Samarasiṃha and the Early Transmission of Tājika Astrology

Abstract

One of the earliest preserved Sanskrit works on Perso-Arabic (Tājika) astrology, the thirteenth-century Karmaprakāśa of Samarasiṃha (also known as the Manuṣyajātaka, Tājikatantrasāra or Gaṇakabhūṣaṇa), is examined with particular attention to subgenre, distinctive content and likely Arabic-language sources. On the basis of a comparison of the extant text of the Karmaprakāśa with excerpts attributed to Samarasiṃha by later Tājika writers, conclusions are drawn with regard to other works, now lost or misattributed, by the same author.

The Jewel of Annual Astrology

“…90 Pingree 1997: 89. As noted elsewhere, however, some sahamas not included in the Karmaprakāśa were nevertheless known to Samarasiṃha, as shown by preserved quotations from his Tājikaśāstra (see Gansten 2019). As only fragments of this work remain, we do not know how many lots it included.…”

“…Much of Sahl's writings in turn depends on Hellenistic sources, most importantly on Dorotheus of Sidon; see Stegemann 1942;Pingree 1997: 39-50, 63-78. For Dorotheus, see also Pingree 1976, to which Dykes 2017 offers some necessary corrections; for Sahl, see also Dykes 2008 and2019a. 19 See Gansten 2014Gansten , 2019. For the Arabic authors themselves, see Sezgin 1979. The word Tājika denotes the treatise (śāstra) composed by Yavanācārya in the Persian language (pārasyā bhāṣayā), comprising one area of astrology and having for its outcome the prediction of the various kinds of results of annual [horoscopy] and so on.…”

“…1, 4.2. 25 Internal evidence does suggest that some chapters may have been lost even from this surviving work (see Gansten 2019 for the arguments). That its original title was Karmaprakāśa is clear from its introductory stanzas.…”

“…I am indebted to Ola Wikander for first making the connection between kadkhudā and 'Khattakhutta' (subsequently confirmed by my study of the Karmaprakāśa; cf. Gansten 2019).…”

“…For a discussion of the possible antecedents of the Tājika lots given in Samarasiṃha's Karmaprakāśa, see Gansten 2019. been invented […] they increase in number every day' .89 As noted by Pingree, the number of sahamas listed in Tājika works likewise increased over time, probably suggesting a continued influx from Arabic-language sources.90 While Samarasiṃha's Karmaprakāśa gives 32 sahamas, Nīlakaṇṭha, writing three centuries later, lists 50; to the latter, Balabhadra adds a further 25 from several other sources.91…”