Jyotiṣaśāstra: An Analysis of the Origins and Evolution of Vedic Astronomy, Omenology, and Astrology

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research/Original/Reqular Article

Authors

1 Religions and Mysticism,, Departement of Theology and Islamic Studies, University of Tehran.

2 Department of Comparative Religions and Mysticism, Faculty of Theology and Islamic Studies, University of Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Jyotiḥśāstra, as one of the Vedāṅgas (auxiliary disciplines of the Vedas), has played a significant role in shaping India's religious and scientific traditions. Employing a historical-analytical method and drawing upon key texts such as Vedāṅga Jyotiṣa and Sūrya Siddhānta, this study examines the origins of Jyotiḥśāstra in its three main domains—mathematical astronomy, ritual omenology, and astrology—through a comparative analysis with Mesopotamian and Greek traditions. It addresses the question of why, unlike in Babylon and Greece, systematic astrology emerged late in India, and how, despite this delay, it attained a central position in India’s educational and cultural systems. The findings reveal that during the Vedic Hindu period, Jyotiḥśāstra was limited to identifying the 27 Nakṣatras (lunar mansions) and determining the Moon’s position for ritual omens, while the planets remained unknown at that time. Precise astronomical calculations and astrology were only incorporated into Jyotiḥśāstra after the beginning of the Puranic-Epic period (around the first centuries BCE and CE), a time when the concept of history and individual destiny first gained significance in Indian thought. From this period onward, astronomy was employed as a tool for predicting individual and collective events, medical astrology (astrological medicine), and governmental decision-making. A key observation is that although this knowledge owes much of its astronomical and astrological framework to Greco-Mesopotamian traditions, it underwent a unique reinterpretation within the Indian intellectual framework by shedding linear conceptions of time and rigid determinism. Instead, it assimilated these elements into the doctrines of karma and reincarnation, thus acquiring a distinct identity.

Keywords

Journal for the History of Science

Articles in Press, Corrected Proof
Available Online from 13 July 2025

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