration of all living creatures can one attain the elixir of immortality or changeless state.  It attempts to convey a message to about the human connection with the infinite. Knowing ones place in the world both spiritually, materially and in the Khmer kingdom can save a lot of suffering and increase ones karmic sphere. As an transcendent experience, a place to train the soul for life after death, a place to increase the prestige of the Khmer Dynasty and home for monks teaching about the mechanisms of change over time, Angkor Wat has expanded the imagination of visitors and views alike.1 Hindu The Hindu cosmology, like the Buddhist and Jain cosmology, considers all existence as cyclic. With its ancient roots, Hindu texts propose and discuss numerous cosmological theories. Hindu culture accepts this diversity in cosmological ideas and has lacked a single mandatory view point even in its oldest known Vedic scripture, the Rigveda. Alternate theories include a universe cyclically created and destroyed by god, or goddess, or no creator at all, or a golden egg or womb (Hiranyagarbha), or self-created multitude of universes with enormous lengths and time scales. The Vedic literature includes a number of cosmology speculations, one of which questions the origin of the cosmos and is called the Nasadiya sukta: Neither being (sat) nor non-being was as yet. What was concealed? And where? And in whose protection?…Who really knows? Who can declare it? Whence was it born, and whence came this creation? The devas (gods) were born later than this world's creation, so who knows from where it came into existence? None can know from where creation has arisen, and whether he has or has not produced it. He who surveys it in the highest heavens, He alone knows or perhaps He does not know." — Rig Veda 10. 129 Time is conceptualized as a cyclic Yuga with trillions of years. In some models, Mount Meru plays a central role. Beyond its creation, Hindu cosmology posits divergent theories on the structure of the universe, from being 3 lokas to 12 lokas (worlds) which play a part in its theories about rebirth, samsara and karma. The complex cosmological speculations found in Hinduism and other Indian religions, states Bolton, is not unique and are also found in Greek, Roman, Irish and Babylonian mythologies, where each age becomes more sinful and of suffering. Philosophy of Cosmology Cosmology (the study of the physical universe) is a science that, due to both theoretical and observational developments, has made enormous strides in the past 100 years. It began as a branch of theoretical physics through Einstein’s 1917 static model of the universe (Einstein 1917) and was developed in its early days particularly through the work of Lemaître (1927).[1] As recently as 1960, cosmology was widely regarded as a branch of philosophy. It has transitioned to an extremely active area of mainstream physics and astronomy, particularly due to the application to the early universe of atomic and nuclear physics, on the one hand, and to a flood of data coming in from telescopes operating across the entire electromagnetic spectrum on the other. However, there are two main issues that make the philosophy of cosmology unlike that of any other science. The first is, The uniqueness of the Universe: there exists only one universe, so there is nothing else similar to compare it with, and the idea of “Laws of the universe” hardly makes sense. This means it is the historical science par excellence: it deals with only one unique object that is the only member of its class that exists physically; indeed there is no non-trivial class of such objects (except in theoreticians’ minds) precisely for this reason. This issue will recur throughout this discussion. The second is Cosmology deals with the physical situation that is the context in the large for human existence: the universe has such a nature that our life is possible. This means that although it is a physical science, it is of particular importance in terms of its implications for human life. This leads to important issues about the explanatory scope of cosmology, which we return to at the end. Cosmology’s Standard Model Physical cosmology has achieved a consensus Standard Model (SM), based on extending the local physics governing gravity and the other forces to describe the overall structure of the universe and its evolution. According to the SM, the universe has evolved from an extremely high temperature early state, by expanding, cooling, and developing structures at various scales, such as galaxies and stars. This model is based on bold extrapolations of existing theories—applying general relativity, for example, at length scales 14 orders of magnitude larger than the those at which it has been tested—and requires several novel ingredients, such as dark matter and dark energy. The last few decades have been a golden age of physical cosmology, as the SM has been developed in rich detail and substantiated by compatibility with a growing body of observations. But what was the situation of knowledge at the time of The Kings of Angkor who were DEVRAJAS? Multiverse The multiverse response replaces a single, apparently finely-tuned universe within an ensemble of universes, combined with an appeal to anthropic selection. Suppose that all possible values of the fundamental constants are realized in individual elements of the ensemble. Many of these universes will be inhospitable to life. In calculating the probabilities that we observe specific values of the fundamental constants, we need only consider the subset of universe compatible with the existence of complexity (or some more specific feature associated with life). If we have some way of assigning probabilities over the ensemble, we could then calculate the probability associated with our measured values. These calculations will resolve the fine-tuning puzzles if they show that we observe typical values for a complex (or life-permitting) universe. Many cosmologists have argued in favor of a specific version of the multiverse called eternal inflation (EI).[51] On this view, the rapid expansion hypothesized by inflationary cosmology continues until arbitrarily late times in some regions, and comes to an end (with a transition to slower expansion) in others. This leads to a global structure of “pocket” universes embedded within a larger multiverse. On this line of thought, the multiverse should be accepted for the same reason we accept many claims about what we cannot directly observe—namely, as an inevitable consequence of an established physical theory. It is not clear, however, that EI is inevitable, as not all inflationary models, arguably including those favored by CMB observations, have the kind of potential that leads to EI. Accounts of how inflation leads to EI rely on speculative physics.[53] Furthermore, if inflation does lead to EI, that threatens to undermine the original reasons for accepting inflation (Smeenk 2014): rather than the predictions regarding the state produced at the end of inflation taken to provide evidence for inflation, EI seems to imply that, as Guth (2007) put it, in EI “anything that can happen will happen; in fact, it will happen an infinite number of times”. There have been two distinct approaches to recovering some empirical content in this situation.[54] First, there may be traces of the early formation of the pocket universes, the remnants of collisions between neighboring “bubbles”, left on the CMB sky (Aguirre & Johnson 2011). Detection of a distinctive signature that cannot be explained by other means would provide evidence for the multiverse. However, there is no expectation that a multiverse theory would generically predict such traces; for example, if the collision occurs too early the imprint is erased by subsequent inflationary expansion. The other approach regards predictions for the fundamental constants, such as Weinberg’s prediction of ΛΛ discussed above. The process of forming the pocket universes is assumed to yield variation in the local, low-energy physics in each pocket. Predictions for the values of the fundamental constants follow from two things: (1) a specification of the probabilities for different values of the constant over the ensemble, and (2) a treatment of the selection effect imposed by restricting consideration to pocket universes with observers and then choosing a “typical” observer.The aim is to obtain probabilistic predictions for what a typical observer should see in the EI multiverse. Yet there are several challenges to overcome, alongside those mentioned above related to anthropics. The assumption that the formation of pocket universes leads to variation in constants is just an assumption, which is not yet justified by a plausible, well-tested dynamical theory. The most widely discussed challenge in the physics literature is the “measure problem”: roughly, how to assign “size” to different regions of the multiverse, as a first step towards assigning probabilities. It is difficult to define a measure because the EI multiverse is usually taken to be an infinite ensemble, lacking in the kinds of structure used in constructing a measure. On our view, these unmet challenges undercut the hope that the EI multiverse yields probabilistic predictions. And without such an account, the multiverse proposal does not have any testable consequences. If everything happens somewhere in the ensemble, then any potential observation is compatible with the theory. Supposing that we grant a successful resolution of all these challenges, the merits of a multiverse solution of fine-tuning problems could then be evaluated by comparison with competing ideas. The most widely cited evidence in favor of a multiverse is Weinberg’s prediction for the value of ΛΛ, discussed above. There are other proposals to explain the observed value of ΛΛ; Wang, Zhu, and Unruh (2017), for example, treat the quantum vacuum as extremely inhomogeneous, and argue that resonance among the vacuum fluctuations leads to a small ΛΛ. The unease many have about multiverse proposals are only reinforced by the liberal appeals to “infinities” in discussion of the idea.[55] Many have argued, for example, that we must formulate an account of anthropic reasoning that applies to a truly infinite, rather than merely very large, universe. Claims that we occupy one of infinitely many possible pocket universes, filled with an infinity of other observers, rest on an enormous and speculative extrapolation. Such claims fail to take seriously the concept of infinity, which is not merely a large number. Hilbert (1925 [1983]) emphasized that while infinity is required to complete mathematics, it does not occur anywhere in the accessible physical universe. One response is to require that infinities in cosmology should have a restricted use. It may be useful to introduce infinity as part of an explanatory account of some aspect of cosmology, as is common practice in mathematical models that introduce various idealizations. Yet this infinity should be eliminable, such that the explanation of the phenomena remains valid when the idealization is removed. Even for those who regard this demand as too stringent, there certainly needs to be more care in clarifying and justifying claims regarding infinities. In sum, interest in the multiverse stems primarily from speculations about the consequences of inflation for the global structure of the universe. The main points of debate regard whether EI is a disaster for inflation, undermining the possibility of testing inflation at all, and how much predictions such as that for ΛΛ lend credence to these speculations. Resolution of these questions is needed to decide whether the multiverse can be tested in a stronger sense, going beyond the special cases (such as bubble collisions) that may provide more direct evidence. Buddhist cosmology  In Buddhism, like other Indian religions, there is no ultimate beginning nor final end to the universe. It considers all existence as eternal, and believes there is no creator god.[7][8] Buddhism views the universe as impermanent and always in flux. This cosmology is the foundation of its Samsara theory, that evolved over time the mechanistic details on how the wheel of mundane existence works over the endless cycles of rebirth and redeath. In early Buddhist traditions, Saṃsāra cosmology consisted of five realms through which wheel of existence recycled. This included hells (niraya), hungry ghosts (pretas), animals (tiryak), humans (manushya), and gods (devas, heavenly). In latter traditions, this list grew to a list of six realms of rebirth, adding demi-gods (asuras). The "hungry ghost, heavenly, hellish realms" respectively formulate the ritual, literary and moral spheres of many contemporary Buddhist traditions. According to Akira Sadakata, the Buddhist cosmology is far more complex and uses extraordinarily larger numbers than those found in Vedic and post-Vedic Hindu traditions. It also shares many ideas and concepts, such as those about Mount Meru. The Buddhist thought holds that the six cosmological realms are interconnected, and everyone cycles life after life, through these realms, because of a combination of ignorance, desires and purposeful karma, or ethical and unethical actions. Jain Jain cosmology Jain cosmology considers the loka, or universe, as an uncreated entity, existing since infinity, having no beginning or an end. Jain texts describe the shape of the universe as similar to a man standing with legs apart and arm resting on his waist. This Universe, according to Jainism, is narrow at the top, broad at the middle and once again becomes broad at the bottom. Mahāpurāṇa of Ācārya Jinasena is famous for this quote: Some foolish men declare that a creator made the world. The doctrine that the world was created is ill advised and should be rejected. If God created the world, where was he before the creation? If you say he was transcendent then and needed no support, where is he now? How could God have made this world without any raw material? If you say that he made this first, and then the world, you are faced with an endless regression. Photo courtesy of www.andybrouwer.co.uk Background: One of the most spectacular structures of astronomical significance that has ever been built is the temple of Angkor Wat in what is now Cambodia. Rarely in history has any culture given rise to a structure that so elaborately and expansively incorporates its concept of the cosmos. Angkor Wat stands as a striking and majestic monument in honor of the Universe and our place in it. Angkor Wat is the most famous temple at Angkor, a former capital of the Khmer empire. It was built by King Suryavarman II in the 12th century, and is as immense as it is beautiful. Surrounded by a rectangular moat 1.5 kilometers (0.9 mile) long and 1.3 kilometers (0.8 mile) wide, the structure itself consists of two rectangular walls enclosing three nested rectangular galleries that culminate in a central spire surrounded by four smaller towers. The straight lines of its moat, walls and galleries are oriented along the north-south, east-west directions, and unlike most temples in the area its entrance faces west, being approached by way of a long bridge that spans the moat. The origins of the temple lie in what may be the world's oldest religious text, the Rigveda, one of the four Veda Samhitas of Hindu literature. This text describes the gods of heaven and earth, including the earthly god Vishnu, "The Preserver." It is to Vishnu that Angkor Wat is consecrated, and with more than mere symbolic intent. Hindu temples were built to be earthly abodes for the gods. The central sanctuary was the most sacred place, directly inline with the vertical axis of the central spire that provided the connection between the realms of heaven and Earth. The surrounding architecture of the temple would then mirror Hindu cosmology, being essentially a mandala in stone—a diagram of the cosmos itself. Furthermore, the Khmer civilization had by the time of Angkor Wat's construction incorporated the idea that a king would, after his death, be transmuted into one of the gods. Hence, it was at Angkor Wat that Suryavarman II, after his death, was believed to reside as Vishnu.  Astronomical.significance: Astronomy and Hindu cosmology are inseparably entwined at Angkor Wat. Nowhere is this more evident than in the interior colonnade, which is dedicated to a vast and glorious carved mural, a bas-relief illustrating the gods as well as scenes from the Hindu epic the Mahabharata. Along the east wall is a 45-meter (150-foot) scene illustrating the "churning of the sea of milk," a creation myth in which the gods attempt to churn the elixir of immortality out of the milk of time. The north wall depicts the "day of the gods," along the west wall is a great battle scene from the Mahabharata, and the south wall portrays the kingdom of Yama, the god of death. It has been suggested that the choice and arrangement of these scenes was intended to tie in with the seasons—the creation scene of the east wall is symbolic of the renewal of spring, the "day of the gods" is summer, the great battle on the west wall may represent the decline of autumn, and the portrayal of Yama might signify the dormancy, the lifeless time of winter. The architecture of Angkor Wat also has numerous astronomical aspects beyond the basic mandala plan that is common to other Hindu temples. As many as eighteen astronomical alignments have been identified within its walls. To mention but three of them: when standing just inside the western entrance, the Sun rises over the central tower on the spring (vernal) equinox; it rises over a distant temple at Prasat Kuk Bangro, 5.5 kilometers (3.4 miles) away, on the winter solstice; and on the summer solstice it rises over a prominent hill 17.5 kilometers (10.9 miles) away. Finally, some researchers have claimed that the very dimensions of many of the structures at Angkor Wat have astronomical associations. These associations emerge from consideration of the unit of length that was in use at that time, a unit known as the hat or "Cambodian cubit." There is some question as to how long a hat was, and indeed its definition may not have been uniformly applied; but a value of 43.45 centimeters (17.1 inches) for the length of a hat is suggested by the structures themselves. Using this value, archaeologists discovered numerous dimensions of the temple that seem to have astronomical and cosmological significance—for example, the following: The dimensions of the highest rectangular level of the temple are 189 hat in the east-west direction and 176 hat in the north-south direction. Added together these give 365, the number of days in one year. In the central sanctuary, the distances between sets of steps is approximately 12 hat. There are roughly 12 lunar cycles, or synodic months (from full Moon to full Moon, say—the basis for our modern month) in one year. The length and width of the central tower add up to approximately 91 hat. On average, there are 91 days between any solstice and the next equinox, or any equinox and the next solstice. Because of its orbit around the Earth, the Moon's apparent position in the sky relative to the background stars will appear to shift from night to night. Since it takes the Moon just over 27 days to complete one orbit (known as its sidereal period), it will during this time appear to move through 27 successive regions of the sky. In Hindu cosmology, these regions were known as the naksatras, or lunar mansions. In some contexts there were 27 lunar mansions, while in other contexts an additional naksatra containing the star Vega was included, giving 28 lunar mansions. The central tower at Angkor Wat contains nine inner chambers. If you total the dimensions of all of these chambers it equals 27 hat in the north-south direction and 28 hat in the east-west direction, corresponding to the possible number of lunar mansions. Also, the libraries have lengths measured along their interiors of 16 hat in the east-west direction, and either 12 or 11 hat in the north-south direction, depending upon whether or not the doorways are included. Added together, these also give either 28 or 27 hat. Finally, the north-south width of the libraries measured from the exteriors of the walls is again 28 hat. Hindu cosmology recognizes four time periods, or Yugas, that are represented in the dimensions of the temple: The length of the Kali-Yuga, our current time period, is 2 x 603 years, or 432 thousand years. The width of the moat that surrounds the temple, measured at the water level, is approximately 432 hat. The length of the Dv apara-Yuga is 4 x 603 years, or 864 thousand years. The distance from the entrance to the inner wall is 867 hat. The length of the Treta-Yuga is 6 x 603 years, or 1,296 thousand years. The distance from the entrance to the central tower is 1,296 hat. The length of the Krita-Yuga is 8 x 603 years, or 1,728 thousand years. The distance from the moat bridge to the center of the temple is 1,734 hat. According to the Sthapatya Veda (the Indian tradition of architecture), the temple and the town should mirror the cosmos. The temple architecture and the city plan are, therefore, related in their conception. Volwahsen (2001) has remarked on the continuity in the Indian architectural tradition. The Harappan cities have a grid plan, just as is recommended in the Vedic manuals. The square shape represents the heavens, with the four directions representing the cardinal directions as well as the two solstices and the equinoxes of the sun’s orbit. Although it has long been known that the Angkor Wat temple astronomy isderived from Puran.ic and Siddhantic ideas, the Vedic roots of this astronomyhave only recently been identified. We have found the Vedic altar astronomynumbers 21, 78, and 261 in the temple design. The division of the solar yearinto two unequal halves is explained by the design of theSatapatha Brahman.aaltar on the asymmetric circuit of the sun. We need a more thorough exami-nation of the altar numbers in the design to interpret their signicance in thecontext of di erent architectural units so brilliantly decoded by Mannikka.For example, was there any obvious in influence of the Agnicayana ritual on the phased construction of the Angkor Wat temple?The decoding of the astronomy of Angkor Wat has opened the way for asimilar examination of medieval and ancient Indian temple complexes, which were built with astronomical observations in mind.2 The monument that has been studied most extensively for its cosmological basis is the Angkor Wat temple. Although it is located in Cambodia, it was built according to the principles of Indian architecture and, therefore, we will describe it at some length. The connections between Angkor Wat and Vedic astronomy emerged out of my own work (Kak, 1999 and Millar and Kak, 1999). The astronomy and cosmology underlying the design of the Angkor Wat temple was extensively researched in the 1970s and it is well summarized in the book by Eleanor Mannikka (1996). Basically, it was found that the temple served as a practical observatory where the rising sun was aligned on the equinox and solstice days with the western entrance of the temple, and many sighting lines for seasonally observing the risings of the sun and the moon were identified. This paper presents the basis of the Hindu temple design going back to the earliest period. We trace this design back to the fire altars of the Vedic period which were themselves designed to represent astronomical knowledge (Kak, 1995, 2000, 2002). An assumed equivalence between the outer and the inner cosmos is central to the conception of the temple. It is because of this equivalence that numbers such as 108 and 360 are important in the temple design. The number 108 represents the distance from the earth to the sun and the moon in sun and moon diameters, respectively. The diameter of the sun is also 108 times the diameter of the earth, but that fact is not likely to have been known to the Vedic rishis. This number of dance poses (karanas) given in the Natya Shastra is also 108, as is the number of beads in a rosary (japamala). The “distance” between the body and the inner sun is also taken to be 108, and the number of marmas in Ayurveda is 107. The total number of syllables in the Rigveda is taken to be 432,000, a number related to 108. The number 360, the number of days in the civil year, is also taken to be the number of bones in the developing foetus, a number that fuses later into the 206 bones of the adult. The centrality of this number in Vedic ritual is stressed in the Shatapatha Brahmana. The primary Vedic number is three, representing the tripartite division of the physical world into the earth, the atmosphere, and the sky and that of the person into the physical body, the pranas, and the inner sky. The Hindu temple also represents the Meru mountain, the navel of the earth. The Brihat Samhita 56 lists the many design requirements that the temple building must satisfy. For example, it says “the height of the temple should be double its width, and the height of the foundation above the ground with the steps equal to a third of this height. The sanctum sanctorum should be half the width of the temple” and so on. It also lists twenty types of temples that range from one to twelve storeys in height.3Angkor Wat, the front side of the main complex (Bjørn Christian Tørrissen/Wikimedia Commons) Snapshot The great Visnu temple at Angkor Wat in north-central Kampuchea (Cambodia) is known to have been built according to an astronomical plan. The astronomy of Angkor Wat has the lesson that the medieval and ancient Indian temple complexes should be examined for their astronomical bases. The great Visnu temple of Angkor Wat was built by the Khmer Emperor Suryavarman II, who reigned during AD 1113-50. This temple was one of the many temples built from AD 879-1191, when the Khmer civilisation was at the height of its power. The Visnu temple has been called one of humankind’s most impressive and enduring architectural achievements. More than 20 years ago, Science carried a comprehensive analysis by Stencel, Gifford and Morón (SGM) of the astronomy and cosmology underlying the design of this temple. The authors concluded that it served as a practical observatory where the rising sun was aligned on the equinox and solstice days with the western entrance of the temple, and they identified 22 sighting lines for seasonally observing the risings of the sun and the moon. Using a survey by Nafilyan and converting the figures to the Cambodian cubit or hat (0.435 m), SGM demonstrated that certain measurements of the temple record calendric and cosmological time cycles. In addition, SGM showed that the west-east axis represents the periods of the yugas. The width of the moat is 439.78 hat; the distance from the first step of the western entrance gateway to balustrade wall at the end of causeway is 867.03 hat; the distance from the first step of the western entrance gateway to the first step of the central tower is 1,296.07 hat; and the distance from the first step of bridge to the geographic center of the temple is 1,734.41 hat. These correspond to the periods of 4,32,000, 864,000, 1,296,000, 1,728,000 years for the Kali, Dvapara, Treta, and Krta yuga, respectively. SGM suggest that the very slight discrepancy in the equations might be due to human error or erosion or sinking of the structure. In the central tower, the topmost elevation has external axial dimensions of 189.00 hat east-west, and 176.37 hat north-south, with the sum of 365.37. In the words of SGM, this is “perhaps the most outstanding number” in the complex, “almost the exact length of the solar year.” But SGM were not able to explain the inequality of the two halves, which is the problem that we take up in this paper. We will show that these numbers are old Satapatha Brahmana numbers for the asymmetric motion of the sun. The Historical Background of Angkor Wat The kings of the Khmer empire ruled over a vast domain that reached from what is now southern Vietnam to Yunan, China and from Vietnam westward to the Bay of Bengal. The structures one sees at Angkor today, more than 100 temples in all, are the surviving religious remains of a grand social and administrative metropolis whose other buildings - palaces, public buildings, and houses - were all built of wood and are long since decayed and gone. As in most parts of India, where wood was plentiful, only the gods had the right to live in houses of stone or brick; the sovereigns and the common folk lived in pavilions and houses of wood. Over the half-millenia of Khmer rule, the city of Angkor became a great pilgrimage destination because of the notion of Devaraja, which has been explained by Lokesh Chandra as a coronation icon. Jayavarman II (802-850) was the first to use this royal icon. According to Lokesh Chandra, Devaraja means ‘King of the Gods’ and not ‘God-King’. He is Indra and refers to the highly efficacious aindra mahabhiseka of the Rgvedic rajasuya tradition as elaborated in the Aitareyabrahmana. It was not a simple but a great coronation, a mahabhiseka. It was of extraordinary significance that Jayavarman II performed a Rgvedic rite, which lent him charismatic authority. The increasingly larger temples built by the Khmer kings continued to function as the locus of the devotion to the Devaraja, and were at the same time earthly and symbolic representations of mythical Mt Meru, the cosmological home of the Hindu gods and the axis of the world-system. The symbol of the king’s divine authority was the sign (linga) of Siva within the temple’s inner sanctuary, which represented both the axes of physical and the psychological worlds. The worship of Siva and Visnu separately, and together as Harihara, had been popular for considerable time in southeast Asia; Jayavarman’s chief innovation was to use ancient Vedic mahabhiseka to define the symbol of government. To quote Lokesh Chandra further, The icon used by Jayavarman II for his aindra mahabhiseka, his Devaraja = Indra (icon), became the symbol of the Cambodian state, as the sacred and secular sovereignty denoted by Prajapatısvara/Brahma, as the continuity of the vital flow of the universal (jagat) into the stability of the terrestrial kingdom (raja = rajya). As the founder of the new Kambuja state, he contributed a national palladium under its Cambodian appellation kamraten jagat ta raja/rajya. Whenever the capital was transferred by his successors, it was taken to the new nagara, for it had to be constantly in the capital. Angkor Wat is the supreme masterpiece of Khmer art. The descriptions of the temple fall far short of communicating the great size, the perfect proportions and the astoundingly beautiful sculpture that everywhere presents itself to the viewer. As an aside, it should be mentioned that some European scholars tended to date Angkor Wat as being after the fourteenth century. The principal reason was that some decorative motifs at Angkor Wat show a striking resemblance to certain motifs of the Italian Renaissance. This argument, which is similar to the one used in dating Indian mathematical texts vis-a-vis Greek texts, has been proven to be wrong. In the words of Cœdes, “If there is some connexion between the twelfth-century art of the Khmers, the direct heirs to the previous centuries, and the art of the Renaissance, it must have been due to a reverse process, that is to the importation of oriental objects into Europe.” Astronomy of Altars and Temples To understand the astronomical aspects of Angkor Wat, it is necessary to begin with the Indian traditions of altar and temple design on which it is based. And since the Angkor Wat ritual hearkened to the Vedic past, it stands to reason that its astronomy was also connected to the Vedic astronomical tradition. In a series of publications I have shown that the Vedic altars had an astronomical basis. In the basic scheme, the circle represented the earth and the square represented the heavens or the deity. But the altar or the temple, as a representation of the dynamism of the universe, required a breaking of the symmetry of the square. As seen clearly in the agnicayana and other altar constructions, this was done in a variety of ways. Although the main altar might be square or its derivative, the overall sacred area was taken to be a departure from this shape. In particular, the temples to the goddess were drawn on a rectangular plan. In the introduction to the Silpa Prakasa, a ninth-twelfth century Orissan temple architecture text, Alice Boner writes, “[the Devı temples] represent the creative expanding forces, and therefore could not be logically be represented by a square, which is an eminently static form. While the immanent supreme principle is represented by the number ONE, the first stir of creation initiates duality, which is the number TWO, and is the producer of THREE and FOUR and all subsequent numbers upto the infinite.” The dynamism is expressed by a doubling of the square to a rectangle or the ratio 1:2, where the garbhagrha is now built in the geometrical centre. For a three-dimensional structure, the basic symmetry-breaking ratio is 1:2:4, which can be continued further to another doubling. The constructions of the Harappan period (2,600-1,900 BC) appear to be according to the same principles. The dynamic ratio of 1:2:4 is the most commonly encountered size of rooms of houses, in the overall plan of houses and the construction of large public buildings. This ratio is also reflected in the overall plan of the large walled sector at Mohenjo Daro called the citadel mound. It is even the most commonly encountered brick size. There is evidence of temple structures in the Harappan period in addition to iconography that recalls the goddess. Structures dating to 2000 BC, built in the design of yantras, have been unearthed in northern Afghanistan. There is ample evidence for a continuity in the religious and artistic tradition of India from the Harappan times, if not earlier. These ideas and the astronomical basis continued in the architecture of the temples of the classical age. Kramrisch has argued that the number 25,920, the number of years in the precessional period of the earth, is also reflected in the plan of the temple. According to the art-historian Alice Boner, [T]he temple must, in its space-directions, be established in relation to the motion of the heavenly bodies. But in as much as it incorporates in a single synthesis the unequal courses of the sun, the moon and the planets, it also symbolises all recurrent time sequences: the day, the month, the year and the wider cycles marked by the recurrence of a complete cycle of eclipses, when the sun and the moon are readjusted in their original positions, anew cycle of creation begins. It is clear then that the Hindu temple is a conception of the astronomical frame of the universe. In this conception, it serves the same purpose as the Vedic altar, which served to express the motions of the sun and the moon. The progressive complexity of the classical temple was inevitable given an attempt to bring in the cycles of the planets and other ideas of the yugas into the scheme. A text like the Silpa Prakasa would be expected to express the principles of temple construction of the times that led to the Angkor Wat temple. Given the prominence to the yuga periods in Angkor Wat and a variety of other evidence, it is clear that there is a continuity between the Vedic and Puranic astronomy and cosmology and the design of Angkor Wat. Solar and lunar measurements Some of the solar and lunar numbers that show up in the design of the Angkor Wat temple are the number of naksatras, the number of months in the year, the days in the lunar month, the days of the solar month, and so so. Lunar observations appear to have been made from the causeway. SGM list 22 alignments in their paper, these could have been used to track not just the solar and lunar motions but also planetary motions. The division of the year into the two halves: 189 and 176.37 has puzzled SGM. But precisely the same division is described in the Satapatha Brahmana. In layer 5 of the altar described in the Satapatha, a division of the year into the two halves in the proportion 15:14 is given. This proportion corresponds to the numbers 189 and 176.4, which are just the numbers used at Angkor Wat. Consider the physics behind the asymmetry in the sun’s orbit. The period from the autumnal equinox to the vernal equinox is smaller than the opposite circuit. The interval between successive perihelia, the anomalistic year, is 365.25964 days, which is 0.01845 days longer than the tropical year on which our calendar is based. In 1,000 calendar years, the date of the perihelion advances about 18 days. The perihelion was roughly on 18 December during the time of the construction of Angkor Wat; and it was on 27 October during early second millennium BC, the most likely period of the composition of the Satapatha Brahmana. In all these cases, the perihelion occurs during the autumn/winter period, and so by Kepler’s 2nd law we know that the speed of the sun in its orbit around the earth is greater during the months of autumn and winter than in spring and summer. During the time of the Satapatha Brahmana, the apogee was about midway through the spring season, which was then somewhat more than 94 days. The extra brick in the spring quadrant may symbolically reflect the discovery that this quarter had more days in it, a discovery made at a time when a satisfactory formula had not yet been developed for the progress of the sun on the ecliptic. It is possible that the period from the spring equinox to the fall equinox was taken to be about 189 days by doubling the period of the spring season; 176 days became the period of the reverse circuit. Why not assume that there was no more to these numbers than a division into the proportions 15:14 derived from some numerological considerations? First, we have the evidence from the Satapatha Brahmana that expressly informs us that the count of days from the winter to the summer solstice was different, and shorter, than the count in the reverse order. Second, the altar design is explicitly about the sun’s circuit around the earth and so the proportion of 15:14 must be converted into the appropriate count with respect to the length of the year. Furthermore, the many astronomical alignments of the Angkor Wat impress on us the fairly elaborate system of naked-eye observations that were the basis of the temple astronomy. But since precisely the same numbers were used in Angkor Wat as were mentioned much earlier in the Satapatha Brahmana, one would presume that these numbers were used as a part of ancient sacred lore. We see the count between the solstices has been changing much faster than the count between the equinoxes because the perigee has been, in the past two thousand years, somewhere between the autumn and the winter months. Because of its relative constancy, the count between the equinoxes became one of the primary ‘constants’ of Vedic/Puranic astronomy. The equinoctial half-years are currently about 186 and 179, respectively, and were not much different when Angkor Wat temple was constructed. Given that the length of the year was known to considerable precision, there is no reason to assume that these counts were not known. But it appears that a ‘normative’ division according to the ancient proportion was used. As it was known that the solar year was about 365.25 days, the old proportion of 15:14 would give the distribution 188.92 and 176.33, and that is very much the Angkor Wat numbers of 189 and 176.37 within human error. In other words, the choice of these ‘constants’ may have been determined by the use of the ancient proportion of 15:14. Conclusions It has long been known that the Angkor Wat temple astronomy is derived from Puranic and Siddhantic ideas. Here we present evidence that takes us to the Vedic roots for the division of the solar year in Angkor Wat into two unequal halves. This division is across the equinoxes and that number has not changed very much during the passage of time from the Brahmanas to the construction of the Angkor Wat temple, so it is not surprising that it figures so prominently in the astronomy. It also appears that the count of 189 days may have been obtained by doubling the measured period for the spring season. The astronomy of Angkor Wat has the lesson that the medieval and ancient Indian temple complexes, which were also built with basic astronomical observations in mind, should be examined for their astronomical bases. The Khmer temple was designed as a microcosm of the Hindu cosmological universe. Moving from the temple’s entrance to the sanctuary at its center, the visitor undergoes a symbolic three-staged journey to salvation through enlightenment. Each of the steps are laid out in the exhibit at right. Stage 1: Moat as Cosmic Sea The outermost boundary of a Khmer temple was often surrounded by a moat, a body of water symbolic of the Cosmic Sea (blue highlights above). For Hindus, the Cosmic Sea is the source of creative energy and life, the starting point for the journey toward salvation.The temple visitor begins his journey by crossing the sea on causeways lined with serpents, beasts similarly intimately associated with both Hindu and Khmer myths of creation (we explore the serpent in detail in our guidebook to Angkor). Stage 2: Enclosure Walls as Sacred Mountain Ranges Continuing on his way to the center of the temple, the visitor passes through a series of massive enclosure walls; these walls recreate sacred mountain ranges, symbolic of obstacles that must be overcome on the path to enlightenment (green highlights in Fig. 1). Monumental tower gateways, called gopurams, grant the visitor passage through the walls, each successive one revealing a more sacred area, farther removed from the outside world. The combination of concentric enclosure walls with large gateways was derived directly from South Indian Hindu architectural precedent. Enclosure walls make their first appearance very early in the Khmer building tradition — at the late 9th century pre-Angkor site of Roluos in the temples of Preah Ko, Bakong and Lolei — and are a constant feature in all subsequent temples. Stage 3: Five Sanctuary Towers as Mount Meru At the center of the temple stand sanctuaries with tower superstructures (red highlights above). The mountain residence of the gods. Under Hindu cosmology, the gods have always been associated with mountains. The sanctuary’s form, dominated by its large tower, recreates the appearance of the gods’ mountaintop residence, Mount Meru. The mountaintop residence of the gods carried particular symbolic resonance for the Khmer people. God’s cave. The sanctuary proper, located directly under the tower, is where an image of the deity resides (see exhibit at right). Its dark interior is designed to represent the cave into which god descends from his mountain home and becomes accessible to human beings. The sacred intersection. At the Hindu temple’s sanctuary, the worlds of the divine and living connect: the god’s vertical axis (mountaintop to cave) intersects with the visitor’s horizontal axis (temple entrance to cave). The entire universe emanates from this intersection, as unity with god is the goal of earthly existence. In Hinduism, god is believed to temporarily physically inhabit his representation in the sanctuary; the Hindu temple is arranged to enable the direct devotee-to-deity interaction that necessarily follows. Unlike other faiths, there is no religious intermediary and no abstraction; god is manifest before the devotee’s eyes, a profound encounter. It is here, among the peaks of Mount Meru, that the visitor’s symbolic journey ends in nirvana: the pairs of opposites characteristic of worldly existence (e.g., good versus bad, right versus wrong) fuse into a single infinite everythingness beyond space and time. 4 “Although it has long been known that the Angkor Wat temple astronomy is derived from Pur¯an. ic and Siddh¯antic ideas, the Vedic roots of this astronomy have only recently been identified. We have found the Vedic altar astronomy numbers 21, 78, and 261 in the temple design. The division of the solar year into two unequal halves is explained by the design of the Satapatha Br¯ ´ ahman. a altar on the asymmetric circuit of the sun. We need a more thorough examination of the altar numbers in the design to interpret their significance in the context of different architectural units so brilliantly decoded by Mannikka. For example, was there any obvious influence of the Agnicayana ritual on the phased construction of the Angkor Wat temple? The decoding of the astronomy of Angkor Wat has opened the way for a similar examination of medieval and ancient Indian temple complexes, which 13 were also built with basic astronomical observations in minds”.5 Discovery Of India’s ‘Oldest Observatory’ Reconnects Us To Our Ancient Sacred Culture byAravindan Neelakandan-Dec 31, 2016 Archaeologists this year discovered what is perhaps India’s only megalithic site, at Mudumal in Telangana.This discovery is of great significance for India as it uncovers a dimension of our culture that is now unfortunately forgotten. Of all the discoveries made in 2016, there is one among the few that stood out. It is the discovery by a team of Indian archeologists in a remote village in the newest state of India – a place that should be considered ‘the oldest observatory’ in the Indian region. The site is a 7,000 years Before Present (BP) megalithic site in Mudumal village in Telangana, India. In south-Indian languages, mudumal means ancient hill. The discovery in Mudumal, Telangana, India Here, the archeologists have discovered “a depiction of a star constellation”, perhaps only one of its kind discovered in a megalithic structure in India. The megalithic site itself is just one of several with 80 large menhirs (3.5-4m) and about 2,000 alignment stones, (30-60cm), spread over an area of 80 acres. Such a large concentration and arrangement of megalithic structures in such a small area is in itself a rarity. The central part of the entire site is the most densely populated. The findings related to astronomy are especially fascinating. There is a cup-mark depiction of Ursa Major (Saptarishi) of the northern skies. Another feature is the arrangement of 30 cup-marks that seems to imitate the stellar configuration of the night skies. Also discovered is an imaginary line drawn from the upper two stars (Kratu and Pulaha) in megalithic imitation of Saptarishi pointed to the Pole Star (Dhruva). The findings await further confirmation, though the initial scholarly responses appear positive. Meanwhile, almost 7,800km away in Australia, an astronomer at Monash University, Duane Hamacher, who is studying the Wurdi Youang stone arrangement – an aboriginal sacred site – is coming to a conclusion similar to that of Indian astronomers. These stone arrangements were made in the past for the sake of astronomical observations. The stone arrangement is made up of about a hundred basalt stones. Arranged like an incomplete egg, the key stones in the arrangement are aligned to mark the solstice and equinox sunsets. Hamacher’s in-depth and ongoing study of aboriginal astronomy and other knowledge systems has made him alert to the biases in academia and media with respect to his findings. “Some academics have referred to this stone arrangement here as Australia's version of the Stonehenge,” he points out; however, he says, “The question we might have to ask is, is Stonehenge Britain's version of Wurdi Youang? Because this could be much, much older.” The archeo-astronomical discovery has other ramifications too. It challenges the colonial myth, which is still the dominant historical narrative, that the aborigines were nomads. The stones are estimated by geologists to be almost 11,000 BP. If such structures were created by people with knowledge of astronomy, they were more sedentary than they were nomads, and that might offer a clue to the origin of agriculture as well. Science writer Ray Norris writes about “the remarkable similarity between Aboriginal stories about stars and those of the Ancient Greeks” in his recent article for the New Scientist ('Written in the Stars'). The Greek and Hindu mythological parallels have already been well-established. So, perhaps, the proposal of British geneticist and author Stephen Oppenheimer of a common origin for mythologies in Southeast Asian and Oceanic regions needs a serious relook. Australian aboriginal observatory Of course, solstices and equinoxes have been celebrated the world over. And megalithic structures and indigenous cultures have created sacred spaces based on these two times of the year. In the Petrified Forest National Park in Navajo and Apache counties of Arizona, the United States, during summer solstice, a sunbeam is projected onto a sacred rock, which then travels down to the centre of the spiral. In England, there is the famed Stonehenge. This, too, was once a pagan ritual centre. Famous physicist, polymath and a somewhat controversial figure Sir Fred Hoyle was also a Stonehenge expert. He conjectured that this stone structure was constructed with astronomical knowledge, and was used to predict solar and lunar eclipses (On Stonehenge, 1977). Eclipse rituals were perhaps performed here. Archeologist Aubrey Burl, who had spent a lifetime studying stone circles, also thinks that these structures have religious significance related to lunar circles. Summer solstice ritual petroglyph in Arizona The discovery of an implicit order in the immense celestial circles should have filled the human mind with awe, which would have become the womb for all artistic and scientific achievements of humanity. Hoyle points out that the eighteenth-century poet and painter William Blake seemed to have intuitively grasped this connection when he portrayed the Stonehenge with a lunar eclipse and three figures whom he identified as Bacon, Newton and Locke, in the drawing for his poem ‘Jerusalem’. William Blake: Stonehenge, lunar eclipse and three figures Even in Mecca, the famous Kaaba stone was said to have been surrounded by 360 stone deities arranged in a circle, before the sword of Islam destroyed those shrines. Perhaps there too existed a cultural continuity from megalithic astronomical spirituality which was destroyed by the monotheistic zeal of Muhammad. Back in India, solstices and equinoxes have been embedded in the living culture, and the roots perhaps would have been embedded in the megalithic astronomical substratum. Even today, there are scores of centuries-old temples where the first rays of the solstice sun strike the interior shrine. A detailed study of the famous Gavi Gangadhareshwara Temple in Karnataka, where the sun rays touch the Shiva Linga on Makara Sankranthi, was taken up by the astronomers of Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium, Bengaluru. They discovered that it was a unique temple which incorporated a marking for both the solstices. They studied a painting of the temple dated 1792, which showed that “the passage of the sunlight into the cave was probably intended for marking winter solstice”. And the new construction made in the last two centuries had actually disrupted the way sunlight interacted with this cave temple as originally intended. Gavi Gangadhareshwara temple: solstice alignment In Tamil Nadu, there are many such temples which await a proper study. - In the southern district of Tirunelveli, at Srivaikuntam, is a Vishnu temple. On the fifth and sixth days of the first month of the Tamil calendar (during the period of spring equinox), the local legend says that the sun arrives here to worship Vishnu. On those days, the morning sun rays directly touch the murthi placed in the sanctum. - At the Nageshwar temple in the famous temple town of Kumbakonam, starting on the eleventh day of the first month of the Tamil calendar, the sun rays directly touch the linga in the sanctum of the temple for three days. - At the Nelli Vananageshwar temple in Tanjore district, during the seventh month of the Tamil Calendar (aligning with the autumnal equinox period), the sun is said to pray to the deity for seven days. In Trivandrum, Kerala, one can see inside, through the doors of the gopuram of the temple, a dramatic slow descent of the autumnal equinox sun. Autumnal solstice: Padmanabhaswamy Temple, Thiruvananthapuram There is a strong possibility that while the shrines and temples were later additions, the original sanctum deity – usually a swayambhu – could have been an astronomically-aligned sacred stone that has come to us from the megalithic times. Perhaps only in Indian culture have these elements been preserved in the subsequent temple architecture and the mythologies. Mythologies too may have encoded the continuity of the ancient megalithic astronomical traditions. Samba Purana speaks of Samba, the son of Krishna, through the bear clan leader Jambavan as the one who built three temples for the sun in India; Konark was built for the morning sun and in eastern India; the Modhera temple in Gujarat, which was built for the evening sun and situated along the western coast of India; Multan temple (now in Pakistan) for the afternoon sun. Though Samba Purana is a later-day mythology, the sun temples themselves should have been older. For example, even a Greek account of Alexander’s time mentions a magnificent sun temple in Taxila (which is now in Pakistan). We don’t know if these temples were aligned to the movement of the sun on a pan-Indian scale. The sun raises exactly on the peak of the main Angkor Temple. This only happens twice a year, at the so called equinox – time of the year when the sun crosses the plane of the earth's equator and day and night are of equal length. Pan-Indian sun temples attributed to Samban, the bear-clan son of Krishna Samba Purana also speaks of bringing Maga Brahmins from Mithra Desa, meaning the cross-fertilisation of the Mithra tradition, then flourishing in Persia, with Indic sun veneration. Persian Mithra tradition itself could have branched from the Vedic sun worship, and we do know that the sun mythology embedded in Mithra worship ultimately was carried by Romans to the West, where it enriched the solar Jesus myth, whose birth and resurrection would align with winter solstice and spring equinox respectively. The seventh-century Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang, or Hsüan-tsang, also mentions the well-established sun temple at Multan which, today, is utterly destroyed to a pile of stones and in quite a degraded condition. Hsüan-tsang’s description speaks of “the image of the Sun cast in yellow gold and ornamented with rare gems”. Though himself a Buddhist, he felt its “divine insight” and “its spiritual powers made lain to all”. Then, he describes women playing music and of constant royal patronage. The temple was also a centre for compassion. He writes: They have founded a home of mercy (happiness), in which they provide food and drink, and medicines for the poor and sick, affording succour and sustenance. Men from all countries come here to offer up their prayers; there are always some thousands doing so. On the four sides of the Temple are tanks with flowering groves, where one can wander about without restraint. Today, all that remains of this grand multifaceted sun temple is a heap of stones – destroyed by Islamists repeatedly. Early Islamic invaders destroyed most of the temple and kept the sanctum just to blackmail the Hindu confederacy to not attack their base. They would threaten to destroy this temple sanctum if Hindu kings invaded the aggressors. However, they placed a skinned cow hide over the deity to underline the humiliation. Martanda Temple, Kashmir In Kashmir, where yet another magnificent sun temple was present, archeo-astronomical studies have revealed an impressively constant human fascination with celestial events and their attempts to record it. Naseer Iqbal et al of the University of Kashmir investigated a rock carving of multiple concentric circles in Bomai Sopore (Baramullah) as the recording of “a meteorite impact that occurred sometime between 40,000 BP and 6,000 BP”. Another Neolithic hunting scene depicted at the site of Burzaham (Srinagar, Kashmir) might have been a sky map depiction of “the prominent constellations and the moon on the night when a supernova was observed”. The Martand sun temple built by Lalitaditya in Kashmir in eighth century CE, which in turn was built as an improvement over on an earlier existing structure, could be the culmination of a movement that dated back to upper Palaeolithic times in Kashmir. Of all cultures around the world, India alone is unique today in preserving, nourishing and maintaining the archeo-astronomy-based sacred culture embedded in the mythology, temple architecture and, perhaps, even town planning. The discovery in Mudumal of the oldest megalithic observatory, thus, is a discovery of great importance in uncovering a dimension of our culture that we have neglected in the two centuries of colonisation and the resulting mindset. With the vast democratisation of the tools of knowledge and decentralised digital knowledge dissemination, time has come for us to view our temples and mythologies with a new perspective of archaeo-astronomy and look ahead to the discoveries that await us in the future.6 SUNRISE AT ANGKOR WAT DURING THE EQUINOX IN CAMBODIA-INGAJANUARY 4, 2013 “Quest for the Lost civilization”, by Graham Hancock, is a fascinating documentary about the world’s ancient monuments. By the minute 29:00 of the video you can see the amazing scene of a very special sunrise at Angkor. The sun raises exactly on the peak of the main Angkor Temple. This only happens twice a year, at the so called equinox – time of the year when the sun crosses the plane of the earth’s equator and day and night are of equal length. It is hard to believe how people were able to build up such amazing events already in ancient times. Connecting the earth with the sky at Angkor Archaeologist believe during ancient times kings wanted to connect the earth with the sky. Hence they used to integrate sky events to temples, not just at Angkor but all over the world. The equinox sunrise at Angkor Wat is only one of those. Exciting facts surrounding Angkor Wat Researchers have found that the main route to Angkor Wat temple differs by three quarters of a degree from the east-west axis to the north. According to the precession of the earth’s axis, the North Pole is not fixed but moves like a spiral. This happens extremely slowly. Around 72 years for each degree. It takes about 26,000 years for a complete revolution. Multiplying the precession of the earth’s axis – the aforementioned three quarters of a degree – with the number 72 results in the number 54. The number 54 is more frequent in Angkor Park. For example, the four-faced towers at the Bayon Temple or the guards in front of the South Gate of the city of Angkor Thom. The Equinox in Cambodia In Cambodia, this astronomical event happens during Spring (around 20th of March), and during Autumn (around 23rd of September). Dates are: Primary equinox 20.03.2017 um 17:29 Uhr 20.03.2018 um 23:15 Uhr 21.03.2019 um 04:58 Uhr 20.03.2020 um 10:50 Uhr Secondary equinox 22.09.2017 um 04:02 Uhr 23.09.2018 um 09:54 Uhr 23.09.2019 um 17:50 Uhr 22.09.2020 um 21:31 Uhr REFERENCES https://akellsmystic.wixsite.com/sojourner/single-post/2018/01/25/Angkor-Wat%E2%80%99s-Cosmology#:~:text=Connecting%20the%20universal%20with%20the,the%20individual%20and%20universal%20worlds.&text=Angkor%20Wat%20is%20a%20prime,Khmer%2012th%20century%20building%20techniques. 2 Time, Space, and Astronomy in Angkor Wat, 2002.Subhash Kak.. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/2889330_Time_Space_and_Astronomy_in_Angkor_Wat [accessed Jan 18 2021]. 3.How The Sublime Vishnu Temple At Angkor Wat Is An Expression Of Vedic Astronomy By Subhash Kak-Oct 15, 2016 05:31 PM] 4 https://www.approachguides.com/guide/cambodia-temples-of-angkor/ Astronomy and Cosmology at Angkor Wat By Robert Stencel, Fred Gifford, Eleanor Morón,Science  23 Jul 1976: Vol. 193, Issue 4250, pp. 281-287 https://science.sciencemag.org/content/193/4250/281 5. Time, Space, and Astronomy in Angkor Wat Subhash Kak Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering Louisiana State University Baton Rouge, LA 70803-5901, USA FAX: 225.388.5200; Email: kak@ee.lsu.edu August 6, 2001 6. https://swarajyamag.com/culture/discovery-of-indias-oldest-observatory-reconnects-us-to-our-ancient-sacred-culture https://www.ece.lsu.edu/kak/ang3.pdf Dr UDAY DOKRAS Phd Stockholm-The Journal of the Indo Nordic Author’s Collective 22