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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
(614)
of the first century A.D., and also on many points of ancient Indian history.
Next we turn to the manuscripts on Horoscopy, etc., which are included in astrology. Astrology is faith and as such is distinct from established truth. A child is born at a particular instant, at a particular place: the astrologer finds the longitudes of his 'nine' planets, the ascendant and the culminating points of the ecliptic at the place. By certain rules of astrology he makes up his predictions as to the child's future life as a whole. Here science recognizes the influence of sun, moon and the earth on the life of man of the earth as a whole. The influence of other planets on the earth are infinitesimals of the second, third or of higher orders. How their influences affect the life of man born on the earth is hard to discover. The coincidence of a particular situation of planets and a particular event or events on the earth may have been merely accidental and not invariable concomitants.
To the professional astrologers Section II would be most interesting. R.A.S. Bengal has a very rich collection in this section; out of 596 pages of this descriptive catalogue, pp. 111 to 596 are devoted to manuscripts on astrology, divination, augury and palmistry and other cognate topics. It is the professional astrologers who should raise funds for the publication of the interesting and unpublished works of this section and arrange for it with the R.A.S. Bengal.
P. C. SEN GUPTA.
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