The Ancient Indians and Greeks had similar beliefs in the concepts of magic, superstition, and
astrology. First I will look briefly at the beliefs of the ancient Greeks and the main
astrological text- the Tetrabiblos of Claudius Ptolemy. Ptolemy moves away from the
scientific account that he provides us in his Almagest, to defining astrology as an art acquired
from the observation of the movements of the heavenly bodies. The main argument however
is based on the fact that Ptolemy uses an almost apologetic tone in his defence of the
Tetrabiblos. Whereas the ancient Indians appeared to be strong believers in astrology, the
ancient Greeks always sought to justify it in terms of science. To analyse this concept in depth
I will provide a comparative study of both these belief systems.
But whereas the Greeks distinguished astrology from astronomy, in the Vedic tradition
astrology consisted of observable science as well as mythological and magical elements.
Some consideration must therefore be given to astronomical aspects of this tradition in
drawing a comparison between the two. Astrology was prevalent in ancient India a long time
prior to the writing of the Surya Siddhanta or any other astronomical text. The Surya
Siddhanta is often held to be the main text on Indian astronomy as it tries to address the
reasons why certain religious practices were performed at those specific times. However,
much information can also be obtained from the verses of the Rig Veda, a religious text that
formed the basis of Indian astrology. This mini-dissertation will first discuss the Surya
Siddhanta and its relationship to the more 'mythological' Rig Veda.
In order to reach a conclusion I will look specifically at the issue of the belief in individual
human difference and fate and destiny in these two cultures. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2005.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ukzn/oai:http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za:10413/8994 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Ramluckan, Trishana. |
| Contributors | Hilton, John L. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en_ZA |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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