Research notes · Sources · 5,180 words

Internet Archive primary-source corpus for Jyotisha, and three user-supplied philosophy/ethics sources

Method note: all counts below come from live queries to the archive.org Advanced Search API (advancedsearch.php, rows=500, run 2026-10-13) and the Metadata API (archive.org/metadata/{id}). For about 25 items I opened the metadata, and for 12 of them I downloaded and inspected the _djvu.txt OCR. I downloaded and searched the full OCR text of both Part B books (Paramatmaprakasa: 1.22M characters; Hindi ethics book: 0.83M characters). Item identifiers can be opened at https://archive.org/details/{identifier}. "DL" = number of archive.org downloads at query time, a rough guide to popularity.

Q1. What is the realistic size and quality of the archive.org primary-source corpus for Jyotisha?

Takeaway

The corpus is large: thousands of items have astrology terms in the title, and nearly every classical text exists in several scans. Only a small core is usable as a clean primary source, though: about 30–40 distinct, out-of-copyright editions or translations with usable OCR. The Kashi Jangamwadi Math collection adds roughly 40–50 real Jyotisha titles. These are mostly printed Hindi/Sanskrit/Marathi commentaries from 1890–1980 with machine OCR of variable quality, and only 3 of them are manuscripts. Two problems recur. Many of the most-downloaded items are user uploads of modern copyrighted translations, and the OCR on Digital Library of India (DLI) scans is often garbage when the language tag is wrong.

Cited Findings

Overall size

The search title:(astrology OR jyotish OR jyotisha OR jataka OR horoscope) AND mediatype:texts returns 4,784 items. The narrower title:(jyotish OR jyotisha OR jyotisa OR jyotishya) returns 1,321. — archive.org advancedsearch
Inside the Digital Library of India collection, a title search for jyotish/jataka/hora/muhurta/astrology/horoscope/tajika/prasna/siddhanta/panchang returns 1,195 items. The DLI collection as a whole (in.ernet.dli.2015.*) holds about 383,000 items. — archive.org advancedsearch, collection:digitallibraryindia
Hit counts by text: Surya Siddhanta 110; BPHS / Brihat Jataka / hora 79; Brihat Samhita 92; Muhurta texts 112; Saravali / Phaladeepika / Jataka Parijata / Uttara Kalamrita / Sarvartha Chintamani 96; Prasna texts 17; Tajika / Varshaphal 44; Nadi / Bhrigu 82; Jaimini Sutras 31 (some are Mimamsa sutras, not astrology); Vedanga Jyotisha / Atharva Parisishta 27; Garga Samhita / Yavanajataka 61; siddhanta and astronomy (Aryabhatiya, Panchasiddhantika, Lilavati, etc.) 317. These counts are noisy upper bounds. — archive.org advancedsearch

Kashi Jangamwadi Math collection (user-supplied)

The collection holds 5,641 items in total. — kashijangamwadimath
The suggested keyword query (jyotish OR jyotisha OR hora OR jataka OR muhurta OR panchang OR siddhanta OR samhita OR astrology OR astronomy) returns 257 items. Most are false positives: Vedic samhitas, the grammar work Siddhanta Kaumudi, Shaiva siddhanta, Parashara Dharma Samhita, and the Buddhist Jataka Mala. Filtering the titles leaves about 45 relevant items. A title-only search returns 70, of which about 50 are genuinely astrological (Jyotisha, prashna, graha-shanti, panchang, nakshatra). — kashijangamwadimath search
Devanagari queries (ज्योतिष, जातक, होरा, मुहूर्त, सिद्धान्त, पञ्चाङ्ग) return 0 hits. The collection's metadata is entirely romanized, so you have to search in roman script. — archive.org advancedsearch
Format: almost all are printed books with OCR text (_djvu.txt, Tesseract 4.1–5.3). The OCR language follows the script: Devanagari (detected as hi/mr/ne), Kannada, Tamil or Bengali. Only 3 Jyotisha items are manuscripts: Lagna Chandrika (Sanskrit manuscript) and Samantraka Graha Shanti Prayoga (2 copies). They have OCR too, but it is barely usable, with unspaced, error-filled Devanagari. — e.g. lagna-chandrika-sanskrit-manuscript-jangamwadi-math-collection
OCR quality on the printed Hindi commentaries is good to fair. A 1939 Muhurta Chintamani with Pyarelal Mishra's Hindi commentary reads cleanly, with a few Latin-character glitches. The prashna text Prashna Kutuhal has readable Sanskrit and Hindi with broken diacritics. The Bhrigu Samhita ephemeris tables are numerically garbled. — UCCy Muhurta Chintamani; HtUq Prashna Kutuhal

Notable Kashi Jangamwadi Math Jyotisha titles (identifier prefix → title, date where given)

CpXR_vedanga-jyotisha-edited-with-trans.-and-sanskrit-commentary-by-r-… → Vedanga Jyotisha, R. Shama Shastry, 1936 (two further copies: EfNG_…, qDvL_…)
syRa_muhurta-martand-of-narayan-with-bhashatika-by-modduram-1922-khemraj → Muhurta Martanda with Hindi tika, 1922, Khemraj
muhurta-martanda-with-martand-vallabh-of-vitthal-sanskrit-printed-… → Muhurta Martanda with Martanda-Vallabha commentary
Vkfo_… and UCCy_… → Muhurta Chintamani of Rama Daivajna, Pyarelal Mishra Hindi commentary, 1939
muhurta-chintamani-with-parimita-aksharakhya-tika-… → Muhurta Chintamani with Sanskrit tika
nyxB_jataka-abharanam-by-dundiraj-daivagna-chowkhamba-sanskrit-series-… → Jatakabharanam of Dhundhiraja
jataka-alankara-with-tika-by-krishna-daya-bharana-… → Jatakalankara with tika
lHMq_puranika-brihata-parasara-samhita-… → "Puranika Brihat Parashara Samhita"
ZSCB_vrihat-samhita-of-varah-mihir-compiled-by-rasik-mohan-chattopadyay-… → Brihat Samhita, Bengali edition, partly damaged
XdXQ_bhrigu-samhita-kundali-khanda-… and bhrigu-sanhita-kundali-khand-… → Bhrigu Samhita Kundali Khanda, Ayodhya Prasad Mishra, 1915 Jhansi
HtUq_prashna-kutuhal-… → Prashna Kutuhal; MTKd_…/Tlbh_… → Mahalakshmi Prashna Shastra (Telugu)
nUbq_ati-brihat-avakahada-chakram-… → Avakahada Chakram, 2nd ed. 1932
shri-jyotish-sar-aur-jyotish-ratna-sara-of-sahdeb-1890-… → Jyotish Sar / Jyotish Ratna Sara, 1890 Mumbai
brihat-jyotish-arnava-dharma-skandh-… → Brihat Jyotisharnava (Dharma Skandha), Khemraj 1899
LwmD_brihat-jyotish-sara-…, LVha_jyotish-sar-…, DsAE_jyotish-sar-… (Marathi) → Jyotish Sara manuals
graha-prayoga-graha-shanti-…, sa-mantrak-graha-shanti-prayog-… → graha-shanti (remedial ritual) manuals
PCpv_/NTAv_shambhar-varshanche-panchang-… → 100-year panchang (Marathi), 1910; osAT_pannas-varshanche-panchang-from-1936-to-1985-…; pjIC_/nNyr_brihat-panchang-phaladarsh-… (1924/1934)
GZPF_nakshatra-chuda-ratna-… (Kannada, 1963); xBIr_jataka-ganitam-tamil-… (1981); iCpQ_jataka-lakina-sputa-… (Tamil, 1956); ebmc_rahu-ketu-aur-ggrahan-vichar-… (1962); ywsN_notable-horoscopes-… (B. V. Raman, modern, copyrighted) — all at kashijangamwadimath

Siddhanta / astronomy

SuryaSiddhantaTranslation | Surya Siddhanta tr. | Ebenezer Burgess | 1860 | eng | yes (DL 134k) | PD — link
in.ernet.dli.2015.96668 / dli.bengal.10689.17955 / bub_gb_AhXKVWQ_1ZsC | Translation of the Surya-Siddhanta | Burgess | 1860 | eng | yes | PD — link
jstor-592174 | Burgess Surya-Siddhanta (JAOS) | 1858 | eng | PD — link
in.ernet.dli.2015.46927 | Translation of the Surya Siddhanta | Lancelot Wilkinson / Bapu Deva Sastri | 1861 | eng | yes | PD — link
in.ernet.dli.2015.69065 | Translation of the Surya-siddhanta (Burgess reprint) | P. Gangooly ed. | 1935 | eng | yes | Burgess text PD; the 1935 introduction is probably still protected — link
in.ernet.dli.2015.485518 | The Surya Siddhanta | Sudhakara Dvivedi | 1911 | san | yes | PD — link
in.ernet.dli.2015.406066 | Surya Siddhant (Hindi tika) | Udaya Narayan Singh | 1867 (DLI date; doubtful) | san | yes | likely PD — link
in.ernet.dli.2015.110157 / dli.csl.6388 / wg1078 | The Panchasiddhantika | G. Thibaut & Sudhakara Dvivedi | 1889 | eng/san | yes | PD — link
aryabhatiyawithc00arya | Aryabhatiya with Paramesvara's Bhatadipika | H. Kern | 1874 | san | yes | PD — link
TheAryabhatiyaOfAryabhata | The Aryabhatiya | W. E. Clark | 1930 | eng | ABBYY OCR | US PD since 1 Jan 2026 — link
Aryabhatiya_with_Tika_of_Paramesvara_and_Hindi_Translation_by_Uday_Nar… | Aryabhatiya, Hindi | Uday Narayan Singh | 1906 | san/hin | PD — link
in.ernet.dli.2015.406050 | Siddhanta Siromani | Girija Prasad | 1911 | san | likely PD — link
in.ernet.dli.2015.485468 | Grahalaghava | Kapilesvara Sastri | 1946 | san | copyright status uncertain — link
EtgU_lilavati-of-bhaskaracharya-1908-khemraj | Lilavati (mathematics) | 1908 | san | PD — link
hinduastronomy00brenuoft | Hindu Astronomy | W. Brennand | 1896 | eng | PD — link
ahistoricalview00bentgoog | A Historical View of the Hindu Astronomy | John Bentley | 1825 | eng | PD — link
in.ernet.dli.2015.344379 | Bharatiya Jyotish (history) | S. B. Dikshit | 1931 (DLI language tag "san"; language and edition not verified, possibly the Marathi 2nd ed.) | Dikshit's own text likely PD (he died 1898, from background knowledge) — link

Avoid: Brahmasphutasiddhanta_Vol_1 (1966), Aryabhatiya1976 (Shukla/Sarma, INSA), IndianAstronomyASourcebook. All are modern and copyrighted.

Avoid (modern, copyrighted, user uploads): BPHSEnglish / brihatparasarahorashastrabyr.santhanam (R. Santhanam, 1984; DL 435k / 94k), HoraSaraRSanthanamEng, Phaladeepika2ndEd.1950…, kupdf.net_uttkalamrita…, brihatparasarahorasastrawithenglishtranslationgirishchandsharma….

Avoid: Brihatsamhita (M. R. Bhat, MLBD; DL 107k), JvEo_… (Achyutananda Jha, Chaukhamba).

Avoid: in.ernet.dli.2015.128092 (B. V. Raman, Muhurtha, 1948), Kalaprakasika1982EditionByN.Iyer.

Avoid: PrasnaMargaBVR (B. V. Raman), UJrg_prasna-tantra-… (Raman).

Avoid: VarshaphalOrTheHinduProgressedHoroscope (B. V. Raman, 1941).

Avoid: Santhanam's Chandra Kala Nadi (1993) and R. G. Rao's nadi books.

Avoid: BhagavataPuranaMotilalEnglish (Motilal Banarsidass, AITM series), SrimadBhagavatamEnglish-Sanskrit (BBT).

A title search for Jyotishkarandaka returned no items.

The "Jyotish" item (https://archive.org/metadata/Jyotish)

It is a single community upload titled "Jyotish books", described as "many astrology books", with 13 PDFs. These are modern copyrighted works: T. M. Rao's Bhrigu Samhita, K. P. system (Khullar), Stree Jataka, Jataka Tattvam, an encyclopedia of dasha systems, astrocartography books and others. It is not a primary-source collection. — Jyotish

OCR quality, verified in samples

DLI scans were re-OCR'd by the Internet Archive with Tesseract, using the DLI language tag (ocr_parameters: -l san). English books tagged "san" therefore come out as unreadable pseudo-Devanagari. Confirmed for B. Suryanarain Rao's 1919 Brihat Jataka (in.ernet.dli.2015.406251, detected script "Cyrillic") and for the English introduction of the Paramatmaprakasa. English DLI items correctly tagged "eng" (e.g. in.ernet.dli.2015.92117 Phaladeepika, in.ernet.dli.2015.47536 Vishnu Purana) have ABBYY FineReader OCR and are usable. — in.ernet.dli.2015.406251; in.ernet.dli.2015.92117
Sanskrit-in-Devanagari OCR (e.g. saravali00kalyuoft, Tesseract -l san) is usable for search and rough reading, but needs proofreading before it can be quoted. — saravali00kalyuoft
Many DLI date fields are wrong or are reprint dates, e.g. Sarvartha Chintamani "1816", Tajika Sara "1820", Muhurta Martanda "1819". Several community uploads carry an uploader's name in the "creator" field instead of the author. — in.ernet.dli.2015.241659

Inferences

For a site built on primary sources, a realistic "clean core" is about 30–40 editions. In English: Burgess's Surya Siddhanta (1860); Chidambaram Iyer's Brihat Jataka (1885/1905) and Brihat Samhita (1884); Kern's Brihat Samhita (1865); Thibaut and Dvivedi's Panchasiddhantika (1889); Kern's Aryabhatiya (1874); Clark's Aryabhatiya (1930); Suryanarain Rao's Brihat Jataka (1919) and Jaimini Sutras (1911); Subramania Iyer's Kalaprakasika (1917); Tilak on the Vedanga Jyotisha; Wilson's Vishnu Purana; the Bolling Atharva Parisishtas; Thibaut on the Suryaprajnapti. In Sanskrit: Dvivedi's Brihat Samhita (1897) and Surya Siddhanta (1911); Saravali (1907); Jataka Parijata (1922); and the Khemraj/Venkateshwar Press editions from before 1931.
BPHS is the most-downloaded Jyotisha text on the archive, but it has no clean public-domain English translation there. Every popular English BPHS (Santhanam, G. C. Sharma) is modern and copyrighted. The site would need to translate from a Sanskrit edition published before 1931, or commission a translation.
The Kashi Jangamwadi Math collection is most valuable for Hindi and regional-language commentaries (muhurta, prashna, panchang, graha-shanti) and for regional variety (Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Bengali). It adds little to the core classical canon beyond what DLI already has.
Plan for a proofreading pass on every text. Machine OCR is fine for search and indexing, but not for verse-level quotation.
Background knowledge, not verified in the scans this session: Vishnu Purana Book II (chapters 8–12) and Bhagavata Purana Book (Skandha) 5, chapters 21–23, hold the Puranic accounts of the sun's chariot, planetary spheres and the Shishumara (dolphin) star-form. These are the passages to extract from the Wilson scans and the 1928 English Bhagavata.

Gaps

I did not open every one of the 257 Kashi Jangamwadi Math hits. The figure of about 45–50 genuine Jyotisha items comes from title filtering. Untitled or misspelled items may be missed.
No archive.org item was found for the astrological Vriddha-Garga Samhita / Gargiya Jyotisha, the Jyotishkarandaka, or the Atharva Veda Nakshatra-kalpa as a standalone edition (it appears only inside the Bolling Parisishta volume).
No eGangotri-specific results were returned for collection:egangotri. eGangotri material appears under booksbylanguage_* collections and inside the Kashi Jangamwadi Math collection (uploader "eGangotri"), so it could not be counted separately.
Death years of many 20th-century editors are unknown (V. Subrahmanya Sastri, Baldev Prasad Mishra, Sitaram Jha, Pyarelal Mishra). Copyright status for their works stays uncertain.

Q2. Which items are public domain and safe to quote/serve in full, and which must only be summarized?

Takeaway

Two tests apply. Under Indian law, copyright runs for the author's life plus 60 years, counted from 1 January after the author's death. In the US (where archive.org is hosted), works published before 1931 are public domain as of 2026. Safe to serve in full: 19th-century and pre-1931 translations and editions whose authors died before 1966. The two Part B books, all post-1950 Chaukhamba/Motilal/Sagar/Raman/Santhanam translations, and the INSA critical editions must be summarized and linked, not reproduced.

Cited Findings

Indian Copyright Act 1957, s.22: copyright in a published literary work lasts for the author's lifetime and 60 years from the beginning of the calendar year after the author's death. With joint authors, the clock runs from the last author's death. Anonymous and pseudonymous works (s.23) run 60 years from publication. — Copyright law of India (Wikipedia); R K Dewan, term of copyright
In the US, works first published in 1930 entered the public domain on 1 January 2026. Most works now enter it 96 years after publication. — Duke CSPD, Public Domain Day 2026
A. N. Upadhye, editor of the Paramatmaprakasa, was born 6 Feb 1906 and died 8 Oct 1975. — Wikipedia: A. N. Upadhye
The archive.org copy of the Paramatmaprakasa is the 1973 third printing of the "new edition" (first 1937, second 1960), published by Shrimad Rajachandra Ashram, Agas. It carries Brahmadeva's Sanskrit commentary, Daulatram's old Hindi tika and Pt. Jagdishchandra's Hindi translation (OCR title page). — in.ernet.dli.2015.407223
Upadhye's critical edition was first published in Bombay in 1937 by the Paramasruta Prabhavaka Mandala, with Brahmadeva's commentary, Daulatarama's Hindi translation and a critical introduction. — JRAS review via Cambridge Core
Paschimiya Achar-vigyan ka Alochanatmak Adhyayan by Dr. Ishvarchandra Sharma (Jetli) was published in 1961 by Rajpal and Sons, Delhi. The preface is dated Jaipur, 11 March 1961. — in.ernet.dli.2015.345863
Many top-downloaded Jyotisha items are in the opensource/community collections and are modern commercial translations: R. Santhanam's BPHS, B. V. Raman's Prasna Marga, Gita Press Garga Samhita, Pingree's Yavanajataka (1978). — BPHSEnglish; PrasnaMargaBVR; PingreeYJ

Inferences

Green (serve in full, after proofreading). Pre-1931 publications whose translator or editor died before 1 Jan 1966 are PD in both India and the US. That covers Burgess 1860, Wilkinson 1861, Kern 1865/1874, Chidambaram Iyer 1884/1885/1905, Thibaut and Dvivedi 1889, Brennand 1896, Dvivedi 1897/1911 (Dvivedi died 1910), Tilak 1903/1925 (Tilak died 1920), Wilson 1840–77, Saravali 1907, Jataka Parijata 1922, Kalaprakasika 1917, and Suryanarain Rao 1911/1919 (reportedly died 1937; verify). The Sanskrit root texts themselves (Varahamihira, Parashara, Lagadha, Yogindu, etc.) are ancient and free everywhere. Only the modern editorial apparatus, translations and commentaries can be protected.
Amber (check before serving). Indian works from 1931–1965. They may be PD in India if the author died before 1966, but the US may still protect them, because foreign works had their copyright restored under the 1994 URAA. I did not verify URAA in this session; get legal review. Examples: Clark 1930 is fine in the US; Shama Shastry 1936, Subrahmanya Sastri 1937/1946/1950, Muhurta Chintamani 1939/1945.
Red (summarize and link only). All post-1965 editions (Chaukhamba, MLBD, Sagar, Ranjan, Gita Press, INSA). B. V. Raman (died 1998) and Santhanam. Paramatmaprakasa 1973: Upadhye died 1975, so his material is protected in India until 31 Dec 2035, and Jagdishchandra's Hindi translation is also protected. The Apabhramsa dohas, Brahmadeva's Sanskrit commentary and probably Daulatram's 18th-century tika are PD, so the site could re-typeset those from this scan without the modern apparatus. Sharma 1961: protected unless the author died before 1966, which is unknown.
Archive.org hosting a file does not make it public domain. Community uploads of modern books should not be mirrored or deep-linked as "sources".

Gaps

Death years were not verified for V. Subrahmanya Sastri, B. Suryanarain Rao, Ishvarchandra Sharma, Pt. Jagdishchandra, Baldev Prasad Mishra or Khemraj-era commentators.
US status of foreign works from 1931–1965 (URAA restoration) was not researched. This needs legal review.

Q3. How do the Jain and ethics texts frame destiny vs. free will, and how could that become the site's ethical stance?

Takeaway

Both texts reject fatalism, from different directions. In Yogindu's Paramatmaprakasa, karma "carries" the embodied soul through births only at the conventional level (vyavahara). At the absolute level (nishchaya), the soul has infinite energy and is free of karmic bonds. Self-knowledge, not ritual or wishes for worldly gain, is what frees it. Sharma's 1961 Hindi critique of Western ethics rejects both mechanical determinism and lawless freedom. It argues instead for "self-determinism": a person is shaped by inborn and acquired tendencies, yet is still the author of their fate and morally responsible. Together they support a clear site stance: a chart describes tendencies (karmic dispositions), not verdicts. Responsibility and change stay with the person. Remedies and predictions must never be sold as purchased destiny.

Cited Findings

Paramatmaprakasa (Yogindu; ed. A. N. Upadhye; 1973 printing). I read the full OCR text, about 1.22M characters. The Devanagari parts (Apabhramsa dohas, Sanskrit chaya and commentary, Hindi translation) are rough but readable. Upadhye's long English introduction is unreadable: it was OCR'd as Sanskrit and comes out as pseudo-Devanagari noise. A Hindi version of the introduction is included and is partly readable.

Edition: Shrimad Rajachandra Jain Shastramala no. 3. Contents: the Apabhramsa text with Brahmadeva's Sanskrit vritti, Pt. Daulatram's Hindi tika and Pt. Jagdishchandra's Hindi translation. 531 pages. Scanned at Banasthali University. — in.ernet.dli.2015.407223
Three kinds of self (doha I.13–15). The deluded "outer self" (bahiratman) takes the body to be the self. The discerning "inner self" (antaratman) knows the self as distinct from the body. The supreme self (paramatman) is pure knowledge, free of karma. The aim is to move from the first to the third. — in.ernet.dli.2015.407223 (full text)
Karma's power, and its limit (doha I.66). The soul is compared to a lame man, pangu, who neither goes nor comes; across the three worlds vidhi (karma) brings and takes it. The Hindi commentary immediately adds two points. First, from the pure nishchaya standpoint the soul has infinite energy (ananta-virya) and is free of the bondage of good and bad karma. It is "carried" only from the vyavahara standpoint, because it has turned away from contemplating its own pure self. Second, both meritorious and sinful karma are to be abandoned. This doha closes an eight-doha section on "the power of karma". — in.ernet.dli.2015.407223 (full text)
Against nidana (bargaining for worldly rewards) (doha II.75–76 with commentary). Using charity, worship and austerities to obtain beauty, saubhagya (good fortune), royal or divine status counts as nidana-bandha, called a "thorn" (shalya). Such merit yields only fleeting worldly prosperity, and scriptural knowledge or austerity without self-knowledge does not lead to liberation. — in.ernet.dli.2015.407223 (full text)
Self-reliance vs. dependence (around doha II.154–155). Joy from the self is called svadhina (self-dependent, without obstruction). Joy from sense-pleasure is paradhina (dependent) and never satisfies, like fire never sated by fuel. — in.ernet.dli.2015.407223 (full text)
The Hindi introduction stresses that the commentator Brahmadeva reads the text throughout through the two standpoints, nishchaya-naya and vyavahara-naya. Counts in the OCR: 41 hits for निश्चयनय and 89 for व्यवहारनय. — in.ernet.dli.2015.407223 (full text)
Upadhye argued that the author's name should be read "Yogindu" (Apabhramsa Joindu) rather than "Yogindra". — Jainpedia reading page
The text barely mentions astrology. ज्योतिष occurs once in 1.22M characters, and there are no passages on planets as causes. Its relevance to the site is philosophical (karma, agency), not technical. — in.ernet.dli.2015.407223 (full text)

Paschimiya Achar-vigyan ka Alochanatmak Adhyayan (Ishvarchandra Sharma, 1961, Hindi, 350 pp.). I read the full OCR text, about 0.83M characters. OCR quality is good: clean modern Hindi with occasional dropped matras, and English glosses in parentheses garbled.

Purpose (preface). Existing Hindi ethics books were mere renderings of English textbooks. The author set out to critique Western ethical theories and to compare them throughout with Indian moral ideas, in a comparative and "synthesizing" approach. He acknowledges guidance from P. T. Raju and N. V. Banerjee. — in.ernet.dli.2015.345863
Structure (table of contents, 17 chapters):
1. Introduction
2. Psychological basis (desire, will, motive; critique of psychological hedonism)
3. Postulates of ethics (freedom of will, immortality, God; determinism, libertarianism, self-determinism)
4. History (ancient Indian ethics, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Machiavelli, intuitionism, utilitarianism)
5. Hedonism (Sidgwick, Bentham, Mill)
6. Intuitionism (moral sense, Butler, Kant's categorical imperative)
7. Evolutionary ethics (Darwin, Spencer, Alexander)
8. Perfectionism (Hegel, Green, Bradley, compared with the Bhagavad Gita)
9. Value theory (Moore)
10. Rights
11. Duties
12. Virtues and moksha
13. Punishment and war
14. Individual and society
15. Bradley's "my station and its duties"
16. Family, marriage, divorce
17. Moral progress — in.ernet.dli.2015.345863
Three positions on the will (ch. 3). The author sorts philosophers into determinists (niyativadi), libertarians (svatantryavadi) and self-determinists (atma-niyativadi). On naturalistic determinism, all human acts are mechanically fixed like a stone rolling down a hill. He notes that this is "not fatalism but scientific mechanism". He links it to the physics that predicts planetary and stellar motion, and to Watson's behaviourism. — in.ernet.dli.2015.345863
His verdict: self-determinism. Human action is neither wholly free nor wholly fixed by outer circumstances. It is fixed by one's own character, and freedom means not being fixed by anything outside character. A wrongdoer can still do good if he chooses, because the flaw lies within his own personality and so can be overcome. He supports this with Bhagavad Gita 9.30 (api cet suduracharo…). He concludes that, ethically, self-determinism is the acceptable theory. — in.ernet.dli.2015.345863
Responsibility. He accepts that we are born with a leaning toward good or evil from inborn nature, and that character rests on inborn and acquired tendencies. Even so, the person stays responsible. One who treats himself as helpless, "like an animal", and his bad conduct as inevitable is "not truly human". A person should see himself as a soldier in the struggle for the ideal. — in.ernet.dli.2015.345863
Indian vs. Western framing. He criticises Kant for leaving a fact/value and science/religion dualism. He argues that Indian non-dual thought, with God as the unmanifest ground of the world, can heal it. For the fruits of good and bad deeds he says the Indian karma doctrine "is sufficient". — in.ernet.dli.2015.345863
Non-harm. He critiques Kant's absolutism with the case of telling a dying patient the truth. He argues that absolute ahimsa is impossible, since even breathing kills micro-organisms, and cites Gandhi: ahimsa is the highest ideal, but in practice it is followed relatively, with compassion and growing restraint. Killing humans for self-interest is never justified, because a person's heart can always change. He cites Ashoka and Gandhi as models of politics grounded in ahimsa. — in.ernet.dli.2015.345863
Vedic and Upanishadic ethics (ch. 4). The Vedic gods are guardians of rita and moral law. The Upanishads distinguish shreyas (the good) from preyas (the pleasant), and the wise choose the good. — in.ernet.dli.2015.345863
Moral progress (ch. 17). He calls pessimism about moral progress "a mental illness". Progress is both a historical fact and a possibility, and people should strive "with faith and firm resolve" to make it real. — in.ernet.dli.2015.345863
The book does not discuss astrology. The only "ज्योतिष" hit is a modern use of jyotisha-shastra to mean astronomy, in the evolution chapter. — in.ernet.dli.2015.345863

The third user source. The Kashi Jangamwadi Math collection is covered in Q1. Its relevance to ethics: it contains several graha-shanti prayoga manuals, which are remedial rituals for the planets. This is exactly the practice the Paramatmaprakasa's critique of nidana bears on. — kashijangamwadimath

Inferences (proposed ethical stance for the site)

Karma as tendency, not fate. Use Yogindu's two-standpoint model. Charts can be described at the vyavahara (conventional) level as karmic momentum, "what tends to carry you". The site should state plainly that at the deeper level the person is not a passive cargo of karma. This keeps faith with the tradition without fatalism.
Self-determinism as the user-facing language. Sharma's atma-niyativada gives a modern, non-mystical wording: you are shaped by inborn and acquired tendencies, the chart being one symbolic map of the inborn ones, but your choices flow from a character you can change. So readings should name tendencies and then name choices.
No selling of destiny. The nidana critique, together with Sharma's insistence on responsibility, argues against marketing remedies (gems, pujas, graha-shanti) as guaranteed fixes for worldly outcomes. If the site discusses remedies, it should present them as practices of attention or devotion, not as transactions.
Non-harm in predictions. Sharma's relative-ahimsa argument and his dying-patient example support a rule: never deliver fear-inducing predictions (death, widowhood, disaster) as certainties. Frame hard placements with care and agency. This is directly relevant because some archive items, e.g. "Foretelling Widowhood" in the Jyotish upload, belong to a fear-based genre the site should avoid reproducing.
Pessimism is not wisdom. Sharma's chapter on moral progress supports an editorial tone that is hopeful and oriented to effort, rather than doom-forecasting.

Caution: neither book is about astrology. Treat these as philosophical framing sources and say so on the site, not as endorsements of astrological practice.

Gaps

Upadhye's English introduction, the main scholarly discussion of dating, language and philosophy, could not be read from this scan because the OCR is garbage. Use the PDF page images, or another scan of the 1937 or 1960 edition.
Doha numbering above (I.13–15, I.66, II.75–76, II.154–155) follows the OCR'd commentary edition. Verify it against the page images before citing.
Neither book's text was proofread. Any quotation on the site should be checked against the page images. Quotes must stay at 15 words or fewer, because both books are in copyright as editions.
Death year of Ishvarchandra Sharma was not found, so the book's copyright status is unresolved. Treat it as protected.

#Internet Archive primary-source corpus for Jyotisha, and three user-supplied philosophy/ethics sources

#Q1. What is the realistic size and quality of the archive.org primary-source corpus for Jyotisha?

#Takeaway

#Cited Findings

#Inferences

#Gaps

#Q2. Which items are public domain and safe to quote/serve in full, and which must only be summarized?

#Takeaway

#Cited Findings

#Inferences

#Gaps

#Q3. How do the Jain and ethics texts frame destiny vs. free will, and how could that become the site's ethical stance?

#Takeaway

#Cited Findings

#Inferences (proposed ethical stance for the site)

#Gaps

Internet Archive primary-source corpus for Jyotisha, and three user-supplied philosophy/ethics sources

Q1. What is the realistic size and quality of the archive.org primary-source corpus for Jyotisha?

Takeaway

Cited Findings

Inferences

Gaps

Q2. Which items are public domain and safe to quote/serve in full, and which must only be summarized?

Takeaway

Cited Findings

Inferences

Gaps

Q3. How do the Jain and ethics texts frame destiny vs. free will, and how could that become the site's ethical stance?

Takeaway

Cited Findings

Inferences (proposed ethical stance for the site)

Gaps