Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T12:33:42.640Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Karma and Astrology: An Unrecognized Aspect of Indian Anthropology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

François Chenet
François Chenet*
Affiliation:
C.N.R.S.

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Since time immemorial, the most varied divinatory practices have flourished in India. Their prognostications were supplied by the interpretation of quite diverse omina and portenta: Thus “meteors” (lightning, rain or comets) earthquakes, the flight and cries of crows and other birds, the degree of clarity of a subject's image reflected in melted butter (gharta), lines and marks on a body, the direction taken by smoke rising from the altar once the rite had condensed a certain magic power from it (prabhāva), dreams, all were thought to furnish the diviner with presages. As the abundant lists of the Garga samhitā and the Brhat Sarnmitā testify, for a conscience attentive to the intersigns there is no reality, even the most insignificant, that does not lend itself directly or by contiguity to systematic interpretation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 33 , Issue 129 , March 1985 , pp. 101 - 126
Copyright
Copyright © 1985 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

Notes and References

1 If in the Vedic epoch it designated the ritual act endowed with its own efficiency, the term karma, taking on an ethic significance, came later to designate the retributive causality of the act in the perspective of transmigration: "the law of the act is that according to which any morally qualifiable action creates, in a more or less deferred time and through the united efforts of universal forces, its just retribution." (O. Lacombe).

2 It goes without saying that we do not at all intend to reopen here the controversy between upholders and adversaries of astrology. The first allege, for example, the recent discoveries of a field of cosmic forces, a complex of connected undulatory forces (whose periodicity extends from a few nanoseconds to millions of years, having an influence on the biosphere), so as to legitimize the astrological approach. In the eyes of the second, there is nothing in it but a superstition from the Middle Ages: "The zodiac, constructed on the immense tableau of cerulean night, is the Rorschach test of humanity," according to the admirable formula of G. Bachelard (l'Air et les songes, Paris, 1942, p. 202). Faithful to the critical objectivity of the history of ideas, the author could not plead in favor of whatever side in a controversy as old as humanity. Furthermore, it could be that in spite of the many attempts at statistical "verification" that have been made, the solution of this controversy goes beyond the a priori limits of understanding and, consequently, scientihc objectivation and investigation. Nevertheless, it will be permissible to affirm further on that the evolution itself of the Indian approach contributes to clarify the position of the problem.

3 Indian astrology of course only knows seven planets. In our day, however, the practice has spread to call Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, respectively, Indra, Varuna and Rudra, because of their symbolism. However, if the negative values of Pluto are also attributed to Rahu, its positive values are instead attributed to Ketu (representing the kundalinī and moksa).

4 Within the framework of this study it is impossible for us to give an overall view of Hindu astrology and the numerous and contradictory developments to which it has given rise. Some indications and bibliographical references may be found in: J. Filliozat, L'Inde classique, Vol. I, (1259-1266), 1953, and Vol. II (1710-1746), 1957, as well as Notes d'astronomie ancienne de l'Iran et de l'Inde, I, II, III, reproduced in Laghu Prabandhāh, Brill, 1974; D. Pingree, Jyotihśāstra, Astral and Mathematical Literature, History of Indian Literature, Vol. VI, 4, Wiesbaden, 1981; R. Billard, L'Astronomie indienne, EFEO, No. 83, 1971. Finally, we mention the critical study by Dr. Ph. Stone, Hindu Astrology: Myths, Symbols and Realities, Delhi, 1981, from which we borrow certain suggestions.

5 Tevigga sutta, Ch. II, in T.W. Rhys-Davids, Buddhist suttas, pp. 197-8, SBE, Vol. XI. The comparison of this list with that of Deuteronomy XVIII: 10-12, which gives information on Semitic divination of Chaldean origin, would certainly be instructive. In the Hindu epoch, the Mārkandeya Purāna (III.33) and the Bhāgavata Purāna (III.17) also contain long lists of presages.

6 P.V. Kane, History of Dharmaśāstra, Vol. V, Part. I, p. 600, Bhandarkar Oriental Institute, Poona, Second ed., 1974.

7 Manu Smrti, ed. by Jolly, London, 1887, and trans. by G. Bühler, Oxford, 1886 (SBE Vol. XXV, reprinted 1975).

8 "He who lives in the observation of the naksatra"—naksatrayaśca jivati, III.162—cannot be regarded as an astrologist.

9 yatha cā Gargah-tato' pacāro martyānā maparajyanti devatāh/te sriyan tyad bhutāanbhāvā n divyabhumyantariksajān/ (45.3), Brhat Samhit ā with Battotpalás vivrti, ed. A.V. Tripathi, Varanasi, 1968.

10 daivamprabhavate srestam hetumātramtu paurusam/

daivena tu suguptena sakto jetum vasumdharam//

daivā tpurus akaracca daivameva viśisyate/

tasmaddaivam visesena mahipatih//

daivakarmavidau tasmātsam vatsarapurohitau/

grhnā yatsatatam rājā dāna sammanarajnanaih//

apitā tu yathā bālastathāsā mvātsaro nrpah//

amā trko yathā bālastathathārvavivarjitah/

arimadhye yathaik āko tathā vaidyavivarjitah// (II.1.2.5) Atharvaveda Pariśista, ed. by G. Melville Bolling and Julius Von Negelain, 1909.

11 yathā hi bharato vanarvarnayatyatmanastanum/

nānā rupani kurvānastathātma karmajastanu h//

kālakarm atmabijānām dosair mātustathaiva ca/

garbhasya vaikrtam drstamangahinādi janmlanah//(III.162-163), Yā jňavalkyasmrti, ed. by V.N. Mandlik, Bombay, 1980.

12 Daive purusakare ca karmasiddhirvyavasthitā//

tatra daivamabhivyaktam paurusam pauradehikam/

keccidaivā tsvabhāvādvā kālā tpuruāsakāratah//

samyoge kecidicchanti phalam kusalabuddhyah//

yathā hyekena cakrena rathasya na gatirbhavet//

evam purusakarena vinā daivam na siddhyati/ (1.348b-351a). Y.S.

13 adhishanam tathā kartā karanam ca prthag-vidaml

viridhā sca prthak cestā daivam caivātra pañcamam/ (XVIII, 14) Bh.G., Trans. O. Lacombe. °

14 Atharva Jyotisa, 159-61, Atharvedija Jyautisam, Pitambara pith, Datia, 1965.

15 devagrhā naksatrāni, Taittiriya Br. I.5.2.6.

16 evam vināyakam pujya grahāmś caiva vidhānatah//karmām phālamā pnoti śriyam capnotyanuttaman/ (I.292b-293a), Y.S., ed. cit.

17 srikā mah sāntikāmo vā grahayajñam samā caret/vrastyayuh pustikāmo vā tathaivā bhicarannapi/ (I. 294c-295a), ibid. The cult of grahadevatā flourished in the Purāna (Agni P., ch. 164 and 196; Matsya P., ch. 54 and 73). We also see the appearance of the recourse to gems-talismans associated with planets (Agni P. ch. 121 and 246; Kurma P., ch. 42).

18 As D. Pingree has shown, (Yavana Jātaka, Vol. I, p. 5 op. cit.) it seems impossible to backdate the Jataka to the 5th or 6th century B.C. according to the common opinion of Indian historians.

19 karmā rjitam puyvabhave sadādi yattasya paktim samabhivyanakti// (I.3), Brhajjatakam, ed. trans. by H.P. Chatterjee, 1912, reprinted Delhi, 1979.

20 yā purvakarmaprabhavasya dhātri dhātrā lalāte likhitā prasastih/tam śā strametat prakatam vidhatte dipo yathāvastu ghane ndhakare// (I.3), Vrddha Ya vana Jātaka, Part I, ed. R.S. Sarma, Indian Institute of Astronomical and Sanskrit Research, Delhi, 1976.

21 yadupacitamanyajanmani śubhāśubham tasya karmanah prā ptim/vyañjayati śāstrametattamasi dravyā ani dīpa iva/ (I.3), Laghu Jātaka, Venkatesvara Press, Bombay, 1936.

22 Epistle of James, I:23.

23 yadyadvidh ānam niyatam prajajanām graharksayogaproabhā vam prasutau/bhāgyāni tāhithyabhi śabdayati vartāniyogeti dasānaran ām// tadapyabhijñairdvividham niruktam sthirakhyamautpatikasamnitam ca/ kālakramājjtakaniscitam yatkramopasarpisthiramucyate tat// saptagrahanam prathitani yani sthānā ni janmaprabhavani sadbhih/

tebyah phalam caragrahakramasth ādadyuryadautpātikasamjñitamtat// (I.3) Brhajjā taka with Bhattotpala's Jagaccandrikā, ed. Sitaram JHA. Thakurprasad and Sons, Varanasi, 1974 and trans. V.S. Sastri, Mysore, 1929.

24 Leibniz, Discours de Métaphysique, XVI; La Monadologie, 56.

25 See, for example, for Buddhism, A. Wayman, Buddhist Tantras, New York, 1973, Ch. 13.

26 Quoted by Ph. Stone, Op. cit., p. 121.

27 The existence of modes can only be affirmed in experience and not deduced (Spinoza, Letter X to Simon de Vries, March, 1663).

28 Laplace, Oeuvres, Vol. VII, Paris, 1886, p. 403.

29 Tha image of earth and heaven as two closed rotating spaces, analogous to two wheels moving at the same time separated and fixed or held by an axle-tree (Rg Veda X.89.4; cf. VI.24.3) is perhaps of astronomical origin.

30 It should be noted that the Vedic rta is the equivalent of the facies totius universi of Spinoza, which represents the systematization of the eternal laws of nature naturée as extended. Naturally, the analogy stops there.