![Equinox path](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Equinox_path.png)
''Ayanamsa'' (: ), also ''ayanabhāga'' (), is the
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
term for many systems used in
Hindu astrology
Jyotisha or Jyotishya (from Sanskrit ', from ' “light, heavenly body" and ''ish'' - from Isvara or God) is the traditional Hindu system of astrology, also known as Hindu astrology, Indian astrology and more recently Vedic astrology. It is one ...
to account for the
precession of equinoxes
In astronomy, axial precession is a gravity-induced, slow, and continuous change in the orientation of an astronomical body's rotational axis. In the absence of precession, the astronomical body's orbit would show axial parallelism. In partic ...
.
[Barbara Pijan, https://barbarapijan.com/bpa/Amsha/Ayanamsha.htm] There are also systems of ayanamsa used in
Western sidereal astrology, such as the Fagan/Bradley Ayanamsa.
Overview
There are various systems of Ayanamsa that are in use in Hindu astrology (also known as
Vedic
upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''.
The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the ...
astrology) such as the
Raman Ayanamsa and the Krishnamurthy Ayanamsa,
but the Lahiri Ayanamsa, named after its
inventor,
astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...
N.C. Lahiri, is by far the most prevalent system in India.
Critics of Lahiri Ayanamsa have proposed an ayanamsa called True Chitra Paksha Ayanamsa.
There are other existing ayanamsa such as Raman, Pushya Paksha, Rohini, Kërr A.I, Usha Shashi and Chandra Hari.
The use of ayanamsa to account for the precession of equinoxes is believed to have been defined in
Vedic texts
upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''.
The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the ...
at least 2,500 years before the
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
astronomer
Hipparchus
Hipparchus (; el, Ἵππαρχος, ''Hipparkhos''; BC) was a Greek astronomer, geographer, and mathematician. He is considered the founder of trigonometry, but is most famous for his incidental discovery of the precession of the equi ...
quantified the precession of equinoxes in 127 B.C.
See also
*
Western sidereal astrology
References
External links
Controversial topics in astrology and Vedic astronomy
Technical factors of Hindu astrology
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