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Jyotihshastra: Astral and Mathematical Literature c7.s1: Tājika

Jyotiḥśāstra: Astral and Mathematical Literature c7.s1

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English

Tājika

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The word tājika is derived from the Pahlavī Tāzig, a term which the Iranians applied to the Arabs; it in turn is derived from the name of the Arab tribe, Ṭayyi’. Since the early eighth century, the Arabs and Persians who encroached on the Western coast of India were called Tājikas.¹²⁰ As the name for a branch of genethlialogy the term tājika refers to Indian adaptations of Arabic/Persian astrology, which was itself a combination of elements from Greek, Syriac, Sasanian, and Indian science.¹²¹ In tājika texts not only are a number of astrological techniques and concepts foreign to jātaka—including some like the ἀφέτης or haylāj (Sanskrit hillāja) that had been a part of the YJ but later forgotten in India—but also many technical terms—e.g., kabūla (qabūl), antihā (intihā’), hadda (hadd), sahama (sahm), and many others.

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¹²⁰ D. PINGREE, “Sanskrit Evidence for the Presence of Arabs, Jews, and Persians in Western India: ca. 700–1300”, JOI Baroda.

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¹²¹ D. PINGREE, “Astrology,” in The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature.

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The earliest author on tājika in Sanskrit was Samarasiṃha of the Prāgvāṭakula, who wrote his Gaṇakabhūṣaṇa or Tājikatantrasāra or Karmaprakāśikā¹²² in Gujarāt in 1274; his great-great-grandfather, Caṇḍasiṃha, had been a saciva of the Caulukya Mūlarāja II (ca. 1177–1179). Samarasiṃha names as his source the work of Khindika,¹²³ a name derived from the Arabic al-Hindī. There is a commentary, the Daivajñasantoṣiṇī or Karmaprakāśikāvṛtti, composed by Nārāyaṇa Sāmudrika¹²⁴ in about 1725.

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¹²² Edited with Nīlakaṇṭha’s Tājikanīlakaṇṭhī, Meratha 1866.

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¹²³ CESS A 2, 80 a.

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¹²⁴ CESS A 3, 166 b–168 a, and A 4.

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A relatively short text on *tājika* in seventy-three verses is the Varṣaphala¹²⁵ attributed to Maṇittha,¹²⁶ whose name, which is that of the ancient Greek authority on *jātaka* (Μανέθων), was inspired by the Arabic technical term *muntahan*, which occurs in Sanskrit as *munthahā*. The earliest dated manuscript was copied in 1475. To a large extent based on the Varṣaphala is the Tājikamaṇi¹²⁷ completed in eighty-five verses by Mahīdhara at Vārāṇasī in 1585. Both these works are on the topic of anniversary horoscopes (*hāyana* or *varṣaphala*), which became a very prominent feature of *tājika*.

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¹²⁵ Poorly edited with a Hindi translation by RĀMAPRASĀDA BHAṬṬA ŚARMAN, Solana 1943; I hope to publish soon a new edition based on Leipzig 1148; β 2 and P. 37 a in the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine; and IO 2529 C.

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¹²⁶ CESS A 4.

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¹²⁷ I have used Baroda 3145 and 9557.

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In about 1500 the well known Keśava of Nandigrāma wrote a Tājikapaddhati¹²⁸ on *hāyana* in twenty-six verses. Commentaries were written by Viśvanātha at Golagrāma in 1610 and by Mallāri¹²⁹ in 1612. A far fuller treatment of the subject is to be found in the Tājikasāra composed by Hari in 1523. A commentary on this was written by Sumatiharṣa Gaṇi at Khairābād in 1620. That Sūryadāsa who commented on Bhāskara’s L and BG at Pārthapura in 1541 and 1538 respectively was also the author of a Tājikālaṅkāra. Perhaps in 1544 Govardhana¹³⁰ wrote a Tājikapadmakośa¹³¹ on *hāyana*. Before 1559, the date at which the earliest manuscript was copied, Vāmana authored a Tājikasāroddhāra; while in about 1575 Nṛsiṃha, who was born at Nandigrāma in 1548, wrote a Varṣaphaladīpikā on *hāyana* and a Hillājadīpikā on the *haylāj*.

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¹²⁸ Published with Viśvanātha’s *ṭīkā*, Kāśī 1869; and with a Telugu translation, Madras 1916.

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¹²⁹ CESS A 4.

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¹³⁰ CESS A 2, 134b—135b; A 3, 34a; and A 4.

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¹³¹ Published anonymously, [Benares 1877] and, with a Hindi translation, Lucknow 1905. Published as the work of BHAGAVĀNADATTA: with a Hindi translation, Bombay 1916; with SĪTĀRĀMA JHĀ’S Hindi *ṭīkā*, Benares 1923; with DINĀNĀTHA JHĀ’S Hindi *ṭīkā*, HSS 210, Benares 1951; and with a Hindi *ṭīkā* by VĀSUDEVA GUPTA, Vārāṇasī [ND].

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But the most noteworthy and popular book on *tājika* is the Tājikanilakaṇṭhī¹³² composed by Nīlakaṇṭha¹³³ at Kāśī in 1587. This is divided into two sections, which are often presented separately; the *samjñātantra* on general *tājika*, and the *varṣatantra* on *hāyana*. There exist commentaries composed by Nīlakaṇṭha’s son Govinda,¹³⁴ who was born in 1569, at Kāśī in 1622 (Rasālā); by Viśvanātha at Kāśī in 1629; by Mādhava,¹³⁵ who was born in 1598 as the son of Nīlakaṇṭha’s son Govinda, at Kāśī in 1633 (Śiśubodhinī); and by Harṣadhara (Śrīphalavardhinī).

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¹³² Published [NP] 1851; with the *ṭīkā* of Viśvanātha, Bombay 1861 (only *samjñātantra*) and Benares 1865; Meraṭha 1866; Delhi 1868; with Viśvanātha’s *ṭīkā*, Delhi 1871; Meerut 1875; with Govinda’s *ṭīkā*, Delhi 1877 and Benares 1879; with Viśvanātha’s *ṭīkā*, Bombay 1879; Bombay 1893; with the Hindi *ṭīkā* of ŚAKTIDHARA ŚUKULA, Lucknow 1894; with Viśvanātha’s *ṭīkā*, Bombay 1896 and Bombay 1900; with Viśvanātha’s and SĪTĀRĀMA JHĀ’S *ṭīkā*, Kāśī 1921, reprinted Benares 1930; with Viśvanātha’s *ṭīkā*, Bombay 1923; with a *ṭīkā* by SĪTĀRĀMA JHĀ, MM 69, Benares 1936, 5th ed. Benares 1961; with the Sanskrit and Hindi *ṭīkās* of GAṄGĀDHARA MIŚRA, HSS 143, Benares 1941, reprinted Benares 1950; and with Viśvanātha’s *ṭīkā* and a Hindi commentary by VĀSUDEVA GUPTA, Vārāṇasī 1972.

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¹³³ CESS A 3, 177b—189a, and A 4.

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¹³⁴ CESS A 2, 137b—141a; A 3, 35a; and A 4. ¹³⁵ CESS A 4. ¹³⁶ CESS A 2, 79b—80a; A 3, 26a; and A 4. ¹³⁷ Published with a Hindī translation, Lucknow 1899 and Bombay 1901; with a Hindī ṭīkā by Sītārāma Jhā, Benares 1928, reprinted as MM 120, Benares [ND]; with a Hindī ṭīkā by Rāmateja Śāstrī, Benares 1929; with a Hindī ṭīkā by Dīnānātha Jhā, HSS 166, Benares 1944, 2nd ed. Benares 1956; and with an English translation and commentary in S. D. Udhrain, Star-lore, New Delhi 1973. ¹³⁸ CESS A 2, 107a—110a; A 3, 28b; and A 4. ¹³⁹ Published with a Marāṭhī translation by V. B. Thorāt, Poona 1911. ¹⁴⁰ CESS A 4. ¹⁴¹ A. Weber, “Zur Geschichte der indischen Astrologie,” IS 2 (1853), 236—287 and 412—418. ¹⁴² Published Kāśī 1867; Meraṭha 1875/76; and Bombay 1904. ¹⁴³ CESS A 3, 89a. ¹⁴⁴ CESS A 4.

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Towards the end of the sixteenth century the high-ranking Mughal official ‘Abd al-Raḥīm, who was born at Lahore in 1556 (his horoscope is given in Kṛṣṇa’s ṭīkā on Śrīpati’s JKP) as the son of Bairam Khān and who was given the title Khān-i Khānān (he is known as Nabbāba Khānakhanān¹³⁶ in Sanskrit), wrote a Kheṭakautuka¹³⁷ on tājika in 124 verses. At about the same time Gaṇeśa,¹³⁸ the son of Dhuṇḍhirāja who wrote the Jātakābharaṇa at Pārthapura in about 1525, composed a lengthy Tājikabhūṣaṇa¹³⁹ in fourteen adhyāyas; and Śaṅkara wrote a Tājikacandrikā or Samāphala at Nādur, in which he mentions the sixty-year cycle from 1567 to 1627 and of which the oldest dated manuscript was copied in 1607.

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In the early seventeenth century Yādava Sūri, who belonged to a family dwelling at Prakāśa in Gujarāt, penned a Tājikayogasudhānidhi in sixteen adhyāyas; its date is apparently 1616. Soon afterwards his son, Bālakṛṣṇa,¹⁴⁰ composed a popular Tājikakaustubha in twelve adhyāyas, perhaps at Jambūsaras. Bālakṛṣṇa’s contemporary was the Divākara whom we have mentioned several times before; he wrote a Varṣagaṇitabhūṣaṇa or Rathoddhatā and a commentary on it entitled Mañjubhāṣiṇī.

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However, the tājika text best known to the scholarly world because of the studies of Weber¹⁴¹ is the immensely valuable nibandha, the Hāyanaratna,¹⁴² composed by Balabhadra for Shāh Shujā‘ at Rājamahala in 1629. Like the same author’s Horāratna, it is a vast collection of excerpts from earlier writers’ works. As well as most of the authorities that we have already mentioned Balabhadra cites from Tejaḥsiṃha and Padmanābha. The former is probably the Tejaḥsiṃha¹⁴³ who composed a Daivajñālaṅkṛti in Gujarāt in 1336, the latter the Padmanābha¹⁴⁴ who is the author of an Hillājāyurdāya, of which the oldest dated manuscript was copied in 1699.

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*Tājika* continued to be discussed and described in the following centuries. Briefly, the literature includes: the Tājikaratna composed by Gaṅgādhara at Kāśī in 1653; the Tājikasāra written by Veṅkaṭeśa in 1654; the Tājikamañjarī composed by Jayadeva¹⁴⁵ at Śrīpura in 1671; the Tājikakalapatā of Jayarāma,¹⁴⁶ of which the earliest dated manuscript was copied in 1711; the Tājikaratna written by Cirañjīva¹⁴⁷ of Navadvīpa, Bengal, probably in about 1725; the Tājikasārasudhānidhi composed by Nārāyaṇa Sāmudrika, the commentator on Samarasimha, in about 1725; and the Tājikālaṅkāra written by Śambhurāma at Dhavalapura in 1730.

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¹⁴⁵ CESS A 3, 60b.

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¹⁴⁶ CESS A 3, 61b.

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¹⁴⁷ CESS A 3, 51b.

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