Sriyantra

Ritual specification of the composition of nine intersecting triangles central to the diagram Sri Yantra requires that the triangles be laid out such as to make twenty-four triple intersections. The deceptively simple geometry demands impossibly huge number of mathematical iterations when logic of modern mathematics is applied to ‘solve it’. Geometrically accurate traditional drawing of Sri Yantra is not available. Instructions noted in ancient commentaries are also only approximate and do not give accurate results – the instructions appear even cryptic and coded. In recent times, renewed interest in the diagram as an object of meditation has led to fresh research on it seeking ‘similar looking alternative constructs’ based on comparative analysis of sacred geometry of the east and the west. Yet accurate construction of Sri Yantra has remained elusive.
This paper presents a reconstruction of the traditional instructions on drawing the Sri Yantra based on analysis of background classical treatises and offers the highest level of accuracy so far achieved. The current article examines Sri Yantra as an instrument of unified astronomical and astrological measure of universe and shows that it is a mathematical diagram of geocentric space and time as understood in Hindu thoughts. The geometry of the diagram incorporates an annual correction equivalent to 5.25875 days at the time of winter solstice (daxinayan) and reconciles the circle representing the universe spatially measured as having an angle of 3600 and time wise as ‘one year’ of 365.25875 days or as many degrees. The magic of the diagram is this accurate statement of time and space through the geometry of triangles. Download this article