From the flat earth to the sun`s chariot traditional spiritual texts seem
wedded to outmoded cosmologies that show, at best, the scientific limitations of
their authors. The Bhagavata Purana, one of the classical scriptures of
Hinduism, seems, at first glance, to be no exception. However, a closer
examination of this text reveals unexpected depths of knowledge in ancient
cosmology. This shows that the cosmology of the Bhagavata Purana is a
sophisticated system, with multiple levels of meaning that encode at least four
different astronomical, geographical, and spiritual world models. By viewing the
text in the light of modern astronomy, Richard Thompson shows how ancient
scientists expressed exact