What is Jyotish Shashtra?

“Bro this astrology is all fake pseudoscience...”

I find it funny that we all secretly look up our sun sign horoscopes but when it comes to our own jyotish shashtra, we hate it … but here’s the real tea.

Our Vedas are theoretical knowledge so we have 6 vedangas i.e. limbs to understand, preserve & apply them.

1. Shiksha (Phonetics): Rules for pronunciation.

2. Vyakarana (Grammar): Structural rules for Sanskrit.

3. Chandas (Prosody): Meter and rhythm of Vedic hymns.

4. Nirukta (Etymology): Interpretation of Vedic words.

5. Kalpa (Rituals): Manuals for conducting rituals.

6. Jyotish (Astronomy/Astrology): Calculations of time and celestial phenomena.

Jyotish is one of these vedangas & it means the study of Light or Knowledge, thus being called the Eye of the Vedas as it helps us see their knowledge.

It is a legitimate science divided into firstly Siddhanta i.e. astromomy, which is the study of the positions & movements of planets, stars & other bodies in space, so long before the West made their discoveries, we had books like Surya Siddhanta & Aryabhatiya charting out space.

Secondly, it has Samhita i.e. mundane astrology that uses geography, weather, geometry & other calculations to make predictions for agriculture, seasons, and other natural or social events.

And thirdly, we have Hora i.e. predictive astrology divided into Jataka i.e. birth charts, Prashna i.e. asking questions, Muhurata i.e. naturally best time to do things or rituals, and Nimitta i.e. interpreting natural events.

Real Jyotish Shashtra isn’t about knowing the future & its not entirely predictive - its about understanding how our past karma is influencing our current lives by studying the navgrahas’ behaviour & taking steps to move ahead smartly.

Some core books that explain this are Brihat Samhita by Varahamihira, Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, Saravali, etc.