Yavanajatakam of Sphujidhvaja is of Greek origin!

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends Messrs Sreenadh and Menon,

I wish you had given the source of information

regarding "Yavana" Jyotishis being kings of Gujarat

etc. and having become outcasts and mlechhas Without

that information, it is just a mere conjecture.

 

The facts of the matter are:

 

Bhatotpala, in his commentary on Brihat Jatakam 7/9

says, "Yavanaeshswara Sphujidwaja had made another

work on astrology immediately after the start of Shaka

Era i.e. 78 AD. Varahamihira has also written the

opinions of the predecessors of Yavaneshwara. I have

not seen the astrological wroks of earlier

Yavanacharyas but I have seen the wrok of

Sphujidwaja".

 

It means that the Yavanajataka of Sphujidwaja was

availalble at the time Varahamihira (fifth century AD

and also Bhatotpala (eighth century AD). Similarly,

Alberuni says on page 158 of his Alberuni's India Vol.

I, "There is another book larger than this (i.e.

Kalyan Verma's Saravali) which contains the whole of

astrological sciences of Yavana, i.e. belonging to the

Greeks".

 

Pt. S. B. Dikshit has said on page 637 (Hindi

translation) of Bharaitya Jyotish, "Bhatotpala has

called Sphujidwaja as Yavaneshwara and the shlokas he

has quoted as from Yavanas are from that very book.

This work is in Sanskrit. There is also available a

work by Minaraja. It is also known as Vridha Yavana

Jatakam. It has been said in that book (i.e. Vridha

Yavana Jatakam) that the work of astrology of one

hundred thousand verses that had been revealed to

Maya by earlier jyotishis have been compressed into

8000 by Minaraja. Bhatotpala has quoted (chapter 1/5)

the forms of Rashis etc. and the have been taken from

Minaraja's book but thee are several other verses that

are not available in Vridha yavana Jataka. It means

the work of Sphujidwaja is different from that of

Minaraja and the other Yavanacharyas of ages prior to

Varahamihira are also other Yavanas besides the two

i.e. Sphujidwaja and Minaraja".

 

It is to be noted that "Maya, the Yavana" is also

theone to whom te SuryaSidhanta was "revealed" and hi

in turn revealed a hundred thousand verses of

astrology to Minaraja!

 

Now about the Yavnajataka from the libary of Nepal

King

having been manipulated by David Pingree:

A work titled "History of Astronomy in India" has been

published by Indian national Science Academy. It

contains a collection of several research papers by

prominent scholars. S. N. Sen,Secretary, Ramakrishna

Cultural Mission of Calcuta and also formerly

Registrar , Indian Associateion for the Cultivation of

Science, Calcutta, has this to say in the chapter

'Survey of studies in European Languages' pages

101-103:

 

"In 1959, Pingree reported briefly on a Greek linear

planetary text written in Sanskrit, which provides a

definite evidence of Babylonan methods and parameters

in an astrological context. The text in question is

the Yavana Jataka of Sphujidwaja dated AD 269/270, and

contains in its last chapter 'astronomical

instructions' intended to improve upon, or substitute

for, those of the Vasishtha Sidhanta.. Fragments

concerning the movements in arcs of Jupiter, Mars and

Saturn are quoted, their translations given, and

compared with Babylonian elements. Pingree

concluded

'...for the superior planets it has been demosntrated

that the methods in use among those Greek astrologers

who transmitted their learning to India in the second

century after Christ were still closely related to

those developed in Mesopotamia in the Seleuciid

period'.

 

It then gives the details of "udaya, sthita,asta and

vakra" of planets like Jupiter, Mars and Saturn and

compares these details of Babylonian origin with that

of Yavanajataka. They agree to a great extent

mutually.

 

Then on page 103, the author says further, "The linear

planetary theory is discussed in 62 verses of the last

chapter 79 of the avanajatka. This is obviously a

difficult chapter to follow and must be learnt

thoroughly before one is able to practise astrology

according to the teachings of the text. Pingree has

given a masterly exposition of the various verses

establishing their connections with ancient Greek and

Latin astrologers like Antiochus, Atheniensis,

Critodemus, Dorotheus Sidonius, Firmicus,---52 names

have been given,as well as with later Indian

astrologers who used this text or its teachings. Here

we shall only refer to a few observations of Pingree

with regard to the zodiac introduced in the few

opening verses of chapter 1 because it has been known

for a long time that the twelve signs of the zodiac

were introduced into Indian astronomy through

astrological sources of foreign origin. In presenting

the zodiacal scheme, its three main aspects, e.g.

iconography of the signs, their melothesia, and their

topothesia, are described. Iconographically

Sphujidhvaja's zodiac contains several features common

to the Hellenistic one, some of which were of

Egyptian-cum-Hellenistic origin, e.g. the man and

woman depiction in the Mithuna with the club and the

lyre agreeing with the Egyptian pair Shu and Tefnut,

the figure of a maiden standing in a boat and holding

a torch representing Virgin etc. ...

"The Egyptians had dveloped the idea of correlating

different signs of the zodiac with specific parts of

the human body so as to produce a scheme of zodiacal

melothesia. Out of this idea originated the erect

cosmic man and the theory of microcosm and macrocosm

in medical schools which became widespread in the

ancient world. Sphujiddhvaja's scheme in which Aries

is represnted by the head of the human body, Taurus by

mouth and neck, Gemini by shoulders and arms, Cancer

by chest, Leo by heart, Virgo by belly and so on was

derived from Egyptian concepts.

"The appearance of Sanskrit works of the class of

Yavana Jataka also fits in well with the early

political and economic history of India. During the

Achemeid occupation (500 BC to 230 BC) and later

unsettled conditions marked by the incursion of the

Greeks, the Sakas, the Pahlavas and the Kusanas,

Indian astronomy was introduced to Babylonian methods.

At the beginning of the first century AD one branch

of the Shakas, the Ksaharatas, established a kingdom

in West India with Minanagara as their capital and

Broach (Greek Barygaza) as their main trading post

between India and the mediterranian countries. This

branch succumbed to another Shaka dynasty, the Western

Kshatrapas, of which the greatest king Rudradamana I

ruled between AD 130 to 160 over a vast empire

extending up to Kausambi in the north and Kalinga in

the east. The ksatrapas were interested in astronomy,

established their capital at Ujjayini and soon raised

this city as the foremost centre for astronomical work

'the Greenwich of Inddian astronomy and the Arin of

the Arabic and Latin astronomical treatises' Here in

AD 150, Pingree informs us, Yavaneswhara, the Lord of

the Greeks, translated into Sanskrit prose a Greek

astrological text which had been written in Alexandria

the preceding half century. This translation is not

extant, but its subject matter has survived in the

form of a thirteenth century palm-leaf manuscript of a

versification of it carried out by Yavanaraja

Sphudidhvaja in AD 269/270 to which a reference has

just been made. In the second century AD another

astrological text of the same type was translated into

Sanskrit from a Greek original; this translation has

not survived. This is known through references of

Yavanaraja and Satya who utilized both the

translations".

........ ...... ......

>From the abovve lengthy discussion of Shri Sen about

Yavanajataka of Sphujidhvaja, it is clear that if at

all it was some ruler of Guajart who had written this

book, it must have been Sphujidhvaja the Yavaneshwara

who had ruled Gujarat in those days and simultaneously

written/compiled/tranlated Yavanajataka. It could not

be some Gujarati king of Indian origin writing that

book and then being thrown out as mlechha and a

yavana!

 

THIS ALSO ACCOUNTS FOR MORE GREEK THAN SANSKRIT WORDS

IN BRIHAT JATAKAM, BRIHAT SAMHITA AND EVEN BRIHAT

PARASHARA HORA SHASTRAM -- SHOWING THEIR INDETENDESS

TO THEIR GREEK ORIGIN! Or could it be that Maharshi

Parashara had been to Greece to learn the words and

the planetary combinations like nabhasa yogas,

Sunapha,Anapaha,Durdhura and Kemadruma etc. yogas and

having learnt all those tricks of the trade from

Yavanas returned to India to teach us the great

science of Maya the yavana!

Dhanyavad.

Mohan Jyotishi

 

 

 

 

> vedic astrology, "Sreenadh"

> <sreelid> wrote:

>

> Dear Menon,

> You are right in pointing out this fact. The Yevana

> stream of

> astrological thought has a great Guru-Sishya

> parampara and should be

> respected. They include-

> 1. Yevaneswara (Considerd as Rishi)

> 2. Spujidhwaja Yevana (An Indian King of Gujarath)

> 3. Meena Raja Yevana (Also known as Vridha yevana -

> Gujarath king?)

> 4. Sritha Keerthi (A Hindu King)

> 5. Haraji (Who wrote the Manasagari Jathaka

> padhathi - A Gujarathi

> Brahmin)

> Most probably the family lost caste and that is why

> they are

> mentioned as 'Mlescha' by many. But of course we

> should admit that

> they have some connection out side India, which is

> indicted by the

> words they used, and also due to the fact that the

> people lived out

> side India were known as 'Mlescha' at the time of

> Manusmrithi. The

> name of Yevanewara who lived prior to Alaxandar was

> included in the 18

> Rishis (by Parasara, Kasyapa and many others) who

> are the founders of

> the great astrological wisdom.

> Love,

> Sreenadh

>

>

> "Kochu Menon" <kochu1@>

> Fri Oct 28, 2005 7:51 am

> RE: [vedic astrology] Re: condemning the

> bible of astrology -

> Mohan Jyotishi kochu1tz

> Offline

> Send Email

>

> is this that simple?? I wonder

>

> Satyaacharya speaks of yavana in the sloka -

>

> na kumbha lagnam shubhamaaha satya

>

> naa nyadhaaH yavannaH vadanti

>

> and in Varaha Hora

>

> Mihira says referring to drekkana swaroopas

>

> iti yavanopadishtam; iti yavanairudaahridam

>

> IMHO these references are to

>

> Sphoorjjitadhwaja Yavanaraja and his descendants and

> not to Greeks.

>

> This great King of Gujarat wrote Yavana Jataka,

> vruddha yavana jataka

> etc. Till a copy was found in Nepal Maharaja's

> library, the books were

> deemed lost. It was published by Harvard U. The

> publisher claimed it

> is "Greek Astrology" on the basis of the author's

> name being Yavana

> Raja. The introduction in the original text mentions

> his lineage and

> that he is a King in present day Gujarat.

>

> Later there are indications that the family lost

> caste - that maybe

> the reason for referring to this lineage as Mlecha.

>

> I am not an expert. These are random thoughts.

>

> --- End forwarded message ---

>

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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