In this article I am addressing a very delicate issue which many contemporary jyotishis may be extremely sensitive to. This pertains to what many of us treat as Gospel, namely, the classic texts in jyotish that have survived through time.  Some of the fairly standard texts in the field of natal jyotish principles (jaataka siddhantas) include: Brihat Parashar Hora Shastra [BPHS], Laghu and Madhya Parashari, Brihat Jataka, Upadesha Sutras (Jaimini), Phaladeepika, Saravali, Hora Ratnam, Hora Sara, Uttara Kalamrita, Nashta Jataka, Deva Keralam (Chandra Kala Nadi), Bhrigu Nadi, Satya Jatakam, etc.  Some of these and many other texts, were written in relatively recent times (last few hundred years). Uttarakalamrita and Daivagna Vallabh would serve as examples of such more recent texts.

Almost by consensus, Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra is accepted as the gold standard where jyotish principles are concerned.  This is a huge compilation of hundreds of shlokas (Sanskrit verses) which touch upon many aspects of Vedic astrology or jyotish.  It is presented as a transcript of the discourses between Sage Parashara and his student Maitraya on all aspects of astrology (including what is known as Jaimini system because of some of its unique differences from the mainstream Parashari principles) and wanders briefly in places into Ayurveda, philosophy and religion.  No student of jyotish can escape this huge tome and indeed his education will remain incomplete without studying it.  

The heartburn arises when we realize that there exist at least a few ‘original’ versions of Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra!.  Two of the popular English translations, one by R. Santhanam (Ranjan Publications) and the other by Girish Chand Sharma (Sagar Publications) have significant differences in the distribution of chapters, etc. and at places less than optimal clarity creeps in as to what is the pure translation and what constitutes the notes and personal observations of the translators.  While gratefully acknowledging the significance of their attempt at translating these huge bodies of Sanskrit treatises, it is true that not all contemporary translators are equally proficient in Sanskrit, and this only adds to the problem of a faithful translation becoming possible.  Overall, though, there is a wealth of knowledge trapped between the covers of these tomes, and some minefields.

It is accepted by consensus that most of the earlier texts (including Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra) were part of the oral tradition which still continues in jyotish.  Information and knowledge was transmitted from teacher to student and preserved through meticulous attention to details and a razor sharp memory, the contents of which were duly transmitted to the next in line before the ravages of time dulled ones memory.  According to some, unique keys were incorporated to serve as “checksums” for detecting errors (similar to what is done for digital information in computer applications).  It is also a popular belief that jyotishi is a revealed knowledge.  That it was revealed to sages of yore (18 of whom have been named by KN Saraswati and her father in their translation of Brihajjataka) from divine sources and then transmitted from generation to generation through the oral tradition. 

At this distant point in time, we do not have any evidence if some or all of these were ever written down until much later.  What we see today, as the different versions, could presumably be the result of notes taken by different individuals possibly at some point afterwards during the generations of sojourn of jyotish principles from mind to mind, and can explain at least some of the discrepancies.  If one thinks about it, the ability to write and take notes must have led to (triggered by?) the dulling of ones memory, since with the faintest mark of ‘ink’ being stronger than the strongest memory, there was less necessity to remember!  Less exercising of memory was necessary, in other words. 

Comparing this with a modern observation would be the reducing capability of performing mental mathematical operations by the different generations.  Baby boomers who did not have calculators can add, subtract, multiply and divide numbers more easily in their head than the subsequent generations with their handy calculators.  The mental math muscles have atrophied from disuse!  It is not inconceivable that the same could have happened to man’s memory capabilities as we switched towards becoming a writing, note-taking, documenting type of creatures.

A more serious matter, than missed facts or details during translations and scribing, is embellishment and inserting of material into the original body.  This should not immediately strike one with horror because of the nefarious and less than ethical finger-pointing that the statement implies.  It is quite conceivable that because of so many individuals involved in the process of preserving the classics, as well as other influences such as invasions, temporal decay and degeneration of material, natural disasters (they did have floods, earthquakes and pestilence back then!) there could have been damage incurred to the original followed by well-intentioned attempts at restoring what was damaged. This underlies the discrepancies noted by contemporary translators when they comment that a certain passage or word does not make sense in the context in which it appears. 

Regardless of the original motives, these ‘restorations’ have not been consistently annotated by the later scribes and one wonders about the authenticity of everything that we dote upon in the classics and which some are loathe to question, almost as if that would be a sacrilege.  In all fairness, there are many others who conservatively and probably rightly caution that what we think of as having been modified if not tampered might not be so, and it is wise not to throw the baby with the bathwater.  In some situations, this is good advice but does not make our task any easier to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Jyotish has survived through centuries (some would prefer to say millennia) and it is not inconceivable that we have lost many important interpretive keys.  It is also possible that many of these keys are available today to only a select few because of the age old tradition of playing cards close to the chest and a paranoid fear that astrology can be readily misused by some.  These could be legitimate and real concerns but unfortunately also limit the reach of jyotish to wider masses leaving fewer to figure out how best to run the shop. 

– Continued Next Page

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