In the far northern lands, there are people for whom it is night while others elsewhere enjoy the light of day. Just as these northern realms experience darkness, so too in the northern worlds, a radiant one shines forth, illuminating those distant regions. At dawn, especially in the sacred land of Somapura, the sun rises in all its brilliance. There, at the very moment of sunrise, the sun seems to leap from dawn straight to the intensity of midday. As the cycle continues, when midnight falls in the realm of restraint—known as Varuna’s region—the sun sets, withdrawing its light. Thus, ceaselessly moving and revolving, the sun journeys through the constellations, returning again and again at sunrise and sunset along its eternal course. At midday, the sun burns fiercely with its own rays, pouring heat and light upon the world. As the day wanes, its strength diminishes, and, like a herd of cows returning home, it proceeds toward its setting. While it shines in the east, its rays also illumine the regions behind and on either side, spreading its presence everywhere. When it finally disappears from view, that moment and place are called its setting. This disappearance is due to the remoteness of darkness and the curvature of the earth, which hides the sun from sight. Because of this, the planets, stars, the moon, and the sun themselves become visible to us. Fire possesses a bright shade, while the earth casts a dark one. The sun’s red appearance at certain times comes from the absence of moisture, its inherent redness, and a lack of warmth. The sun is seen at a tremendous height—one hundred thousand yojanas above the earth. Sometimes, fire seems to enter a mountain and, even from a distance, shines forth. When the sun unites with this fire, it heats the day, and by their mutual blending, both day and night are set ablaze with light. When the sun rises, night is said to enter the waters. Conversely, when the sun sets, the day is believed to enter the sun’s rays and depart. Through this ongoing process, both the southern and northern halves of the earth experience day and night: darkness, or night, is simply the absence of the sun’s light. As the sun moves through the middle of the continent called Puṣkara, it traverses a certain distance during each muhūrta—a unit of time. The number of yojanas it covers in a muhūrta is fifty thousand, plus some thousands more. Following this path, when the sun reaches the southernmost point, it revolves once more through the middle of Puṣkara during the southern solstice. At the southern point, the sun’s movement covers one hundred and forty-five thousand yojanas. When the sun turns back from the south and stands at the equinox, its orbit measures eighty-one hundred thousand yojanas. As the sun moves northward toward the sixth continent, Śākadvīpa, the distance from its starting point is one crore yojanas, with fifty-eight more added. There are also the root path, the sixth path, and three sunrise paths known as Ajavīthi, as well as the spaces between the sun’s beams. The interval between these beams is three hundred and thirty-three yojanas, and this separation between the beams and the lines holds true for both the southern and northern directions. In this way, the journey of the sun—its rising, setting, and movement through the heavens—is measured and described, illuminating not only the world but also the eternal order of time and space.