References of Rashis in the Vedaas and the Vedanga Jyotisha?

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Dear friends,

Namaskar!

 

The Samhitopanishad Brahman 3/1-11

has said:

“vidya vai brahmanam ajagama tavaham

asmi, tvam mam palayasva, anarhate manine maa daa, gopaya maa shreyaseete aham

asmi, vidyaya-sardham mriyet na vidyam ushare vapet”

“Knowledge (personified) went

to the Brahmin and implored him, ‘I am yours. Take care of me and protect

me. Do not give me to someone who does not deserve me. Keep me

hidden from them. I am your wealth in every respect’. The

knowledgeable Brahmin should die with the knowledge but not sow it in a barren

land”

The Manusmriti 2/114 also has said

“Brahma yastu an-anujnyatam

adheeyanad avapnuyat,  Sa brahma steya samyukto narakam

pratipadyete” i.e.

“Anyone studying the Vedas without

proper permission is a thief of the Vedas”.

The Vedic texts were held very sacred in

ancient times. They are supposed to be “the breath of the

Eternal” and are not supposed to be revealed to anybody who does not

deserve such knowledge.

It may sound a bit chauvinistic, but I can

see as to why our ancestors were dead against bestowing Vedic knowledge on

every Tom, Dick and Harry! The most glaring case is the deleterious

consequences of every “Vedic astrologer” having the cunning to

interpret (actually misinterpret!) the mantras anyway he/she wants to just to

prove that the real Vamadevas were astro-buffs who would make predictions by

dint of inanimate objects like Mangal, Shani and even non-existent lunar nodes

viz. Rahu and Kethu, on the basis of an imaginary “belt of animals”

known as zodiac!

Ironically, however, we have also very few

real Vedic scholars around and the ones that are there, do not want to

castigate “Vedic astrologers” for such misinterpretations! I do not

know whether it is cowardice of those scholars or something else.

Of late a new bee has entered the bonnet of

“Vedic astrologers”. They are making a lot of noise about

Mina etc. rashi in the “Yajur Vedanga Jyotisham” (sic!) by Acharya

Lagadha! Similarly, it is being said that there are Mesha, Vrisha etc.

astrological signs in the Rig-Veda.

In support of their stand that there is

Mina Rashis in the VJ, they are quoting a mantra said to be the fifth mantra of

“Yajurvedanga Jyotisha” (sic!), reading as “ye brihaspatina

bhukta minatprabriti rashayah, te hrita panchabir yata yah sheshah sa

parigrahah”.

 

Let us see the facts and also the

pernicious effects of such stands of “Vedic astrologers”:

 

1. S. B. Dikshit has

discussed the Vedanga Jyotisham in its entirety in his magnum opus

“History of Indian astronomy”. He has not referred to any

such mantra anywhere. On the other hand, he has said emphatically on page

96, of Part-I “It (the Vedanga Jyotisham) does not mention any Rashis

(signs) nor was there a system of stating the planet’s place with respect

to 12 divisions of the ecliptic. The position of the sun and moon (alone)

are given with respect to nakshatras”.

2. Dikshit has

reiterated the same thing on page 139 of the same work: “There is no

doubt that these terms (Mesha, Vrisha etc. Rashis) came into vogue at a time

when Vernal Equinox was in Ashvini nakshatra and Mesha Rashi

simultaneously…and the Mahabharata does not contain any reference about

Mesha etc. terms. Hence it can be safely inferred that these terms were

unknown in our country before 500 BS (before Shaka Era i.e. till about 5th

century BCE)”. He has concluded the same thing on page 147 in the

following words, “The names of Rashis, Mesha and others, came into vogue

at about 500 BS (before Shaka Era). The names of weekdays came into

use before them, and (both) have been borrowed from foreign countries”.

3. T. S. Kuppanna

Sastry, Hony Prof., Sanskrit College, Madras, has said on page 353 of his

“Collected Papers on Jyotisha” (Kendriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth,

Tirupati)—“Historians and scholars agree that at such an early age

as 509 BC, weekdays like Sunday, names of Rashis like Mesha, and ideas like

exaltation, and giving numbers in bhuytasankhya were not in use among

Indians”. The same author has said further on page 452 of the same

work, “The names of weekdays like Ravi-vasara, Indu-Vasara etc. and the

names of twelve signs composing the zodiac like Mesha, Rishaba etc. occur for

the first time now (much later than 509 BCE). These originated in

Babylonia and reached India via the Greeks”. On page 454 T.S.K.S.

has castigated “Vedic astrologers” in the following words, “A

host of astrological works, many of them claiming Greeks as their Purvacharyas,

seem to have been written in this period, followed later by Hindu authors with

zest. It is for this concoction, this bane of our culture, i.e.

astrology, that we are indebted to the Greeks in a large measure”.

4. Dr. Meghnad Saha, a

doyen among scientists, who was also the Chairman of the Calendar Reform

Committee in 1955, has said on page 193 of “Report of the (Saha) Calendar

Reform Committee”, a masterpiece document throwing a flood of light on

ancient Hindu astronomy/astrology vis-à-vis the Greeks, “It is thus seen

that the names of the zodiacal signs (by Varahamhira) are originally of

Babylonian origin. They were taken over almost without change by the

Greeks, and subsequently by the Romans, and the Hindus, from Graeco-Chaldean

astrology….These signs were taken up by almost all nations in centuries

before the Christian era on account of the significance attached to them by

astrologers. In Greece they were first supposed to have been introduced

by the early Greek astronomer Cleostratos, an astronomer who observed about 532

BC in the island of Tenedos off the Hellespont who introduced designation

‘Zodiac’ to describe the belt of stars about the ecliptic.

The twelve ‘Zodiacal signs’ are not known in older ritualistic

Indian literature like the Brahmanas. They have come to India in the wake

of the Macedonian Greeks or of nations like the Sakas who were intermediaries

for transmission of Greek culture to India”.

5. On page 278 of

“History of Astronomy in India”, (INSA), Commodore S. K.

Chattterjee has said, “The Babylonian and the Greeks had a similar set of

names for the Rashis, and in the same order, and Varahamihira adopted the

corrupted Greek names for naming the Rashi division. Rashi in the present

form is not specifically mentioned in early ritualistic literature like

Brahmanas or in the epic like Mahabharata….Specifically naming the

divisions of the ecliptic after the name of animals and objects were not in use

then in India and this pattern of naming the 12 divisions of the ecliptic came

into vogue, like the weekdays, with the rise of Graeco-Chaldean

astronomy”.

6. On page 102-3 of

the same work, Dr. A. K. Bag, Head, History of Science, INSA, New Delhi, has

this to say, “In 1959, Pingree reported briefly on a Greek linear

planetary text written in Sanskrit, which provided a definite evidence of

Babylonian methods and parameters in an astrological context.

…..Pingree has given a masterly exposition of various verses (of

Sphujidwaja’s Yavanajataka in Sanmskrit) establishing their connection

with Greek and Latin astrologers like Antiochus, Atheniensis, Critodemus,

Dorotheus, Sidonious, Firmicus---52 names have been given as well as with later

Indian astrologers who used this text or its teaching. 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….The Egyptians

had developed 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. One of this idea originated the erect cosmic man and the

theory of microcosm and macrocosm which became widespread in the ancient world.

Sphujidwaja’s scheme in which Aries is represented 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 by Egyptian

concepts”. It is actually Egyptian “Kalapurusha

(Rashipurusha!)” that has been imported into India thus, via Mesha,

Vrisha etc. Rashis!

7. We find Mesha,

Vrisha etc. Rashis for the first time in the Surya Sidhanta of

Panchasidhantika---a compilation of five sidhantas by Varahamihira. That

sidhanta-kara claims to be Maya, who claimed to have got the planetary elements

directly from Surya Bhagwan at the fag end of the last Satya Yuga. In

other words, that work was revealed to him millions of years back, more than

2,165,000 years back, to be precise, as per the duration of yugas in the same

sidhanta! It is practically impossible that any work could have survived

for such a long time. Besides, the planetary mean longitudes given in

that work have to be calculated on the basis of daily mean motion and that also

without any secular variations! That again is an astronomical

impossibility!

8. The planetary

longitudes of the SS are monstrous, to say the least! They are not

correct for any epoch for any planet either in the past or future. Thus it

could not have been the Maya of either Treta-yuga, the father-in-law of

Raskhasa king Ravana or of Dwapara-yuga, which itself ended at least five

thousand years back as per the same Surya Sidhanta.

9. On the other hand,

we hear Vrahamihra saying in his Brihat Jatakam, seventh adhyaya (titled

Ayurdaya i.e. longevity), first shloka, “Maya, Yavana, Manitha and

Parashara etc. (purvacharyas) have allotted different years of dashas to sun

etc. planets for calculating longevity”. Varahamihra has thus

referred to Maya who is none other than Maya the mlechha of the Surya Sidhanta;

Yavana of Varahimihira is none other than Yavanaraja Sphujidwaja or even

Minaraja and similarly, Manitha is also another Greek name.

10. It is these very

Yavanas whom Varahamihra himself has called mlechhas in his Brihat Samhita, and

said further that in spite of being mlechhas, they are worshipped like rishis

because they know predictive gimmicks. Maya the mlechha of the Surya

Sidhanta was thus a liar who impersonated as an exalted soul of millions of years

back.  He was, however, literally worshipped till a few decades back in

India! Some jyotishis still consider Surya Sidhanta a divine work with

the only difference that they think it fit only for predictive gimmicks and not

for calculating timings of heliacal rising and setting or eclipses etc!

What an irony, since Maya has not said anywhere that only janmapatris are to be

made from his work. On the other hand, there are chapters for calculating

the timings of eclipses and heliacal rising and setting etc. in the Surya

Sidhanta!

11. It is common

knowledge that no astronomical work from any observatory the world over talks

even by mistake about any Aries, Taurus etc. twelve equal divisions of the “imaginary

belt” called zodiac! These namesakes of constellations are actually

absolutely useless and meaningless for any astronomical purpose. The only

utility these Mesha etc. rashis have is to make fool of a common man by such

fear psychosis as sade-sati and Kalasarpa Dosha and Rahu Dasha and so on, or

even Mangalika dosha!

12. And of course, the

only other purpose these rashis have served is to derail the original Vedic calendar

by making Hindus celebrate all the festivals and muhurtas on wrong days!

13. Now about the much

touted mantra of Yajur-Jyotisham supposed to talk about Mina Rashi! This mantra

is given on page 50 of “Vedanga Jyotisham” with Hindi commentary by

Jyotishacharya Dr. Suresh Chandra Mishra, published by a publisher from Darya

Ganj, Delhi, 2005 edition. “Vedic astrologers” should heed the

words of that commentator on page 11, “The work related to Rigveda is

known as Rik Jyotisham and the one related to Yajur Veda is known as Yajur

Jyotisham. Rik Jyotisham is considered a highly sacred work and is recited on a

day to day basis, whereas there is no such usage in vogue about Yajur

Jyotisham”. This is what the commentator/translator has said about this

mantra on page 50 (a summary of his analysis), “It is extremely doubtful

that this mantra (showing Mina Rashi in Yajur Jyotisham) is a genuine one since

it has mentioned Mina Rashi which is an impossibility….During the time of

the Vedanga Jyotisha, nakshatas and not Rashis were used. This mantra has

not been numbered (which means it is an interpolation) and Somakar (an early

commentator of the Vedanga Jyotisham) has not taken this mantra into

account. This mantra must have been added by some useless fellow and that

is why the calculations result in a very gross result. This mantra is an

interpolation by some mentally deranged person after the Jupiterian sixty year

cycle had come into vogue”.

14. That is exactly

what has happened with Narada Purana, where the shlokas of ayanamsha etc. have

been interpolated from the Surya Sidhanta, and the Ayanamsha calculated in such

a manner as to make it agree with that of Lahiri Ayanamsha, which is actually

an impossibility astronomically. The same thing has also happened with

Vishnudharmotarapurana. Astronomical parameters from the Brahma-Sphuta-Sidhanta

have been purloined as Pitamaha Sidhanta! Agni Purana is yet another

example of simila atrocities! Then in an Upanishada, Puranas and itihasas

have been claimed to be the fifth Veda! Which means that that Upanishada

itself is a much later work than the Bhagavata etc.

15. Obviously, these

" Vedic astrologers " are also oblivious of the fact that by

superimposing Rashis on the Vedanga Jyotisham, they are making that work then

of post Surya Sidhanta era, since there were no Rashis in India till the advent

of the SS, as proved above. And that is what actually David Pingree was

trying to prove--that the VJ is a work of about sixth century BCE and has been

compiled on the basis of Babylonian influence. According to him!

“Vedic astrologers” are thus supporting Pingree not indirectly but

openly and directly by superimposing Rashis on that work!

All the above proofs are more than

sufficient to demolish the theory that predictive gimmicks, based on Mesha,

Vrisha etc. rashis through Mangal, Shani etc. planets have been propagated by

real Vamadevas!

About the mantra “Shravishthabyam

gunabyastan pragvilagnan vinirdishet”, Dikshit has said on page 79 of

History of Indian Astronomy—“This first half is unintelligible”.

It is actually impossible to understand the meaning of this mantra as we do not

find any mention of “lagna”, yet another astrological term, in any

astronomical work or even astrological work of pre-sidhantic era!

I must, therefore, repeat it for the

umpteenth time that we do not need enemies to ruin our dharma, or even for

making the entire world laugh at us, since our " Vedic astrologers "

are doing that job in a splendid manner!

With regards,

A K Kaul

 

PS Comments regarding the misinterpretation

of Vedic mantras by “Vedic astrologers” like Vartak and Company

will be given separately!

AKK