Jyotish. Andrew Mason

known as Yakushiji Nyorai, master of healing in Mahāyāna Buddhism.

4.The Indian classic Mahabharat describes weapons known as Brahmā-astras and Agneya-astras, which when taken in the context of a nuclear explosion seem eerily similar in their devastating effects, including radiation sickness. The Agnī Purana mentions Dhupa (projectiles/flying weapons) and the use of Visvasaghati, a mixture of metal oxides, carbon, oils, waxes, turpentine and other organic materials producing a highly volatile substance akin to modern-day napalm.

5.Two such examples include: the bronze cast chariots and horses of Emperor Qin Shi Huang Di, unearthed in China in 1980. These examples are perhaps the largest ever found and are not only highly decorative and detailed but are also functional. Although these half life-scale replicas were apparently ornamental, both are comprised of over seven thousand separately carved and cast pieces. These parts include skilful mechanical jointing and flattened sheet sections of 1–4mm in thickness. A second example would be the Daibutsu in the To¯dai-ji Temple, Nara Prefecture (Japan). Completed in AD 750 this 50-feet-high giant is considered one of the largest Buddha statues of its kind and is believed to have consumed the nation’s entire copper/tin reserves during construction. Weighing in at a staggering 250 tons (minus base), its gold finishing swallowed over 200 kilos of liquid mercury during its final fire-gilding.

6.Much of humanity was thought to reside in a dim collective morass and so shielded from potentially dangerous knowledge, i.e. ‘too much light can damage weak eyes’.

7.Astr = stars and ology = the study thereof.

8.May AD 330 saw the founding of Constantinople, Constantine himself presiding over an entourage of pagan/Christian priests, who under the instruction of astrologers renamed Byzantium Constantinople.

9.The coincidence of sidereal and tropical zodiacs, thought to be within the range of AD 285–576. Shil Ponde’s calculation offers a possible congruence around the year AD 522.

10.Those using a twelve-fold division of the zodiac. During the Islamic incursion into North India, Tajik/Tāzig (Iranian for Arab) techniques may have been re-imported into Jyotish; these techniques are still favoured in some Vargas (divisional charts).

11.Hipparchus of Nicaea (150 BC) suggested an Ayanāṃśa value of ‘no less than 36″ yearly’.

12.This value is based upon a total processionary cycle of 25,920 years.

13.Earth’s seasons (solstices and equinox) are tied to our orbit about the Sun. Due to the phenomena of precession, the planet’s nutation slowly shifts the apparent position of the Sun backward against the stars at each of these juncture points.

14.Ayana = solstice and amsha = portion.

15.Worship of the twenty-eight asterisms (and other heavenly bodies) played a significant role in the Esoteric Buddhism founded in China. For more information see Brill (2013).

16.Use of Arabic Lunar Mansions in alchemy gained some ground during the renaissance for electional astrology. Today they are little used by astrologers in the west. For more information see Bartlett (2008).

17.The origins of Jyotish Shāstra are commonly attributed to a number of sutras in Kāuçika Sūtra (Atharva Veda); these early references to the planets, Nakshatras and other celestial phenomena appear mainly in the form of Mhurta (electional astrology) but are nonetheless prolific.

18.The Saṁhitā (science) of astronomy is sometimes presented as Karaṇa: planetary calculation only, Siddhānta/Tantra: planetary positions and the structure of the universe, etc., Jataka/Horā: individual horoscopes and later Tājik: celestial timing and the study of fortuitous events.

19.Might also be termed the mapping (geography) of space just as Bhūgola is the mapping or geography of Earth.

20.More specifically, Mhurta = 48 minutes.

21.Nimitta requires skilled guidance by one already proficient in this form of divination.

22.From the Greek πλανηται = wanderers.

23.Parasara recounts how nine aspects of the god Vishnu incarnated into each of the grahas. To the Sun, lord Rama; to the Moon, Krishna; to Mars, Narasimha; to Mercury, the Buddha; to Jupiter, Vamana; to Venus, Parashurama; to Saturn, Kurma; to Rāhu, Varāha; and to Ketu, Matsya.

24.See Kirk (2013).

25.Saṃhitā = a collection/an authoritative work.

26.Hero, warrior and semi-mythical Emperor/King heralding from India’s ‘golden age’. Vikramāditya is commonly agreed to be Chandragupta II (late 4th to early 5th century CE).

27.Ujjayini City is situated in the modern-day state of Madhya Pradesh (India). Ujjayini was taken as prime meridian for the calculation of solar/luna positioning.

28.Navaratnā, literally meaning ‘nine jewels’, in this instance nine wise and learned men: Varāhamihira (astrologer), Dhanvantarī (Āyurvedic Physician), Kālidāsa (poet), Vetālabhaṭṭa (scientist/philosopher), Saṅku (map maker/geographer), Ghaṭakarpara (architect), Vararuchi (Sanskrit scholar), Amarasiṃha (poet/author) and Kṣapaṇaka (Jain scholar).

29.The royal insignia is believed to represent Varaha (the third avatar of Vishnu) who rescued the submerged Earth from below the primal waters.

30.Devotee of the Sun and honoured as the source of all his Earthly knowledge.

31.Historically; Varāhamihira is thought to have lived between the years 450–570 CE; his ethnicity of Persian decent. The Islamic historian and scholar al-Bīrūnī (Abû Raiḥân), c.973–1048, notes Pañca Siddhântikâ to have been composed five hundred years prior to his own time, somewhat corroborating these dates. Varāhamihira (a polymath)