History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c82.404
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c82.404
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is called Vargottama, so also the 5th navāṁśa of Vṛṣabha, Siṁha, Vṛścika and Kumbha (that are *sthira*), and the 9th navāṁśa of Mithuna, Kanyā, Dhanus, Mīna (that are *dvisvabhāva*) are called Vargottama (Bṛ. J. I. 14) and they yield beneficent results.⁸⁷⁰ The vargottama-navāṁśas of all rāśis bear the same names as the rāśis themselves. The Yoga called Sunaphā occurs when some planet other than the sun occupies the 2nd house from that occupied by the Moon; the Yoga Anaphā occurs when some planet other than the sun occupies the 12th house from that occupied by the Moon and Durudharā occurs when planets occupy the 2nd and 12th houses from that occupied by the Moon. The Yoga called Kema-druma occurs when the above three don't occur and the Moon is not in kendra position or if kendra is not occupied by any of the planets (except the Sun). Bṛ. J. 13. 4 notices that varieties of Anaphā and Sunaphā are 31 each and the varieties of Durudharā are 180. The Bṛ. J. does not devote more than 6 verses to all these four yogas but the Vṛddha-Yavanajātaka of Mīnarāja has 30 verses on Anaphā, 30 verses on Sunaphā, 172 verses on Durudharā. The rāśi which is 2nd from the rāśi occupied by the Sun in a horoscope is called 'Veśi' (Bṛ. J. I. 20). All the above five words are said to be Greek. The word 'liptā' meaning '60th part of a degree' is also said to be Greek. The word 'harija' occurring in Bṛ. J. V. 17 means 'horizon' and Kern says it is adapted from Greek (Preface to Bṛ. S p.
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29).870a The Greek word is *horos* (boundary). All the words used by Varāha and supposed to be Greek by Weber, Kern and others may be brought together in one place here (37 in all), Kriya, Tāvuri, Jituma, Kulīra, Leya, Pāthena, Jūka, Kaurpya, Tauksika, Akokera, Hṛdroga, Ittha (?), Heli, Āra, Himna, Jīva, Āsphujit, Kona; horā, dreṣkāṇa, kendra, trikoṇa, panaphara, āpoklima, mesūraṇa, duścikya, hibuka, jāmitra, dyūna, rihpha, anaphā, sunaphā, durudharā, kemadruma, veśi, liptā, harija. I dispute the derivation of *kulīra* and trikoṇa from Greek and Kern agrees that they are pure Sanskrit words. I also doubt whether Jīva is an adaptation of Zeus. Zeus agrees with Sanskrit Dyaus and not with Jīva and Zeus is an Indo-European word meaning ‘Heaven’ or ‘sky’. The different forms of the word dreskāṇa or ‘*dyūtam* for ‘*dyūnam*’ should not be separately counted The word *horā* is used in early Indian astrology in three different senses, none of which agrees with the sense of hour. It is possible that even in Greek it is a word borrowed from Egypt or Babylonia, since in the definite sense of an hour, it is much later and it is doubtful whether Hipparchus (140 B. C ) uses it in that sense. If we exclude these four words only 33 words may at the most be argued to have been adapted from Greek.
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Some of these words such as the 12 names of *rāśis* and six of the planets, some names of the *bhāvas* like *hibuka*, *jāmitra*, *dyūna* and *kendra* have several synonyms (sometimes by the dozen) in Sanskrit employed in Br. J. and so no emphasis should be laid on them. They were mentioned by Br J. because they had been employed by ancient Greek authors who wrote in Sanskrit and so Br. J. took cognisance of them for the sake of completeness of treatment Even *kendra* meaning 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th houses or *bhāvas* has two Sanskrit synonyms ‘kantaka’ and ‘catuṣṭaya’, besides the fact that its meaning is different in Sanskrit astrology from the meaning of the Greek word (*kentron*, spike) Therefore, barely ten Greek words like Anaphā, Sunaphā remain which have a very minor role to play in Indian astrology and it is a far cry to argue or assert from the occurrence of these few words that the whole Indian astrology as developed in Varāhamihira was borrowed from Greek works It is extremely doubtful whether any Indians except a few sages or gymnosophists ever went to Greece or lived long in Greece or settled there and returned to India to spread Greek words and astrological knowledge in India; but we have ample evidence that Greeks settled in India, composed inscriptions in Sanskrit and wrote extensive works on astrology in Sanskrit. Vide ‘L’ Astrologie Grecque’ by Bouché-Grecque p.
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XIX for the Greek, Latin, French names and astrological symbols of the signs of the zodiac and planets and G. R Kaye in Memoir No. 18 of the Archaeological Survey of India pp 39-40 (for the Greek twelve names of Zodiacal signs and nine other Greek words occurring in Br. J ) and p. 100 for Greek ‘bhāvas’ and symbols for signs and planets.