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Please refrain from posting extensive excerpts from books or articles. Referencing and recommending sources is fine. It should be noted, though, that Thompson had his own agenda, namely, to prove the somewhat outr?, Hindu literalist world-view of his guru, Bhaktivedanta Swami (founder of the Hare Krishna movement). His writings are comparable in many respects to those of Biblical creationists.

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People cite Pingree as though he were some infallible god, and they disregard the Indian side of the story completely, while pretending not to.

RV 1.164, which you cite, is commonly called "The Dirghatamas Hymn" and is acknowledged as the most difficult, bewildering, and controversial poem in the entire RigVeda. Scholars have been ripping at each other's throats for generations about its meaning. Some don't think that the passage you cite has anything to do with astronomy at all.

I studied Classical rather than Vedic Sanskrit; the only Vedic I've read was when we did a classroom exercise on the stunningly beautiful creation hymn numbered 10.129, so I am not competent to interpret Dirghatamas. But.... Pingree stood alone among Western scholars in agreeing with your assertion that the lines you quote refer to the zodiac. Despite the respect he had gained from other academicians, they all shunned him and turned their collective backs on him about that one, so at the very least you are expending your anger against Western civilization on the wrong person.

Since this is becoming all too reminiscent of the constant squabbles and arguments that tore the American Jyotish community to pieces, I shall withdraw and confine my posts to the Western astrology message boards.

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