Astrology has been called Jyotish in our ancient texts. It comes from a combination of the words – Jyoti and Ish. Jyoti means light and Ish is God or Divinity. Jyotish, thus means the Light of the God. It can also mean to lighten up or to get enlightened.
The core philosophy of Astrology or Jyotish is to be enlightened about your journey of life by trying to understand a larger cosmic phenomenon and the relationship between your individual self and the endless Universe or the Creation. Some people can understand it as the relationship between Microcosm and Macrocosm.
The origins of the ancient science seem to go back to the time when the Creator created humans. The usage of Astrology is spread across cultures and civilizations.
In simple terms, Astrology can be termed as studies or the science of the effects of planetary movements on human lives. It is based on astronomy.
Practitioners of Astrology (called astrologers) need to know the correct positions of the planets as well as Zodiacs in relation to any place on earth at any given time. Based on that, astrologers can draw or construct various astrological charts representing these positions.
The astrologer can then analyze the charts and can make varied conclusions using his or her knowledge. Astrology should ideally, not be used as a fatalistic tool but as a tool that helps you plan better. In our country, Kings and learned men have used Astrology to improve the outcomes of their efforts since time immemorial.
Astropatri, our website is all about Indian Astrology. Therefore we will use the word Vedic Astrology interchangeably with Astrology. Vedic Astrology is a word that has become necessary to use as now Astrology as a broader term refers to many schools like Western Astrology, Chinese Astrology, Tajaka Astrology and so on.
Astrology is perhaps as old a phenomenon as Human existence itself. Our ancient texts talk about Lord Ram’s horoscope.
In our quest to understand how Astrology originated, we tried to do some research. Human intelligence in its current form estimates the civilization to be 7000-10000 years old.
Lord Ram’s father – the famous king Dashrath wrote a Strotra (an ode or eulogy) for Shani Dev to request him not to bestow suffering when Shani Dev transits Rohini Nakshatra. This is known as Shani Neel stotra and is a very effective remedy for Saturn-related hassles during transit or Dasha on in general.
Lord Ram’s horoscope has also been analyzed and by matching the position of planets astronomically, there is a study that says that Lord Ram took birth in 5114 BC. That’s about 7000 years from now. This clearly means that Astrology was in existence at that time also.
Here, we would like to tell an interesting story about how old is the story of Lord Ram. This would give us some clarity on the scale and dimension of the Time axis and also perhaps a sense of how old Astrology can be.
“When it was time for Lord Ram to exit Earth, the God of death Lord Yamraj requested him to send Lord Hanuman away as Hanumanji would not let Yama enter Ayodhya.
Lord Ram then intentionally dropped his ring into a crack in the palace floor and asked Hanumanji to fetch it. Hanumanji then reduced himself to the size of a beetle and entered the crack.
To his surprise, the crack led him to Naglok where he met the king of serpents, the mighty Vasuki.
Vasukiji points to a mountain of rings and tells Lord Hanuman to fetch the ring himself. Hanumanji gets astonished to see that the hundreds of thousands of rings are all similar.
The Naga king Vasuki then tells Hanumanji that this is the way Lord Ram ends his life every time he takes an avatar on Earth in 1 Kalp.”
A Kalp comprises 4 Yugs namely Sat Yug, Treta Yug, Dwapar and Kaliyug. Lord Ram takes birth in Treta yug. If we believe our ancient texts, a Kalp is about 16 million years old.
Lord Ram’s ring story tells us that there have been countless Kalps when Lord has taken birth in its 2nd leg, that is Treta Yug. That means billions and trillions of years while we are at best able to take a peep to only say 10000 years back.
The axis of time is therefore incomprehensible and beyond the understanding of the human mind. Astrology is thus likely to be as timeless as the creation itself.
Vedic Astrology is a part of Vedas. There are 6 parts of Vedas and they are called Vedangas. Anga is a Hindi translation of the word part. It finds mention in Rig Veda and Atharv Veda. The Vedas are considered to be about 5000 years old. Though as we have said earlier that there is no clear way to estimate the age of these Super books of knowledge.
Rishi Bhrigu is one of the original rishis of our civilization. He is one of the famed Sapt Rishis. Bhrigu Rishi wrote a very detailed treatise (in form of a bundle of leaves) on decoding how the lives of millions of humans will pan out.
Unfortunately, in the last 1000 years or so, the burning of Nalanda University by Invaders led to destruction of a major part of the leaves that Bhrigu Rishi had created to decipher the future. As a result, only a little percentage of the original treatise is available to us.
The other stellar contributor to the field of Astrology is Parashar Rishi. He was the father of learned Ved Vyasa who wrote the most revered treatise of Hindu culture – Srimad Bhagwat. Parashar Rishi was a very learned man and he wrote Parashar Brihat Hora Shastra, considered as the foundational text for Vedic Astrology.
The learned men who later contributed to development of Astrology or Jyotish are Shri Varahmihir ( Bhihat Jataka) , Shri Jaimini ( Jaimini Sutra) , Shri Yavaneshwara ( Greek astrologer – Yavan Jataka) ,Shri Kalyan Varman ( Saravali), Shri Mantreshwara ( Phal Deepika). However, these are only a few that we have got to know as per current available knowledge. The actual list may be far larger.
Just for information of our users, Ravan also wrote a detailed book on Astrology and Mantras and Tantra by the name of Ravan Sanhita. It is said that some of the mantras written are infallible and never fail to give desired results.
There is a school of thought that originally Astrology was used only for deciding timing of an event like coronation of a prince as a king and other important aspect of rulership like when to initiate a war etc.
In our sacred texts like Ramayan, Srimad Bhagwat, Bhagwat Geeta etc, we have not seen any contexts like doing astrological remedies when faced with an adverse situation. The usage of Astrology to figure out why and when something bad is happening or going to happen in our lives seems to be part of the practices of this Yug only.
Astrology is fairly prevalent in the current world. The major astrology schools that are prevalent are:
1. Western Astrology
2. Chinese Astrology
3. Arabic Astrology ( at some places referred to as Tajika Astrology)
There is a school of thought that the origination of Astrology was there in the Hellenistic civilization (Greek, Alexander era, 300 BC) in Mesopotamia and traveled from there to India. However, given the fact that King Dashrath wrote an ode to please Shani Dev before He transits Rohini Nakshatra and that Lord Ram’s horoscope has been cast in 5114 BC proves that the school of thought is erroneous.
Astrology may be one of the insights that our ancient Rishi-Munis might have got as part of their self-seeking or Tapasya. We should be thankful to all the people who translated that insight for understanding for the common man. We should use Astrology as a tool to improve our lives and also to make the world a better and kinder place to live in.
Understanding Astrology 
