Wheel of earth - agni

mUrdhAnaM divo aratim pR^ithivyA
vaishvAnaram R^ita A jAtam agnim |
kaviM samrAjam atithiM janAnAm
Asann A pAtraM janayanta devAH ||

One of the awe-inspiring motifs in shruti is that of agni at the head of heaven, as the wheel of earth & as the cup from which the gods feed

The head of Heaven, the spoked wheel of Earth,
agni vaishvAnara born in the natural law,
the seer, the emperor, the guest of the folks,
As a cup for the mouth, the gods generated.

Both metaphors, “head of heaven”& “the mouth of the gods” likely represented year beginning colures

The phrase of the “wheel of earth/people” occurs multiple times across different authors.:

• bharadvAja: aratim pR^ithivyA;
• gR^itsamada: divaspR^ithivyor aratiM ny erire |;
• vAmadeva: devAso devam aratiM nyerira iti kratvA nyerire |;
• vasiShTha: havyavAham aratim mAnuShANAm |;
• vatsapri: vishAm akR^iNvann aratim pAvakaM

It is a concept that today appears difficult to grasp but is clearly related to the ancient motif of the wheel that was common among the Indo-Europeans. In the context of the earth we wonder if it was an early knowledge of the earth turning around like a wheel. Such a metaphor is indeed used sometimes in later H astronomical texts and ridiculed by the geostationary thinkers like appayya dIkShita.