YAVANEŚVARA ~ THE TRANSMISSION OF GREEK ASTROLOGICAL SCIENCE INTO INDIA

Yavanasvera was a Greek living in India, as the original Greek text is said to have been written "in his tongue" ("this jewel-mine of horoscopy, which was guarded by its being written in his tongue").

Indian astrology was originally known as Jyotisha, which means "science of the stars". Until around the 1st century CE no real distinction was made between astrology and astronomy; in fact, most astronomical theories were propounded to support the theory that the positions of the heavenly bodies directly influenced human events.

The Indian methods of creating horoscopes all date back to the translation of a Greek astrology text into Sanskrit  by Yavanesvara in 149 CE. Yavanesvara (or Yavanaraja) literally means "Lord of the Greeks" and it was a title given to many officials in western India during the period 130 CE - 390 CE. During this period the Ksatrapas ruled Gujarat (or Madhya Pradesh) and these "Lord of the Greeks" officials acted for the Greek merchants living in the area.

The particular "Lord of the Greeks" official Yavanesvara who we are interested in here, worked under Rudradaman. Rudradaman became ruler of the Ksatrapas in around 130 CE and it was during the period of his rule that Yavanesvara worked as an official and wrote the translated text.

This particular Greek astrology text  was written in Alexandria some time round about 120 BCE. Yavanesvara did far more than just translate the Greek text; such a simple translation would have had little relevance to the Indians. So,Yavanesvara translated the context as well. Instead of the Greek Gods who appear in the original, Yavanesvara used Hindu images.He also included the Indian caste system into his work so that it would correspond well with the Indian way of thinking.

The text was written with the aim of teaching astrology to the Indians, so it had to present astronomy in a form in which it could be used for astrology. In order to do this, Yavanesvara included an explanation of the Greek version of the Babylonian theory of the motions of the planets. Unfortunately,the original text by Yavanesvara has not survived. 120 years after the publishing of the original,  a Sanscrit version of it  appeared, written in verse.

Yavanesvara's influence on Indian astrology has been immense for centuries after his popular text was written. His work has had an impact on Indian astronomy as well, despite the separation of the two disciplines.