History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c82.77

v6.c82.77

There are controversies about the relation of astronomy and astrology. The marvellous spectacle of the sky at night containing thousands of stars of different brightness all apparently in motion round the earth, the Sun's annual northward and southward passage in the sky, Full Moon and its disappearance for one day and its phases, eclipses of the Sun and the Moon, comets and falling stars—all these must have struck even the most primitive men with wonder and also with fear and forebodings. In course of time arose astronomy and astrology. In ancient times both words had the same meaning. The Cambridge Ancient History (1925, vol. III, pp. 238-239) holds that the whole science of astronomy is due to astrology. On the other hand Prof. Neugebauer and Mr Peter Doig see no evidence for this theory.⁶⁹⁸ In my humble opinion if we restrict ourselves to existing literatures of different peoples and eschew mere conjectures and speculation, both astronomy and astrology are equally ancient and must have acted and reacted on one another in very ancient times In the following pages some evidence will be given from Vedic literature of the simultaneous cultivation in India of both astronomy and astrology (particularly natural). To a modern scientist, the lucubrations of astrologers in their available works appear to be sheer nonsense. But the fundamental principle assumed by astrology that heavenly bodies exert predictable influence on terrestrial things and persons is not different from the principles of astronomy or meteorology whereby one can predict tides, eclipses, storms, torrential rains, and the like which affect the world and human beings.