History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c82.187

v6.c82.187

After having briefly indicated the astronomical knowledge to be gathered from Vedic works, it is now necessary to show that astrological knowledge is also found in the Vedic texts from the oldest times. The human mind is very curious to know the future and is very prone to regard certain days, times and appearances as auspicious or favourable and others as inauspicious Various means were adopted by ancient peoples to pry into the future The word astrology is now generally understood⁷⁴⁷ to mean the predictions about what would befall an individual based on the configurations of the Sun, the moon and the planets at the time of his birth. But this was not the sense or at least the only sense in which the word was used in very ancient times. Astrology known to us from the ancient Assyrians was concerned almost wholly with the interpretation of celestial phenomena and planetary configurations and the predictions about the immediate future in relation to the country, its people, its government or king, in such matters as the crops, floods, storms, invasions or other calamities. The events in the heavens, in the sky and even on the earth were supposed to intimate the thoughts of the gods, and to convey indications about impending happenings. This may be called natural astrology. Horoscopic astrology is a later development Predictions were also derived by skilled diviners from various other happenings such as dreams, the flight and cries of birds, and the interpretation of the mysterious signs on the livers⁷⁴⁸ of the sheep killed in sacrifices to gods in Babylon and Rome The first thing that we notice is that even in the Ṛgveda we have frequent references to 'auspiciousness of days' (*sudinatve ahnām*) in Ṛg III. 8 5, III. 23.4, VII. 88 4, X. 70 1, ('sudinatvam-ahnām' in Ṛg. II. 21. 6 and 'sudineṣvahnām' in Ṛg. IV. 37.1). A few of these may be translated here. 'O Indra! establish amongst us abundance of wealth, freedom from injury to our bodies, sweetness of speech and luckiness of days' (Ṛg II. 21 6); '(The sacrificial post) when planted on an auspicious day goes prospering in the sacrifice attended by many men' (Ṛg III 8 5).