History of Astrology in India

The Greatest Astrologer Maharishi Prashar’s era is not known,but his Brihat parashara hora shastra was probably written before Varahmihira which may be around the 2nd or 3rd century.the timing of these eras have lot of controversies.

Varah Mihir Jyotish Kal

Varahmihir is among the most important sages in Vedic astrology. The name Varahmihir is carved in golden words in the history of Hindu astrology. The time from 57 B.C till 1100 A.D is known as the Varah Mihir era. This great astrologer and author took birth in 57 B.C.

Varah Mihir Astrology Epics

He composed an epic called Brihat Jataka. He was one of the nine scholars in the court of King Vikramaditya. He wrote “Panchasiddhantika” and “Brihat Samhita” on Medini Astrology. Apart from this, he wrote “Laghujatakam”, “Vivah Patal”, “Yog Yatra” and Samar Samhita. After Varahmihir comes the name of Kalyan Varma.

Kalyan Varma

Kalyan Varma took birth around 578 AD. He wrote a book, “Sarawali”on predictive astrology. In this book 2500 Shlokas are given. This epic is written on the principles of Varah Mihir and Yavan Hora.

Bhattotpal is a famous scholar of astrology. He has interpreted “Varah Jataka” of Varah Mihir in an a very reasonable and clear manner. He also wrote a book commenting on Prashna Shastra, “Shat-Panchasika” written by the son of Varah Mihir. Apart from this, he wrote “Prashna Gyan” on Prashna Shastra. Bhattotpal took birth in 888 A.D.

Brahamgupta

598 A.D he wrote brahmagupta siddhanta at the age of thirty. He was a great researcher and astronomer and made contributions in the field of mathematical astrology.In Spite of his achievements he erred in opposing aryabhata 1 on his theory of earth being in the orbit of the Sun.

Prithu Yashas

He was illustrious son of varahamihira and wrote shat panchasika, the great compendium of 56 slokas on prashna shastra.

Bhatotpala

He wrote commentaries on the works of Varahmihira and brahmagupta.He was responsible for the fame of varahamihira.

Chandrasen

Chandrasen worked on Medini astrology and wrote a book called “Keval Gyan Hora”. He described different ways and Chakras of Medini astrology in this book.

From 1000A.D till date sa innumerable people who contributed to the growth of this great science. Some of the notable ones were as follows.

Shripati

The astrologer Shripati took birth in 999 A.D. He did remarkable work in mathematical astrology and wrote books like Pati Ganit, Beej Ganit and Sidhant Hora. He also wrote books on Predictive Astrology like Saripati Padhati and Ratnawali Ratnamala.

Bhaskaracharya

Born in 1114 A.D., he compiled a lot of astronomical data. His most famous works have been sidhant shiromani, karan kautuhal and sarvatrobhadra. These are based on the principles of Brahma Siddhanta.

Yavanacharya

One of the pioneers of Tajik shastra. He had written in Arabic and used the names of tajik yogas as iqbal,ishraaf and induvar.

Tej singh

Many researchers opine that tajik system was work of tej singh who discovered annual horoscopy. And the term Tajik was coined after his name.

Shridhar

He wrote a book called “Ganit Saar”. He also wrote “Jyotirgamaya” in sanskrit and “Jataka Tilak” in Kannada.

He wrote a book called “Aaya Gyan Tilak”, in which he described how to get predictions from the following eight kinds of income, Dhwaja, Dhooma, Simha, Gaja, Khar, Vrishabha and Dhwansa.
Muhurata gained importance, it was during this time that famous researchers appeared in this period in this field.Notable among them are -

After this many eminent astrologers came and added their contribution to this great science.