Jyotish. Andrew Mason
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Knowing his advisors to be beyond reproach and implicitly trusting their collective wisdom, the king had no choice but to accept their verdict. The palace, he knew, bordered a wilderness from which did on occasion present some danger in the form of prowling animals. The royal court also enjoyed hunting in this wilderness; perhaps it was to be on one such foray that his son would meet his end?
He was about to dismiss the entourage when Mihira stepped forward and added, ‘Your majesty, I do not contradict these findings but would add that this beast will be a wild boar. Be aware, however, there can be no protection against the animal for the hand of fate aids it with supernatural qualities, striking without warning amidst a storm.’
The king gravely acknowledged these words, pondering his child’s cruel and yet ironic fate – to be slain by their royal insignia, which was that of a ferocious looking wild boar.29
The child grew and relished life at court, never restricted in his movements and greatly enjoying any foray into the wilderness to hunt. He was never observed to flinch in the face of danger.
It had long ago been decided that the youth’s fate be kept from him. If, reasoned the king, he was to be killed by a wild boar, he must live out his life unburdened by that knowledge.
Years passed and the prediction was somewhat forgotten, but as his sixteenth birthday drew near the predictions of the Navaratnā again returned to haunt the king, who now began a day and night vigil over the youth. If, reasoned the king, I were to keep the boy from harm’s way, perhaps he might be spared. With this thought in mind he slowly began to restrict the movement of the prince, curtailing any events which might bring his son within striking distance of the wilderness. In the remaining days before his sixteenth birthday the king ordered the boy confined to the palace, having no contact with the outside world.
On the day of his son’s sixteenth birthday the king received word a large boar had been sighted near the palace, close to the wilderness edge. Suspecting this to be the supernatural agent, come to claim his son, the king rode out to meet the beast, hoping to slay the animal. Before leaving, the king gave instruction that the boy be guarded at all times and forbidden to leave his room.
After searching in vain for the animal, the king returned to the palace only to be met with a great commotion. Hurriedly ascending to the rooms occupied by the prince he found his son dead, lying upon the terrace, impaled by a decorative lance that had hung upon the wall. Closer examination of its wooden shaft showed its end carved into the royal insignia – a ferocious wild boar.
Questioning the terrified attendants, they told how the signal of the king’s return had prompted the youth to run out onto the terrace to welcome his return. At that very moment a fierce wind shook the palace, dislodging the lance, which had fallen and impaled the youth. Later, in honour of his stunning prediction, Mihira was awarded the title Varāhamihira (Varāha meaning boar), a title which persists to this day.
The son of Ādityadāsa,30 Varāhamihira,31 is historically honoured as scientist, astronomer, mathematician, author and, of course, astrologer. Little remains known of the man himself or his true origins, and like so many historical characters there is much disagreement over the accuracy of events surrounding his life.
As an author he is known to have written on a wide variety of subjects including: pilgrimages (tīrtha/yātrā), military campaigns (bṛhadyātrā), marriage (vivāhapaṭala), mathematics (karaṇa) and of course Jataka (natal astrology). His surviving Pañca Siddhântikâ (five astronomical canons32) has been dated in the region of AD 450–570 and remains an important compendium on early Indian Astronomy. Mihira’s residence in Ujjayinī (Ujjain) is almost universally accepted, especially in regard to his famed mathematical school which later to become an important Indian cultural centre that prospered under his patronage. Mihira is often quoted as saying, ‘There is no better boat than a horoscope to help a man cross the troubled seas of life.’
NOTES
1.Also known as Nikko Bosatsu or Sûryaprabha.
2.Also known as Gatten or Chandraprabha.
3.Also 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.