History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c82.619

v6.c82.619

The principles of rāśi astronomy were probably established in India in the three centuries preceding the Christian era. The predecessors of Varāhamihira and Varāhamihira himself saw Meṣa, Vṛṣabha and other rāśis occupying certain definite sectors of the Zodiac and propounded certain rules about the physical and mental characteristics and professions of persons born when the Moon was in Meṣa and the other rāśis (in chap. 17 of the Bṛ. J.) and also of persons born on Meṣa and the other rāśis, when the Sun, Mars and the other planets occupied those signs (*ibid.* chap. 18). The zodiacal section where Vṛṣabha stood about two thousand years ago is now occupied by the constellations comprising Meṣa (Ram) owing to precession. How can the astrological consequences of being born on Taurus two thousand years ago be the same now when Taurus does not occupy the Zodiacal sector which it occupied then and when that particular sector is occupied now by Aries?