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a cache of usenet and other text files pertaining
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To: soc.religion.eastern From: Bill Mayne Subj: The Number 108 (0000.nmbr108.bm) Date: unknown Quoting: |>Vidyasankar Sundaresan and |Thomas Loomis (tloomis@halcyon.halcyon.com) |>The number 108 may have been associated with some significance by early |>mystics, because of its association with astronomy. |>The number 108 is roughly the average distance that the sun is in terms of |>its own diameter from the earth; likewise...[the moon] |>This may account for its frequent cropping up in almost all ancient |>religious writings. This is very doubtful since it would require the cultures which produced "almost all" ancient religious writings to have known and cared about such astronomical trivia. It also fails to explain the selection of 108 and not some other number close to the ratios in question, such as 109 or 110. |Where could I read more about this? How were the measurements taken |(in ancient times) of the relevant distances and diameters? Considering that we are dealing with prescientific cultures, especially ancient India in this case, I share your skepticism. The ratios, though not the actual sizes and distances, could be deduced from the apparent sizes of the sun and moon. If this is not already obvious, once you think about t, ask and I'll explain in email. However I know of no evidence that ancient Indian religious writers knew this or that they would use the knowledge in the way suggested even if they did. The Greeks did deduce the distance to the moon, as has recently been discussed in sci.math. But they were more scientific. To expect advanced scientific knowledge on the part of the authors of the Vedas is about as ludicrous as western creationists claiming that the earth is only a few thousand years old, or at the other extreme claims that human civilization is tens of millions of years old and that human artifacts have been found which were contemporary with dinosaurs. A Hare Krishna devotee in their equivalent o the Institution for Creation Research has told me about the human artifacts with dinosaurs with a straight face! To illustrate the state of astronomy in ancient India, consider the view of Vedic "science" that the stars do not emit light of their own, like our sun, but shine by reflected light, like the moon and planets. This explanation is expounded by Sri Prabupada in "The Bhagavad Gita As It Is". It is contained in the purport (commentary) on the verse "Of stars I am the moon." The numerological explanation, 108=1*2*2*3*3*3, and hence that it is divisible by 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, and 12 is much more plausible. Ancient Indians and others often used the structure of enumerated lists and divisions in criptures for aesthetic/poetic reasons, as an aid to memorization, and as check on the accuracy of transmission, as well as mystical use. See for example the "Numerical Discourses" in the Pali (Buddhist) canon. The number 108, being highly factorable and constructable in other interesting ways, is well suited to this purpose. Having found such a use it was natural to build mystical interpretations around it. In particular, a mala with 108 beads would be useful for reciting prayers and such with numerical structure. Another example of a highly factorable number being selected for a seemingly arbitrary base is the number 60, used by the Babylonians. This is divisible by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, and 30. It is the reason minutes have 60 seconds, hours have 60 minutes, and circles have 360 degrees. Bill Mayne
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