History of Vedic Astrology
Astrology is the science of the effects of the planets movements on our lives and all things. Astrology is based on astronomy in that astrologers need to know the correct positions of the planets at any given time as well as the correct positions of the zodiacal fixed star signs in relation to any place on earth at any given time.
Vedic astrology differs from Western or Tropical astrology mainly in that the later uses the fixed zodiac as opposed to the moving zodiac in former. Because of the gradual tilting of the earth in space on its axis, the zodiac, if you calculate it from the Sun’s relationship to the Earth, appears to be moving at the rate of a little less than 1/60th of a degree per year.
Currently, the relative or movable zodiac is off or out of alignment with the fixed or real star-based zodiac by roughly 23 degrees, which is almost one whole sign of the zodiac.
In India records exist today which point clearly to a highly developed knowledge of astrology as far back as about 6,500 BC and actual manuscripts are still extant which were written about 3,700 BC. Some of the originals have been destroyed or lost but actual copies of these originals were-made by after astrologers. In fact, detailed records of astrological science are continuous from about 6,500 BC.
One of the earliest authors of Vedic astrology, copies of whose work are still to be found, is Pitamaha, who wrote a treatise on astrology called Pita Maha Siddhanta. He lived and wrote this book about 3,000 BC. Five hundred years later, another author astrologer named Vashishtha wrote several books on astrology, astronomy and philosophy. His most important work and one which was used as an authority by all subsequent writers on the subject, is Vasishtha Siddhanta, but he wrote may other equally erudite and authoritative texts such as the Panch Siddhanta Kosha, Soorya Siddhanta, Nityananda, Brihat Jataka, Aryabhat, Mansagari, Ranveer, and the Laghu Parashar.
M. Plunkett writes in his book Ancient Calendars and Constellations: “The opinion of the Greek writers at the beginning of the Christian era may be quoted as showing the high estimation in which Indian astronomy was held. In the Life of Apollonius of Tyana, the Greek philosopher and astrologer, written by Philostratus about 210 CE, the wisdom and learning of Apollonius are set high above his contemporaries because he had studied astronomy and astrology with the sages of India.”
In a book called You and Your Hand by the late Count Louis Hamon, known better as Cheiro, this statement is found: “people who in their ignorance disdain the wisdom of ancient races forget that the great past of India contained secrets of life and philosophy that following civilizations could not controvert, but were forced to accept. For instance, it has been demonstrated that the ancient Hindus understood the precession of the equinoxes and made the calculation that it [a complete cycle] took place once in every 25 ,870 years. The observation and mathematical precision necessary to establish such a theory has been the wonder and admiration of modern astronomers. They, with their modern knowledge and up-to-date instruments, are still quarrelling among themselves as to whether the precession, the most important feature in astronomy, takes place every 25,870 years or every 24,500 years. The majority believe that the Hindus made no mistakes, but how they arrived at such a calculation is as great a mystery as the origin of life itself.
