History of Science in South Asia
A journal for the history of all forms of scientiic thought and action, ancient and modern, in all regions of South Asia
Garga and Early Astral Science in India
Marko Geslani, Bill Mak, Michio Yano and Kenneth Zysk
Emory University, Kyoto University, Kyoto Sangyo University and University of Copenhagen
style citation form: Marko Geslani, Bill Mak, Michio Yano and Kenneth Zysk. “Garga and Early Astral
Science in India.” History of Science in South Asia, 5.1 (2017): 151–191. doi: 10.18732/H2ND44.
MLA
Online version available at: http://hssa-journal.org
HISTORY OF SCIENCE IN SOUTH ASIA
A journal for the history of all forms of scientiic thought and action, ancient and modern, in all
regions of South Asia, published online at http://hssa-journal.org
ISSN 2369-775X
Editorial Board:
• Dominik Wujastyk, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
• Kim Plofker, Union College, Schenectady, United States
• Dhruv Raina, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India
• Sreeramula Rajeswara Sarma, formerly Aligarh Muslim University, Düsseldorf, Germany
• Fabrizio Speziale, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – CNRS, Paris, France
• Michio Yano, Kyoto Sangyo University, Kyoto, Japan
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History of Science in South Asia
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Garga and Early Astral Science in India
Marko Geslani, Bill Mak, Michio Yano and Kenneth Zysk
Emory University, Kyoto University, Kyoto Sangyo University and University of Copenhagen
1 . INTRO DUCTIO N ( M AK )
W
ithin the jyotiṣa tradition of India, Garga has long been considered one of
the most important authorities, if not the earliest, on a variety of subjects
in the astral sciences. A number of scholars—from Weber and Kane to more recently Pingree and Mitchiner—have dated texts attributed to Garga to around the
irst century ce, with source materials of possibly much older origin.1 In the commentaries of Bhaṭṭotpala on the Bṛhatsaṃhitā and the Bṛhajjātaka, the two authoritative works on natural astrology and horoscopy composed by the sixth-century
polymath Varāhamihira, works attributed to Garga (or Vṛddhagarga) are among
those most often cited.2 References to Garga are found also in Mīnarāja’s Vṛddhayavanajātaka (fourth century ce?) and Varāhamihira’s various works.3 However,
none of the extant works attributed to Garga has yet been edited or published
in its entirety. This situation prompted Pingree in 1987 to describe the Gārgīyajyotiṣa—one of the most comprehensive of Garga’s texts—as an “immense and
immensely important work,” and to opine that its editing was a task of utmost
urgency.4
Here we begin a closer examination of this seminal authority by looking at
the earliest surviving documents, i.e., the manuscripts.
1 Weber 1852: 225; Kane 1949: 6–9; Pingree
1963: 232–33, Pingree 1981: 69–71 (irst century bce or ce), Pingree 1987a: 295 (irst or
possibly second ce); Mitchiner 2002: 81 f.
See also Burgess 1858: 420; Kern 1865: 31, 40;
Dīkṣita 1896: 405; Negelein 1928: 1–2.
2 In the Saṃhitāvivṛti, commentary to the
Bṛhatsaṃhitā, Garga was cited in 189 instances in 448 ślokas, surpassed only by
Parāśara, 206 instances in 132 ślokas and
667 prose lines (Trīpāthi ed.). In the Jagaccandrikā, commentary to the Bṛhajjātaka,
Garga was cited in 39 instances in 65.5 ślokas,
following only the Yavanajātaka, which was
quoted in 64 instances in 73.5 upajāti, verses.
See Mitchiner 2002: 113–20, Sugita 1992: 14–
16, Mak 2018. For discussion of the identities of Garga and Vṛddhagarga, see Kane
1949: 8, Mitchiner 2002: 11 f.
3 Pingree 1981: 71 f.
4 Pingree 1987a: 297.
On the textdesignation, Gārgīyajyotiṣa, see Mitchiner
1986: 4.
history of science in south asia 5.1 (2017) 151–191
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Garga and Early Astral Science in India
Version Title and content
G1
Gārgīyajyotiṣa, a dialogue on astral and other omens between
Krauṣṭuki (Ṛṣiputra) and Garga in 64 aṅgas.5
G2
An astrological work that claims to be following the teaching of
Garga. 37 adhyāyas.
G3
Vṛddhagārgīsaṃhitā, a dialogue on astrology between Nārada and
Vṛddhagārgya- or -Vṛddhagārgi.
G4
Gargasaṃhitā, a dialogue on astronomy between Bhāradvāja and
Garga. 20 adhyāyas.
G5
Gārgyasaṃhitā on history in at least 12 adhyāyas.
G6
Uttaragārgyasaṃhitā or Nārāyaṇīya in many adhyāyas of which
only 30–51 are available.
G7
Unidentiied Gargasaṃhitā.
G8
Short tracts that claim to be derived from a Gargargasaṃhitā: (a)
Arghakāṇḍa; (b) Kākaruta; (c) Kākavaikṛtyaśānti; (d) Ketūdayaphala;
(e) Jvaraśānti; (f) Dhvajādhyāya; (g) Pallīsaraṭa; (h) Meghamālā.
Table 1: Eight works attributed to an author Garga according to Pingree (CESS: A2).
sources
According to Pingree’s survey, there are no less than thirty-four distinct works
of the jyotiṣa, genre bearing a title associated with Garga.6 The exact relations
between these works, with topics ranging from planetary omens and bird divination to horoscopy and astronomy, await further investigation. What is certain is
that the Garga referred to in these titles should not be considered a single author.7
This authorial complexity behind the name “Garga” is assumed throughout this
study.
Among the most extensive works of Garga in terms of both scope and size
is the Gārgīyajyotiṣa, which Pingree called the “irst Gargasaṃhitā (G1)”.8 To this
5 We follow here Mitchiner’s designation of
“aṅga” for the main divisions of the work
as described in the content list given in the
second of the two introductory chapters of
the Gārgīyajyotiṣa, titled “Enumeration of
the Divisions” or Aṅgasamuddiśa (Mitchiner
1986: 10, 102). See further discussion in § 3,
p. 163, below.
6 CESS: A2, 115–26; A3, 29–30; A4, 78–80;
A5, 78–84.
7 For example, Pingree identiied another Garga (ca. tenth century) of Jaina
ailiation, who authored the Pāśakevalī
(CESS: A2, 122).
8 We follow here Mitchiner 1986: 101–12.
Cf. Pingree 1987a: 293. Pingree also called
history of science in south asia 5.1 (2017) 151–191
Geslani, Mak, Yano, and Zysk
153
author, Pingree attributed a total of eight works as summarized in Table 1.9
Three of our contributors (Zysk, Mak, Geslani) focus on the Gārgīyajyotiṣa
(G1), while the inal contributor (Yano) discusses the “astronomical” Gargasaṃhitā (G4), which bears no direct relation to G1. In the process of disambiguating
the corpus, one should bear in mind the luidity of this tradition attributed to
Garga.
By itself, the Gārgīyajyotiṣa (G1) is a large and somewhat luid collection of
individual chapters (see Appendix A). The main manuscripts of G1 we have consulted are the following:10
A
Asiatic Society, Kolkata, 1D20. 160 f. JH C-177 PMF 597.
*B
Banaraloats (Saṃpū ānand) Sanskrit University, Varanasi.
36370. 137 f. CESS: A2, 117.
Bh
Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune. 542 of 1895–1902,
new no. 12 section. 193–4/226 f. CESS: A2, 117. JH C-135 PMF
285.
*C
Gangajala Vidyapeeth, Aliyavada, Gujarat.
CESS: A5, 78.
*D
National Library, Kolkata. Th 319. 295 f. CESS: A5, 78.
127.
241 f.
E
Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune. 345 of 1879–80.
232 f. CESS: A2, 117.
F
Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune. 36 of 1874–75.
79 f. CESS: A2, 117. JH C-177 PMF 572. JH C-154X. Pingree
transcription “DEP notes Gargasaṃhitā, 2 of 2” (APS Box 14).
G
Cambridge Trinity College, Cambridge.
R.15.96.
109 f.
CESS: A2, 117. JH C-175 PMF 491. Pingree transcription “DEP
notes Gargasaṃhitā, 1 of 2” (APS Box 14).
*H
Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi.
2B/1288, Sanskrit
Mahāvidyālaya no. 34. 227 f. CESS: A5, 78.
this text “Vṛddhagargasaṃhitā or Vṛddhagārgīyā”—under type “1” of the Gargasaṃhitā
(CESS: A2: 116–17)—but he generally referred the text as the irst version of the
Gargasaṃhitā (Pingree 1981: 69).
9 I have collated here the descriptions by
Mitchiner (2002) and Pingree (CESS: A2:
116–20, 1981: 69–74).
10 This collection is an expansion of Zysk
2016: 2: 463–80, which was in turn based
on Mitchiner 2002: 21–25. The sigla follow
those of Mitchiner. * indicates manuscripts
which are only partially available to us. APS
= American Philosophical Society, Pingree
archive; JH = John Hay Library Pingree Collection; PMF = John Hay Library microilm
number. We thank in particular Koji Kumagai for sharing his copies of the manuscripts.
history of science in south asia 5.1 (2017) 151–191
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Garga and Early Astral Science in India
*L
National Library, Kolkata. Th 171. 147 f. CESS: A5, 78.
M
Bombay University, Mumbai. Itcchārām Sūryarām Desāi Collection 1433. 192/398 f. CESS: A2, 117. JH C-173 PMF 408.
*N
National Library, Kolkata. Th 216. 228 f. CESS: A5, 78.
P
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. 245. 208 f. CESS: A2, 117; A3, 29.
R
Rajasthan Oriental Research Institute, Alwar.
CESS: A5, 78.
*S
2602.
245 f.
Banaras (Saṃpū ānand) Sanskrit University, Varanasi. 35311.
201 f. CESS: A2, 117.
“astronomical” gargasaṃhitā (g4)
I
Vishveshvaranand Vedic Research Institute, Hoshiarpur. 2069.
201 f. CESS: A2, 118. Pingree transcription “6” (JH C–103).
past research
Although the Gārgīyajyotiṣa remains by and large in manuscript form, a number of chapters have been separately edited and translated. A few critical editions and studies of individual chapters include: the Yugapurāṇa (aṅga 41), edited and published together with an English translation and a historical analysis
by Mitchiner (1986); the Śukracāra (aṅga 6), translated by Pingree (1987a) with
a commentary largely comprised of comparisons between Sanskrit jyotiṣa texts
and Babylonian materials from the Enūma Anu Enil;11 a portion of the Rāṣṭrotpātalakṣaṇa (aṅga 39), edited and translated into English and Japanese by Kumagai (2007, 2011, 2015); and inally the Puruṣalakṣaṇa/Strīlakṣaṇa (aṅga 48), edited
with critical notes and published with English translation in a comprehensive
study of Indian system of human marks by Zysk (2016).
gargasaṃhitā workgroup 2017
A working group consisting of four members, Michio Yano, Kenneth Zysk, Bill
Mak, and Marko Geslani, convened in New York at Columbia University and
the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW), New York University,
11 The Sanskrit text was unpublished but a
draft of the transcription is now kept in the
American Philosophical Society (David E.
Pingree Archive, Box 14 “DEP notes Garga-
saṃhitā, 1 of 2”). A summary of the remaining planetary chapters was published
in Pingree 1987b.
history of science in south asia 5.1 (2017) 151–191
Geslani, Mak, Yano, and Zysk
155
February 20–25th , 2017. The purpose of the workgroup was to bring together
scholars whose research has touched on various aspects of Garga’s texts, with
the hope to bring out further editions of the unpublished materials. Each member presented his materials during the week and summarized their indings
in the presentations on the inal day under the topics: 1) The astronomical
Gargasaṃhitā in twenty chapters (Yano); 2) Emendation and transmission of
the physiognomic materials in Gārgīyajyotiṣa (Zysk); 3) Citations of Garga in
Bhaṭṭotpala’s commentaries to Varāhamihira’s Bṛhatsaṃhitā and Bṛhajjātaka
(Mak); 4) Ritual in Gārgīyajyotiṣa-Śāntikalpa (Geslani).12
The following contributions from the individual participants constitute a preliminary and prospective study of a small portion of the Garga corpus.
2. TEXT CRITICAL REM ARK S BAS ED O N THE CHAP TER
ENTITLED ( P URUṢ A) STRĪ LAK Ṣ A A ( ZYS K )
M
y recent study of the Indian system of human marks (puruṣastrīlakṣaṇāni) includes a critical edition of the chapter on women’s marks from the Gārgīyajyotiṣa, a Jyotiḥśāstra compilation that reached its inal from around the beginning of the Common Era. The analysis of this material reveals certain trends in
the textual transmission of Garga’s text, which I should like to discuss in brief in
light of the 2017 workshop on Garga.13
By way of introduction, I shall explain the contents of the chapter, which is
included alongside chapters devoted to the marks of various types of animals (aṅgas 46–50). These chapters in turn form a section in Garga’s overall presentation
of omens. The chapter on the human marks contains verses in anuṣṭubh (male)
and upajāti (female) metres in a typical structure using protases and apodoses to
reveal a person’s current character and future life based on a set of marks found
on the human body. It follows the same method of physiognomics found in
many parts of the ancient and modern world and forms an important link in the
chain of transmission of this form prognostication in antiquity.
12 The workshop was sponsored by the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World,
New York University, and is part of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
(JSPS) Grants-in-Aid for Scientiic Research
(C) project #15K01118, “Overlapping Cosmologies in Pre-modern Asia” (2015–2017),
supported by the “Acceleration grant for international collaboration” fund #15KK0050
(2017–2018). We would like to express our
thanks to ISAW Director Alexander Jones
for his support to the workshop, as well as to
those who provided to us access of the manuscript materials including Pingree’s transcriptions: David J. Gary and Charles Greifenstein of the American Philosophical Society (Pingree archive); Kim Plofker (APS
Pingree archives inventory and JH Pingree
collection inventory); William Monroe and
Tim Engels of John Hay Library, Brown University (Pingree collection).
13 See Zysk 2016: 2: 463–80.
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Garga and Early Astral Science in India
For the purpose of this paper and as an introduction to the text of the Gārgīyajyotiṣa, I shall focus on the text itself, what it reveals about the languages of the
text and its transmission, and shall conclude with suggestions for further considerations.14
the text of the (puruṣa) strīlakṣaṇa
A total of fourteen manuscripts and two printed texts were consulted in the preparation of the critical edition of this chapter. One manuscript was not used
because it was incomplete and lacked the chapter on human marks.15 Of them,
six contain colophon dates, the earliest being 1825. The remaining manuscripts
cannot be much older and most are later. This indicates that all the known manuscripts fall within the time-frame of most surviving Indic paper manuscripts.
Although both the male and female marks are included in the manuscripts, the
colophons of all but one manuscript (C) give the title of the chapter as only the
system of women’s marks (strīlakṣaṇam). This could indicate that the material
on the male marks was added to female marks at a later point in time, when
the colophon had already been composed. The original chapter then could have
contained only the female marks and, as arranged in the surviving manuscripts,
comprises merely three-and-a-half percent of the total Gārgīyajyotiṣa.
At irst glance all the manuscript versions of this chapter exhibited in varying degrees a non-standard form of Sanskrit.16 More detailed analysis of them
revealed a distinct characteristic that the study-group will verify in its ongoing
study. That characteristic may be stated generally as follows: non-standard readings represent the older version, which ultimately looks back to an original that
was probably composed in a form of Prakrit or vernacular language, so that
the version of the text found in the manuscripts represents incomplete stages
in the process of transition from non-Sanskrit to Sanskrit. Moreover, a process
of Sanskritisation and Brahmanisation is traceable through diferent manuscript
transmissions and into the scholastic traditions that cited Garga’s text. For an
example of such a transmission, see Appendix B below (p. 186).
Such a textual history represents what I have called a “bottom-up” transmission, beginning in a non-Sanskrit version perhaps in prose and resulting in a
14 For a detailed discussion of the contents of this chapter and it relationship
to Mesopotamian and Greek systems of
physiognomy and its place in the Indian system of body marks, see Zysk 2016: 1: 25–51;
55–65; 71–74
15 No. 8199 (iv) from the Asiatic Society of
Bengal, corresponding to Mitchiner manu-
script J.
16 Interestingly enough, Rudolf Hoernle
gave a similar description of what he
called the Gāthā dialect of the Bakhshālī
birch-bark manuscript on mathematics
from northwesten India, in what is the
Peshawar distict of Pakistan (Hoernle 1888).
See also Plofker, Keller, et al. 2017.
history of science in south asia 5.1 (2017) 151–191
Geslani, Mak, Yano, and Zysk
157
fully versiied text in Sanskrit. In the batch of manuscripts I examined, no one
transmission reaches the level of Sanskrit exhibited in early Dharmaśāstra, and
deinitely not the Sanskrit of Vahāramihira.
Emphasis is placed on producing a text in correct metre rather than following
strictly the rules of Pā inian grammar, for it would appear that a focus on metre
best characterised the stage of the transmission. A further stage is witnessed
in the later reworking of the verses by traditional scholars, irst by the tenthcentury commentator, Bhaṭṭotpala in his commentary to the Bṛhatsaṃhitā, and
later by the seventeenth-century smṛti compiler, Mitramiśra in his monumental
Vīramitrodaya. At their hands Garga’s human marks became fully integrated into
the literature of Jyotiḥśāstra and Dharmaśāstra.
Proceeding from the least Sanskritic and most Prakritic version to the most
Sanskritic and least Prakritic version, the manuscripts may be organized into the
following four groups, which follow those of Mitchiner in his study of the Yuga
Purāṇa chapter of Garga’s compilation (aṅga 41). In terms of the overall manuscript, the Yuga Purāṇa is close to the chapter on human marks, lying about ten
folia earlier, and is part of the section dealing with omens. In this way, it has
many of the same features as the physiognomic chapter of my study.17 The intervening chapters of the work treat both the calls and the marks of animals.18
Group 1: Bh (Pune), R (Alwar) (very close)
Group 2: D (Bombay), C (Gujarat) (very close)
Group 3: B (Varanasi), M (Bombay) (close); E (Pune), H (Varanasi) (close); L (Calcutta), N (Calcutta), S (Varanasi) (close).
Group 4: A (Calcutta), P (Calcutta/Chandernagar), Q (Alwar).
observations on the relationship between the manuscripts
Based on the analysis of gaps and missing text, both indicated and not indicated
in the diferent manuscripts, the manuscripts fall into two major groupings, corresponding to Bh and R on the one hand, and D and C on the other. A further
17 Mitchiner 2002: 30. I should point out
that Mitchiner compiled a list of chapters for
the whole text with his own numbering and
title “aṅga” based on the easy-to-read and
complete manuscript D (see Appendix A),
originally from the library of Dr Bhau Daji in
Mumbai. Pingree copied his chapter identiication from Mitchiner. To my knowledge
only a single manuscript contains chapter
numbers, the late manuscript C, which,
moreover, is the only manuscript to divide the chapter into two separate chapters,
one called puruṣalakṣaṇa, numbered 146 and
strīlakṣaṇa, numbered 147.
18 For a more elaborate discussion of these
divisions, see Zysk 2016: 2: 464–67.
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Garga and Early Astral Science in India
division into sub-groups can be ascertained, so that one can speak of a primary
and secondary BhR and primary and secondary DC. The primary sub-groups,
called respectively, the BhR1 group and the DC1 group, are fairly consistent. The
former includes the manuscripts corresponding to Mitchiner’s group 4 (above);
and the latter corresponds to his group 3 (above).
A further division into the level of the secondary groups BhR2 and DC2 , however, is tentative, because an analysis based on variant readings rather than gaps
indicates that the secondary groups are more luid. In a signiicant number of
cases, the readings in the secondary groups will not follow the readings in their
respective primary groups, and one secondary group sometimes follows the
other secondary group. A more exact formulation of the relationship of manuscripts and the establishment of a stemma codicum will require an analysis of a
larger portion of the entire text. The 206 verses involved in this study is, however,
suicient to point to certain trends and patterns in transmission.
trends and patterns
Within the primary groups, there are indications that the manuscripts are not
direct copies of each other. The closest readings are found between Bh and
R, while D and C show greater variation from each other, where C illustrates
emendations of D. Both sets of the primary groups show closeness in readings,
but it cannot yet be determined if direct copies are present among them, except
in S and Q and perhaps in P and A, where the former appears to be a copy of the
latter.
Since the BhR group provides the greatest number of non-Sanskrit and
Prakrit readings, it has been assigned the most authentic, while the DC group
illustrates the most Sanskrit readings, indicative of emendations and corrections
over the course of the subsequent transmissions.
A comparison of passages from both printed editions of Bhaṭṭotpala
(Yogīśvara) and Mitramiśra and select manuscripts of the former shows clear
emendations when compared to the readings from the manuscripts. It is not
entirely clear from the printed editions if the textual readings are editorial, but
the manuscript readings of Bhaṭṭotpala (B1, B2) indicate that they are for the
most part the author’s emendations rather than those of the editor.19 One could
presume also that the same applies to Yogīśvara’s and Mitramiśra’s printed
19 Yogīśvara was the author of the
seventeenth-century commentary on the
Bṛhatsaṃhitā called Utpalapratimala, which,
as the work’s title states, is a condensed ver-
sion of Bhaṭṭotpala, especially the version
of Bhaṭṭotpala found in two manuscripts
from BORI, designed as B1 and B2.
history of science in south asia 5.1 (2017) 151–191
Geslani, Mak, Yano, and Zysk
159
texts. The textual alterations take the form of literary embellishment, grammatical corrections and, more importantly, the commentators’ endeavour to
use terminology appropriate to each author’s Brahman-dominated intellectual
milieu.20 U (with Y) stays close to the DC group, while Mitramiśra (or the
editor?) either follows or emends Bhaṭṭotpala.
The largest number of verses from both secondary sources occurs in the section corresponding to the puruṣalakṣaṇāṇ. Bhaṭṭotpala has twenty-four out of 111,
while Mitramiśra lacks only twenty-six for a total of eighty-ive verses. Both attribute the same verse to Garga, which, however, is wanting in the manuscripts.
In the strīlakṣaṇa-section, the total number of verses from the two authors is far
smaller. An examination of the two manuscripts B1 and B2 indicates that there
existed discrepancy in the attribution of the verses in Bhaṭṭotpala’s commentary.
Because of these reasons, a critical edition of his commentary is a desideratum.
Bhaṭṭotpala has seven and Mitramiśra sixteen out of ninty-ive verses; and the
former has two verses, 50 and 51, which are not found in the latter.21
It would appear that a version of the chapter on human marks in the Gārgīyajyotiṣa was available as early as the tenth century. By the irst half of the seventeenth century, the puruṣalakṣaṇāni was more established and better known than
the strīlakṣaṇāni, since only a few verses from the former and most of the latter
are wanting in the Vīramitrodaya. This emphasis on male physiognomy is relected in a transmission in the later Bṛhatsaṃhitā (sixth century ce), where the verses
devoted to the women’s marks are far fewer than those to the men’s marks, i.e.,
twenty-six to women versus 116 to men. The strīlakṣaṇāni of Garga represents the
earliest comprehensive version of the female marks.
text-critical observations
John Mitchiner already laid the groundwork for a linguistic study of the Gārgīyajyotiṣa in his critical edition and translation of the Yugapurāṇa which, like the
chapter on human marks, forms a part of a section on omens. Even though his
analysis covers only 114 anuṣṭubh-verses, his observations are pertinent and deserve careful consideration.22
In addition to pointing to numerous scribal mistakes, he provides evidence in
the form of phonological changes that point in the direction of a hybrid form of
Sanskrit as the language of the Garga’s Yugapurāṇa. Furthermore, he lists several
20 Examples of this type of emendation
can be found in the textual notes to both
chapters; see Appendix B, p. 186, below.
They conirm the textual emendations carried out by the later Brahmanic scholars.
21 Yogīśvara has far fewer verses in both
sections: eight-and-a-half for puruṣalakṣaṇa
and one for strīlakṣaṇa, both of which correspond to Utpala’s commentary.
22 See Mitchiner 2002: 33–40.
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Garga and Early Astral Science in India
features to indicate Prakrit inluence, including (1) preservation of hiatus both
at the end and in the middle of pādas, and (2) irregular sandhi. Taken together,
these features of Garga’s language imply that “the account [of the Yugapurāṇa]
was in several cases…handed down among peoples whose one language was not
Sanskrit but either Prakrit or a hybrid form of Sanskrit, and whose knowledge of
Sanskrit was accordingly inluenced by such further forms of language”.23
He goes on to say that he believed that the original account was rather early
and written in Brāhmī script, due to the presence of sch for sth in script, a feature
that originated with Brāhmī. Furthermore, he states that the work probably dates
from the irst century bce to the ifth century ce, during which time, according
to Franklin Edgerton, hybrid forms of Sanskrit lourished.24
These observations about the language of the Garga’s Yugapurāṇa correspond
in the main to my indings for the chapter on human marks. Both the phonology and lexicography indicate inluence from Prakrit and/or vernacular languages, including perhaps Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit. The most telling example
of Buddhist inluence is found in the word sujāta, which in Sanskrit is an adjective, meaning, “well-born,” “beautiful,” “noble,” etc. In Garga, it occurs six times
only in the feminine (sujātā) and designates the archetypical auspicious female.25
In Pāli and BHS, sujātā, is the name of the woman who fed the Buddha before his
enlightenment. In this way, it has taken on a special signiicance as an apodosis,
describing an auspicious woman as well born and bred with implied reference
perhaps to the Buddhist story.26
The other linguistic features, such as preservation of hiatus and irregular
sandhi, show variation in the chapter on human marks. In the Yugapurāṇa, both
features occur, but metre is not a contributing factor. In the chapter on human
marks, there is irregular sandhi, but in most cases it takes the form of double
sandhi, where the hiatus is lost rather than preserved, metri causa, especially in
the slightly more complex upajāti-metre of the female marks, but also a couple of
times in men’s marks in anuṣṭubh-metre. Therefore, the diferences between the
two sections would include metre, where the Yugapurāṇa uses anuṣṭubh and the
women’s marks employs upajāti.
The question of Brāhmī being the script of the original version requires further investigation, since sch for sth is a common occurrence in manuscripts from
north India. Therefore, a more precise determination of the original script in
which the text was written necessitates the examination of a larger portion of
the entire text.
23
24
25
26
Mitchiner 2002: 39.
Mitchiner 2002: 40.
See 2.4–5, 8, 14, 16, and 46.
Other examples of possible phonolo-
gic and orthographic changes and Prakrit
words that were found the manuscript
transmission are available in Zysk 2016: 2:
473–80.
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Geslani, Mak, Yano, and Zysk
161
In addition to phonological similarities to the Yugapurāṇa of Garga, the following grammatical and syntactical peculiarities are noticed in Garga’s chapter
on the human marks. Numbers 1, 3, and 4 are common to the Yugapurāṇa.27
1. mixing of gender in the same verse
2. mixing of number in the same verse
3. double sandhi for the sake of metre
4. particular sandhi of a + vowel for the sake of metre
5. corruption of metre
6. use of instrumental to express possession
7. use of √dṛś for √paś
8. use of the incorrect form of gerund
9. use of predictive dative.28
Like the Yugapurāṇa, Garga’s chapter on the human marks shows inluence
from one or more Prakrit or vernacular languages, which could reach back as
far as Pāli and Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit. Moreover, the particular evidence
revealed through the manuscript transmission from the BhR group to the DC
group points to a late stage in the text’s transmission that aims to render material preserved in a form of Prakrit, perhaps in prose or verse, into versiied
Sanskrit. The manuscripts along with the printed versions of Bhaṭṭotpala’s midtenth-century commentary and Mitramiśra’s early seventeenth-century Smṛtinibandha indicate a conscious process of textual emendation and translation aimed
at bringing the literature into correct didactic Sanskrit verse, understandable to
Brahman priests. The transmission process takes the form of rendering of material in one Indian language into Sanskrit rather than of an independent literary
composition.
further considerations based on the garga workshop
The workshop held at NYU’s ISAW, organized by Bill Mak, provided the opportunity for discussions on Garga’s extensive corpus and for the establishment of a
working group devoted to its study. Based on the presentations from other participants the following preliminary observations deserve consideration: 1. the
section called Cow Śānti ofers a more correct Sanskrit text with few Prakritisms,
27 See Zysk 2016: 2: 470–73.
28 Exact verse-references to these points
can be found at Zysk 2016: 2: 471.
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suggesting that the source text was already in Sanskrit; 2. the chapters of the
Yuga Purāṇa and (Puruṣa)strīlakṣaṇa may therefore represent versions of material derived mainly from non-Sanskrit sources; 3. the chapter on Tithis as found
in Bhaṭṭotpala’s commentary to the Bṛhatsaṃhitā (printed edition) again exhibits
variations from at least two manuscript versions in the form missing text and
variant readings.
These observations point to a text compiled from diferent sources in diferent languages, brought together in a Sanskrit compendium and called a saṃhitā
of the Jyotiḥśāstra. The important points to consider in the ongoing study will
include an identiication of the sources and their time periods as well as the original languages in which they were written. Is it possible to ind extra-Indian
inluence in the material compiled by Garga? Finally, a major efort of the working group, we hope, will be devoted to the production of a good critical edition
of the Gārgīyajyotiṣa, based on about ifteen, rather late manuscripts. A step in
this direction will be taken in a current study of the chapter-colophons from all
the available texts that in some way or other bear the name Garga. In this way,
a survey of the corpus of Garga’s works will emerge, giving us a better idea of
the compilation of the Gārgīyajyotiṣa and of the other texts that go by the name
of Gargasaṃhitā, and the relationships between them.
The mixture of languages characteristic of certain parts of the Gārgīyajyotiṣa
raises an important question pertaining to the preparation of critical editions
of such a work, and the eicacy of trying to reach the “ur-text,” as commonly
understood in European Indology from the late nineteenth onwards. Based on
the available manuscript-witnesses of the text, the best that one could aim for
is to represent aspects of the version of the text, composed in a type of hybrid
language, and trace its development into Sanskrit via the manuscripts and later
scholastic traditions. Crucial in such a text-critical edition is the identiication
and explanation of the diferent readings in the manuscripts. One must resist
the inclination to normalize the text into correct Sanskrit. Rather one should try
to ind reasons for a reading as it exists in the manuscript(s), deferring to the
least Sanskritic version wherever possible. Occasionally, a suitable explanation
for the reading cannot be found, in which case, one must resort to the most intelligible reading, which is the one in classical Sanskrit often occurring in the
versions ofered by the later scholars. This is what I have endeavored to do in
my edition of the chapter on the human marks.
The method of producing a critical edition of such a hybrid text permits the
reader to glimpse perhaps an early stage in the evolution of Indian Jyotiṣa literature. Moreover, the hybrid nature of the language puts its source in another
social class, namely, the nobility rather than the priests, whose oicial language
was not Sanskrit but Prakrit perhaps with a mixture of vernacular languages. It
seems plausible, therefore, that an early textual tradition of Jyotiṣa was known,
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Geslani, Mak, Yano, and Zysk
163
maintained, and transmitted by Kṣatriyas in ancient India, among whom one can
include both Siddhārtha Gautama and Māhavīra or Vardhamāna, whose followers composed religious doctrines in Prakrit languages. As in the case Buddhism
and early Āyurveda, the principal early doctrines of Jyotiḥśāstra could have been
transmitted through Jain communities and monasteries, among whose collections of manuscripts contain many texts in Jyotiḥśāstra, including physiognomy,
known as Sāmudrikaśāstra, after the name of the India’s earliest physiognomist,
Samudra or Sāmudra. This hypothesis of the early history of Indian Jyotiḥśāstra
will be explored further in the current studies of the Garga’s works.
3 . ASTRAL O M ENS IN THE GĀRGĪ YAJ YOTI ṢA ( M AK )
A
stral omens constitute one of the main topics, if not the most important topic,
in most of the extant works attributed to Garga. Garga was referred to in
the Mahābhārata as the sāṃvatsara, that is, one who has the knowledge of time, or
an astronomer/astrologer.29 In another passage in the Mahābhārata, one refers to
a work of Garga in sixty-four divisions (catuḥṣaṣṭyaṅgam).30 This description is
identical to the one given in the second chapter of the Gārgīyajyotiṣa (G1), suggesting likely that this recension was fairly well-known and had a wide circulation.31 Among the sixty-four divisions or aṅgas of the Gārgīyajyotiṣa (or sixty-two
according to Mitchiner, see Appendix A), a total of twenty-ive of them deal with
celestial omens (1–12, 20–22, 51), planetary astrology (25–29, 31–32) or astral narratives (30, 44). While these chapters as a whole show no overarching structure
and appear to form an organic aggregate of subgroups of materials, some topics contain temporal and ritualistic factors which make them thematically connected to those chapters focusing on rituals (32–33, 37–38).32 The popularity of
these materials is further corroborated by the long list of “vile” knowledge (tiracchānavijjā, literally “bestial knowledge”) refuted by the Buddha, as mentioned
in the Pāli Sāmaññaphalasutta.33 Rather ironically, many of the same techniques
29 MBh 12.59.117 (Śānti Parvan): maharṣir
bhagavān gargas tasya sāṃvatsaro ’bhavat.
30 Mbh 13.18.25–26 (Anuśāsana Parvan):
gārgya uvāca / catuḥṣaṣṭyaṅgam adadāt kālajñānaṃ mahādbhutam / sarasvatyās taṭe tuṣṭo
manoyajñena pāṇḍava //
31 jyotiṣām ayanāṅgāni catuḥṣaṣṭis tathā paṭhet
(Mitchiner 1986: 102).
32 See Geslani’s discussion on ritual sequence below in § 4, p. 169. Elements of
this particular organizational principle are
mechanically reproduced in Varāhamihira’s
Bṛhatsaṃhitā, though not without some innovations by the latter author (See Appendix A).
33 Topics include the reading of marks on
the limbs (aṅgaṃ nimittam) as discussed
earlier in Zysk’s section on physiognomy,
unusual omens such as one based on clothes
bitten by mice (mūsikacchinnam), appearance of various animals (migapakkha), as well
as all kinds of astronomical and meteorological phenomena (Mak 2016: 139 n. 8).
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were incorporated into the later Buddhist texts such as the Mahāyāna narrative Śārdūlakarṇāvadāna and Amoghavajra’s Xiuyao jing 宿曜經, an eighth-century
Chinese compilation of Indian astral science which had widespread inluence in
East Asia. The astral omens of the Gārgīyajyotiṣa are thus found in a variety of
Indic traditions, both Brahmanic and non-Brahmanic throughout the irst millennium, belonging arguably to one of the most inluential astral traditions in
the South Asian subcontinent in a truly pan-Indian manner.
characteristics of garga’s astral omens
The astral omens of the Gārgīyajyotiṣa can be divided in two major groups, Vedic
and post-Vedic. The Vedic astral omens are characterized by the nakṣatras (1,
3), while the post-Vedic ones are characterized by the planets (4–10, 25–31). As
planets were never explicitly mentioned or described in the oldest Vedic corpus or Vedic astral work such as the Vedāṅgajyotiṣa, the inclusion of planets in
the Gārgīyajyotiṣa places the redaction of the work to no earlier than the late
Vedic period.34 Among the most archaic materials in the Gārgīyajyotiṣa, besides
those dealing with the nakṣatras, are those found in the chapter titled “Tithikarmagu āḥ,” which forms part of the irst aṅga, titled “Karmagu āḥ”.35 It
describes the astrological characters of the ifteen tithis, in both the white and
dark pakṣas. The same verses were quoted by Bhaṭṭotpala in his commentary
on the corresponding section in the Bṛhatsaṃhitā.36 Close parallels of this set of
verses are found also in the Sanskrit Śārdūlakarṇāvadāna, and Amoghavajra’s Xiuyao jing, a Chinese compilation and translation of Indian astral science dated to
759/764 ce.37 The fact that the Gārgīyajyotiṣa materials were transmitted beyond
34 There have been attempts among Indian
scholars to connect Garga to the Vedāṅgajyotiṣa, such as the “Garga verses” Somākara
cited in his commentary on the Yajur recension of the Vedāṅgajyotiṣa. However,
as Pingree pointed out, these astronomical verses are not found in the Gārgīyajyotiṣa (G1) and should be dated much later
(Pingree 1973: 3). The astronomical Garga
verses may be comparable to those in G4 as
discussed by Yano in § 5, p. 173.
35 An edition of the “Tithikarmagu āḥ”
will appear in the article Mak 2017.
36 The chapter in the Bṛhatsaṃhitā, titled
also “Tithikarmagu āḥ,” is surprisingly
terse and is placed near the end of the text
(chapter 98). It contains only three verses
describing the lords and names of the
ifteen tithis (BSU 1035): kamalajavidhātṛhariyamaśaśāṅkaṣaḍvaktraśakravasubhujagāḥ
/ dharmaīśasavitṛmanmathakalayo viśve ca
tithipatayaḥ //1// pitaro ’māvasyāyāṃ saṃjñāsadṛśāś ca taiḥ kriyāḥ kāryāḥ / nandā bhadrā
vijayā riktā pūrṇā ca tās trividhāḥ //2// yat
kāryaṃ nakṣatre taddaivatyāsu tithiṣu tat
kāryam / karaṇamuhūrteṣv api tat siddhikaraṃ
devatāsadṛśam //3//
Utpala’s quotation
of Garga (BSU 1037–1039): From nandā
pratipad ity uktā praśastā dhruvakarmasu /
jñānasya ca samārambhe pravāse ca vigarhitā
// … to … rājñaḥ purohitaṃ kuryād yajñāni
vividhāni ca / śubhaṃ karma ca kartavyaṃ
somaṃ vidyāc ca devatām //
37 Śārdūlakarṇāvadāna:
Mukhopadhyaya
1954: 202–3. Xiuyao jing: Taishō (1299)
21.393a; Yano 1986: 109 f.
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165
the Brahmanical tradition and beyond even India, highlights their popularity
and tenacity. The name “Garga” (伽⼒伽, jialijia, MC. kæ-lik-kæ) was mentioned
also in the Chinese translation of the Mahāyāna text Mahāsaṃnipāta, in a chapter
titled Sūryagarbha translated by Narendrayaśas in 585 ce, as a sage who “taught
the positions of nakṣatras, methods of long and short months and time measurements”.38
garga’s treatment of the planets
The planets (graha), including the two pseudoplanets Rāhu and Ketu, are given
particular prominence in the Gārgīyajyotiṣa, making up a series of individual
chapters at the beginning of the work (2, 4–11). The presence of the nine grahas
suggests a late Vedic formation of the text, as evidenced by the fact that planets
are completely absent from both the classical Vedic corpus and the Pāli Canon.
Nevertheless, the planets described in the Gārgīyajyotiṣa bear a number of characteristics which diferentiate them from those of the later medieval tradition.
These characteristics include, most strikingly, the order in which the grahas are
presented, and their astronomical descriptions.
The nine planets (navagraha) in the Gārgīyajyotiṣa were presented in an order
that cannot be easily explained: Moon, Rāhu, Jupiter, Venus, Ketu, Saturn, Mars,
Mercury and Sun. As Yano observed, such unconventional order may be considered an example of the early representation of “planets with no ixed order,”
as noted also in the various recensions and translations of the Buddhist Śārdūlakarṇāvadāna.39 It should be noted that the corresponding planetary chapters in
the Bṛhatsaṃhitā were reorganized to: Sun, Moon, Rāhu, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter,
Venus, Saturn and Ketu. This conforms with the Hellenistic weekday order,
which had become standard by the time of Āryabhaṭa in the late ifth century.40
In what Pingree described as the type “2” variety of the Gargasaṃhitā (see
above), one may note that the nine planets were neatly arranged in the Hellenistic
weekday order, with the addition of the two pseudoplanets: Sun, Moon, Mars,
Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rāhu and Ketu.41 This Hellenistic planetary
38 Taishō
(397)
13.282b.
⼤⽅等⼤集經
次復於後過無量世。
更有仙⼈名伽⼒伽出現於世。復更別説置諸星宿。
⼩⼤⽉法時節要略。 See Mak 2015: 64.
39 Yano 2004: 334.
40 Since the seven weekdays in India, as
in the Hellenistic tradition, do not include
Rāhu and Ketu, the inclusion of the two
pseudoplanets in the Bṛhatsaṃhitā appears
to be Varāhamihira’s compromised attempt
to bring the Garga tradition up to date. It is
of interest to note that in the Southeast Asian
astral system, Rāhu is considered to represent the latter half of Wednesday, with the
irst half given to Mercury. In a more recent
Northern Thai system, Ketu was further assigned to the latter half of Thursday, leaving
Jupiter thus only to the irst half.
41 CESS: A2: 117; Yano 2004: 335. Rāhu
and Ketu are combined into one adhyāya (8)
titled Rāhuketucāra.
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Garga and Early Astral Science in India
order of the seven planets is attested among the early astrological texts such as
the Yavanajātaka and the Vṛddhayavanajātaka, composed during the early centuries
of the Common Era.42 Together with the two pseudoplanets Rāhu and Ketu, the
navagraha of this particular order can only be established later, by texts such as
the Grahaśānti section of the Yājñavalkyasmṛti, whose upper limit is the beginning
of the fourth century.43 The G2 recension of the Gargasaṃhitā was likely made
when the orthodox navagraha was fully established. This thus informs us that
the recension of Gārgīyajyotiṣa now under examination (G1) should be among
the oldest, at least from the point of view of its redaction.
More importantly, and by no means better understood, are the kinds of planetary theories and descriptions in the Gārgīyajyotiṣa that are largely absent in the
later jyotiṣa traditions. These include: (1) Planetary motion based on nakṣatras
divided into various subdivisions such as “paths” (patha), “streets” (vīthi) and
“circles” (maṇḍala); (2) Synodic phenomena, with emphasis on the duration of
visibility/invisibility.44 Varāhamihira in his Bṛhatsaṃhitā reproduced only some
of these theories, with the glaring absence of the astronomical details related to
planetary synodic phenomena. These unusual descriptions with no known precedents from the Indic sources led Pingree to the claim that the planetary theories in the Gārgīyajyotiṣa are of ultimately Babylonian origin and that Gārgīyajyotiṣa
was “probably composed in the irst (or possibly second) century A.D. … based
on material that goes back to the fourth or ifth century B.C.”45
neugebauer and pingree’s claim of a babylonian origin of
indian astral science
The idea of Babylonia as a source of ancient astral lore from various cultures
is certainly not a new one, though the historical background and rationale have
been diferent across the ages. Starting from the Greeks, followed by the classical
authors, the Chaldean – as the Babylonians were called – was often associated
42 Ketu is not found in either texts; Rāhu
was mentioned only twice in the Vṛddhayavanajātaka, both associated with the eight
directions (2.10, 2.11), as possibly an attempt
to match the directions to the eight planets
(7 + 1). Yano (2004) follows Pingree’s dating of the Yavanajātaka, which has recently
been shown by the present author to be
untenable (Mak 2013a,b, 2014). Since Pingree’s dating of the Vṛddhayavanajātaka depended on that of the Yavanajātaka, the dating of the former is now also put in ques-
tion (Mak 2014: 1103). The question of the
dating of these two works cannot be satisfactorily solved until the two works are thoroughly compared both with each other and
with other early jyotiṣa works such as Varāhamihira’s Bṛhajjātaka.
43 Yano 2004: 341.
44 For Venus, see Pingree 1987a: 296,
297, 305–15; for other planets, see Pingree
1987b: 95, et passim.
45 Pingree 1987a: 295.
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Geslani, Mak, Yano, and Zysk
167
with the profession of an astronomer/astrologer. By the time of Ptolemy in the
second century ce, Chaldea or Babylonia was thought to be one of the sources of
Hellenistic astral science, motivated largely by the Greeks’ desire to seek an older
authority for a burgeoning new body of knowledge.46 When European scholars came into direct contact with Sanskrit literature and Indian astral science in
the eighteenth century, the Biblical idea of a common origin of languages and
races, and hence by extension also knowledge, was revived in a scholarly spirit
by William Jones, who claimed in 1792 that both the Indian and Greek zodiacs
were transmitted from the Chaldeans, who were thought to be “the irst progenitors”.47 Such views, however, remained speculative until the Babylonian cuneiform texts, including a large collection of astronomical diaries and omen tablets,
were deciphered in the nineteenth century by Epping, Strassmaier and others,
who began to observe the actual relation between these materials and those of
the classical antiquity.48 Further comparative analyses between the Babylonian
and Indian materials by Neugebauer and Pingree led to the bold claim that practically all fundamental concepts and methods of ancient Indian astronomy, with
the exception of the nakṣatras, “can be traced back either to Babylonian or Greek
astronomy”.49
While a review of Neugebauer and Pingree’s analyses would be beyond the
scope of this report, it suices to say that both the source materials and the methodology for their comparison leave much to be desired. To start with, the editions of both Babylonian and Sanskrit texts such as the Enūma Anu Enlil and
the Gārgīyajyotiṣa are still incomplete, and the selections of materials for comparison are far from systematic, giving often false impression of resemblance.
Thus, when Pingree claimed that the Mesopotamian omens were adapted into
the Gārgīyajyotiṣa by replacing Mesopotamian months and constellations by Indian nakṣatras and produced a table of twenty-seven nakṣatras with corresponding Babylonian constellations, he gave the impression that the two systems were
comparable with each other when in reality they were not – Babylonian constellations were never used for equal divisions of the ecliptic, and those thought to
be corresponding to the nakṣatras were never considered as a group, but were
46 Rochberg-Halton 1988; Rochberg 2010.
As Rochberg remarked, there are, however,
cases of forgeries and “[d]espite the presence of ‘Babylonian’ elements, the philosophical rationale of Greek astrology and
its doctrine of interpretation are all Hellenistic Greek in origin and explainable only in
terms of Greek tradition itself” (RochbergHalton 1988: 62)
47 Jones 1790: 369. Jones was apparently
inluenced by Newton as his citation of the
latter’s work on chronology suggests. On
the intellectual milieu of the period and
Jones’ “ethnology project,” see Trautmann
1997: 28–30, 37–52.
48 Neugebauer 1975: 349.
49 Neugebauer 1975: 6–7.
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Garga and Early Astral Science in India
merely an arbitrary subset of a larger group of stars and constellations used in
early cuneiform astronomical texts.50 Similarly questionable was Pingree’s comparison of Garga’s descriptions of the synodic phenomena for Venus with values
of a Babylonian tablet (BM 36301) which was classiied by Neugebauer and Sachs
as “atypical” – none of the values in fact correspond to each other and the meaning of resemblance is further reduced considering that these were likely based
on the observation of the same astronomical phenomena.51 Pingree’s comparison of the Venus omens with those of Enūma Ana Enlil was similarly selective
and as Pingree himself admitted, “neither in the case of Venus nor in those of
the other planets are there many exact correspondences”.52
A curious but challenging case of comparison is that of the tithi, which is featured in the Gārgīyajyotiṣa as we saw earlier. Pingree suggests that the Indian tithi
is likely a concept borrowed from Mesopotamia though he admits that its origin
remains obscure.53 Astronomically, a tithi is deined as a thirtieth of a synodic
month. It is an important concept not only in Indian calendrics, astrology and
rituals, but also in Indian astronomical computation as a fundamental unit (see
Vedāṅgajyotiṣa); it was later established as one of the ive components of traditional Indian calendar (pañcāṅga).54 In the Indian context, it was likely conceived
originally as a means to keep track of the phases of the Moon.55 Inconvenient as
it is (63/64 of a day), the tithi is nonetheless a useful device as it is based on the
mean synodic month, disregarding its actual varying length due to the Moon’s
anomalistic movement.56 Most likely for the same reason, the same principle
was adopted in the Babylonian lunar tables, although the unit was never spelt
out explicitly and was referred to as “days” in Babylonian texts.57 Beside the lack
of a speciic designation, the concept of tithi itself has no counterpart in Babylonian sources in terms of astrological or ritual applications, and was never used
for astronomical computation in any fundamental way. In the case of Hellenistic
astral science, there has so far been no evidence of any concept comparable to
tithi at all.58
50 Pingree 1987b: 295–6; with twenty-eight
nakṣatras, Pingree 1989: 442. I thank John
Steele of Brown University for providing me
the references to the Babylonian sources and
the more recent studies of the materials.
51 Pingree 1987b: 311–5.
52 Pingree 1987a: 91.
53 Pingree 1963: 231.
54 Plofker and Knudsen 2011: 61.
55 Plofker and Knudsen 2011: 62.
56 The tithis in the early and some classical jyotiṣa texts are of ixed mean length,
but became of variable length as thirtieths
of the true synodic month (Neugebauer
1957: 186 f., fn. 2).
57 Neugebauer 1957: 128, 1975: 349, 358,
360.
58 Neugebauer 1957: 186. It is all the more
curious that the tithi was described in the
Yavanajātaka as the “soul” (jīva) of the principles of time measurements, YJ 79.6 (Mak
2013a: 90; note Pingree emended jīvam to
bījaḥ and translated tithi as “seed”). The
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169
Despite the limitation of the sources and the methodological issues of comparison, and despite the assertions of Pingree and Neugebauer, the question of
Babylonian inluences on early Indian astral works such as the Gārgīyajyotiṣa remains an open one. Rather than admitting or denying wholesale the inluence
of Greco-Babylonian astral tradition on its Indian counterpart, the picture that
is gradually emerging from our study is a much more nuanced one. In other
words, to what extent were Babylonian, Greco-Babylonian and Hellenistic astral
sciences transmitted and absorbed into the early jyotiṣa tradition, and to what
extent were there local development and innovations, appear to the questions
we will continue to ask. To answer them in any satisfactory fashion from at least
the Indian side, a complete edition of the Gārgīyajyotiṣa, followed by an annotated translation, would be the irst and necessary step. The grand desideratum
would be a thorough comparative study of the extant early jyotiṣa materials, including the Gārgīyajyotiṣa, the Vedāṅgajyotiṣa, the Buddhist and Jaina astral texts,
the Vṛddhayavanajātaka and the Yavanajātaka, as well as works up to the time of
Varāhamihira.
4 . GARGA, VARĀHAM IHIRA, AND EARLY HINDU RITUALS
( GES LANI)
A
lready in 1910, George Melville Bolling, one of the editors (along with Julius von Negelein) of the Atharvavedapariśiṣṭas, noted the close textual relationship between Garga, Varāhamihira, and the Atharvavedapariśiṣṭas.59 In light
of this long-recognized connection between Jyotiḥśāstra and late-Vedism, I will
here outline Garga’s potential for triangulating the formative period of Hindu
ritual.
Varāhamihira’s text corpus presents an important resource for the study of
this period. The Bṛhatsaṃhitā alone contains, in addition to our earliest datable
prescription for image installation (pratiṣṭhā), instructions for a number of important royal rituals, including the festival of Indra’s banner (indradhvaja), lustration of war animals (nīrājana), and a royal consecration, the “Puṣya-bath” (Puṣyasnāna). Together, these four rituals recapitulate a major portion of what would,
by the medieval period, become the “Hindu” calendar, which balances rituals of
fact that tithi was not only stated explicitly
in the text but was used as a fundamental
unit for astronomical computation poses a
severe challenge to Pingree’s claim that the
text was a versiication of a Greek prose version of the text composed in Alexandria.
Both Neugebauer and Pingree seem to suggest that there is a lost Hellenistic tradition
preserved in the Sanskrit materials.
59 Bolling 1910: 125. For the edition of the
Atharvavedapariśiṣṭas, see Bolling and Negelein 1909.
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Garga and Early Astral Science in India
Ritual
Timing
Bṛhatsaṃhitā chapter
indradhvaja śukla bhādrapada
42
nīrājana
śukla āśvina
43
yātrā
puṣyasnāna various
pratiṣṭhā
uttarāyana
47
59
Table 4: Ritual Sequence according to the Bṛhatsaṃhitā.
warfare in the fall with rituals of pious public works in the spring (see Table 4).
The central pivot of this scheme was the military campaign (yātrā), which Varāhamihira details in separate texts having the title “Yātrā”.60 While the prescribed
timing of the Puṣya-bath varies, its placement in the structure of the Bṛhatsaṃhitā suggests a royal re-consecration upon returning from the military campaign.
Many of these royal rituals of course predate Varāhamihira, with prescriptions
occurring in late-Vedic texts. But his inclusion of pratiṣṭhā marks an important
turn towards later medieval forms of temple-based Hinduism.
In addition to his calendrical organization, Varāhamihira also displays systematic and detailed knowledge of ritual technique. The ritual prescriptions of
the Bṛhatsaṃhitā, especially, skillfully combine the techniques of bali, homa, and
pūjā on the one hand, and Vedic and non-Vedic mantras on the other. This again
marks Varāhamihira’s transitional status between Vedic and Hindu ritual. A
study of these ritual chapters, together with those of his yātrā-texts, points to
the likelihood that the śānti-based rituals of the late-Atharvaveda formed one
important source for Varāhamihira’s ritual.61 This is on the surface not surprising, since the Atharvaveda formed the main repertoire of the royal purohita, and
both Atharvan and jyotiṣa sources idealize the partnership between the purohita
and the astrologer.62 Nonetheless, the practical correspondence is rather striking
when viewed from the level of ritual texts. A close comparison of Varāhamihira’s
account of the yātrā with the structure of the Atharvavedaśāntikalpa (supplemented by chapters from the Atharvavedapariśiṣṭas), yields parallels both in ritual content, sequence, and technique (see Table 5). It is not surprising then, that versions
of the major royal rituals of the Bṛhatsaṃhitā including the Indradhvaja, Nīrājana,
and Puṣyasnāna (abhiṣeka) are also found among the Atharvavedapariśiṣṭas.63
60 In three versions: Bṛhadyātrā, Yogayātrā,
and Tikanikayātrā.
61 Geslani 2016.
62 See Geslani forthcoming.
63 See AVPŚ 19, 17–18b, 5, respectively.
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171
Ritual/Deity Group
Bṛhadyātrā (ch) Yogayātrā (ch) Śāntikalpa (ch)
Lokapāla
17.4cd
6.1–18
2.14
Guhyaka/Vināyaka
17
6.19–28
1.3–9
dream (svapna)
18
6.29
AVPŚ 68
clay bath
4.19–23
7.13–15
1.5–6
Nakṣatra/Vijayasnāna
19
7.1–12
2.1–12/AVPŚ 1
(Nava)graha
20
6.1–18
1.10–18
homa (with mantragaṇas) 21.1–7
8.1–7
2.24
ire divination
8.8–19
AVPŚ 24/29
21.8–10
Table 5: Ritual Parallels in Varāhamihira’s Yātrā and the Atharvavedaśāntikalpa (Geslani 2016: 319).
Although important aspects of the Atharvan system must have predated
Varāhamihira, the full historical process whereby Varāhamihira came to produce
his ritual system remains somewhat opaque.64 The text of the Gārgīyajyotiṣa,
however, may shed considerable light on this process. A perusal of the chapter
colophons provided by Mitchiner reveals a number of potentially parallel
rituals with the above Atharvan and Jyotiḥśāstric sources (Appendix A). These
include A ga 32 (Yātrā); A ga 33 (Agnivar a), which contains a section on
agninimitta (see YY 8/BY 21); A ga 37 (Balyupahāra), which, like Varāhamihira’s
yātrā-texts comprises a general balyupahāra (see YY 6/BY 17) and a separate
nakṣatrabalyupahāra (see YY 7/BY 19); A ga 38 on Śāntikalpa; and A ga 44 on
Indradhvaja (see BS 43/AVPar 19). The text also contains large sections on omens,
a topic closely related to śānti rituals.65
If, as it seems, the extant text was indeed a source for Varāhamihira, a comparative study of these chapters may shed light on numerous issues.66 First,
an edition of Garga would place us in a better position to assess how Varāhamihira’s ritual corpus was assembled. To what extent were Varāhamihira’s ritual
calendar and technique derived from earlier sources? How innovative was his
64 While there is so far no inal consensus
on the relative dating of the texts as we have
them, especially given the apparently composite nature of some of the Atharvavedapariśiṣṭas, most scholars support taking Varāhamihira as an end date for the ancillary
texts of the Atharvaveda. See Einoo 2005: 13;
Geslani 2016; Yano forthcoming. See Bisschop and Griiths 2003 for an overview of
the dating of the Atharvavedapariśiṣṭas.
65 See Kumagai 2007, 2011, 2015. An appendix of the Gārgīyajyotiṣa, Mayūracitraka,
forms an alternate utpāta chapter also containing śānti rituals.
66 The Nakṣatrakarmaguṇa corresponds at
least to Bhaṭṭotpala’s quotations of Garga in
his commentary to the Bṛhatsaṃhitā. See § 3,
p. 163, above.
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Garga and Early Astral Science in India
ritual system? For example, Garga’s chapter on Indradhvaja occurs after the Yātrā,
which does not relect Varāhamihira’s calendrical ordering. From such an angle,
Varāhamihira appears to be an innovator. Furthermore, all of the rituals in the
Bṛhatsaṃhitā (including the Indradhvaja) follow the bali-based ritual system of the
yātrā, which suggests that the military march provides important ritual conventions for other royal rites. Does the same relationship obtain in Garga? A study
of both the Indradhvaja and Yātrā chapters of Garga might thus place the relative
novelty of Varāhamihira’s ritual construction in clearer perspective.
Second, Garga may shed light on the early landscape of śānti rituals beyond the inluential forms from the Atharvaveda. Are parts of Atharvan śānti
rituals attested in Garga? Or does Garga draw from other ritual actors and techniques? A preliminary estimate of Garga’s Śāntikalpa reveals few parallels with
its Atharvan counterpart. Unlike the Atharvan Śāntikalpa, which is highly structured, Garga’s text combines at least three separate ritual prescriptions in verse
and prose. Preliminary impressions reveal nearly no overlap between the two
śāntikalpas.
Atharvaveda Śāntikalpa Gārgīyajyotiṣa Śāntikalpa (Mitchiner 1986: 108)
i. Vināyaka
i. gavāṃ śānti
ii. Navagraha
ii. janamāraśānti
iii. Nakṣatra
iii. janamāraśāntike dvitīyaḥ paṭalaḥ
iv. Lokapāla
iv. janamāraśāntiprakara aṃ
v. Nirṛti
v. kālajñāne śāntikalpaḥ
vi. Mahāśānti
The irst (verse) prescription, for example, concerns the appeasement of ten
forms of cow-disease, rather than the broader class of omens (utpāta) to which
śānti rites are usually addressed.67 The ritual combines techniques of bali, homa,
and dhūpa. While these techniques depart from the aspersion-based format of the
Atharvaveda, they it within the broader ambit of “pariśiṣṭa-level” of rituals described by Shingo Einoo, which he characterized as a transitional stage between
Vedic and later Hindu (Purā ic and Tantric) forms.68 This is especially evident
in the prescription of various species of kindling woods (samidhs) as oferings in
the sacriice, which may have been a non-Atharvan, but still Vedic, alternative for
śānti. For example, in order to remove (vimokṣaṇe) the so-called Kali ga disease,
67 As in AVPŚ 64 and BS 45, chapters
on utpāta. The Atharvavedapariśiṣṭas, however, also feature a short tract on Gośānti
(AVPŚ 66).
68 Einoo 2005.
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173
one is instructed to perform a homa ofering with kindling sticks (samidhaḥ hotavyāḥ) of aśvattha, uḍumbara, and khadira, along with ghee. As Einoo shows, the
use of samidhs as the direct object of the ire ofering in this way is an innovation
of pariśiṣṭa-level texts.69
The two other śānti-prescriptions in Garga’s Śāntikalpa, being mostly prose
compositions, are more corrupt in the manuscripts examined so far, but they
seem to share a similar ritual orientation, while also citing Vedic (non-Atharvan)
mantras. Further manuscript evidence will hopefully clarify these ritual actors
and techniques.
5 . THE GARGASAṂHI TĀ : O NE O F THE TEXTS O F J YOTIḤŚĀSTRA
AS CRIBED TO GARGA ( YANO )
W
hen I visited Brown University in 1973–4 as a research fellow of the Japan
Society for the Promotion of Science, I learned the fundamentals of editing Sanskrit manuscripts on astronomy and astrology from David Pingree. He
was interested in the diferent texts that bore the name Gargasaṃhitā (hereafter
GS), so we began examining a manuscript by that name from VVRI, mentioned
in his Census of the Exact Sciences in Sanskrit.70 Every week I transcribed the manuscript directly from the microilm reader in my notebook and prepared an English translation. Pingree was very careful to correct my edition and translation.
My notebook with Pingree’s corrections with red pencil is the most memorable
and valuable evidence of Pingree’s afection for his student. At the end of the
academic year we nearly completed the manuscript. I regret, however, that after
I returned to Kyoto I did not continue the work. Now nearly after forty years,
thanks to the Garga working group, I am able to return to the work. The following is my current thoughts and understanding of the text.
Unlike the Gārgīyajyotiṣa, this Gargasaṃhitā (G4) assumes the style of a
Purā a-text, in which the information on jyotiṣa unfolds in the form of a
conversation between of Garga with Bharadvāja. The exact date of the text is
uncertain but from its astronomical theory and parameters it is deinitely after
the Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta (BSS) of Brahmagupta (6–7th century). There are still
many lines which are unintelligible, but the text itself is very interesting from
the point of the history of astronomy and mathematics. In this article I would
like to ofer only a summary of the contents, from which both its relationship to
the Gārgīyajyotiṣa and its uniqueness in the Indian tradition of Jyotiḥśāstra can
be ascertained.
Here is a table of contents of GS consisting of 20 chapters.
69 Einoo 2005: 41–9.
70 CESS: A2, 118.
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Garga and Early Astral Science in India
9 Grahasphuṭīkarma
1 Kālasvarūpavidhāna
2 Puruṣakṛtyādisṛṣṭividhā
10 Jīvāprakalpana
3 Sakalajagadgrahasṛṣṭividhāna
11 Laghusphuṭavihāna
12–16 No titles are given.
4 Mṛtyugrahacakravidhāna
5 Grahakaṣyādibhagaṇotpattividhāna
17 Chāyāvidhāna
6 Grahamadhyavidhāna
18 No title is given.
7 Jīvājanma
19 Sūryagrahaṇa
8 Jīvāvidhā
20 Chedaka
Although the main topic is mathematical astronomy, our text begins with cosmology of the Purā ic nature. Probably the author put the name of Garga in
order to make it appealing to the reader. The irst four chapters of this text are
intended to show this guise. Actually Chapter 5 is the beginning of the main
topic of this text, namely, mathematical astronomy.
chapters 1–4
The topic of the irst chapter is time. The time shorter than nimeṣa is further
divided in the following way:
1 laghu
1 tatpara
1 maṇḍana
1 truṭi
1 daṃśaka
1 saṃkalita
=
=
=
=
=
=
1/5 nimeṣa,
1/6 laghu,
1/10 tatpara,
1/10 maṇḍana,
1/5 truṭi,
1/20 daṃśaka.
The time units longer than nimeṣa are essentially the same as Brahmagupta’s (BSS
1.12c–13b).
In GS 2.17,71 the size of Prakṛti is given as
94, 927, 039, 815, 168, 600, 000, 000, 000 yojanas.72
The argument is based on the Sāṃkhya philosophy. The circumference
of Brahmā ḍa is 1/107 (koṭyaṃśa) of that of Prakṛti (GS 2.15), that is,
71 The numbering of verses is my own.
72 Expressed
as
khaikādaśa-rtu-nāgaṣaṭ-ku-śara-indu-nāga-go-vahni-kha-
aga-yugala-aṅka-samudra-gāva.
is based on the so-called
khyā system of expressing
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This
bhūtasaṃnumbers.
Geslani, Mak, Yano, and Zysk
175
Loka
Height
Width in yojana Residents
1. Satya
6 koṭis
16,000
Prabhu
2. Tapar
4 koṭis
16,000
Vairāja
3. Jana
2 koṭis
16,000
Dakṣa
4. Mahat
1 koṭi
32,000
Deva, Asura, Indra, Hira ya etc.
5. Svarga
30 lakṣas 32,000
Siddha and Apsaras
6. Bhuva
1 lakṣa
12,000
Yakṣa, Gandharva, Kiṃnara
100,000
man, Sarit, Parvata, Samudra etc.
7. Vasudharā
Table 6: The dimensions of the seven worlds.
Continents Oceans
Size in lakṣa
Jambu
Lava a 1
Plakṣa
Ikṣu
2
śālmalī
Saurā
4
Kuśa
Sarpis
8
Krauñca
Dadh
16
Śāka
Dugdha
Puṣkara
Jala
64
Table 7: The sizes of seven continents and seven oceans.
9, 492, 703, 981, 516, 860, 000 yojanas. This is nearly ten times of the circumference of the sky (Ck ) which is later mentioned in Chapter 5. The diameter
of Mt. Meru at its base is 16, 000 yojanas and at its peak 32, 000 yojanas. Its color
corresponding with four varṇas are: east – white (brahmin), south – yellow
(vaiśya), west – black (śūdra), north – red (kṣatriya). Around Meru there are
four mountains, viz., Mandana (E), Gandhamāla (S), Vipula (W), and Supārśva
(N), each 10, 000 yojanas high. Each mountain has a huge tree of 1100 yojanas
high, viz. Kadamba (E), Jambū (S), Pippala (W), and Vaṭa (N).
In chapter 3 the dimensions of the seven worlds are given as in Table 6.
The sizes of seven continents and seven oceans are standard Purā ic ones.
See Table 7.
Seven underworlds (pātālas) are also mentioned, but some numbers are missing; see Table 8.73
73 See Kirfel 1920: 144.
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Garga and Early Astral Science in India
Distance from Distance from
Name
the preceding Meru
1. Atala
100,000
10,000
2. [Vitala?]
200,000
56,000
3. [Nitala?]
[400,000]
[???]
4. Gabhasmat 800,000
[???]
5. Mahita
1,600,000
40,000
6. Sutala
3,200,000
32,000
7. Pātāla
6,400,000
16,000
Table 8: Seven underworlds (pātālas).
In chapter 4 mythological accounts of planets are given: Kāmī and Chāyā
as wives of the Sun, Tārakā as the wife of the Moon, and Mercury is the son of
Tārakā and the Moon. As in the astronomical texts, the Sun is the śīghra of Jupiter,
Mars, and Saturn. Mercury and Venus are themselves śīghra. The weekday order of planets is presupposed, which is based on the concentric order: Moon,
Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Beyond planets are nakṣatras,
Saptarṣis, and the pole star (in this order, GS 4.49).
chapter 5
As I said above, this chapter is the beginning of mathematical astronomy. Thus
it begins with the names of decimal places.
The following names are listed (GS 5.5–9):
eka,
daśa (101 ),
śata (102 ),
sahasra (103 ),
ayuta (104 ),
lakṣa (105 ),
prayuta (106 ),
koṭi (107 ),
arbuda (108 ),
abda (109 ),
kharva (1010 ),
nikharva (1011 ),
mahāpadma (1012 ),
śaṅku (1013 ),
samudra (1014 ),
madhya (1015 ),
antya (1016 ),
parārdha (1017 ),
atyayuta (1018 ),
atilakṣa (1019 ),
atiprayuta (1020 ),
atikoṭi (1021 ),
atyarbuda (1022 ),
atyabda (1023 ),
atikharva (1024 ),
atinikharva (1025 ),
atimahāpadma (1026 ),
atiśaṅkha (1027 ),
atisindhu (1028 ),
atimadhya (1029 ),
atyanta (1030 ),
atiparārdhya (1031 ).
GS 5.31–50 gives the circumference of planetary orbits (Ci ) as shown in
Table 9. Corresponding numbers of diameter (Di ) are also given, but strangely
all the numbers of the ratio Ci /Di are slightly diferent. According to Āryabhaṭīya
1.6 moon’s circumference in yojana is ten times of is circumference in minutes,
thus, 360 × 60 × 10 = 216, 000 yojanas. For Brahmagupta (BSS 21.11) it is 15 times,
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Geslani, Mak, Yano, and Zysk
177
Ci
Ri
16,436,640
57,753,312,000 949,270,398,151,680,000
Mercury 52,921,328
17,937,388,000 949,270,398,811,264,000
Venus
135,180,646
7,022,236,000 949,270,378,844,456,000
Sun
219,738,518
4,320,000,000 949,270,397,760,000,000
Mars
413,289,052
2,296,868,000 949,270,398,289,136,000
Jupiter
2,606,568,103 364,184,000
949,270,398,022,952,000
Saturn
6,475,948,249 146,584,000
949,270,398,131,416,000
Moon
Ck = Ci × Ri
Table 9: The circumferences of planetary orbits (Ci ).
Ci
Ri
Moon’s manda
1,944,736,057
488,123,000 949,270,398,351,011,000
Moon’s pāta
4,086,293,071
232,306,000 949,270,398,151,726,000
Mercury’s manda 5,103,604,264,256,345
Ck = Ci × Ri
186
949,270,393,149,820,170
Mercury’s pāta
3,451,892,025,386,955? 275
949,270,306,706,412,???
Venus’ manda
2,816,826,107,275,015
337
949,270,398,151,679,718
Venus’ pāta
2,551,802,145,526,90?
372
949,270,398,036,006,80?
Sun’s manda
551,913,942,742,326?
1,632??
900,723,554,555,476,032?
Mars’ manda
3,528,886,238,482,082
269
949,270,398,420,680,058
Mars’ pāta
9,786,292,764,430,309
97
949,270,398,149,739,973
Jupiter’s manda
4,295,341,168,107,127
221
949,270,398,151,675,067
Jupiter’s pāta
4,893,146,382,225,155
194
949,270,398,151,680,070
Saturn’s manda
6,286,558,928,156,821
151
949,270,398,151,679,971
Saturn’s pāta
[3,502,842,797,607,675] 271
——————
Table 10: Apogee and node.
i.e., 360 × 60 × 15 = 324, 000 yojanas. What Garga gives as Ci of the moon is
quite diferent from those of astronomical texts. Rotations (Ri ) of planets in a
Kalpa are given in GS 5.58–66 as listed in the third column of Table 9. For all the
planets Ck = Ci × Ri should be same, because the linear motions of all the planets
are same, but strangely we ind slight diferences in this list.
The astronomical manda-ucca (apogee) and pāta (node) are treated just like the
planets.
Something is wrong with Mercury’s pāta and Sun’s manda. Ci of Saturn’s pāta
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Garga and Early Astral Science in India
is not given in the text. The number above was computed by Ck /271.
As mentioned above ‘Brahman’s orbit’ (brahmāṇḍakakṣyā) is
9, 492, 703, 981, 516, 860, 000 yojanas
which is ten times Ck . Since the civil days in a Kalpa are
1, 577, 917, 440, 000 (GS 5.71),
Brahman’s daily motion is
9, 492, 703, 981, 516, 860, 000
= 601, 597 yojanas,
1, 577, 917, 440, 000
the number being exactly what Garga says in GS 5.55.
According to BSS 21.11,
Ck = 18, 712, 069, 200, 000, 000 yojanas.
I do not know why Garga made it about 500 times as large.
In the following I would like to give some examples of mathematical astronomy.
calendar elements in a kalpa (gs 5.68–73)
Solar years (S)
Sidereal days (B)
Solar months (Ms )
= 4, 320, 000, 000
= 1, 582, 237, 440, 000 (GS 5.71)
= S × 12
= 51, 480, 000, 000 (GS 5.72)
Lunar months (Mm )
= Rm − S
= 57, 753, 312, 000 − S
Adhimāsas (A)
= Mm − Ms = 1, 593, 312, 000 (GS 5.73)
Tithis (T)
= 30 × Mm = 1, 602, 999, 360, 000
= 53, 433, 312, 000
Civil days (D)
= B−S
Omitted days
= T−C
= 25, 081, 924, 000(GS 5.73)
Therefore, 1 year
= D/S
= 6, 5; 15, 31, 12 days
1 lunar month
= D/M
= 29; 31, 50, 9, 9 . . . days
Mean daily motion of the Sun = S ×
6,0
D
= 1, 577, 917, 440, 000
= 0; 59, 8○
chapter 6
GS 6.8–11ab gives a standard method of computation of ahargaṇa (accumulated
days since epoch). According to BSS 1.26,27 the elapsed years since the beginning
of the present Kalpa until the end of Dvāpara are:
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Geslani, Mak, Yano, and Zysk
179
6 Manus
= 71 × 6 (caturyugas)
+27 caturyugas
+3 yugas (= 9/10 caturyugas)
+7 sandhis (4/10 caturyugas)
total: 453 + 9/10 + 28/10 = 4567/10 caturyogas
= 4567 × 432, 000
= 1, 972, 944, 000 years.
According to Garga,
6 Manus
= 71 × 6 + 28 = 454 (caturyugas)
+3/4 caturyugas
total: 454 3/4 caturyugas = 1, 964, 520, 000 years.
Garga gives the longitudes of apogee (GS 6.33–35) and pāta (GS 6.36–38) of planets. They can be compared with those in the Pañcasiddhāntikā of Varāhamihira.
In GS 6.65–74 Garga gives the rotations of planets in a Yuga instead of Kalpa,
thus 1/1,000 of the numbers of R i in Table 4 above. According to GS 6.74 ‘the
rotations of the nakṣatras (in a yuga) are 200’. In a Kalpa Ri = 200, 000. Therefore
its orbit is Ci = Ck /200, 000 = 4, 746, 351, 990, 758 yojanas.
chapter 7
Derivation of 36 Sines is described in detail. The radius = 3438, the standard
value used by Āryabhaṭa.
Starting from Sin 90○ (36th), 4 Sines in total. (Sin 90○ , 45○ , 22.5○ , 77.5○ )
Starting from Sin 30○ (12th), 8 Sines in total. (12th, 24th, 6th, 30th, 3rd, 33rd,
15th, and 21st)
Starting from Sin 10○ (4th),
24 Sines in total.
chapter 8
In this chapter Garga gives the values of Sines and versed Sine. Here are 36 values
of Sines in a quadrant at the interval of 2○ 30’. The standard Sine table initiated
by Āryabhaṭa gives 24 values in a quadrant at the interval of 3○ 45’. I have never
seen a table with 36 entries. In chapter 10 Garga provides a concise Sine table,
where 12 values are given at the interval of 7○ 30’. This is closely related with the
standard Sine table and can be compared with Āryabhaṭa’s.
chapter 9
Just like Āryabhaṭa, Garga thinks that the size of epicycles changes according to
the quadrant.
history of science in south asia 5.1 (2017) 151–191
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Garga and Early Astral Science in India
chapter 10
A concise Sine Table with Radius = 3438 is given. All the 12 values are same as
those of Āryabhaṭa, except Sin 67; 30○ = 3178’ where Āryabhaṭa gives 3177’.
chapter 11
The number of manda equations and that of śīghra equations are given at the
interval of 7;30○ . They can be compared with those of astronomical texts in the
corresponding tables in Pingree’s survey.74
chapter 13
The fast apogee (śīghra-ucca) and the slow apogee (manda-ucca) are used to explain the two kinds of irregular motions of planets. They can be explained by
means of epicycles or eccentric circles. Synodic arcs of the ive planets are described in this chapter.
chapter 14
The longitudes of the yogatārā or the chief star in the nakṣatra are given. Similar tables are found in Brahmagupta’s BSS Chapter 10,75 , Khaṇḍakhādyaka 9.4–
5,76 and Bhāskara I’s Mahābhāskarīya 6.62–71.77 Bhāskara I’s values are in ecliptic
longitude. Garga’s numbers may be in ecliptic longitudes, while Brahmagupta
gives them in polar coordinates (polar longitude and polar latitude).
chapter 16
Maximum latitudes in minutes are given as follows.
Moon 270’
Mars 90
Mercury 9
Jupiter 6
Venus 12
Saturn 12
74 Pingree 1978: 587 (for Brāhma-pakṣa),
625 (for Ga eśa-pakṣa).
75 Pingree 1978: 565–7.
=
=
=
=
=
=
4;30○ ,
1;30,
1;30,
1;00,
2;00,
2;00.
76 Chatterjee 1970.
77 Shukla 1960.
history of science in south asia 5.1 (2017) 151–191
Geslani, Mak, Yano, and Zysk
181
Figure 1: Great shadow at noon.
chapter 17
The topics in this chapter are usually dealt with in a chapter called Tripraśnādhyāya in astronomical texts.
Here are only a few examples out of many interesting ones.
R radius of the great circle
g gnomon of the length 12 aṅgulas
φ geographical latitude
λ longitude of the sun
ε greatest declination of the sun
δ declination of the sun
h0 equinoctial noon hypotenuse
s0 equinoctial noon shadow
√
GS 17.6 h0 = g2 + s20
√
GS 17.7 s0 = h20 − g2
GS 17.8 Sin ϕ =
GS 17.12 OC =
R×g
h0
R×si
hi
GS 17.14 Sin λ =
= mahatī (prabhā) (Great shadow at noon; see Fig. 1)
Sin δ×R
Sin ϵ
history of science in south asia 5.1 (2017) 151–191
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Garga and Early Astral Science in India
chapter 18
This chapter deals with the conjunction of planets. GS 18.3 says ‘The Moon is the
obscurer of all the planets and nakṣatras.’
chapter 19
On solar eclipses. Longitudinal and latitudinal parallaxes are main topics. Lunar
eclipses are briely dealt with in Chapter 20.
chapter 20 chedaka
The topic is usually called chedyaka, or graphical representation of the three dimensional objects on to a plane surface. In this chapter, only the cases of eclipses are described. Similar topic is found in Brahmagupta’s Khaṇḍakhādyaka,
Chapter 13.
6. CO NCLUS IO N ( GES LANI, M AK , YANO , ZYS K )
A
ltogether, the contributions above conirm the importance of Garga not only
for the history of Jyotiḥśāstra, but also for the broader cultural history of
ancient and medieval India. A sense of this broad relevance may be captured by
summarizing our view of the issue of dating and chronology.
Our preliminary impressions tend to conirm that the Gārgīyajyotiṣa (G1)
presents a formative phase of the Jyotiḥśāstra tradition best represented by the
works of Varāhamihira. This is seen, for example, in Zysk’s presentation of
evidence of Prakritisms in the manuscripts of the strī(puruṣa)lakṣaṇa chapter,
Mak’s observation of the non-standard order of Garga’s account of the planets,
and Geslani’s comments on the relative lack of system in the ritual aṅgas. Thus
while the Gārgīyajyotiṣa shares an overwhelming amount of material in common
with Varāhamihira’s Bṛhatsaṃhitā (among other works), the text on the whole
gives the impression of being a somewhat less organized and more luid stage
of the Indic astral sciences. Moreover, Garga’s text ofers a signiicant amount
of information not found in Varāhamihira’s treatise.
This chronological situation on its own has tended to inspire two general
areas of focus. On the one hand, both in his article, “Venus Omens in India and
Babylonia,” and in his other discussions, Pingree focused on determining the
ancient, originally non-Indic, sources of the Gārgīyajyotiṣa.78 While somewhat
critical of the uni-directional nature of Pingree’s work, Zysk has more recently
78 Pingree 1987b.
history of science in south asia 5.1 (2017) 151–191
Geslani, Mak, Yano, and Zysk
183
pursued a similar line of inquiry by comparing Garga’s chapters on the human
marks to Mesopotamian and Greek physiognomic systems, revealing signiicant
similarities. Thus, while accepting the dating of the text to the early centuries
ce, this irst perspective also looks backward, to the miscellaneous, and possibly
non-Sanskrit and/or non-Indic sources dating from as early as the second millennium bce. On the other hand, Mak and Geslani have focused on what this text
tells us about the formation of the later ritual and astrological traditions, especially those represented by Varāhamihira. Zysk’s account of the later Sanskritization and Brahmanization of the human marks in the Purā as and Nibandhas—as
mediated by Varāhamihira—also follows such a line of inquiry. In this way, this
second perspective aims to study the processes of systematization and appropriation that led to a mature Jyotiḥśāstra, fully integrated into Indian society.
Without denying a possible irst-century date for some portions of the Gārgīyajyotiṣa, such views are also open to a broader range of dates for the composition
and/or compilation of the text, based on the type of material in the compilation,
up to the period just before Varāhamihira, perhaps the early Gupta period.
Related to this latter trend, Yano’s dating of the Gargasaṃhitā (G4) to after
the sixth or seventh century, based on its mathematical contents, raises an additional question: why did Jyotiḥśāstra texts continue to be attributed to “Garga”
after Varāhamihira’s time? What sort of authority did Garga represent in the
subsequent tradition, especially as compared to Varāhamihira? Did this later
Garga corpus represent a sort of counter-tradition to other texts that would later
become canonical jyotiṣa works? In these ways, further research on the later parts
of the Garga corpus may shed light on the formation of Jyotiḥśāstra.
At every point in the history of the broader Garga corpus, many questions
remain. In lieu of any further conclusions, we reiterate: research on the textual
corpus of Garga remains in its infancy. Only a tiny portion of the Gārgīyajyotiṣa
(G1) has been studied, and any prospect for further research depends on the
publication of a full critical edition of the text, not to mention the various other
tracts associated with this important name in the history of Jyotiḥśāstra. Those
who gathered in New York in February 2017 hope, between us, to advance the
publication of substantial portions of the Gārgīyajyotiṣa in coming years. The full
production of this corpus will no doubt require further scholarly cooperation.
history of science in south asia 5.1 (2017) 151–191
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Garga and Early Astral Science in India
7. AP P ENDIX A. A S UM M ARY O F THE GĀRGĪ YAJ YOTI ṢA
T
he following summary is based on the enumeration of titles given in the
introductory second chapter “A ga-samuddiśa” and the compilations by
Mitchiner (1986: 105–11) and Pingree (1981: 69–71).
Aṅga Title
Contents
(Introduction)
Folios
Chapter
(MS. D)
in BS
1a–4a
2
1
Karmagu ā
“Qualities of action”. Astrological 4b–13b
characters of nakṣatras, tithis, grahas and muhūrtas.
98, 99
2
Candramārga
“Course of the Moon”
4
3
Nakṣatrakendrabha
“Appearance of the circle of na- 18a–19a
kṣatras”
4
Rāhucāra
“Course of Rāhu”
19a–25a
5
5
Bṛhaspaticāra
“Course of Jupiter”
25a–26b
8
6
Śukracāra
“Course of Venus”
26b–31a
9
7
Ketumālā
“Line of Ketu”
31a–37b
11
8
Śanaiścaracāra
“Course of Saturn”
37b–39a
10
13b–18a
9
A gārakacāra
“Course of Mars”
39a–40b
6
10
Budhacāra
“Course of Mercury”
40b–41a
7
11
Ādityacāra
“Course of Sun”
41a–45b
3
12
Agastyacāra
“Course of Agatsya”
45b–46a
12
13
Antaracakra
“Circle of intermediate region”
46a–51a
87
14
Mṛgacakra
“Circle of deer”
51a–57b
91
15
Śvacakra
“Circle of dogs”
57b–61a
89
16
Vātacakra
“Circle of wind”
61a–66b
27
17
Vāstuvidyā
“Knowledge of houses”
66b–78b
53
18
A gavidyā
“Knowledge of limbs”
78b–84a
51
19
Vāyasavidyā
“Knowledge of birds”
84a–88b
95
20
Svātiyoga
“Conjunction with Svāti”
88b–89b
25
21
Āṣāḍhayoga
“Conjunction with Āṣāḍha”
89b–90b
26
22
Rohi īyoga
“Conjunction with Rohinī”
90b–100b
24
23
Janapadavyūha
“Arrangement of countries”
100b–107a 14
24
Salila
“Rainfall”
107a–110a
25
Grahakośa
“Collection of planets”
125a–127b 16–20
26
Grahasamāgama
“Conjunction of planets”
27
Grahāmrādakṣi yam
28
Grahayuddha
“Opposition of planets”
130b–131a
29
Grahaśṛ gāṭaka
“Coniguration of planets”
131b–141b
127b–130a
130a–130b
history of science in south asia 5.1 (2017) 151–191
Geslani, Mak, Yano, and Zysk
“Purā a of planets”
185
30
Grahapurā a
141b–143b
31
Grahapāka
“Efects of the planets”
144a–145b
32
Yātrā
“Military astrology”
146a–150b
33
Agnivar a
“Nature of ire”
150b–153b
34
Senāvyūha
“Array of battle”
153b–156a
35
Mayūracitra
“Variegation of peacock”
156a–160b 47
36
Bhuvanapuṣkara
“Lotus(-model) of the earth”
160b–165a
37
Balyupahāra
“Ofering of oblations”
165a–168b
38
Śāntikalpa
“Rules for propitiation”
168b–177a
39
Rāṣṭrotpātalakṣa a
“Signs and portents of calamity”
177a–186a 46
40
Tulākośa
“Weighing on balance”
186b–187b
41
Yugapurā a
“Purā a of the yugas”
188a–193b
42
Sarvabhūtaruta
“Cries of all creatures”. Omens of 193b–200a
various birds and animals.
43
Vastracheda
“Tears in clothes”
200b–202a 71
44
Bṛhaspatipurā a
“Purā a of Jupiter”
202a–205a
45
Indradhvaja
“Indra’s banner”
205a–208b 43
46
Ajalakṣa a
“Signs of rams”
208b–211a 65
47
Kūrmalakṣa a
“Signs of turtoises”
211a–211b
48
Strīlakṣa a
“Signs of women”
211b–223b 70
49
Gajalakṣa a
“Signs of elephants”
223b–225a 67
50
Golakṣa a
“Signs of cows”
225a–228b 61
51
Bhārgavasaṃsthāna
“Appearance of Venus”
228b–229b
64
52
Garbhasaṃsthā
“Appearance of embryos”
229b–231b 21
53
Dagārgala
“Water-divining”
231b–234b 54
54
Nirghāta
“Natural destructions”
234b–235b 39
55
Bhūmikampa
“Earthquakes”
235b–236a 32
56
Pariveṣa
“Halos”
236a–238b 34
57
Ulkālakṣa a
“Signs of meteors”
238b–240b 33
58
Pariveṣacakra
“Circle of halos”
240b–242b 34
59
Ṛtusvabhāva
“Nature of seasons”
242b–248b
60
Sandhyālakṣa a
“Signs of twilight”
248b–251a 30
61
Ulkālakṣa a
“Signs of meteors”
251a–252b 33
62
Nakṣatrapuruṣakośa “Compendium on nakṣatra-man” 252b–255a 105
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Garga and Early Astral Science in India
8. AP P ENDIX B: TRANS M IS S IO N EXAM P LE
By way of example of the of transmission process, I provide a case study in the
form of a simpliied version of the textual notes to Garga 1.2, where only the
principal manuscripts (BhR and DC) and Bhaṭṭotpala’s version (U=printed edition and mss B1 and B2) are cited.79
garga 1.2 (the list of fourteen like pairs) (zysk)
pādau gulpau sphijau pārśve vṛṣabhau cakṣuṣī stanau/
kaṇauṣṭhau sakthinī jaṅghe hastau bāhv akṣakau tathā//
pārśve] BhR karṇā karṇau; DC pārśvau; U pārśve.
kaṇauṣṭhau] BhR kaṇaiṣṭo; DC karṇoṣṭau; B2 karṇoṣṭhau B1 kaṇṭhoṣṭhau;
U skandhauṣṭhau.
sakthinī] BhR savitp(y?)anī; D sakṭhinī; C sathacchinī; B1 vakṣaṇau; B2
vaṃkṣaṇai; U vaṅkṣaṇe.
akṣakau] BhR kṣakam; D kṣam; C kṣakaus; U aṃsakau.
discussion
In b, U’s reading is based on DC, while BhR is an intrusion. In c, BhR has
Prakrit/vernacular kaṇa for karṇa.80 The Sanskrit form is found in one ms,
B2, while the other manuscript, B1, has kaṇṭha- “neck” and U has skandha-,
“the two shoulders.” Here the least Sanskritic reading is witnessed in BhR, a
more Sanskritic version in DC, and inally an almost Sanskrit form in B2 (i.e,
karṇoṣṭhau). The other manuscript (B1) and the printed edition (U) represent
emendations.
In the same pāda, for the adopted reading sakthinī, BhR is unreadable, but D
has something approaching Sanskrit, while U (printed and both mss) provides
a synonym.
Finally, in d, U (printed and both mss) again provides the synonym for the
manuscript version which is (a)kṣakau, which from akṣaḥ means the two axes or
pivot points, i.e., the two shoulders. It is a less obvious word form, or lectio diicilior, for the shoulder.
79 For more examples, the reader should
examine closely the textual notes to Garga’s
chapters 1 and 2 in Zysk 2016: 2: 481–518;
555–96.
80 See CDIAL: #2830, pp. 143–4.
history of science in south asia 5.1 (2017) 151–191
Geslani, Mak, Yano, and Zysk
187
ABBREVIATIO NS
CDIAL
CESS
R. L. Turner (1966–1985). A Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan Languages. London, New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press. isbn: 0 19
713550 1. url: http : / / dsal . uchicago . edu / dictionaries / soas/.
With Indexes compiled by Dorothy Rivers Turner (OUP, London, 1969),
Phonetic Analysis by R. L. and D. R. Turner (OUP, London, 1971), and
Addenda and Corrigenda edited by J. C. Wright (School of Oriental and
African Studies, London, 1985).
David Pingree (1970–1994). Census of the Exact Sciences in Sanskrit.
5 vols. Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society 81, 86, 111, 146,
213. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society.
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