Abstract
Vilnius UniversityThe object of this paper is to investigate the social and religious status of an astrologer at the royal court and his relation to royal priests in medieval Indian society. This paper is confined to the social and religious role of an astrologer as it was perceived by members of society, both practicing astrologers and non-astrologers. By consulting different primary sources (i.e., jyotiḥśāstras, dharmaśāstras, purāṇas and epics), one can have some appreciation of various issues regarding, for example, the conditions in which royal astrologers operated, their duties and royal supporters, the salaries they obtained, and many other similar matters of extreme importance for the location of the astrologer within the larger social panorama. The conclusion is made that in India by the Epic times, at least, the astrologer had become one of the six principal officials of the royal court and gradually assumed some of the duties of the royal priest (purohita). In India even the position of royal astrologer had its sanction in myth. Astrology, therefore, was considered divine in origin as well as in its subject matter. The court astrologer was considered indispensible to the king and to the welfare of the kingdom. The astrologer had enormous power and responsibility at the royal court and at every level of society. The astrologer was fulfilling his role as an institutional authority by providing knowledge and understanding to the royal court and society. Indian astrologers had to depend on a patronage system for their sustenance, and they seem to have exploited that system with some success.
Highlights
The object of this paper is to investigate the social and religious status of an astrologer at the royal court and his relation to royal priests in medieval Indian society
The evolution of highly specialised astrological techniques permitting the casting of individual horoscopes, which occurred in the Hellenistic West between 300 and 170 B.C., had its first impact on the lower and middle class urban mob that gathered at fairs and festivals, and on the agricultural classes of the Italian countryside
The court astrologer was considered indispensible to the king and to the welfare of the kingdom
Summary
From the earliest times in India, the position of royal astrologer had its sanction in myth. Varāhamihira’s fairly numerous writings on the subject, and especially his cultural encyclopaedia, Bṛhat saṃhitā truly depict the exuberant life, spirit and culture of the Gupta age, justifiably treated as the classical age of early Indian history.9 In his Bṛhat saṃhitā (chapter 48), Varāhamihira calls for a king to appoint both astrologer and royal priest for the performance of the Bath of Prosperity, which could be performed on the occasion of a ceremonial bath into kingship. It is noteworthy to mention in this context that in astrological sources the social position of astrologer is indicated by the traditional correspondence of the planets with members of a royal court, whose positions depend on their natures, and on the order of their houses This is probably the oldest known description of this kind of corespondence from Yavanajātaka (I.116–21): One finds that the Sun and the Moon are king, Mars a general, Mercury a prince, Jupiter and Venus advisors and Saturn a slave. Mother, brother, wife, relative, son and slave of the natives; such are the natures (respectively) of Mercury, the Sun, the Moon, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, and Saturn.
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