Development of Jyotisha

September 8, 2009

Dear sreenadh ji,thanks for a nice post as usual.Every conclusion is a personal opinion.Hence the search and research goes on and on......Love and regards,gopi.

September 9, 2009

Thank you Sreenadh ji and Neelam ji. Can you perhaps share your articles that you were mentioning? That might help me build up something. I am looking only for a high level overview, so it might not be really difficult. Since it does not have to get specifically into the philosophy of the subject itself, the different positions and their differences need not be elaborately dealt. Basically the different schools present, the goals of the subject, methodologies (just the list), if they could be mapped in a timeline that should be good. The issue, as Arvind Sharma says, is that sampradayas are concept-centric and not chronology-centric which makes it a challenge to map the concepts in a timeline. Let me hope for the best and put in some attempts.

Shankarsreesog <sreesog Sent: Tuesday, September 8, 2009 9:16:36 PM Re: Development of Jyotisha

Dear Shankara Bharadwaj ji, Just like history and literary history related to any subject, history of astrology is also subject under constant research, each turn providing a new insight about the past. Ofcourse if someone can give a conclusive picture it could have been great - but unfortunately it is still a subject under rigorous study, and due to numerous misinterpretations from crooked necks with either a western or vedic outlook a sincere and systematic study and final picture about the history of this enormous branch of knowledge is yet to emerge. When we look back at the mysterious ancient past far back in history, near the origins, through the rudiments of literary info we have still with us - the histroy of astrology seems more misty and mysterious. Defenitly it will take more time to get a clearer picture - but till then we can enjoy the beautiful evidences and

innovative information that emerge with every study and enjoy! We can use those new insights about about the truth of the ancient past to modify our current currupted understanding and try to straighten our own necks. You proposel was a beautiful one; but the qeustion is - Are our understanding good enough to propose such a conclusive broad picture about the evolution about this big branch of knowledge? The perspectives may differ! * There could be a Agama persptive (based on available text fragments of Rishi horas, nadis, historical archeological evidences about cultures etc) * There could be a Vedic perspective (based on available vedic literature, and theories and evidences about indian or syberian origin of vedic fire cult and astro-archeological studies there upon) * Thre could be an Epic or puranic perspective (based on either epic literature or puranic literature)

* There could ba Jain, Buddhist etc perspective (Based on Jain, buddhist, or what ever ancient cult literature available) * There could be western perspective (based on europian greek slave view, christian chaldian view, babilonian-mesopoto mian-egyptian or even mayan view) * There could be a Nadi (southern or northern), Jaiminian, Tajikan, Lalkitaban, Ramala view as well! Every view will differ and no two group will agee upon the conclusion or picture proposed by the other! Country, Culture, Politics, Cast, Religion and all such nasty things comes into play - and the the truth of Sun will still be hidden by the Leaf (Our view of Sun could always be shadowed by the leafs or clouds - and the clean sky and view is only for the enlightened, it is said, and sadly we are not so) Even though all the above points flashes my mind, me too will welcome even a

personalized perspective about the history of astrology from an insider. Actually I have tried to provide the fragments of the same in my various writings as well on various shools of astrology etc even though none of them can be termed a comprehensive article. I will keep your request in mind and will try to provide my personal opinion about the history of astrology on a later instance as time permits. Love and regards,Sreenadhancient_indian_ astrology, ShankaraBharadwaj Khandavalli <shankarabharadwaj@ ...> wrote:>> Dear list,> > This is a list with practitioners and scholars. I was looking for an article outlining the evolution of Jyotisha Sastra. Perhaps you agree that the development happened across many traditions and in multiple disciplines. > > Having gone through some of the material, it appears to me that harping on the few celebrated

texts like Panca Siddhantika and Vedanga Jyotisha is not going to give us a comprehensive picture of the kind of experiential subject that Jyotisha is. Rather, the critical pieces of information must be found probably in the various practicing sampradayas, smarta-srauta or tantrika. Just like the subjects like Mantra sastra and Yoga sastra tell us the> systhesis of spiritual traditions, Jyotisha should also be, since good astrologers have always been strong practitioners. > > Can someone give me an outline of the elements that can probably construct the development of the subject from an insider's view? Of course, if an article itself is volunteered I will be even more grateful. > > Dhanyavad in advance,> Shankar>

September 9, 2009

Dear Shankar ji,The scanned version of this book is a fairly large file. I am mailing you the chapter on history and evolution.Hope you will find it useful. RegardsNeelam

2009/9/9 ShankaraBharadwaj Khandavalli <shankarabharadwaj

Thank you Sreenadh ji and Neelam ji. Can you perhaps share your articles that you were mentioning? That might help me build up something. I am looking only for a high level overview, so it might not be really difficult. Since it does not have to get specifically into the philosophy of the subject itself, the different positions and their differences need not be elaborately dealt.

Basically the different schools present, the goals of the subject, methodologies (just the list), if they could be mapped in a timeline that should be good. The issue, as Arvind Sharma says, is that sampradayas are concept-centric and not chronology-centric which makes it a challenge to map the concepts in a timeline.

Let me hope for the best and put in some attempts.

Shankar

sreesog <sreesog

Tuesday, September 8, 2009 9:16:36 PM Re: Development of Jyotisha

Dear Shankara Bharadwaj ji, Just like history and literary history related to any subject, history of astrology is also subject under constant research, each turn providing a new insight about the past. Ofcourse if someone can give a conclusive picture it could have been great - but unfortunately it is still a subject under rigorous study, and due to numerous misinterpretations from crooked necks with either a western or vedic outlook a sincere and systematic study and final picture about the history of this enormous branch of knowledge is yet to emerge. When we look back at the mysterious ancient past far back in history, near the origins, through the rudiments of literary info we have still with us - the histroy of astrology seems more misty and mysterious. Defenitly it will take more time to get a clearer picture - but till then we can enjoy the beautiful evidences and

innovative information that emerge with every study and enjoy! We can use those new insights about about the truth of the ancient past to modify our current currupted understanding and try to straighten our own necks.

You proposel was a beautiful one; but the qeustion is - Are our understanding good enough to propose such a conclusive broad picture about the evolution about this big branch of knowledge? The perspectives may differ!

* There could be a Agama persptive (based on available text fragments of Rishi horas, nadis, historical archeological evidences about cultures etc) * There could be a Vedic perspective (based on available vedic literature, and theories and evidences about indian or syberian origin of vedic fire cult and astro-archeological studies there upon)

* Thre could be an Epic or puranic perspective (based on either epic literature or puranic literature)

* There could ba Jain, Buddhist etc perspective (Based on Jain, buddhist, or what ever ancient cult literature available) * There could be western perspective (based on europian greek slave view, christian chaldian view, babilonian-mesopoto mian-egyptian or even mayan view)

* There could be a Nadi (southern or northern), Jaiminian, Tajikan, Lalkitaban, Ramala view as well! Every view will differ and no two group will agee upon the conclusion or picture proposed by the other! Country, Culture, Politics, Cast, Religion and all such nasty things comes into play - and the the truth of Sun will still be hidden by the Leaf (Our view of Sun could always be shadowed by the leafs or clouds - and the clean sky and view is only for the enlightened, it is said, and sadly we are not so)

Even though all the above points flashes my mind, me too will welcome even a

personalized perspective about the history of astrology from an insider. Actually I have tried to provide the fragments of the same in my various writings as well on various shools of astrology etc even though none of them can be termed a comprehensive article. I will keep your request in mind and will try to provide my personal opinion about the history of astrology on a later instance as time permits.

Love and regards,Sreenadhancient_indian_ astrology, ShankaraBharadwaj Khandavalli <shankarabharadwaj@ ...> wrote:>> Dear list,>

> This is a list with practitioners and scholars. I was looking for an article outlining the evolution of Jyotisha Sastra. Perhaps you agree that the development happened across many traditions and in multiple disciplines.

> > Having gone through some of the material, it appears to me that harping on the few celebrated

texts like Panca Siddhantika and Vedanga Jyotisha is not going to give us a comprehensive picture of the kind of experiential subject that Jyotisha is. Rather, the critical pieces of information must be found probably in the various practicing sampradayas, smarta-srauta or tantrika. Just like the subjects like Mantra sastra and Yoga sastra tell us the

> systhesis of spiritual traditions, Jyotisha should also be, since good astrologers have always been strong practitioners. > > Can someone give me an outline of the elements that can probably construct the development of the subject from an insider's view? Of course, if an article itself is volunteered I will be even more grateful.

> > Dhanyavad in advance,> Shankar>

September 9, 2009

Dear Shankar ji,

Please find the file attached herewith. Hope it'll be of use!

I have a rather poor sense of history! :-(

Regards

Neelam2009/9/9 neelam gupta <neelamgupta07