Astrology is as old
as mankind. No intelligent man at any time in prehistory or history
could have looked up at the night sky and failed to notice the
countless shining bodies and wonder with awe and amazement at their
meaning and purpose. Long before man built cities, developed
agriculture and writing, he studied the heavenly bodies and tried
to relate their movements to his daily life on earth. Though no
written records survive, prehistoric megalithic monuments and stone
observatories such as those at Stonehenge in Britain and Carnac in
Brittany (France) are ample evidence to show that early man
throughout the ancient world had a reasonable and accurate
knowledge of the heavens.
In India also, the
early origins of astrology lie buried in unrecorded prehistory.
Traditional histories, the puranas, give only mythological origins
of astrology. They say that astrology originated among the gods.
Brahma, the cosmic creator, was the first to propagate astrology.
He taught the 'science of the luminous bodies' (jyotisa sastra) to
Surya, the sun god. From Surya, the knowledge was passed down,
generation after generation, through a line of divine and
semi-divine teachers, to Bhrgu (or Garga, according to the Visnu
Purana) the first human being to learn astrology. From Bhrgu
onwards, astrology became the common heritage of all
mankind.
Bhrgu is said to
have been a great sage, an accomplished scholar and seer. His
knowledge of astrology as well as his psychic powers were so highly
developed that he cast horoscopes for all mankind—past,
present and future. His horoscopes were preserved in a cryptic text
called the Bhrgtt Samhita, but his key to the text was lost.
A work of this title still exists, but whether it is the original
text of Bhrgu or not, and whether anyone has the correct key or
not, is difficult to say.
The Indus Valley
civilisation in north-west India was the first to reach a high
degree of sophistication in culture and religion. This civilisation
thrived in many small city-states from about 3000 B.C. to 1500 B.C.
During this period, archaeologists tell us, the cities were ruled
by a kind of religious oligarchy of priest-kings. Many elements of
present-day Hinduism— especially Tantra and Yoga— were
evolved by the people of the Indus Valley civilisation. And it
would, therefore, be reasonable to assume that they also studied
the stars and the planets and evolved a sophisticated system of
astrology and astronomy. But unfortunately, no written records
survive to tell us anything about the astrological knowledge of the
Indus Valley people.
The earliest
definite and written record of a systematic study of the heavens
comes from the Vedas. They were compiled over many centuries, from
about 1500 B.C. to 600 B.C., and give us a picture of the
development of astrological/ astronomical ideas over a long
period.
According to the
Vedic hymns, the universe was divided into three realms: the earth
(bhuh), the atmosphere (bhuvah) and the shining heavens (svah). The
sun, the moon, the planets and the stars were in the shining
heavens. The birds, the clouds and the demi-gods (gandharvas) lived
and moved around in the realm of the atmosphere. Man, animals and
plants lived on earth.
The sun was known to
influence the seasons. There are frequent references in the Vedas
to the solar year of 360 days, divided into 12 months of 30 days
each, with five seasons.
Some say that the
sun is the father of the universe. He has five feet (seasons) and
12 limbs (months). Some call him the maker of clouds full of rain.
He lives in the region above the atmosphere, halfway to heaven;
many others say that he is omniscient and that the whole universe
is fixed on him like seven wheels (days) with six spokes (seasons).
Each month of the year was given a name, but unlike the Hindu
months in use today, which are named after lunar asterisms, the
Vedic months were named after seasons. Madhu and Madhava (pleasant,
March-April-May) were the months of spring. Sukra (violent,
May-June) and Suci (clear, June-July) were the months of summer.
Nabhas and Nabhasya (cloudy, July- August- September) made up the
rainy season. The autumn months were called Isa (strong,
September-October) and Urja (powerful, October-November). The
winter months were Saha and Sahasya (tolerable, November- December-
January). From the middle of January, the weather became warmer and
so the late winter months were known as Tapas (warm,
January-February) and Tapasya (warmer,
February-March).
Besides the solar
year, the Vedic scholars had correctly understood the importance of
the phases of the moon in telling time. A lunar month was reckoned
from one full moon to the next. At some stage they correlated the
solar and lunar years. The lunar year was, however, much shorter
than the 360-day solar year. To adjust this difference, they added
intercalary months, and there are frequent references to this
adjustment.
He, the upholder of
the law (Varuna), knows the twelve months (of the year) as well as
their offspring (fortnights and days), and he also knows that
(intercalary month) which is born of them.
But exactly how this
was done mathematically is not known.
The
ecliptic—the apparent path of the sun—was divided into
27 lunar mansions. Each lunar mansion was based on a single or a
group of stars. The annual passage of the sun and the monthly
revolutions of the moon through the 27 lunar mansions (asterisms,
naksatras) were used to calculate the times of important sacrifices
and rituals.
The Vedic
astronomers/astrologers had calculated the extreme positions of the
sun at summer and winter solstices, the two equinoxes and the
apparent movement of the sun in the northern and southern
hemispheres. A Vedic hymn calls the northern passage of the sun the
path of the gods (devayana), and the southern passage the path of
the departed souls (pitryana):
Spring, summer and
the rains are of the gods. Autumn, the cool season and winter are
seasons of the manes. The fortnight of the waxing moon is of the
gods; the fortnight of the waning moon is of the ancestors. The day
is of the gods and the nights are of the manes. The first part of
the day belongs to the deities and the second part to the spirits
of the departed. When the sun turns north he is said to be
protecting the gods, and when he turns south, he is with the manes
to protect them.
Vedic
astronomers/astrologers also studied the apparent movements of the
sun and the stars that appear to rise and set with it. In this way
they were able to determine the points of the compass. In short,
the Vedic priests had acquired quite a lot of accurate knowledge of
the heavens, and a study of astronomy was considered to be one of
the aids (anga) to the understanding of the Vedic texts. And yet,
they did not use their knowledge of the stars and planets to cast
horoscopes. Their entire knowledge was used to construct a ritual
calendar for the many fire sacrifices.
From late Vedic
times (600 B.C.) right up to the beginning of the Christian era
astrology was condemned, and astrologers who cast horoscopes and
foretold the future were considered socially inferior. The Buddha
denounced all systems of prediction, including astrology, as one of
the 64 heresies to be shunned by the nobles (Aryas). And Kautilya
grouped astrologers with such low caste employees of the king as
bards and priests' servants.
At the beginning of
the Christian era, many Indo-Greek colonies were established in
north-west India, leading to a gradual absorption of Greek ideas
into the Indian system. Out of this mixing, a new and more
sophisticated system of astrology was born. And with the coming of
new ideas into Indian astrology, came a new respect for the art of
foretelling the future. Brahmin priests no longer regarded it as an
impure art, nor was its study relegated to the lower castes in
society; the Brahmin priests themselves became masters of
astrology. The great astrologer Varahamihira (550 A.D.) quotes from
the lost work of his predecessor Garga as saying:
'If even the Greeks and the barbarians are
respected and honoured like sages for their well established system
of astrology, then should not a Brahmin skilled in astrology be
honoured even more?'
The entire credit of
developing a unified system of astrology based on a thorough
understanding of traditional Indian and Greek ideas goes to
Varahamihira. He was born at Avanti (modern Ujjain in Madhya
Pradesh) in the early years of the 6th century A.D. His father
Adityasena belonged to a caste of sun-worshipping Maga Brahmins who
traced their descent from the priestly Magi of ancient Persia.
Under his father's guidance, Varahamihira became a distinguished
astrologer, astronomer, mathematician and poet. In nine treatises
he systematised and summarised all the available knowledge of
astronomy, astrology and divination.