Sahl and the Tājika Yogas: Indian transformations of Arabic astrology

This paper offers a positive identification of Sahl ibn Bishr’s Kitāb al-ʾaḥkām ʿalā ʾn-niṣba al-falakiyya as the Arabic source text for what is perhaps the most characteristic feature of the medieval Perso-Indian style of astrology known as tājika: the sixteen yogas or types of planetary configurations. The dependence of two late sixteenth-century tājika works in Sanskrit – Nīlakaṇṭha’s Tājikanīlakaṇṭhī and Gaṇeśa’s Tājikabhūṣaṇa – on Sahl, presumably through one or more intermediary texts, is demonstrated by a comparison of the terminology and examples employed; and the Indian reception of Arabic astrology is discussed, including reinterpretations of technical terms occasioned partly by corrupt transmission.