RR ThePower
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IIAS Newsletter | #33 | March 2004 15 > Research & Reports By Audrius Beinorius A strology is India’s richest and most vital tradition: some 100,000 man- uscripts covering various aspects of Indian astral sciences (lit. jyotiQaPAstra) exist worldwide. Since the end of the nineteenth century, classical philolo- gists and historians of Indian religion and science, such as H. Kern, A. Weber, and H.-G. Thibaut, have made efforts to preserve and publish long-neglected Sanskrit astrological texts, emphasiz- ing their autonomous value. Arguably, only science historians have ever both- ered to look at astrological practice, yet even they have limited their interest to contemporary mathematics or astron- omy, and clearly remain a long way from putting astrology in its proper social or intellectual context (Pingree 1997). The importance of medieval astrological texts in understanding the history of culture and ideas is more fully appreciated today, mainly due to David Pingree’s historical studies and his immense project, Census of the Exact Sciences in Sanskrit. Yet, many questions arise: how can we explain astrology’s large-scale sur- vival and even its persistent prolifera- tion? What was its role in traditional society and within ancient bodies of knowledge? Why did and does astrolo- gy appeal to educated Indians? This paper briefly discusses these questions, emphasizing some methodological and hermeneutical considerations. For a long period the notion of ‘pseu- do-sciences’ has hindered historical and contextual investigation into phenom- ena like astrology and other forms of divination. According to Richard Lemay, we cannot ‘understand medieval attitudes toward astrology by applying to this science our contempo- rary paradigm (to use Kuhn’s conven- ient term)’ as this ‘…seems to foreclose in advance all avenues leading to the medieval mind, to its structural frame- work, and to the contents of its own dif- ferent paradigm’(Lemay 1987:58). Only a hermeneutical approach can lay bare the key concepts that supported ancient science. Such an approach can also reveal the overall structure of ideas con- structed with these concepts, the local modes of cultural transmission of knowledge, methods of social control, and the nature of the cultural norms, that shaped the traditional epistemic field. In the traditional Indian context, astrology formed an indispensable and intimate part of traditional science and cosmology. It appealed to educated Indians precisely because it was a rational system, or could be made to look like one. With reference to Greek civilization, G. Sarton once remarked that Greek astrology was the fruit of Greek rationalism, and received some kind of justification from the notion of cosmos, which is so arranged that no part is independent of the other parts and the whole. The same can be said about the Indian cultural context. Acceptance of astrology as a learned and scientific study was a common attitude, if not the norm, hence the greatest Indian astronomers (Varahamihira, Brah- magupta) were also astrologers. Both origin and subject matter of astrology were considered to be divine and astrology fascinated many of the great- est minds because it provided a total vision of reality, uniting the macro- cosm with the human microcosm. It was due to the interest in prediction and control as well as to the belief that divination could be socially beneficial, that divination developed as a body of social and psychological knowledge. Ancient applied science In very ancient times, Indian rulers acquired their legitimacy by claiming a divine connection, for example descent from the Sun, Moon, or Jupiter. Hence the very first task for astrologers in the past was to establish such divine sanc- tion for the rulers. The YAjñavalkya smOti (1:307) holds that the rise and fall of kings depends on the influence of planets, therefore a king should rely on his astrologers. Most of the royal char- ters issued by ancient and medieval Indian rulers bear dates with astro- nomical details, which were no doubt supplied by the court astrologer. It is not by chance that this tradition was also actively cultivated by the patronage of the powerful Maharajas. One may wonder why astrology was, and still is, so widely used. Perhaps because it provides a tangible, visible template for predicting one’s fate. Tra- ditionally it is thought that a person’s karma has caused him to be born at a time when the horoscope would lead to his fortunate or unfortunate condition. Hindus believe that heavenly bodies – the planets (graha), constellations (rAPi), and asterisms (nakQatra) – have a divine influence on the earth and on individ- ual people. These planetary effects are commonly considered as the fruits of karma. In the words of Judy F. Pugh, ‘These celestial forces begin to influence the person from the time of conception and birth. Hindu astrology offers schema- tizations of the influence of planets on the developing embryo and stresses the importance of birth time as the key point through which karma is made vis- ible and hence future actions and cir- cumstances are made known’ (Pugh 1986:135). In that sense, astrology as an applied science reflects popular under- standing of the manifestations of fate in the experiences of everyday life, and justifies itself as inspiring a healthy reli- gious and social attitude. Karma teach- ings serve as a means of legitimizing the application of astrology in religious and social practices. Like most ancient Indian disciplines, astrology is traditionally believed to con- sist of eternally valid knowledge with eternally fixed contents and unchang- ing rules. Astrologers were always refer- ring to ancient divine revelation of astro- logical knowledge, and they indulged in a free improvisation on certain themes. Like the other Indian PAstras (tradition- al disciplines), astrology was preserved within families of practitioners, and members of each such family would remain faithful over many generations to a particular group of texts and would generally not be interested in educating outsiders or in making innovations in their traditional learning. Different knowledge structures Generally speaking, rather than tak- ing astrology’s irrationality as given, it is more fruitful to consider how grounds for belief in prediction and div- ination in the ancient world differed from our own and the way in which their different ordering of knowledge might be related to a different social, cultural, and even political context. As T.S. Barton has rightly pointed out, ‘Ancient astrology offers a contrasting case to our organization of knowledge, illustrating the artificial, historically specific nature of boundaries between knowledge and pseudo-knowledge, intellectual discipline and technical craft, science, and mysticism’ (Barton 1994:30). It seems that if and where historical astrology is human-centred, this will not pertain to astronomical or mathematical science, but rather to psy- chology and social science. Nonethe- less, it must be stressed that much in India that currently goes under the name of Indian astrological scholarship in fact merely serves as a vehicle for the propagation of nationalist ideas on the one hand or of escapist and utopian notions on the other. The revival of so called ‘traditional Indian medicine’ is a case in point. As Gyan Prakash has shown, in late- nineteenth-century British India, the Hindu intelligentsia began to canonize a body of contemporary scientific knowledge, in particular ancient Indi- an texts and traditions (Prakash 1999:88). The definition of classical texts as scientific was crucial in this process because this gave justification to their status as the embodiment of eternal and universal laws. The West- ern-educated intelligentsia felt impelled to reinterpret classical astrological texts and by casting the texts in the language of the Western scientific discourse, they construed a body of indigenous scien- tific traditions consistent with Western science. As a result, we often find that current astrological concepts are uncrit- ically projected into earlier times, in accordance with the notion that no actual evolution can have taken place. It is for this reason that the claim of astrological practice to be ‘scientific’ is still very strong in its contemporary Indian context. In my opinion, unless one examines the basic Indian astrological treatises in their fullest social and intellectual contexts, as far as practically possible, it is impossible to give a reasonable and accurate answer to the question what traditional Indians think of astrology. The vast-scale text-critical and hermeneutical examinations of those treatises that I propose, are significant for the study of ancient Indian culture and also for understanding contempo- rary religious practices and beliefs. < References - Barton, Tamsyn S., Power and Knowledge. Astrology, Physiognomis, and Medicine under the Roman Empire, Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press (1994). - Lemay, Richard, ‘The True Place of Astrol- ogy in Medieval Science and Philosophy: Towards a Definition’, in: Curry, Patrick (ed.), Astrology, Science and Society. His- torical Essays , Woodbridge: The Boydell Press (1987). - Pingree, David, From Astral Omens to Astrology, From Babylon to BGkAner, Rome: Istituto Italiano per L’Africa e L’Oriente (1997). - Prakash, Gyan, Another Reason. Science and the Imagination of Modern India, Princeton: Princeton University Press (1999). - Pugh, Judy F., ‘Astrology and Fate: the Hindu and Muslim Experience’, in: Keyes, Charles F. and E. Valentine Daniel (eds), Karma: An Anthropological Inquiry, Berke- ley: University of California Press (1986). Acknowledgements I would like to express my sincere grati- tude to the Jan Gonda Foundation for awarding me with a research and travel grant. Dr Audrius Beinorius was a Gonda fellow affiliated to IIAS (1 September 2003 – 31 January 2004). He is an associate professor of Indian and Buddhist studies at the Cen- tre of Oriental Studies, Vilnius University, and a senior research fellow at the Institute of Philosophy, Culture and Art, both in Lithuania. He specializes in medieval Indi- an philosophy and culture. [email protected] The Power of the Stars Astrology and Divination in the Traditional Indian Society Love of astrology and divination is not a trait peculiar to Indian culture. What distinguishes India is the large-scale survival of such practices. Sanskrit astrological texts bear testimony to the profound and illustrious culture of Indian divination traditions in ancient times. Regarded as an obscure subject in the general field of ancient science, astrology is, incorrectly, relegated to the margins, while it should, instead, be considered in relation to other ancient ‘scientific’ disciplines. Research > South Asia Street astrologer and palmist at work, Chennai. Pandit Dr Ashish Bhattacharya (Cal- cutta) representing a more sophisticated astrological tradi- tion, validating itself by the use of ancient astrological texts and nourished mainly by the guru-PiQya (teacher-disciple) system. Both photos by Audrius Beinorius
description
The Power of the Stars
Transcript of RR ThePower
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I I A S N e w s l e t t e r | # 3 3 | M a r c h 2 0 0 4 1 5
> Research & Reports
By Audr ius Be inor ius
Astrology is Indias richest and mostvital tradition: some 100,000 man-uscripts covering various aspects ofIndian astral sciences (lit. jyotiQaPAstra)exist worldwide. Since the end of thenineteenth century, classical philolo-gists and historians of Indian religionand science, such as H. Kern, A. Weber,and H.-G. Thibaut, have made effortsto preserve and publish long-neglectedSanskrit astrological texts, emphasiz-ing their autonomous value. Arguably,only science historians have ever both-ered to look at astrological practice, yeteven they have limited their interest tocontemporary mathematics or astron-omy, and clearly remain a long wayfrom putting astrology in its propersocial or intellectual context (Pingree1997). The importance of medievalastrological texts in understanding thehistory of culture and ideas is morefully appreciated today, mainly due toDavid Pingrees historical studies andhis immense project, Census of the ExactSciences in Sanskrit.
Yet, many questions arise: how canwe explain astrologys large-scale sur-vival and even its persistent prolifera-tion? What was its role in traditionalsociety and within ancient bodies ofknowledge? Why did and does astrolo-gy appeal to educated Indians? Thispaper briefly discusses these questions,emphasizing some methodological andhermeneutical considerations.
For a long period the notion of pseu-do-sciences has hindered historical andcontextual investigation into phenom-ena like astrology and other forms ofdivination. According to RichardLemay, we cannot understandmedieval attitudes toward astrology by
applying to this science our contempo-rary paradigm (to use Kuhns conven-ient term) as this seems to foreclosein advance all avenues leading to themedieval mind, to its structural frame-work, and to the contents of its own dif-ferent paradigm(Lemay 1987:58). Onlya hermeneutical approach can lay barethe key concepts that supported ancientscience. Such an approach can alsoreveal the overall structure of ideas con-structed with these concepts, the localmodes of cultural transmission ofknowledge, methods of social control,and the nature of the cultural norms,that shaped the traditional epistemicfield.
In the traditional Indian context,astrology formed an indispensable andintimate part of traditional science andcosmology. It appealed to educatedIndians precisely because it was arational system, or could be made tolook like one. With reference to Greekcivilization, G. Sarton once remarkedthat Greek astrology was the fruit ofGreek rationalism, and received somekind of justification from the notionof cosmos, which is so arranged thatno part is independent of the otherparts and the whole.
The same can be said about theIndian cultural context. Acceptance ofastrology as a learned and scientificstudy was a common attitude, if notthe norm, hence the greatest Indianastronomers (Varahamihira, Brah-magupta) were also astrologers. Bothorigin and subject matter of astrologywere considered to be divine andastrology fascinated many of the great-est minds because it provided a totalvision of reality, uniting the macro-cosm with the human microcosm. Itwas due to the interest in prediction
and control as well as to the belief thatdivination could be socially beneficial,that divination developed as a body ofsocial and psychological knowledge.
Ancient applied scienceIn very ancient times, Indian rulers
acquired their legitimacy by claiming adivine connection, for example descentfrom the Sun, Moon, or Jupiter. Hencethe very first task for astrologers in thepast was to establish such divine sanc-tion for the rulers. The YAjavalkyasmOti (1:307) holds that the rise and fallof kings depends on the influence ofplanets, therefore a king should rely onhis astrologers. Most of the royal char-ters issued by ancient and medievalIndian rulers bear dates with astro-nomical details, which were no doubtsupplied by the court astrologer. It isnot by chance that this tradition wasalso actively cultivated by the patronageof the powerful Maharajas.
One may wonder why astrology was,and still is, so widely used. Perhapsbecause it provides a tangible, visibletemplate for predicting ones fate. Tra-ditionally it is thought that a personskarma has caused him to be born at atime when the horoscope would lead tohis fortunate or unfortunate condition.Hindus believe that heavenly bodies the planets (graha), constellations (rAPi),and asterisms (nakQatra) have a divineinfluence on the earth and on individ-ual people. These planetary effects arecommonly considered as the fruits ofkarma.
In the words of Judy F. Pugh, Thesecelestial forces begin to influence theperson from the time of conception andbirth. Hindu astrology offers schema-tizations of the influence of planets onthe developing embryo and stresses theimportance of birth time as the keypoint through which karma is made vis-ible and hence future actions and cir-cumstances are made known (Pugh1986:135). In that sense, astrology as anapplied science reflects popular under-standing of the manifestations of fatein the experiences of everyday life, andjustifies itself as inspiring a healthy reli-gious and social attitude. Karma teach-ings serve as a means of legitimizingthe application of astrology in religiousand social practices.
Like most ancient Indian disciplines,astrology is traditionally believed to con-sist of eternally valid knowledge witheternally fixed contents and unchang-ing rules. Astrologers were always refer-ring to ancient divine revelation of astro-logical knowledge, and they indulged ina free improvisation on certain themes.Like the other Indian PAstras (tradition-al disciplines), astrology was preservedwithin families of practitioners, andmembers of each such family wouldremain faithful over many generationsto a particular group of texts and wouldgenerally not be interested in educatingoutsiders or in making innovations intheir traditional learning.
Different knowledgestructures
Generally speaking, rather than tak-ing astrologys irrationality as given, itis more fruitful to consider howgrounds for belief in prediction and div-ination in the ancient world differedfrom our own and the way in whichtheir different ordering of knowledgemight be related to a different social,cultural, and even political context. AsT.S. Barton has rightly pointed out,Ancient astrology offers a contrastingcase to our organization of knowledge,illustrating the artificial, historicallyspecific nature of boundaries betweenknowledge and pseudo-knowledge,intellectual discipline and technicalcraft, science, and mysticism (Barton1994:30). It seems that if and wherehistorical astrology is human-centred,this will not pertain to astronomical ormathematical science, but rather to psy-chology and social science. Nonethe-less, it must be stressed that much inIndia that currently goes under thename of Indian astrological scholarshipin fact merely serves as a vehicle for thepropagation of nationalist ideas on theone hand or of escapist and utopiannotions on the other. The revival of socalled traditional Indian medicine is acase in point.
As Gyan Prakash has shown, in late-nineteenth-century British India, theHindu intelligentsia began to canonizea body of contemporary scientificknowledge, in particular ancient Indi-an texts and traditions (Prakash1999:88). The definition of classicaltexts as scientific was crucial in thisprocess because this gave justificationto their status as the embodiment ofeternal and universal laws. The West-ern-educated intelligentsia felt impelledto reinterpret classical astrological textsand by casting the texts in the languageof the Western scientific discourse, theyconstrued a body of indigenous scien-tific traditions consistent with Westernscience. As a result, we often find thatcurrent astrological concepts are uncrit-ically projected into earlier times, inaccordance with the notion that noactual evolution can have taken place.It is for this reason that the claim ofastrological practice to be scientific is
still very strong in its contemporaryIndian context.
In my opinion, unless one examinesthe basic Indian astrological treatisesin their fullest social and intellectualcontexts, as far as practically possible,it is impossible to give a reasonable andaccurate answer to the question whattraditional Indians think of astrology.The vast-scale text-critical andhermeneutical examinations of thosetreatises that I propose, are significantfor the study of ancient Indian cultureand also for understanding contempo-rary religious practices and beliefs. South Asia
Street astrologer and
palmist at work,
Chennai.
Pandit Dr Ashish
Bhattacharya (Cal-
cutta) representing a
more sophisticated
astrological tradi-
tion, validating itself
by the use of ancient
astrological texts and
nourished mainly by
the guru-PiQya
(teacher-disciple)
system.
Bo
th p
ho
tos
by
Au
dri
us
Bei
no
riu
s
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