As we all know the earth revolves around the sun. Distance between the Sun and the Earth varies throughout the year, as the Earth’s orbit is slightly elliptical not circular. Jean richer and Giovanni Domenico Cassini were the first modern scientists who measured the distance between the Sun and the Earth in 1672.But it is astonishing that the Hindu text such as Vedas and Upanishads have guided the Indian Civilisation for thousands of years. Goswami Tulasidasa, the author of Hanuman Chalisa, mentioned the distance between The Sun and the Earth very accurately 2 Centuries before the 17th-century scientists.
As per modern science, The average distance between the Sun and the earth is about 149,597,870.691 km. The Earth is 147,166,672 km from the sun, considered as the nearest point known as Periapsis or Perihelion which falls around 3rd January.The farthest point is 152,171,522 km,called as Apoapsis or Aphelion which occurs around 3rd July.
If we decipher the calculation in Hanuman Chalisa, Tulasidasa recounts the incident when Hanuman, in his childhood, assuming the Sun to be a ripe mango, jumped to catch it:
Yuga-sahasra-yojana para Bhanu
leelyoTahimadhuraphalajanu
According to Bhagavad-gita and Manu Samhita, one day of Brahma is called Kalpa and is equal to 1000 yugas and this is followed by a similar duration of the night. Yojana is a Vedic measure of distance and approximately equals to 8 miles (according to the 14th-century scholar Parameshvara, the originator of drgganitasystem) 1 mile = 1.60934 kilometres.
1 yuga = 4,320,000 years = 12000 divine years,
yuga-sahasra-yojana = 12000 x 1000 yojanas.
Distance between Sun and Earth = 12000 x 1000 yojanas = 96 million miles = 153.6 million km, which is much closer to the calculation of the modern scientists.
This is astounding that Tulasidas mentioned the distance to this level of accuracy 2 centuries before the modern astronomers and scientists, when the Western astronomers, with the help of a telescope, were trying to figure out the distance.