> Such experiences only strengthen my belief that there is nothing 'Vedic' at all about 'Vedic astrology' except the conventional religious window dressing by certain brahmin astrologers.

Robert, today, what is being called as 'Vedic' astrology in the English knowing circles is not practiced only by Brahmins. Whatever dressing or cosmetics is being done is being done by the western circles of the practice and the English tag 'Vedic' is needed by them and is used by them. Brahmin and non-Brahmin contemporary  busy practitioners do not even need this English word or its Indian language forms such as Vaidik or Vaidika.

You mentioned a Jaina practitioner and her appearance on TV. Here, we have Muslim practitioners appearing/advertising on TV. There are tribal practitioners claiming authentic tribal jyotishya. None of the Brahmin or non-Brahmin practitioners appearing on TV or the  TV people themselves use the words such as 'Vedic' 'Vaidik' or 'Vaidika'. 

Such belief systems and their believers do not need any such tags. Satisfaction of knowing the destiny and handling it is all that isimportant. Not whether it is Jaina, Muslim or Tribal , Tantric, or whatever.  

On Mon, Nov 14, 2016 at 6:58 PM, Bill Mak <bill.m.mak@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear all,

Without examining the actual content of “Vedic astrology", I believe this discussion may become completely misguided. If one talks about the lunar astrology “hinted at” in the Vedāṅgajyotiṣa, indeed Vedic astrology seems the correct term. From the extant materials, this form of Vedic astrology based on 27/28 nakṣatra-s was practiced by the Buddhists and Jains. By the time of Varāhamihira, only remnants survived as collected in the Bṛhatsaṃhitā.

As far as I can tell, what is referred to “Vedic astrology” refers actually to Greco-Indian horoscopy. Not only does it have little in common with the older “Vedic astrology”, the way it was conceptualized was completely different - it is based on solar motion, using zodiac, planets and planetary relation, concepts which are absent and foreign in the Vedic corpus. Unless one stretches the definition of Vedic to cover everything under the Indian civilization, “Vedic astrology” as such is a pure misnomer. No scholars on jyotiṣa would commit such travesty, from Kane, PV Sarma to Pingree.

Best,

Bill Mak

-- 
Bill M. Mak, PhD

Visiting research scholar
Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW)
New York University
15 East 84th Street
New York, NY 10028
US

Associate Professor
Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University
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京都大学人文科学研究所

email: mak@zinbun.kyoto-u.ac.jp
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copies of my publications may be found at:
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On Nov 13, 2016, at 2:11 PM, Robert Zydenbos <zydenbos@uni-muenchen.de> wrote:

patrick mccartney wrote:

I guess the question for me specifically regarding Vedic astrology is exactly the point Valerie and Luis raise. It could be called by the astrologers 'Indian Astrology', and perhaps it is a better representation, however they have settled on the use of Vedic to qualify their predictive system. Although, it's possible that someone out there might think that 'South Asian astrology' is a better term because all this knowledge developed prior to the birth of the Indian nation.

If we ask such questions, there is the real danger that we enter the field of endless 'politically correct' quarrels. (E.g., is it not Western hybris to use the word 'Indian' for ancient Bhāratīya knowledge systems? etc. etc.)

As for 'Vedic' astrology vis-à-vis other systems of astrology: there are also plenty of Jaina astrological practitioners (one of them has / had a regular program on a commercial South Indian TV station), there is a long and serious tradition of writing on astrological subjects by Jaina authors, and systemically I do not see any major differences with 'Vedic' astrology.

The only significant difference I have come across concerns methods of prāyaścitta. I once heard a Jaina astrologer in Karnataka advise a person to pray to 'Infant Jesus' to counteract a certain planet's influence. The next person happened to have the same difficult, and she said "he should pray to Infant Jesus, but since you re a Jaina, you should do japa of this mantra to Munisuvratasvāmi". Brahmins, so she said, would have to do a pūjā to Viṣṇu.

Intrigued by these bits of advice, I asked the astrologer more about how this works. She said that ultimately the worship of all those beings (Infant Jesus, Munisuvrata, Viṣṇu) produced the same effect, but only if the worshipper had real faith in what s/he was doing. Hence the object of worship needed to be chosen accordingly.

Such experiences only strengthen my belief that there is nothing 'Vedic' at all about 'Vedic astrology' except the conventional religious window dressing by certain brahmin astrologers.

RZ

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