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15-582: According to David Pingree , it is a later versification of an earlier translation into Sanskrit of a Greek text, thought to have been written around 120 CE in Alexandria , on horoscopy . Based on Pingree's interpretation and emendations, the original translation, made in 149–150 CE by "Yavanesvara" ("Lord of the Greeks") under the rule of the Western Kshatrapa king Rudrakarman I , is lost; only

30-550: A dissertation on the supposed transmission of Hellenistic astrology to India. His dissertation was supervised by Daniel Henry Holmes Ingalls, Sr. and Otto Eduard Neugebauer . After completing his PhD, Pingree remained at Harvard for three more years as a member of its Society of Fellows before moving to the University of Chicago to accept the position of Research Associate at the Oriental Institute. He joined

45-776: A number of manuscripts. The holdings consist of both antiquarian and recent materials published in Sanskrit, Arabic, Hindi, Persian and Western languages. Recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1975 and a MacArthur Fellowship in 1981, he was a member of the Society of Fellows at Harvard, the American Philosophical Society , and the Institute for Advanced Study ; he was also A.D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University from 1995. Abraham Sachs Abraham (Abe) Sachs (1915 – April 22, 1983)

60-500: A substantial portion of the versification 120 years later by Sphujidhvaja under Rudrasena II has survived. However, according to the recent research by Mak based on a newly discovered manuscript and other documents, Pingree's date interpretation as well as a number of crucial readings such as zero and other bhūtasaṃkhyā were based on his own emendation, not supported by what was written on the manuscripts. Furthermore, traditionally Yavanesvara and Sphujidhvaja were understood as referring to

75-655: The Romaka Siddhanta ("Doctrine of the Romans "). However, some Indian authors claim the earliest known Sanskrit work on horoscopy is Vedanga Jyotisha It was translated by David Pingree into English, which was published as volume 48 of the Harvard Oriental Series in 1978. The last verses of the text describe the role of Yavanasvera in the creation of the text, and the role of Sphujidhvaja in its subsequent versification: The dates employed in

90-645: The History of Mathematics Department at Brown University in 1971, eventually holding the chair until his death. As successor to Otto Neugebauer in Brown's History of Mathematics Department (which Neugebauer established in 1947), Pingree numbered among his colleagues men of extraordinary learning, including Abraham Sachs and Gerald Toomer . Jon McGinnis of the University of Missouri, St. Louis, describes Pingree's life-work thus: ... Pingree devoted himself to

105-660: The Pontificio Instituto Biblico. In 1952, he received a Rockefeller Foundation travel grant to study Babylonian astronomical diaries in the British Museum , where he had access to the texts stocked by the pioneer British assyriologist Theophilus Pinches between 1895 and 1900. Sachs died due to cancer, leaving the task to Austrian assyriologist Hermann Hunger . Attention has been drawn to Sach's well-informed and humorous rebuttal of Immanuel Velikovsky 's use of ancient astronomical texts during

120-626: The Yavanajataka are based on the Saka era (see Chapter 79/14 "When 66 years of the Sakas have elapsed..."), meaning that the translation of the text into Sanskrit was made by Yavanasvera in 149 CE (year 71 of the Saka era, which starts in 78 CE). Accordingly, the versification by Sphujidhvaja was made in 269 CE. The Yavanajataka contains instructions on calculating astrological charts ( horoscopes ) from

135-580: The appearance of Indian astronomy in medieval Europe. In June 2007, the Brown University Library acquired Pingree's personal collection of scholarly materials. The collection focuses on the study of mathematics and exact sciences in the ancient world, especially India, and the relationship of Eastern mathematics to the development of mathematics and related disciplines in the West. The collection contains some 22,000 volumes, 700 fascicles, and

150-558: The same person, the former being an epithet to the latter, according to authors such as Bhaskara and Utpala . The date of the Yavanajātaka according to Mak is now revised to between 4th and 6th century CE. Yavanajataka is one of the earliest known Sanskrit works referencing Greek horoscopy. It was followed by other works of Greek origin which greatly influenced Indian astrology: the Paulisa Siddhanta ("Doctrine of Paul") and

165-642: The science of another (earlier) culture in order to make that earlier scientific knowledge more accessible to the recipient culture. On the other hand, Pingree was also interested in how scientific texts surviving from a later culture might be used to reconstruct or cast light on our fragmentary records of earlier sciences. In this quest, Pingree would, with equal facility use ancient Greek works to clarify Babylonian texts on divination, turn to Arabic treatises to illuminate early Greek astronomical and astrological texts, seek Sanskrit texts to explain Arabic astronomy, or track

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180-450: The study of the exact sciences, such as mathematics, mathematical astronomy and astral omens. He was also acutely interested in the transmission of those sciences across cultural and linguistic boundaries. His interest in the transmission of the exact sciences came from two fronts or, perhaps more correctly, his interest represents two sides of the same coin. On the one hand, he was concerned with how one culture might appropriate, and so alter,

195-659: The text, and the nomenclature is clearly taken from the Greek language: David Pingree David Edwin Pingree (January 2, 1933 – November 11, 2005) was an American historian of mathematics in the ancient world . He was a University Professor and Professor of History of Mathematics and Classics at Brown University . Pingree graduated from Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts , in 1950. He studied at Harvard University , where he earned his doctorate in 1960 with

210-549: The time and place of one's birth. Astrology flourished in the Hellenistic world (particularly Alexandria) and the Yavanajataka reflects astrological techniques developed in the Greek-speaking world. Astronomical mathematical methods, such as the calculate of the 'horoskopos' (zodiac sign on the eastern horizon) was used in the service of astrology. There are various direct references to Greek astrological knowledge in

225-715: Was an American Assyriologist. He earned his PhD in Assyriology in 1939 at Johns Hopkins University . Of note is his collaboration with Otto Neugebauer , whom he met in 1941 when the latter visited the Oriental Institute in Chicago. Neugebauer and Sachs worked jointly on the publication of Babylonian astronomical texts. In 1948, Sachs was offered (and declined) the Chair in Assyriology at Johns Hopkins University in succession to William Albright . In 1949, he worked at

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