Bharatiya Jyotihshastra (History of Indian Astronomy), translated by R. V. Vaidya v1.c5.70

v1.c5.70

The natural units of reckoning time, i.e., the day, the month and the year which guide human activities, depend upon celestial phenomena. The knowledge about seasons which is necessary for agriculture depends upon the sun. That the rains are caused by the sun and the tides by the moon, and that it being felt that the wrath of Almighty is foreshadowed by some particular positions of the heavenly bodies, tend to show that curiosity must have aroused in human mind towards astronomical knowledge right from the creation of the human race. Again, certain ideas must have planted themselves in the human mind from very ancient times ; for instance, it might have been thought that since agriculture and other vocations of life are carried on when the sun and the moon occupy certain positions in the sky, it is quite possible that they would have been thought to prove beneficial when performed while the luminaries are in a typical position ; as for example, the fields may yield a bumper crop if the seed is sown when the moon is conjoined with a particular star and on the other hand crops are destroyed if sown when it is conjoined with another particular star ; some religious rites if performed when the sun turns from south to north or vice versa (that is on solstitial days) give beneficial or harmful results as the case may be. If marriages and such other rites are performed at certain auspicious moments they turn out to be beneficial ; when two planets were observed as passing very close to each other in the sky, they came to be interpreted as ‘fighting with each other’ and then one of them (the fainter of the two in luminosity) was regarded as having been defeated and this fight was supposed to be indicative of victory or defeat of a certain king on the earth ; it was also surmised as to what particular rites, if performed would nullify the malefic effects indicated by the appearance of eclipses, meteors or comets. Furthermore, it was but natural that ideas and convictions should have gradually begun to crop up in human mind that if the heavenly bodies have such a close association with the wordly affairs and their good or evil results, they must be affecting the individual life as well and then the people must have attempted to foretell what benefic or malefic effects would be experienced by any individual in his life, because the sun, the moon and the planets were occupying certain positions in the sky at the time of his birth and would be subsequently occupying other positions.