Yavanajataka

The present  Yavanajataka of Sphujidhvaja was written in 269 CE based on the  Yavanajataka of Yavanasvera written in 149 CE. There was a Eurocentric professor named David Pingree who has translated and written a vast commentary on the text. [1] Pingree believed astrology came from Greece to India and worked very hard to promote his view, which led to many misattributions. [2] We have come a long way since his 1964 dissertation. [3]

The biggest proof he utilized to prove that astrology was a transmission from the Greeks to the Indians is that a few technical astrological terms in the Indian texts are Greek loan words. I find weakness in this point of view since Greek was the international language between Europe, Greece, Egypt, the Middle East, and Hellenist controlled parts of what are now Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. At the time of this text, Greek was similar to how English is the main international language at present and many technical English words have entered other languages.

The Greeks didn't have astrology before Alexander the Great conquered the Persians and set up the library of Alexandria. Most Greeks quote Egypt as the place they learned astrology (called the Chaldean science- their word for Babylonians). In this way, it is more likely that the present astrological systems we use was a mix of all the Hellenic controlled cultures at the time period between Alexandra the Great's conquest (300 BCE) and 100 CE. During this 400 year period, Greek was the technical language used by many nations. Babylonian/Persian, Egyptian, and Indian terms were put into Greek and made common.

Bactrian disk wrought from silver and gold (ca. 328-135 BCE);
excavated at Ai Khanum (Amu Darya),
Takhar Province, Afghanistan.

Pingree believes that Astrology came into India with the Greeks around 200 CE through the translated Yavanajataka. Freedom Cole thinks this is illogical; being the Greeks got astrology from the Persians who were a few days journey on horse from Indian territories. Freedom believes various systems of astrology were practiced in India prior to this text and indicates that the proof is in Pingree's own notes and commentary (if we remove Pingree's bias to prove his view).  Pingree notes where the verses of Yavanajataka are similar to other Greek and Latin texts and where they are different: 

• "The Saptāṁśas cannot be traced in the surviving remnants of Hellenistic astrology." Vol 2, p.210

• "Navāṁśas, which are equal to fourths of nakṣatras (caraṇas), were not known in the West in antiquity" p.211

• "Therefore, despite the fact that an exact parallel is lacking in the surviving Western sources, it must be concluded that the terms of the Yavanajataka are derived from an Egypto-Greek source. All Indian Astrologers follow Sphujidhvaja…" p.216

• "The vargottāṁśas, being navāṁśas, are not mentioned by Greek astrologers;…" P.221

• "Greek astrology also recognizes these four varieties of aspect, but defines them differently…" p.223

• "So far there has turned up nothing corresponding exactly to Spujidhvaja's planetary lords of the directions, though…" p.226

• Refering to kālabala: "This system is not referred to in any Greek or Latin works; nor …" P.231

• "This ceṣṭābala is not found in Western astrologers, …." p.233

• "However, none of these Greek μελοθεσίαι corresponds to Spujidhvaja's." p.252

• "It is indeed difficult to discover parallels to these lists of dravyāṇi associated with the zodiacal signs in Western literature;…."p.253

Pingree makes many references such as these and there are many differences seen in-between these remarks that someone educated in these techniques will notice. Why if the Greek system was directly translated into Sanskrit through this text would there be such variations? Why would there be such different techniques, mathematical variations and fundamental correlations? Why would the Indian ephemerides be based on an older Babylonian arithmetical system and not the Greek geometric system? 

Instead of reading Pingree's commentary and notes on the Yavanajataka from the perspective of "Proving Indian astrology came from Greece", we can read his commentary as "What was the difference between Greek astrology and Indian astrology in the period of 200 CE". The answer to that would then be clear and very well referenced with lots of resources by Professor Pingree.

Modern Scholarly Research that discredits Pingree's assumptions and oversimplifications (occasionally updated):

Measuring time in Mesopotamia and Ancient India by Harry Falk

Cultural Connections India-Mesopotamia, the evidence of the astral sciences by David Brown

The Interactions of Ancient Astral Science by David Brown

Chasing Shadows: Mathematics, Astronomy, and the Early History of Eclispe Reckoning (Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Mathematics) by Clemency Montelle

Vedic - Ancient Mesopotamian Interconnections and the Dating of Indian Tradition by Stephen Hillyer Levitt

Bill M. Mak: The ‘oldest Indo-Greek text in Sanskrit’ revisited – Additional Readings from the Newly Discovered Manuscript of the Yavanajātaka, Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies, LXII No.3, 2014

Bill Mak: The Last Chapter of Sphujidhvaja’s Yavanajātaka critically edited with notes, SCIAMVS 14, 2013 (excerpt only) 

Bill Mak: The Date and Nature of Sphujidhvaja’s Yavanajātaka reconsidered in the light of some newly discovered materials. History of Science in South Asia, 2013

Further scholarly research into the modern understanding of the Ancient world:

When the Greeks Converted the Buddha: Asymmetrical Transfers of Knowledge in Indo-Greek Cultures by Peter Wick and Volker Rabens

The Shape of Ancient Thought: Comparative Studies in Greek and Indian Philosophies by Thomas C. Mcevilley

Pyrrhonism: How the Ancient Greeks Reinvented Buddhism (Studies in Comparative Philosophy and Religion) by Adrian Kuzminski

Greek Buddha: Pyrrho's Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia By Christopher I. Beckwith

Notes:

[1] Compare the opinion of Pingree in this excerpt from "Measuring Time in Mesopotamia and Ancient India."

[2] For example, the Sumerian text MUL.APIN has an incorrect calculation for the winter solstice that shows it was imported from a more southern location than Mesopotamian, either Egypt or India. This element was not noticed by Pingree and associates of his time period because they believed all astronomical science originated in Mesopotamia, and di not evaluate anything deeper. Harry Faulk states that "an identical formula served MUL.APIN and KA to describe the divisions of the day with the help of a gnomon. On the other hand, the many differences in practice, listing and terminology showed that there is no direct line between both texts. The completely wrong data for the winter solstice in MUL.APIN would rather point to a foreign origin of the formula in MUL.APIN, maybe in India, maybe in Egypt, in any case more southern than Mesopotamia's southernmost point." 

[3] See "Pingree's narrative" in The Interactions of Ancient Astral Science, p. 750. The conclusion of his astronomical work is given here: