Jyotisha Astrological Texts

Jyotisha is the traditional Hindu system of astrology and astronomical calculation, developed across more than two thousand years of Sanskrit scholarship and still practiced today. Its classical literature spans three distinct historical layers gathered in this group. The Vedanga Jyotisha is one of the earliest texts about astronomy within the Vedas, concerned with fixing the timing of sacrifices by the movements of the sun and moon. The Yavanajataka records the earliest evidence of Greek horoscopic astrology entering India, dating to the early centuries CE and absorbing methods from Hellenistic astrology into an Indian framework. The Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra is one of the early medieval compilations on which classical Indian astrology is chiefly based, and remains a text later Jyotisha manuals still cite for foundational doctrine. Together these three works trace the tradition from Vedic calendrics through Hellenistic contact to the medieval synthesis still consulted by astrologers today.