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Re: En: Hollow Earth

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sampath kumar • December 24, 1999 


--- dean@internetcom.com.br wrote:   December 21st
> > I am curious about a certain theme which is not so
> directly mentioned in shastra, but to which there is
> some indirect reference. I am referring to the
> hollow Earth idea and subterrainian existences. I
> realise that in some contexts, the word
> subterrainian is used in the Puranas to indicate
> planetary systems which are below the plane of Bhu
> Mandala, the Solar system. 
------------------------------

Good question,Sir,  but one which has been asked
several times before and answered variously!

adiyEn once read one kind of answer to the above
question and here it is for your information:

"In pre-purAni-c" times there lived a race of people
in the land now called India. They were called
'sagaras" and they were descendents of the Solar Race
the same race from which King Dasaratha traced his
Raghuvamsha ancestry.

Once the Sagaras performed the Horse Sacrifice , the
"aswamedha-yagnyam" where they let loose a horse and
allowed it to roam around the land wherever it wanted
and then after a set period of time had elapsed went
after it to retrieve it. The lands and empires that
they passed through while searching for the horse,
they bring under their reign and protection.

Unfortunately, the although the Sagaras travelled far
and wide they could not locate their sacrificial
horse. 

THe Sagaras suspected foul-play and a horse-thief.

They travelled and travelled until they came to a
great ocean. They travelled aross it to what they
believed was into the bowels of "bhulOka"...
"pATAla-lOka".

The Sagaras at last found the horse in a forest near
the hermitage of one 'Kapila Maharishi'. Mistaking him
to be the horse-thief they began to man-handle the
'maharishi'.

'Maha-rishis' don't like to be man-handled and so
Kapila became terribly incensed and with a mere glance
of his eye reduced all the 60000 Sagaras to ashes.

Many ages later Sage Bhagiratha performed great
austerities and brought the River Ganges from the
heavens to earth. With the waters of the sacred Ganges
the Sage Bhagiratha brought the Sagaras, turned ashes,
back to life. ANd thus prospered the race of the Solar
Dyanasty, the Raghuvamsha, the precursors to the
Ramayana.

The story goes that America which is on the antipodes 
as far as India is concerned is to be taken to be
"pATAla" i.e. the core of your "hollow earth".
'KapilAranya', the forest where they found Kapila's
hermitage, is the present day "California". Also
noteworthy is that near California there is both a
"Horse Island" and an "Ash Island", is it not?

So now you know why so many Indians emigrate from
their home-country to their foster-home country...
California in America!

But if you happen to be a son-of-the-soil Californian
yourself, you could of course claim to be a denizen of
"pAtAla", the core of the "hollow earth". And you
could possibly also claim common ancestry with the
Raghuvamsha, Lord Rama's lineage! And you could also
perhaps make a daily "pilgrimage" to Horse Island and
Ash Island!

Regards,
dAsan,
Sampathkumaran


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