What if, say, a planet by Indian astrology is defined as a heavenly
body exerting gravitational influence and/or capable of causing
another heavenly body to mysteriously disappear?
Or, more likely, a planet by Indian astrology is one of those lights in
the night sky* that don't turn on the same wheel as the vast majority.
Ignoring epicycles, they can be ordered by period, and traces of this
early astronomy (as swiped from babylon?) are also left in the
english/romance weekday names:
surya - sunday - sun
chandra - monday - moon
mangal - mardi/martedi - mars
budha - mercredi/mercoledi - mercury
brihaspati - jeudi/giovedi - jupiter
sukra - vendredi/venerdi - venus
shani - saturday - saturn
The other english names correspond to germanic deities (still, I
believe, with the appropriate planets); the other romance names are
either lunar (lundi/lunedi) or correspond to judeo-christian terms:
samedi/sabato, dimanche/domenica.
-Dave
(I don't know if Indian astrologers keep up-to-date. Astrology in the
west is so hide-bound that the calendar dates for zodiac signs are
shifted relative to events in the sky, but fortunately the error does
not affect the accuracy of their results)
:: :: ::
* for those of you who have been chained to a TTY, imagine a giant
spherical server farm with the lights off: it's too dark to see the
racks, but all the far-off blinky-lights are clearly visible.
Hail to the sun god
He sure is a fun god
Ra! Ra! Ra!
