Astrology is said to have been born in India, but it is not. The invention of zero in India and the decimal system has done much good to astrology,it must be admitted. But, the birth of astrology was elsewhere. The credits go to the Chalidians who were the official astrologers of Roman Emperors and further back to the astronomers or the interested observers of the sky, in search of the stars to study the nature, shape and formation of the stars. The Rasi’s or the houses which number up to 12 had been the finding of Babylonian astronomers who named each formation,according to their visibility in the sky, like Leo, Scorpio, Taurus etc, which again is determined with the entry of the sun in each house heralding its start.In a time where there was no time, even when there were confusions regarding the duration of day whether it was till sun-set from sunrise or starting from midnight to the other- a question of 12 or 24 hours, the modern brains can calculate fast,astronomers set their foot down to determine the duration of sun in each house.Later when the time machine,calender etc came up, astrology began to be more determined and palatable. Initially, the Sun and the Moon got all the prominence, later shared by Venus and the rest. But Rahu and Kethu are the creations of India, just like the Rahu Kalam which is avoided bu Indians in starting auspicious things. Christians too are said to have given heed to astology, but did not encourage predictions as it would affect the free will of the people. But the number of deciples Jesus had was equal to the number of houses in astrology.Muslims also had special days mentioned in Koran as auspicious for certain things like hunting, journey etc.The also sought help of astrology to get the directions, because Prophet Mohammed in Koran had urged them to do their Namaz facing Khabba. Romans, Greeks all had their share of visits to India, which has helped in the sharing of knowledge between India and these countries. Hora which has marked the name of many Indian astrology texts means “hour” in Greece, and it has appeared in text post Geek visits to India though Varahamihira, one of the renowned astrological light houses, who has been instrumental in the making of books like Brihadsamhitha, Panchasiddhantika(comprising of theories of Pithamaha,Soorya,Romakan,who is said to be a Roman and Pouleeshan,who is Poulus Alexandrinus,a Greek astrologer etc) had made it clear that hora is the part of the word ‘ahorathram’ . Al Beruni an Afghan traveller and scholar had studied the astologers of his time in India, and had declared that Brahmaguptha was the greatest astological brain and mathematician in the world. But he scorned Varahamihira’s ways of appeasing both sides-ie brahmins and the science! Inshort, though we have Vedanga jyothisha live,as Rig Veda Jyothisha and Sama veda Jyothisha,we cannot claim them entirely as our own as it is Aryans who wrote Vedas(the wanders the are settled to believe,from Cenral Asia)the proof of which is the analysis of the physical and geographic descritions in the Vedas which would comprise another mighty debatable issue itself. The present day astrologers are following the ways of predicting following the theories of Varahamihira and the lot which itself would be constituting a lot, borrowed from the other parts of the world. The planets -their influence on human beings are given their due accoding to our birth charts and predicted accordingly. The planets includes the Sun, Moon, Jupiter,Saturn,Mars,Venus,Mercury,Gulika,Rahu and Kethu.Gulika is again a contribution of Indian astrology,compared with Pluto or some planetoid, which is extremely bad and even influences planets by making them worse and worser.In India astrology is depended upon when finalising marriages,deals etc. It is a science as it is scientific and can be even said to be an offshoot of astronomy,except that it deals with the influence of palnets on human beings.In India, Gods are masters of the planets and are prayed to in order to alleviate the problems caused by bad influence of planets, like Lord Vishnu for the malefactor Jupiter(according to the horescope).Lord Ayyappa for Saturn,Lord Shiva for Moon, Lord Naga or Subramanya for Rahu dosha.(In othe countries like Rome and Greece,also there were Gods who where the planets like the Sun-Appolo,Chronius,Uranus,Ra(in Egypt-The Sun God) The horescope is read in India dividing the houses to be showcasing ones future health,education, spouse,job etc. Astrology must be seen as a science bringing hope to the desperate, happiness to the ailing- and the bad times are interpreted to be the result of the bad deeds in the previous births and doing penance for the present and past lives’ misdeeds will bring in peace of mind and purifies a persons soul and acts as a brake when it comes to doing bad,saying bad and hurting others, thus acting like a moral science too.
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