Astroज्योतिष

Today's teaching

“Wealth is the star for wealth; what will the stars do?”
— Kautilya, Arthashastra IX.4

Library · Teachers

Study by teacher

Each teacher's teachings in one place. Pick one and study only what that teacher taught, in their own order, with every rule cited to their text. The course The Study of Jyotisha brings them together topic by topic; these books keep them apart. 12 books, 68,114 words.

  1. Lagadha: the Vedanga JyotishaLagadha · dated about 1400 BCE (Tilak, Dikshit) or about 400 BCE (Pingree). The oldest Indian astronomical text, on its own: a calendar for timing the Vedic sacrifices, built on a five-year cycle and the twenty-seven nakshatras from Krittika — what it contains, what it does not, and the long argument over its date.2 chapters · 1,127 words
  2. Aryabhata: the AryabhatiyaAryabhata · born 476 CE, wrote about 499 CE. Everything Aryabhata taught, verse by verse, in plain English: his numbers for the universe, his mathematics, his reckoning of time and his sphere — the rotating Earth, the eclipses, π — with what he got right, what he got wrong, and how later astronomers received him.8 chapters · 10,642 words
  3. Varahamihira: the Brihat Jataka, the Brihat Samhita and the PanchasiddhantikaVarahamihira of Ujjain · 6th century CE. All of Varahamihira's teaching in one place, in his own order: his book of horoscopy chapter by chapter, his great encyclopaedia of the sky, weather, omens and arts, and his summary of the five astronomies — explained in plain English from Chidambaram Iyer's and Thibaut's translations, every rule cited to its verse.22 chapters · 23,575 words
  4. The Surya SiddhantaThe Surya Siddhanta (anonymous; revealed, says the text, by the Sun to Maya) · a 'Saura' text known by the 6th century; the present text revised later. The most famous Indian astronomical text, chapter by chapter in plain English from Burgess's 1860 translation: its story, its ages of time, the revolutions of the planets, true positions and the panchanga, the gnomon and precession, eclipses, conjunctions and the stars, heliacal risings, the malignant yogas, its cosmology, its instruments and its nine measures of time.8 chapters · 7,929 words
  5. Parashara: the Brihat Parashara Hora ShastraParashara (as the sage of the Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra) · core about 600–800 CE; modern recension 20th century. The teaching of the book most Indian astrologers use, in its own order and in plain English: the planets and their exact dignities, the sixteen divisions, the six strengths, the good and bad lords and the yogas, the movable significators and arudhas, the many dasha systems, the ashtakavarga, and the remedy chapters — with the book's history stated honestly.9 chapters · 7,279 words
  6. Jaimini: the Upadesha SutrasJaimini (the sage of the Upadesha Sutras) · date unknown; translated in part by B. Suryanarain Rao. The second classical school of Indian horoscopy, kept on its own: the coded aphorisms and how they are read, aspects between signs, the movable significators and the soul's planet, the image-points (arudhas), intervention (argala), and the sign-based Chara dasha — with the places where the sources disagree.4 chapters · 2,114 words
  7. Mantreswara: the PhaladeepikaMantreswara · medieval South India (date uncertain). The most widely used South Indian book of horoscopy, kept on its own: friendships including the nodes, the great persons counted also from the Moon, the yogas round the Moon and Sun, the kartaris, Kesari and Sakata, the wealth and fortune yogas, the 66 sign exchanges, the twenty-four house yogas, debilitation cancelled, the shadow point Mandi, and transits.3 chapters · 2,000 words
  8. The Kalaprakasika: choosing times for every part of lifeNarasimha, son of Varadarya, of Poli-Pakkam (translated by N. P. Subramania Iyer, 1917) · a South Indian muhurta text; English 1917. The standard South Indian book of muhurta in plain English: studying the almanac, the rites of childhood and learning, marriage and matching, farming, treasure, building and house-warming, travel, illness and debts, the faults of time and what cancels them, the good and bad weekday yogas, and the daily periods — with its own warnings against charlatans.6 chapters · 4,416 words
  9. Nilakantha: the Tajika NilakanthiNilakantha Daivajna, court astrologer to Akbar · 1587, Mughal court. The annual chart kept on its own: how Arabic astrology reached Sanskrit and became Tajika, Nilakantha's two-part book of 1587, and the method of the year — the solar return, the Muntha, the five office-holders and the year's lord, the Tajika aspects and yogas of application and separation, the sahams and the compressed dasha — with what has and has not been checked against the Sanskrit.2 chapters · 1,441 words
  10. Rama Daivajna: the Muhurta ChintamaniRama Daivajna (with his own commentary, the Pramitakshara), alongside Narayana's Muhurta Martanda · about 1600, Varanasi (Muhurta Martanda: 1571). The standard North Indian book of times and marriage matching, kept on its own: the eight-part Ashtakoota and the points of each part as Rama himself scored them, the threshold of eighteen from the Muhurta Martanda, the classical exceptions, the widowhood rules and the 'marriage to a pot', and the short daily periods — with where modern calculators differ from the text.3 chapters · 1,773 words
  11. The Kerala SchoolHaridatta, Madhava of Sangamagrama, Parameshvara, Nilakantha Somayaji, Jyeshthadeva and the Prasna Marga · 683 to 1649 CE, Kerala and the Tamil country. The astronomers of Kerala kept together: Haridatta's Parahita system and its 576-year cycle, the katapayadi code for writing numbers as words, the Moon-sentences and the vakya almanac still used in Tamil Nadu, Madhava's infinite series and sine table, Parameshvara's observed corrections, and Kerala's book of questions, the Prasna Marga.5 chapters · 3,822 words
  12. The Tamil SiddharsPulippani, Bogar and Agastya, as the Tamil tradition names them · traditional attributions; surviving prints from 1863. The Tamil astrology of the Siddhars kept on its own: who the Siddhars are and why no two lists of the eighteen agree, the Pulippani 300 and its debt to Bogar, and the Pancha Pakshi — the five birds, how to find your bird, and the bright-half tables worked out in full — with what is dated history and what is legend.2 chapters · 1,996 words