ORIGION OF ASTROLOGY

It is impossible ascertain the exact time of origin of our astrology. Even the most famous historians differ wildly, from 1200 BC to 2500 BC while trying to fix our Vedic period. A lot of them, especially the westerners, still study India based on the Mahenjadaro and Harappan discoveries, which were discovered in the 1920’s!! Several archeological discoveries of recent times date our culture to 7500 BC, making it the ancient most civilization in the world. Our astrology has details of the horoscopes of Lord Krishna, Lord Rama and many other ancient Indian kings and queens, recorded thousands of years ago. The Bhishma Parva and Udyoga Parva chapters of Mahabharata mention many astrological descriptions and omens just before the Mahabharata war. It also describes a period of draught with several planetary combinations. There is also a very clear reference about two eclipses, a solar eclipse and a lunar eclipse occurring, creating a rare 13 day lunar fortnight. Available scientific research data shows that the Mahabharata war must have occurred either in 3129 BC or 2559 BC. According to the Hindu Panchangas, maintained from ages, Kaliyuga era is counted from February 17/18 midnight 3102 BC. Hindu epics like Mahabharata and Ramayana have been written off as myths by the western historians. However the recent discovery of the submerged ancient city Dwaraka, (the site of the legendary city of Lord Krishna, which got submerged in the sea after the death of Lord Krishna), led by Dr. S.R. Rao of the Marine Archaeology Unit of the National Institute of Oceanography of India lends a lot of credence to our mythology. Various texts attribute the origin of Indian astrology to various gods and Rishis. It is futile to ascertain who was the originator. The most popularly followed astrological classics today are the ones written by Rishis like Parashara, Varahamihira, Garga, Jaimini and their followers. People in those days had no satellites or telescopes and yet the planetary positions and their motions recorded by them are as accurate as the planetary positions and degrees recorded today using the space satellites. Our ancient astrologers used their divine intuition to record these planetary movements and their effects on us.

Astrology has a twofold purpose. On one hand it is used as a tool to select the right month the right date and the right time to start various auspicious rites and rituals so that the results are better. On the other hand it is used as a guide to study the destiny of an individual.

ASTROLOGY PTOLEMY MODERN SCIENCE.

SEEING FROM THE END OF THE PLANET EARTH IN ANCIENT PERIOD

ASTROLOGY PTOLEMY MODERN SCIENCE.
¬Astrology seems to have made no progress since the
days of Claudius Ptolemaeus, who wrote nearly two
thousand years ago, and his "Tetrabiblos" is undoubt-
edly the best text-book on the subject existing today.
Modern astrologers, notably Kepler, have introduced
some changes, and made large claims, which Ptolemy
did not venture to do. He said specifically that the
science of astrology does not enable any man to predict
particular events, and there are certain things which no
rational man would think of foretelling. His method of
prediction was precisely that of the modern doctor, who
says that a disease will run a certain length of time, that
a certain constitution must have care or it will break
down, that from external appearances one man should
make a good blacksmith, another a good orator, and
so forth. The positions of the stars help us to analyze
more subtle physical conditions, not subject to external
observation. But the whole ground of prediction is
simply a knowledge of the physical, mental and moral
condition of a human being from birth. If we know
that the germs of hereditary consumption exist in a
child from birth, we can predict that he will die of the
disease, and may judge the time with tolerable accuracy.
And if we know the mode of crystallization, we have as
it were a chart of latent germs.

PTOLEMY as Cartographer

Ptolemy gave details on how to create maps both of the whole inhabited world (oikoumenè) and of the Roman provinces. In the second part of the Geographia he provided the necessary topographic lists, and captions for the maps. His oikoumenè spanned 180 degrees of longitude from the Blessed Islands in the Atlantic Ocean to the middle of China, and about 80 degrees of latitude from The Shetlands to anti-Meroe (east coast of Africa); Ptolemy was well aware that he knew about only a quarter of the globe, and an erroneous extension of China southward suggests his sources did not reach all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

The maps in surviving manuscripts of Ptolemy's Geographia, however, date only from about 1300, after the text was rediscovered by Maximus Planudes. It seems likely that the topographical tables in books 2-7 are cumulative texts - texts which were altered and added to as new knowledge became available in the centuries after Ptolemy .This means that information contained in different parts of the Geography is likely to be of different date.