Jyotihshastra: Astral and Mathematical Literature c6.10
Jyotiḥśāstra: Astral and Mathematical Literature c6.10
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- English
c6.10.1
Much clearer is the transmission of Mesopotamian omen texts—both protases and apodoses—to India in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C., for the contemporary Sanskrit and Prakrit literature is replete with references to and examples of such omens.⁸ They are related mainly to two cuneiform series: Šumma ālu,⁹ which deals with terrestrial omens affecting individuals, and Enūma Anu Enlil,¹⁰ which deals with atmospheric and celestial omens affecting countries or their rulers. The Buddha was represented in the Dīghanikāya (I 1, 24) as condemning the Brāhmaṇas who earn their living from the useless knowledge of omens, but, in a later Buddhist story, the Śārdūlakarṇāvadāna,¹¹ written probably in the first century A.D., the display by an outcaste of a knowledge of astral omens similar to those of Enūma Anu Enlil and of the mathematical astronomy adapted from Babylonia by Lagadha is used to establish the outcaste's equality with a Brāhmaṇa. The earliest version of this avadāna includes sections on the characteristics of the native born when the Moon is in each nakṣatra (61–62); the character and/or fate of an individual or people if a city is entered when the Moon is in each nakṣatra (pp. 62–67; in verse); a list of the countries and regions of India dominated by each nakṣatra (pp. 67–68); the affect on the country if the first rainfall in the last month of grīṣma (summer) occurs as the Moon is in each nakṣatra (pp. 68–79); what a lunar eclipse in each nakṣatra portends (pp. 79–81);
c6.10.2
actions to be accomplished when the Moon is in each nakṣatra (pp. 81–98; in verse); a similar description of actions to be undertaken when the Moon is in one of seven categories of nakṣatras¹² (pp. 98–99; mixed prose and verse); prognostications from the nakṣatra occupied by the Moon on the occasion of an earthquake and from other phenomena associated with earthquakes (pp. 108–123; in verse); the course of a disease that begins when the Moon is in each nakṣatra (pp. 123–128; in verse); in how long a period of time a prisoner will be released if he is bound when the Moon is in each nakṣatra (pp. 128–129); and the fate of a woman depending on the part of her body that bears a tilaka (pp. 129–132; in verse). All of this material was translated into Chinese by Chu Lüh-yen and Che K'ien in the Kingdom of Wu in about 250, and most of it by Dharmarakṣa at Lo-yan in about 300.¹³ Before the Śārdūlakarṇāvadāna had been translated into Tibetan by Ajitaśrībhadra and Śākyaprabha in about 864 there had been added to it a second chapter on the native born as the Moon is in each nakṣatra (nakṣatrajanmaguṇa) (pp. 132–135; in verse). At an even later date the Sanskrit text was expanded by the addition of a number of chapters on omens, most of which are in verse. Their subjects include utpātas—primarily celestial or atmospheric phenomena affecting or associated with the Sun or the Moon in specific nakṣatras and/or months or pakṣas (pp. 136–147);
c6.10.3
birth-marks (pinya?) resulting from the nakṣatra occupied by the Moon at the time of the native's birth (pp. 147–151); boils or pimples (piṭaka) as omens (pp. 151–154); two chapters on oneiromancy (pp. 154–164); astral and atmospheric omens in each month (pp. 164–166; in prose); omens from the wagtail (khañjarīṭaka) (pp. 166–167); from the howling of the jackal (śivāruta) (pp. 167–171; in prose); palmistry (pāṇilekhā) (pp. 172–175); omens from the cawing of crows (vāyasaruta) (pp. 175–180); omens from the shape and appearance of a house (dvāralakṣaṇa) (pp. 180–182); determining the thought of the client from his touching by chance one of twelve circles drawn by the astrologer (pp. 183–187); the qualities of a maiden having various physical features (kanyālakṣaṇa) (pp. 187–191); garments as the Moon is in each nakṣatra (p. 192); the omens used for agriculture (pp. 193–197); supernatural beings (pp. 197–200; very corrupt); omens from smoke (dhūmika) (p. 201); and actions to be undertaken on each tithi of a pakṣa (tithikarma) (pp. 201–203). Thus, to the original contents of the omen sections of the text, which depend almost exclusively on the nakṣatra occupied by the Moon, have been appended the most heterogeneous material relating to dreams, physiognomy, the cries of animals and birds, and so on. All of these forms of omens, of course, occur in other texts.