Editing Flat Earth (section)

====South Asia====
[[Image:Offshore windpark Thorntonbank.jpg|thumb|An image of [[Thorntonbank Wind Farm]] (near the Belgian coast) with the lower parts of the more distant towers increasingly hidden by the horizon, demonstrating the curvature of the Earth]]
The [[Vedas|Vedic]] texts depict the cosmos in many ways.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=auqGWz2l9pYC&pg=PA47 |title=The Vedic Origins of Karma: Cosmos as Man in Ancient Indian Myth and Ritual |last=Tull |first=Herman Wayne |publisher=[[State University of New York Press]] |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-7914-0094-4 |pages=47–49 |quote=The Vedic texts contain several depictions of the shape of the cosmos. The Rigveda alone contains two basic images of the cosmos: a bipartite cosmos, consisting of the two spheres of heavens and Earth, and a tripartite cosmos consisting of the three spheres of heavens and Earth (...)}}</ref><ref name="Selin2013p114">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GzjpCAAAQBAJ |title=Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures |last=Sarma |first=K. V. |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |year=2013 |isbn=978-94-017-1416-7 |editor=Selin |editor-first=Helaine |pages=114–15}}</ref> One of the earliest Indian cosmological texts pictures the Earth as one of a stack of flat disks.{{sfn|Plofker|2009|p=52}}

In the Vedic texts, [[Dyaus Pita|Dyaus]] (heaven) and [[Prithvi]] (Earth) are compared to wheels on an [[axle]], yielding a flat model. They are also described as bowls or leather bags, yielding a concave model.<ref name="Gombrich">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/ancientcosmologi0000unse/page/110 |title=Ancient Cosmologies |last=Gombrich |first=R. F. |publisher=George Allen & Unwin |year=1975 |isbn=9780041000382 |editor1=Blacker |editor-first=Carmen |pages=[https://archive.org/details/ancientcosmologi0000unse/page/110 110–39] |editor2=Loewe |editor-first2=Michael }}</ref> According to Macdonell: "the conception of the Earth being a disc surrounded by an ocean does not appear in the [[Samhita]]s. But it was naturally regarded as circular, being compared with a wheel (10.89) and expressly called circular (parimandala) in the ''[[Shatapatha Brahmana]]''."<ref>{{cite book |author=A. A. Macdonell |title=Vedic Mythology |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b7Meabtj8mcC&pg=PA9 |year=1986 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-1113-3 |page=9}}</ref>

By about the 5th century AD, the ''[[siddhanta]]'' astronomy texts of South Asia, particularly of [[Aryabhata]], assume a spherical Earth as they develop mathematical methods for quantitative astronomy for calendar and time keeping.<ref name="Plofker2009p50">Plofker ([[#CITEREFPlofker2009|2009]], pp.&nbsp;[https://books.google.com/books?id=DHvThPNp9yMC&pg=PA50 50–53]).</ref>

The medieval Indian texts called the [[Puranas]] describe the Earth as a flat-bottomed, circular disk with concentric oceans and continents.<ref name="Gombrich"/><ref name="Pingree (1978), 554f.">[[David Pingree|D. Pingree]]: "History of Mathematical Astronomy in India", ''Dictionary of Scientific Biography'', Vol. 15 (1978), pp.&nbsp;533–633 (554ff.), Quote: "In the Purānas, the Earth is a flat-bottomed, circular disk, in the center of which is a lofty mountain, Meru. Surrounding Meru is the circular continent Jambūdvīpa, which is in turn surrounded by a ring of water known as the Salt Ocean. There follow alternating rings of land and sea until there are seven continents and seven oceans. In the southern quarter of Jambūdvīpa lies India–Bhāratavarsa."</ref> This general scheme is present not only in the Hindu cosmologies, but also in [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] and [[Jainism|Jain]] cosmologies of South Asia.<ref name="Gombrich"/> However, some Puranas include other models. The fifth canto of the ''[[Bhagavata Purana]]'', for example, includes sections that describe the Earth both as flat and spherical.<ref name="Edelmann2013p58">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eEPfrzAwO0sC&pg=PA58 |title=The Bhagavata Purana: Sacred Text and Living Tradition |last=Edelmann |first=Jonathan |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-231-53147-4 |editor=Gupta |editor-first=Ravi M. |pages=58–59 |editor-last2=Valpey |editor-first2=Kenneth R.}}</ref><ref name=dimmitt4>{{cite book | last1 = Dimmitt | first1 = Cornelia | first2 = J. A. B.  |last2 = van Buitenen | title = Classical Hindu Mythology: A Reader in the Sanskrit Puranas | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=re7CR2jKn3QC| publisher = Temple University Press (1st Edition: 1977) | year = 2012 | isbn =978-1-4399-0464-0 |pages=4–5, 17–25, 46–47}}</ref>