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Bṛhat Parāśara Horāśāstra

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bṛhat Parāśara Horāśāstra (BPHS) is a foundational compilation of Indian astrology, or horā.[1]

The Bṛhat Parāśara Horāśāstra is the most comprehensive extant work on natal astrology in Hindu astrology
ascribed to any Rishi or sage according to the text itself. Its oldest printed version is a composite work of 71
chapters, in which the first part (chapters 1-51) dates to the 7th and early 8th centuries, and the second part
(chapters 52-71) dates to the latter part of the 8th century [citation]. A commentary by Govindaswamin (a
mathematician) on the second portion, which presupposes the first, is dated to c. 850 CE and attests to the
scope of the work at that date [citation]. The text says that this work was created by Sage Parashara, father
of Vedavyāsa who was the compiler of the Epic Mahabharata for the benefit of Kaliyuga. An English
translation was published by N.N. Krishna Rau and V.B. Choudhari in 1963, in two volumes.[2]

The oldest edition by Khemraj Press of Mumbai having 71 chapters contains a verse saying that treatise has
100 chapters ("horaa-shataadhyaayi" : verse 14 of 71st chapter), and the first part had 11000 verses,
although even enlarged modern editions contain only half that number of verses. But 29 chapters were
absent in that edition. Later editions contain 97, 98, 99 and even 100 chapters. But the source and dating of
the extra material is not known. One important later edition, by Pt Sitaram Jha, which has found its way into
internet and which was the basis of all English translations, claimed that the Khemraj Press edition contained
many spurious chapters. Thus, the number of non-controversial chapters will reduce to much less than 71.
None of these editors used any material from any ancient commentary.

Currently, four different versions of this treatise are available (all other editions use the text of Pt Sitaram
Jha's version) : by Khemraj Press, by Pt Sitaram Jha, by Pt Devachandra Jha, and by Ganeshadatta Pathak.
These are all Hindi editions. The text prepared by Pt Sitaram Jha based on the manuscript supplied by Pt
Jeevanath Jha was later used by all English translators and only this version is available online. Pt Sitaram
Jha claimed in his introduction that he introduced many new things and revised much old material in the
manuscript as such the version of Pt Sitaram Jha is completely different from all other versions in syntax,
although almost all verses carry same meanings. It seems as if some modern expert of prosody rewrote this
entire text. The text of Pt Devachandra Jha was based on a large number of complete and incomplete
manuscripts. Pt Ganeshdatta Pathak also used many manuscripts and his text differs from that of Pt
Devachandra Jha at few places. The Khemraj Press edition contains a large body of unique materials, and
although it has minimum number of chapters, it contains the largest number of verses : 5781 verses as
compared to 4001 verses in Pt Sitaram Jha's edition. The first verse of second part in the Khemraj Press
edition says that the first part had 11000 verses in 80 chapters. Same text says that there were 100 chapters
originally. Hence, second part had only 20 chapters, although all modern editions have more chapters in
second part and much more in first part than claimed by the aforecited Sanskrit verse. No critical and
comparative edition has been brought out to fix the problem of authentic parts of this treatise.

Contents
1 Notes
2 See also
3 References
4 External links

Notes

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Bṛhat Parāśara Horāśāstra - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bṛhat_Parāśara_Horāśāstra&...

1. ^ from Greek ὥρα, although the BPHS (4.1-2) etymologizes the word as ahorātra "day and night" after
dropping its first and the last syllable.
2. ^ Pingree, pp.86-87

See also
Hora (astrology)
Sārāvalī
Uttara kalamrita

References
David Pingree, Jyotiḥśāstra in J. Gonda (Ed.) A History of Indian Literature, Vol VI Fasc 4 (1981)

External links
Original text (Sanskrit) oldwikisource:बहृ ×पाराशरहोराशाƸ
Translations online (English) [http://www.reliableastrology.com/mphs.htm Brihat Parasara Hora
Sastra by Maharishi Parasara
Translation and elaboration Online Brihat Parashara Hora Sastra By Maharishi Parashara
(http://bphs.blogspot.com)
Translation and commentary Brihat Parashara Hora Sastra (http://parashara.net)
On the Authenticity of the (Modern)Brhad Parasara Hora Sastra (http://shyamasundaradasa.com
/jyotish/resources/articles/bphs.html) discusses the problem of determining what constitutes the
original corpus of the text and what has been interpolated by later authors.

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Categories: Hindu astrology Sanskrit texts 8th-century books

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