Hindu astrology, also called Indian astrology, jyotisha (; ) and, more recently, Vedic astrology, is the traditional Hindu system of astrology. It is one of the six auxiliary disciplines in Hinduism that is connected with the study of the Vedas.
The Vedanga Jyotisha is one of the earliest texts about astronomy within the Vedas. Some scholars believe that the horoscopic astrology practiced in the Indian subcontinent came from Hellenistic influences. However, this is a point of intense debate, and other scholars believe that Jyotisha developed independently, although it may have interacted with Greek astrology.
The scientific consensus is that astrology is a pseudoscience.
Etymology Jyotisha, states Monier-Williams, is rooted in the word Jyotish, which means light, such as that of the sun or the moon or a heavenly body. The term Jyotisha includes the study of astronomy, astrology, and the science of timekeeping using the movements of astronomical bodies. It aimed to keep time, maintain calendars, and predict auspicious times for Vedic rituals.
History and core principles
Jyotiṣa is one of the Vedāṅga, the six auxiliary disciplines used to support Vedic rituals. Early jyotiṣa is concerned with the preparation of a calendar to determine dates for sacrificial rituals, with nothing written regarding planets. There are mentions of eclipse-causing "demons" in the Atharvaveda and Chāndogya Upaniṣad, the latter mentioning Rāhu (a shadow entity believed responsible for eclipses and meteors). The Ṛigveda also mentions an eclipse-causing demon, Svarbhānu. However, the specific term graha was not applied to Svarbhānu until the later Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa.
The foundation of Hindu astrology is the notion of bandhu of the Vedas (scriptures), which is the connection between the microcosm and the macrocosm. The practice relies primarily on the sidereal zodiac, which differs from the tropical zodiac used in Western (Hellenistic) astrology in that an ayanāṃśa adjustment is made for the gradual precession of the vernal equinox. Hindu astrology includes several nuanced sub-systems of interpretation and prediction with elements not found in Hellenistic astrology, such as its system of lunar mansions (Nakṣatra). It was only after the transmission of Hellenistic astrology that the order of planets in India was fixed in that of the seven-day week. Hellenistic astrology and astronomy also transmitted the twelve zodiacal signs beginning with Aries and the twelve astrological places beginning with the ascendant. The first evidence of the introduction of Greek astrology to India is the Yavanajātaka which dates to the early centuries CE. The Yavanajātaka ( "Sayings of the Greeks") was translated from Greek to Sanskrit by Yavaneśvara during the 2nd century CE, and is considered the first Indian astrological treatise in the Sanskrit language.Mc Evilley "The shape of ancient thought", p. 385 ("The Yavanajātaka is the earliest surviving Sanskrit text in horoscopy, and constitute the basis of all later Indian developments in horoscopy", himself quoting David Pingree "The Yavanajātaka of Sphujidhvaja" p. 5) However the only version that survives is the verse version of Sphujidhvaja which dates to 270 CE. The first Indian astronomical text to define the weekday was the Āryabhaṭīya of Āryabhaṭa (born 476 CE).
In the 300 years between the first Yavanajataka and the Āryabhaṭīya, Indian astronomers likely focused on Indianizing and Sanskritizing Greek astronomy, according to Michio Yano. No astronomical texts are available from this period. The later Pañcasiddhāntikā of Varāhamihira summarizes the five known Indian astronomical schools of the sixth century. Indian astronomy preserved some of the older pre-Ptolemaic elements of Greek astronomy.
The main texts upon which classical Indian astrology is based are early medieval compilations, notably the , and Sārāvalī by . The Horāshastra is a composite work of 71 chapters, of which the first part (chapters 1–51) dates to the 7th to early 8th centuries and the second part (chapters 52–71) to the late 8th century. The Sārāvalī likewise dates to around 800 CE. N. N. Krishna Rau and V. B. Choudhari published English translations of these texts in 1963 and 1961, respectively.
Modern Hindu astrology
Astrology remains an important facet of folk belief in the contemporary lives of many Hindus. In Hindu culture, newborns are traditionally named based on their jyotiṣa charts (kundali), and astrological concepts are pervasive in the organization of the Hindu calendar and holidays and in making major decisions such as those about marriage, opening a new business, or moving into a new home. Many Hindus believe that heavenly bodies, including the planets, have an influence throughout the life of a human being, and these planetary influences are the "fruit of karma". The Navagraha, planetary deities, are considered subordinate to Ishvara (the Hindu concept of a supreme being) in the administration of justice. Thus, it is believed that these planets can influence earthly life.
Scientific status
The scientific community has rejected astrology as having no explanatory power for describing the universe. Scientific testing of astrology has been conducted, and no evidence has been found to support any of the premises or purported effects outlined in astrological traditions. There is no mechanism proposed by astrologers through which the positions and motions of stars and planets could affect people and events on Earth. In spite of its status as a pseudoscience, in certain religious, political, and legal contexts, astrology retains a position among the sciences in modern India.
India's University Grants Commission and Ministry of Human Resource Development decided to introduce "Jyotir Vigyan" (i.e. ) or "Vedic astrology" as a discipline of study in Indian universities, stating that "vedic astrology is not only one of the main subjects of our traditional and classical knowledge but this is the discipline, which lets us know the events happening in human life and in universe on time scale" in spite of the lack of evidence that astrology allows for such accurate predictions. The decision was backed by a 2001 judgment of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, and some Indian universities offer advanced degrees in astrology.Mohan Rao, Female foeticide: where do we go? Indian Journal of Medical Ethics Oct-Dec2001-9(4), issuesinmedicalethics.org This was met with widespread protests from the scientific community in India and Indian scientists working abroad. A petition sent to the Supreme Court of India stated that the introduction of astrology to university curricula is "a giant leap backwards, undermining whatever scientific credibility the country has achieved so far".
In 2004, the Supreme Court dismissed the petition,Astrology On A Pedestal , Ram Ramachandran, Frontline Volume 21, Issue 12, Jun. 05 - 18, 2004Introduction of Vedic astrology courses in varsities upheld, The Hindu, Thursday, May 06, 2004 concluding that the teaching of astrology did not qualify as the promotion of religion. In February 2011, the Bombay High Court referred to the 2004 Supreme Court ruling when it dismissed a case which had challenged astrology's status as a science. despite continuing complaints by scientists, astrology continues to be taught at various universities in India, and there is a movement in progress to establish a national Vedic University to teach astrology together with the study of tantra, mantra, and yoga.
Sceptics have debunked the claims made by Indian astrologers. For example, although the planet Saturn is in the constellation Aries roughly every 30 years (e.g. 1909, 1939, 1968), the astrologer Bangalore Venkata Raman claimed that "when Saturn was in Aries in 1939 England had to declare war against Germany", ignoring all the other dates. Astrologers regularly fail in attempts to predict election results in India, and fail to predict major events such as the assassination of Indira Gandhi. Predictions by the head of the Indian Astrologers Federation about war between India and Pakistan in 1982 also failed.
In 2000, when several planets happened to be close to one another, astrologers predicted that there would be catastrophes, volcanic eruptions and tidal waves. This caused an entire sea-side village in the Indian state of Gujarat to panic and abandon their houses. The predicted events did not occur and the vacant houses were burgled.
Texts
The ancient extant text on Jyotisha is the Vedanga-Jyotisha, which exists in two editions, one linked to the Rigveda and other to Yajurveda. The Rigveda version consists of 36 verses, while the Yajurveda recension has 43 verses of which 29 verses are borrowed from the Rigveda. The Rigveda version is attributed to the sage Lagadha and sometimes to the sage Shuci. The Yajurveda version does not attribute credit to any specific sage, has endured into the modern era with a commentary by Somakara, and is considered the more studied version.
The Jyotisha text Brahma-siddhanta, probably composed in the 5th century CE, discusses how to use the movements of the planets, Sun and Moon to keep time and maintain a calendar. This text also lists trigonometry and mathematical formulae to support its theory of orbits, predict planetary positions and calculate relative mean positions of celestial nodes and apsides. The text is notable for presenting very large integers, such as the lifetime of the current universe being 4.32 billion years.
The ancient Hindu texts on Jyotisha discuss only timekeeping and never mention astrology or prophecy. These ancient texts predominantly cover astronomy, but at a rudimentary level. Technical horoscopes and astrological ideas in India came from Greece and developed in the early centuries of the 1st millennium CE. Later medieval era texts such as the Yavana-jataka and the Siddhanta texts are more astrology-related.
Evolution of Vedic timekeeping The field of Jyotisha deals with ascertaining time, particularly forecasting auspicious days and times for Vedic rituals. The field of Vedanga structured time into Yuga, a five year interval, divided into multiple lunisolar intervals such as 60 solar months, 61 savana months, 62 synodic months and 67 sidereal months. A Vedic Yuga had 1,860 tithis (, dates), and it defined a savana-day (civil day) from one sunrise to another.
The Rigvedic version of Jyotisha may be a later insertion into the Veda, states David Pingree, possibly between 513 and 326 BCE, when the Indus Valley was occupied by the Achaemenid from Mesopotamia. The mathematics and devices for timekeeping mentioned in these ancient Sanskrit texts, proposes Pingree, such as the water clock, may also have arrived in India from Mesopotamia. However, Yukio Ohashi considers this proposal as incorrect, suggesting instead that the Vedic timekeeping efforts, for forecasting appropriate times for rituals, must have begun much earlier and the influence may have flowed from India to Mesopotamia. Ohashi states that it is incorrect to assume that the number of civil days in a year equals 365 in both the Hindu and Egyptian–Persian years. Further, adds Ohashi, the Mesopotamian formula is different from the Indian formula for calculating time, each can only work for their respective latitude, and either would make major errors in predicting time and calendar in the other region. According to Asko Parpola, the Jyotisha and luni-solar calendar discoveries in ancient India, and similar discoveries in China in "great likelihood result from convergent parallel development", and not from diffusion from Mesopotamia.Asko Parpola (2013), "Beginnings of Indian Astronomy, with Reference to a Parallel Development in China", History of Science in South Asia, Vol. 1, pages 21–25