A VERY FUNDAMENTAL QUESTION

Apart from the generic name Jyotisa astrology receives the title ‘Hor stra’
(=Science of Time) in the ancient lore. As has been discussed elsewhere Jyotisa
had its origin and evolution in a paradigm of thinking obsessed with time and
existential questions – its an attempt to answer the mystery of time. In terms of
modern terminology astrology involves a modeling of Time, the apparently
incessant flow of time abstracted mathematically as a phenomenal wheel
manifesting over the heavens. The most fundamental question involved in the
examination of the truth of astrology is the validity of this modeling of the
apparent path of the Sun into the Zodiac:1

The ecliptic is a circle and scientifically speaking, on a circle every point is

on a par with the other to be considered as the zero point. Under such a
situation what is the rationale of the choice of the zero point that serves the
astrologers to delineate human and mundane destiny?
The irrational foundation of
astrology is beyond doubt if a •A
convincing answer cannot be found
for this question. Attempt to explain
away the problem of the multiplicity •F
•B
of the Zodiac in the astrology under
Where to choose
practice even by such people as 0
the 0 ?
the editors of the so-called
“astrological journals” is the most
fraudulent activity that makes claim •C
•E
as a science. The c ryas of
yesteryears were not as irrational •
as these modern proponents as is D
evident from the old works:

1
Astrologer Prudence Jones (1996, p.282) says, [The zodiac signs] rest on shaky
foundations from the modern point of view. How in heaven do twelve 30-degree sectors
of the ecliptic, measured from the vernal equinox but named after now-far-distant
constellations, impart any qualities at all to the planets, houses, parts and nodes, which
we view against their backgrounds? Do they do so in fact, or is this wishful thinking?
Some astrologers justify the signs (taking, usually without explanation, the sun in the
signs as their exemplar) as shorthand for seasonal characteristics. But this implies that
their order should be reversed in the southern hemisphere, which seldom happens. And
what, in any case of horoscopes for equatorial latitudes, where seasonal change is
minimal, but where, of course, astrology was invented? [Foundations of Astrology.
Astrological Journal, 38,5, 281-285]
In Da dhy yee, in the commentary to the 4th verse of Var hamihira’s
Brhatjj taka, Bhattatiri had raised the question:

!"#
$ %

Bhattatiri’s answer was really scientific:

& ' !" ( ) $$$$

It is well evident that almost thousand years before an astrologer and astronomer
of Kerala had spoken of a physical model of Time!

• But what was the physical basis of this modeling? How could the formless Time
be credited with a form or shape as K lapurusha?

!" # $$$%

How was this accreditation achieved in Jyotisa? Modern physical

conception of Time and Space or Space-Time Universe cannot find any
meaning in an ancient act of modeling time. At the best it will be described
as “naïve science” an arbitrary conception arising out of primitive
imagination.

• If at all Time has got a form, a manifesting structure, who could have and
how could have experienced it?

K. Chandra Hari