Gargiya-jyotisha


Gargiya-jyotisha, also known as Garga-samhita, is a 1st-century Indian Sanskrit-language astrological treatise attributed to Garga. The oldest extant text of the Indian astrology, it is written in form of a dialogue between Garga and Kraushtuki.

Date

Gargiya-jyotisha is the oldest extant text of the Indian astrology, composed around 25 CE.
Mahabharata 13.18.25–26 refers to the 64 divisions of a work of Garga, a description identical to given in the second chapter of the Garga-jyotisha. This suggests that the work was well-known and widely circulated by the time this portion of Mahabharata was written.

Manuscripts and translations

The name Gargiya-jyotisha derives from the colophons contained in the text's manuscripts. Mitra-mishra's Viramitrodaya refers to the text as Garga-samhita, a name shared by other texts. Other names for the text include Vṛddha-Garga-saṃhitā and Vṛddha-Gārgīyā-jyotiṣa-saṃhitā.
The text is available from several manuscripts, now at Asiatic Society (Kolkata), Sampurnanand Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya, National Library of India, Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Gangajala Vidyapeeth, Trinity College (Cambridge), Banaras Hindu University, Mumbai University, Bibliothèque nationale de France, and Rajasthan Oriental Research Institute.
Various scholars have edited and translated parts of these manuscripts:Yugapurāṇa, edited with an English translation by John Mitchiner Śukracāra, translated into English by David Pingree Rāṣṭrotpāta-lakṣaṇa, edited with English and Japanese translations by Koji Kumagai Puruṣa-lakṣaṇa / Strī-lakṣaṇa, edited with an English translation in The Indian System of Human Marks by Kenneth Zysk

Content

Garga, the author of the text, is considered as one of the most important authors in the jyotisha tradition. The text is in form of a dialogue on astral and other omens between Kraushtuki and Garga.
The text contains the following chapters, called angas :
  1. Karma-guṇā : astrological characters of nakṣatras, tithis, grahas and muhūrtas
  2. Candra-mārga
  3. Nakṣatra-kendrabha
  4. Rāhu-cāra
  5. Bṛhaspati-cāra
  6. Śukra-cāra
  7. Ketu-mālā
  8. Śanaiścara-cāra
  9. Aṅgāraka-cāra
  10. Budha-cāra
  11. Āditya-cāra
  12. Agastya-cāra
  13. Antara-cakra
  14. Mṛga-cakra
  15. Śva-cakra
  16. Vāta-cakra
  17. Vāstu-vidyā
  18. Aṅga-vidyā
  19. Vāyasa-vidyā
  20. Svāti-yoga
  21. Āṣāḍha-yoga
  22. Rohiṇī-yoga
  23. Janapada-vyūha
  24. Salila
  25. Graha-kośa
  26. Graha-samāgama
  27. Grahā-mrādakṣiṇyam
  28. Graha-yuddha
  29. Graha-śṛṅgāṭaka
  30. Graha-purāṇa
  31. Graha-pāka
  32. Yātrā
  33. Agni-varṇa
  34. Senā-vyūha
  35. Mayūra-citra
  36. Bhuvana-puṣkara
  37. Balyupahāra
  38. Śānti-kalpa
  39. Rāṣṭrotpāta-lakṣaṇa
  40. Tulā-kośa
  41. Yuga-purāṇa
  42. Sarva-bhūtaruta,. Omens ofvarious birds and animals
  43. Vastra-cheda
  44. Bṛhaspati-purāṇa
  45. Indra-dhvaja
  46. Aja-lakṣaṇa
  47. Kūrma-lakṣaṇa
  48. Strī-lakṣaṇa
  49. Gaja-lakṣaṇa
  50. Go-lakṣaṇa
  51. Bhārgavasaṃsthāna
  52. Garbha-saṃsthā
  53. Dagārgala
  54. Nirghāta
  55. Bhūmi-kampa
  56. Pariveṣa
  57. Ulkā-lakṣaṇa
  58. Pariveṣa-cakra
  59. Ṛtu-svabhāva
  60. Sandhyā-lakṣaṇa
  61. Ulkā-lakṣaṇa
  62. ''Nakṣatra-puruṣa-kośa ''