Debunking the myth that earth is fixed(Atharva ved 6.77.1 , Atharva Veda 6.44.1 )

Namaste 

Many maleecha allegate that in atharva veda it's written that earth is fixed. They always bring these translations

**Atharva veda 6.44.1** “The heavens have stood, the earth has stood, all creatures have stood. The mountains have stood upon their

foundation, the horses in the stable I have caused to stand.” Tr. Maurice Bloomfield

**Atharva veda 6.77.1** “The heavens have stood still, the earth has stood still, all creatures have stood still. The trees that sleep erect have stood still: may this disease of thine stand still!” Tr. Maurice Bloomfield 

Let's debunk it

As you can see these translations are done by Britishers and british translations are not reliable as it is mistranslated. 

The first argument these maleecha bring that the word 'अस्थाद्' means fixed not stable. 

Let's look at this sanskrit word 'अस्थाद्' (this word is not in modern sanskrit, so let's look at the word with common root) and find out it's meaning in dictionary.

 

The word  'अस्थाद्' stands for 'stable' Or 'constant' not for 'stop'. 

Now maleecha use the translation of aryasamaj Which translated the sanskrit word  'अस्थाद्' as 'ठहर'. 

Aryasamaj used the word 'ठहर' with respect to position not motion.It means, they intend to say that Earth is stopped (fixed) in its orbit, they didn't mean that Earth is not moving and none else than arya samaj themselves clarified it in their footnote:

**Atharva veda 6.44.1**

**Atharva veda 6.77.1**

These translations are done by arya samaj, so after concluding the word  'अस्थाद्' means stable and not fixed or stop. Maleecha say that this verse still don't say that earth is moving in its own orbit It could mean that earth is stable at one point in space as it is said in Atharva veda 6.77.1 that horse has now become stable after it got tied at his place and in Atharva veda 6.44.1 is a prayer to stop malady in which we can see there's a sentence like plants are stable may your malady become stable? Now let's refute this. 

As we know plants are fixed at one point but earth is not, maleecha use atharva veda 6.44.1

to show that earth is compared to trees and this proves that earth is fixed at one point in space and also uses atharva veda 6.77.1 where earth is compared with a horse who is tied at one point to prove that earth is fixed in space according to vedas. 

But as you can read these verses earth's stability is compared to the stability of tied horse and of trees. So what these verses were trying to tell is that earth is stable in it's own orbit like tree is stable in it's own area on land and also a tied horse who could move on land with respect to the length of rope. 

Now, let's see some verses from vedas which talk about motion of earth. 

**yajur veda 3.6** This Earth revolves in the space, it revolves with its mother water in its orbit. It moves round its father, the Sun.

**atharva veda 6.31.1** This moving earth, abiding by its mother, the atmospheric globe, circumambulating it's father, the bright sun, goes on and on its orbit in space. 

**atharva veda 3.31.4**  These heaven and earth are parted from each other, and parted are the ways going in different directions. So I free this man from all the evil and from wasting disease. I unite you with a long life.

**rig veda 10.22.14** The earth grows and expands without hands or feet by the sama showers of nature's existential forces worth knowing, since for the sake of world life you, Indra, repel and destroy the negative forces circumambulating the earth. 

(Here we can see how this verse in rig veda tells us that earth who is devoid of hands and legs moves in space.)

Secondly, as we already know that vedic scriptures are full of literary devices such as Metaphors, Similes, etc, so only intellectual people can interpret the very mean of the verses. That was the reason why only Brahmins used to read vedas, rest just listened to the sermons given by Brahmins on vedas. A person capable of interpreting vedas properly would be considered as Brahmin in context of dwaparyug, tretayug and before.

Even adi shankracharya in Kalyug took more than 4 years do completely master vedas. So one must not find defects in the vedas without properly interpreting it.

Conclusion:

So with this we could conclude that earth moves in space as we learned it by reading these verses and the comparison of earth with trees and tied horse (atharva veda 6:44:1 & atharva veda 6:77:1) was done between stability of motion of earth in space with stability of trees and tied horse and not between their state of motion. 

We hope this post helped you a lot and you are free to ask any doubts in comments. 

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