In episode 268 of the podcast, Dr. Martin Gansten joins the show to talk about his new translation of a 17th century Tajik astrological Sanskrit text. This text focuses on methods of annual divination from medieval Arabic sources.
Martin is a historian of religion as well as a Sanskrit scholar specializing in the history and transmission of ancient astrology.
Earlier this month, he published Annual Gems of Astrology: A Parallel Sanskrit-English Critical Edition of Balabhadra’s Hayanaratna.
Balabhadra Daivajña was a court astrologer who lived in India in the 17th century. His book is called Hayanaratna Written in 1649 AD, its purpose was to write a comprehensive study of the annual divination approach specific to the Tajik tradition.
The Tajik tradition began around the 13th century, when a collection of medieval Arabic texts on astrology was translated into Sanskrit, probably by an author named Samarasimha (1274 AD).
This started a tradition of astrology in India, which was very similar to medieval western astrology, which included techniques and concepts such as the solar return chart, annual prophecies, dignities, as well as the doctrines of complex aspects such as light transmission and light collection.
Martin traces the origins of some concepts in Tajik tradition to a 9th-century astrologer’s text. Sahl ibn Bishralthough in some cases misinterpretation of the text may have led to the development of new concepts and doctrines.
We spent most of the episode looking at the Tajik tradition as an interesting and important example of how astrologers moved from one culture to another, and ultimately as a useful example in our own time when astrologers are trying to reconstruct and interpret ancient texts.
More information about Martin can be found on his website:
This episode is available in audio and video versions below.
Download the text discussed in this section
Martin’s book is available both as a print book and as a free PDF from the publisher thanks to a grant he received to help translate the book:
Part of the purpose of our discussion was to serve as a guide to reading the book and understanding what was going on behind it.
Download show notes
Our show notes for this episode provide an extended outline of some of the key discussion points and are available for download in PDF format here:
Tajik Astrology Podcast Episode Episode
This outline was compiled by Chris Brennan in preparation for this interview and any errors or inaccuracies are his own.
Watch the video version of this episode
Here is the video version of this episode Tajik Astrology with Martin Gansten:
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Transcription
Here is the full transcript of this episode: Episode 268 Transcript
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