Ever since the advent of consciousness, mankind has had an innate inquisitiveness about them. The desire to understand why things are happening and to control their future occurrences is as old as history itself. The power to look into the future and divine that-which-hasn’t-happened is an ability that many civilizations in history have tried to achieve. The planets in our solar system and the backdrop of the stars behind them has been a favorite way to look at the future. In this exposition, we take a look at one such system of divination, the Vedic astrology system.

In the beginning…

The very beginning of Vedic astrology can be traced to a book called Vedanga Jyotish. It was one of the six Anga (bodies) incorporated in the Rigved. Written in early Sanskrit, Rigved itself the oldest extant book of any child of the Proto-Indo-European language. Jyotish in literal translation means “Light” (From the Sanskrit root Jyoti). But if you open up Vedang Jyotish and expect to see language about divination, you’ll be disappointed. Vedang Jyotish, while remarkable for its time was mostly a timekeeping operation. In the broadest sense it is a calendar, though it adds a lot more than just months. Hidden in this mundane timekeeping, is the seed of astrology. This is the first book to mention Nakshatra, the first indication that people were using stars as their references. The idea that stars are stable and planets move around their backdrop is the central theme to any astrology discourse. While we no longer need the timekeeping described in Vedanga Jyotish, it remains a relic of the ingenuity of the ancient Indians.

The Vedic period

What started from Vedanga Jyotish continued for almost a thousand years. There is a lot of Indology scholarly work on Vedanga Jyotish to date the text. Results vary from 1200 BCE to as early as 300 BCE. Whether this is a standalone book or was an anthology of other literature of that period is also open to interpretation by scholars. What we know for certain is this remains the only text related to what we now call astrology. There were other books which reference the terms used in Vedanga Jyotish. One likes to think that when 300 BCE came along, the ancient Indians were already using constellations to divine the future, but unfortunately if such books were written they are now lost to time.

Clash of the civilizations

The reason, the decades before 300 BCE are important is because of something completely unrelated to astrology. History through its multi pronged approach touches a lot more than what’s apparent when its happening. In the spring of 327 BCE Alexander the great began his expedition into India. By July, he had conquered the Gandhara kingdom, the Taxila kingdom and routed king Porus at the river Hyphasis (Modern day parts of eastern Iran, Afghanistan and central Pakistan). Faced with the prospects of invading heavily armed empires of the Gangetic plains, Alexander’s army mutinied and he turned back. On his way out he installed satraps, more or less local governors ruling in his name. Alexander died a few years later on his way back to Macedonia. His satraps more or less held on to power towards the end of the century. By 303 BCE the satraps fell and the territory was once again in hands of Indian kings.

So what was the point of that history lesson? Alexanders little incursion into India and the resulting 20+ years of occupation was the focal point of one of the greatest knowledge sharing periods for the ancient civilizations. Hellenistic astrology had developed independently of Vedic astrology. This knowledge sharing brought a realization to both civilizations of what they had independently achieved. Both Hellenistic and Vedic systems had identified the first five planets, they had identified the relative stability of the stars, used moon to keep a calendar and invented methods to adjust it to a solar year. Scholars from both sides, seeing each others as equals shared ideas, thoughts and their empirical observations leading to the creation of modern Vedic astrology.

The Greeks

Centuries following Alexander established a regular trading route from India to eastern Europe facilitating a free flow of scholars and knowledge. We already know Indians were using the Nakshatras to divide the ecliptic into 28 (Later 27) parts. They now added on the twelve signs on top of these Nakshatras to create the first roadmap of modern Indian astrology. The twelve signs of astrology (tropical or Vedic) are a result of this Indo-Hellenistic knowledge sharing. What the Greek side learned from Indians is now lost to history. A lot of it destroyed with the collapse of the library at Alexandria in Egypt.

The earliest known Greek influence on Vedic astrology is a book now lost to history, Yavanjatakam. Written by a person happily known as just Yavaneshwara, the name of the book translates to “Ways of the Greek” (Yavan literally means “invaders” i.e. Greeks). Parts of the book referenced in later books is the reason we know the existence and contents of this long lost book. This is said to be the first western influenced book of Vedic astrology. Following Yavanjatakam, we see a string of book influenced by Hellenistic astrology like Paulisa Siddhant (“Principles of Paul”) – influenced by Paul of Alexandria and Romanka Siddhant (“Principles of the Romans”) – influenced by the Byzantine empire’s astrology. Through these books we see the influence of Greco-Byzantines on the Vedic astrology. The source of these books, the knowledge of astrology of the ancient Greeks and Byzantines remains incomplete, as a lot was lost when Byzantine empire fell to the Ottomans in 1453 CE.

The Golden Age

Five hundred or so years following the first book Yavanjatakam, we see an explosion of Vedic astrology research. This is truly the golden age of Vedic astrology. This is the coming of age of Vedic astrology. By the end of this time, the rules of astrology will have been formalized and the twelve signs, initially just a blip of Greek influence are truly incorporated in the ways of Vedic astrology. This age is characterized by a string of scholars who expounded on the mathematical and the divination aspect of Vedic astrology. Scholars like Varahmihir, Parashar, Mantreshwar wrote volumes upon volumes dedicated to the art of divination. This is where the true delineation between the mathematics, the time keeping and the divination occurs, resulting in creation of a whole new branch of Vedic astrology called Phala shatra. This is the true essence of what we now know as Vedic astrology.

In the next blog post, I will write more on this golden age of Vedic astrology.