The Jewel of Annual Astrology is an encyclopaedic treatise on Tājika or Sanskritized Perso-Arabic astrology, dealing particularly with the casting and interpretation of anniversary horoscopes. Authored in 1649 CE by Balabhadra Daivajña, court astrologer to Shāh Shujāʿ – governor of Bengal and second son of the Mughal emperor Shāh Jahān – it casts light on the historical development of the Tājika school by extensive quotations from earlier works spanning five centuries. With this first-ever scholarly edition and translation of a Tājika text, Martin Gansten makes a significant...

Predictions for each year of life go back to the earliest times of Hellenistic astrology. Elaborated by Persian and Arabic astrologers who emphasized the revolution of the nativity, known today as the solar return chart, annual predictive techniques then spread eastward into India and westward into Latin Europe during the Middle Ages. For the first time, this book draws together material on annual predictions from ancient and medieval authors writing in Greek, Arabic and Sanskrit, demonstrating their methods with a wealth of present-day example charts. While covering historical background...