History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c82.404.3

v6.c82.404.3

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.