What is the first thing that comes to mind when it comes to Ancient India? Bright colorful films, where a lot of singing and dancing, dilapidated temples and, of course, the Kamasutra. The most advanced will also remember that Buddha, the founder of one of the world's religions, lived in India and the doctrine of the transmigration of souls was born.
But it is not for nothing that seekers of secret knowledge have always aspired to India! Nicholas Roerich, Helena Blavatsky visited there, and a couple of thousand years ago, according to rumors, Jesus Christ himself studied with the ancient Indian sages.
Features of ancient Indian science
In ancient times, any scientific knowledge in one way or another turned out to be associated with religion and mysticism, and since this knowledge was available to few, it was also considered secret. Ancient Greece is an exception, but we are not talking about it now.
The science of ancient India is called Vedic because it largely originates in the texts of the oldest known book - the Vedas. The ancient Indian sages paid the main attention to a person who, being a part of the Cosmos, always strives for harmony with the world around him and with himself. And all scientific research was aimed at finding ways to achieve this harmony.
For example, one of the sciences of ancient India can be called yoga, which dealt with the perfection of the human body and spirit. Ayurveda contains the knowledge of ancient Hindus about diseases and ways to cure them. Tantra is a mystical teaching about the connection of the human spirit with Divine energy and how to control it. Vastu is the ancient Indian science of creating ideal, correct, from the point of view of religion and mysticism, dwellings.
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And there was also such a science as jyotish - the doctrine of the stars and planets and their influence on the fate of man and the world. That is, it is astrology, which is based on knowledge of astronomy. The achievements of the sages of Ancient India in this area are impressive.
Astronomy in Ancient India
In ancient Indian scientific and philosophical treatises, for example, in the work of Surya Sidhanta, written 5 thousand years ago, it is said not only that the planets are spherical, but also descriptions and calculations of their orbits are given. Moreover, these data are very close to modern ones. Surprisingly, the ancient astronomer describes such planets as Neptune and Uranus, discovered by Europeans only in the 20th century.
Unlike the planets, the sun and the moon, the stars of ancient Indian astronomers were almost not interested. Their attention was attracted only by those constellations and groups of stars, which they called "nakshatras" - lunar sites. This is where the Moon is every night. There are 27 lunar stations in total.
In general, the Moon occupies an important place not only in astronomy, but also in the religion of the ancient Hindus. They believed that the Sun controls the human body, and the Moon controls the soul, which is more important than the body.
Jyotish - as a science of predictions
Knowledge about the path that the Moon passes among the stars was necessary, first of all, for astrological predictions. Unlike European astrology, which considered the Sun to be the main one and its passage through 12 zodiacal constellations, the ancient astrologers made up horoscopes based on the Moon.
Another difference between Jyotish and Western European astrology is that in it calculations are based not only on the position of the sun relative to the 12 constellations, but also on the position of the moon on the lunar stations, therefore Vedic horoscopes are much more complicated and, as they say, more correct.
Currently, Vedic astrology is recognized as the most accurate. Moreover, in some Hindu temples there are entire collections of horoscopes, according to rumors, compiled in ancient times for all people on earth, even then not born. And everyone who gets into that temple can receive their own horoscope, drawn up more than one thousand years ago.
Astrology in modern India
Ancient knowledge is not only carefully preserved in temples, it is actively used in the daily life of modern Hindus. Although, of course, the Jyotish did not escape the influence of Western culture, but now in India horoscopes are drawn up at the birth of a child and at important moments in life. Moreover, an astrology course is taught even in some universities.
Author: Sergey Orkush
