[Q]jyoti.h'saastra - what is "catarchic"?

[thayashi at doshisha.ac.jp]

Birgit Kellner wrote:
>At 20:01 96/05/16 BST, Gary Tubb wrote:
>>"Catarchic" means "connected with (determining the proper time for)
>>beginning an action."  "Catarchic Astrology" (referring to what in
>>Sanskrit is called "muhuurta") is the title and topic of Chapter 6 in
>>David Pingree's _Jyotihsastra: Astral and Mathematical Literature_,
>>which is Volume 6, Fascicle 4 in Gonda's _History of Indian Literature_
>>(Wiesbaden 1981).
>
>.. which is exactly where the question came from. However, Pingree uses the
>word very rarely, and in a way which renders it impossible to actually guess
>the meaning.  

Perhaps it is not fair to say 'in a way which renders it impossible to
actually guess the meaning' without giving the passage(s) in which Pingree
actually uses the word 'catarchic'.  He says:

'Eventually a separate science developed that used this notion of
auspicious and inauspicious time-units, in connection with omens and
astrological yogas, to establish the correct time for initiating various
kinds of actions; this is the science of muhurta, corresponding to
Hellenistic catarchic astrology.'
David Pingree's _Jyotihsastra: Astral and Mathematical Literature_, p. 101,
lines 10--13.

Hayashi