The Yavanajataka: Greek Astrology in Sanskrit?

The Astrology Podcast

Chris Brennan

Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture, Philosophy, Spirituality

4.7 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 31 January 2020

⏱️ 150 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Episode 241 of the podcast features an interview with Kenneth Miller about an ancient Sanskrit text from India known as the Yavanajataka, and the debate about whether it is a translation of a Greek work on Hellenistic astrology. A critical edition and commentary on this text was published by David Pingree in 1978, and since that time it has become generally accepted in academic circles that there was some sort of transmission of Greek astrology to India between the 1st and 7th centuries CE, which was then merged with the indigenous forms of astrology that already existed there. In recent years some scholars such as Bill M. Mak have pushed back on Pingree's dating of the Yavanajataka and some of the conclusions that he drew from the text, while still accepting the general premise that the text demonstrates that some sort of transmission did occur. These conclusions on the part of academics are sometimes rejected by some practitioners of Indian astrology, who believe that their tradition dates back thousands of years, and was integrated into the ancient Vedic religion. At the United Astrology Conference in 2018 Kenneth Miller presented a talk titled There's Curry in my Feta! The Development of Horoscopic Astrology in India and Egypt, where he pushed back on the notion that the Yavanajataka presents a purely Greek form of astrology. In this podcast episode we decided to sit down and talk about both sides of the debate, and then actually read through several passages from Pingree's translation of the Yavanajataka, in order to highlight both some similarities as well as some differences when compared to the doctrines of Hellenistic astrology. Kenneth practices Indian astrology, and is also the President of Kepler College, and you can find out more information about his work at: CelestialIntelligencer.net This episode is available in both audio and video versions below. Watch the Video Version of This Episode on the Yavanajataka Here is the video version of our discussion about the Yavanajataka: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4A0rpK0Dpg - Transcript A full transcript of this episode is available: Episode 241 transcript Listen to the Audio Version of This Episode You can either play the audio version of this episode of the podcast directly from the website or download it as an MP3 to your device by using the buttons below:

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, my name is Chris Brennan, and you're listening to the astrology podcast.
0:04.0	In this episode, I'm joined by Kenneth Miller, who is the president of Kepler College,
0:08.0	and we're going to be talking about the relationship between ancient Greek astrology and ancient Sanskrit astrology from India,
0:16.5	or in other words the relationship between ancient Western astrology and ancient Indian astrology or Jotish.
0:23.0	Hey Kenneth, thanks for joining me today.
0:25.0	Thanks for having me on.
0:27.0	And just to get, I usually get the date in, so it's Monday, January 27th, 2020,
0:31.0	starting at 4.06. in Denver, Colorado. Not sure what episode of the show. I think it's 240 something.
0:38.1	Wow. Yeah, so you've been on, off and on, I don't know how many appearances you've made on the podcast but you have appeared
0:45.3	Couple of times. Yeah throughout its history at different points. Yep. All right. Well, thanks for joining me for this one. This is a big episode and a big discussion topic because it's
0:53.3	something that comes up relatively frequently in contemporary debates where
0:59.2	there's a debate over whether there was a relationship and specifically a transmission of ancient Greek astrology
1:05.6	2,000 years ago and whether a text on ancient Greek astrology went over to India where it was
1:11.8	translated into Sanskrit and then somehow influenced or even sometimes some people go far as so far as to say created the practice of needle astrology in India at that time and this is become sometimes
1:27.3	it becomes a very heated debate we're going to try to approach it from different
1:30.9	standpoint over the course of the next hour or two
1:34.0	and do our best to be sensitive and present both sides of the argument?
1:38.6	Sure.
1:39.4	Sure.
1:40.4	That's what we're gonna do.
1:41.4	That's what we're gonna try to do.
1:42.4	That's our job, going to do. That's what we're going to try to do.
	...

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