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Antiquity of Astrology
A few excerpts relating to the antiquity of our astrology and
astronomy systems:
=== Excerpt 1 =================================================
". . . Long before Rome or Greece or Israel was even heard
of, te monuments of India point back to an age of learning
beyond, and still beyond. From the astronomical calculations
that the figures in their temples represent, it has been
estimated that the Hindus understood the precession of the
equinoxes centuries before the Christian era. In some of the
ancient cave temples, the mystic figures of the sphinx
silently tell that such knowledge had been possessed and used
in advance of all those nations afterward so celebrated for
their learning. . . ." [1]
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=== Excerpt 2 =================================================
". . . -5500: Date of astrological observations associated
with ancient events later mentioned in the Puranas (Alain
Danielou). . . ." [2]
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=== Excerpt 3 =================================================
"In 1853, the savant known as Erard-Mollien read before
the Institute of France a paper proving the antiquity of the
Indian Zodiac, in the signs of which were found the root and
philosophy of all the most important religious festivals of
that country; the scholar demonstrated that the origin of
these religious ceremonies goes back into the night of time to
at least 3,000 BCE. The Zodiac of the Hindus, he
demonstrated, was long anterior to the Zodiac of the Greeks,
and differed from it much in some particulars. In it one sees
the Dragon on a tree, at the foot of which the Virgin,
KANYA-DURGA, one of the most ancient Goddesses, is placed on a
Lion dragging after it the solar vehicle, the RATH. He said:
"'This is the reason why this Virgin Durga is not the
simple momento of an astronomical fact, but verily the most
ancient divinity of the Indian Olympus. She is evidently the
same whose return was announced in all the Sibylline books --
the source of the inspiration of Virgil -- an epoch of
universal renovation. . . . And why, since the months are
still named after this Indian Zodiac, by the Sanskrit-speaking
people of India, should that people have abandoned it to take
that of the Greeks? Everything proves, on the contrary, that
these zodiacal figures were transmitted to the Greeks by the
Chaldeans who got them from the Brahmins of India.'" [3]
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=== Excerpt 4 =================================================
"The earliest known Indian astrological textbook was
probably written in about 3,000 BC, when an advanced
civilization flourished in the Indus Valley. The
sub-continent remains today the only major area of the world
where astrology still has a strong, pervasive influence on
everyday life. . . ." [4]
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=== Numbered References to Excerpts ===========================
[1] CHEIRO'S LANGUAGE OF THE HAND by Cheiro (Count Louis)
Hamon), Herbert Jenkins Limited, 1949; Prentice-Hall, 1987.
[2] published in HINDUISM TODAY, 1993. HT's Web site:
http://www.HinduismToday.kauai.hi.us/ashram/welcome.html
[3] THE SECRET DOCTRINE by H. P. Blavatsky. See Recueil
de l' Acade'mie des Inscriptions, 1853, quoted in Des Esprits,
Tome iv, page 62. See also: Histoire l'Astronomie Anciene by
J.B.J. Delambre, 1817 Historical View of Hindu Astronomy by
John Bentley, 1825.
[4] THE NEW COMPLEAT ASTROLOGER by Derek and Julia Parker,
Harmony Books, Mitchell Beazley Publishers, New York, 1982.
===============================================================
Jai Maharaj <jai@mantra.com> Jyotishi, Vedic Astrologer
%:%:%:%:%:%:%:%:%:%:%:%:%:%:%:%:%:%:%:%:% *-=Om Shanti=-* %:%:%
