Re: Mitanni and Matsya

 For the benefit of the group members, let me share some of the classical Indian astro ideas here, not exactly off topic since  our Ryan bhai is talking his own homegrown astrology :

 1. Vedic astrology does not have much to do with "Vedic" The Vedic Jyotisham as we see it was mostly    occupied it self with astronomy and finding out the right time for rituals. (This is still prevalent in India and it is a special branch of astrology called Muhurta, fixing an auspicious time for a work) I am not sure whether the Vedic astrology as it exists was prevalent even by the time of Ramayan since I find that mostly the characters in Ramayana and the analogies were towards Omens (this is called sakuna sastra, another branch of Vedic astrology) By the time of Mahabharat, certainly some kind of Vedic astrology has picked up. The main classics of Vedic astrology are attributed to Parasara and Jaimini. Whether these classics are actually written by these two great sages, the attribution of the works to these sages is what attires importance.

2. The word Hora is found in many ancient classics. It is taken from the skt word aHORAtra. 

Take an arbitrary day and start assigning the hours starting from sun rise - 

First hour to Saturn (the farthest planet0
Second hour to Jupiter (next farthest)
Third hour to Mars
Four to sun (this place is actually occupied by earth)
Fifth to Venus (the inner planets)
Sixth to Mercury
seventh to Moon

repeat this cycle for 24 hours and you will arrive at the hour of Sun at the sunrise of next day. This is called Sun day and starts the week.

Keep repeating the cycle- the sunrise of the next day ie the second day of the week goes to Moon and hence, it is called Mon day.

Similarly, all the other days are named by the Lords of the First hours of the respective days which constitute the week.

There is nothing arbitary in forming a week.

Strangely, forming a week is attributed to anybody except Indians but you will not find this rational way of forming week anywhere else than in Indian astrology. This in itself proves the arbitrariness and prejudice of western scholars

3. The Indian astrology consists of 9 planets- the seven planets of the week and two nodes called Rahu and Ketu. These two nodes are formed by the intersection of the orbits of sun and moon and are exactly 180 degrees apart. The mean movement of these nodes is always retrograde. These two planets are recognized as chaya grahas or imaginery planets.

4. The vedic astrology depends upon the apparent aspects of the planets - retrograde, combust and so on, even while noting that these are not real aspects of a planets. A planet never moves back though it appears on earth as moving backwards. This apparent element is taken as it is even while cautioning that this is not a real motion of the planet.

The scholars could not project this obvious dissection between the frames of reference of ancient astrology and ancient astronomy.  Thus, the astronomy concerned with the physical aspects of the movement of the planets. In fact, the Mbh knew the planets like Uranus, neptune and pluto( Called sweta, shyma and teevra) wheras Vedic astrology is concerned with the apparent (average)motions of the planets and its effects on the life on the earth. it may also thought the real motion of earth around sun is known to the ancient indians but the vedic astrology would not consider that since it is not apparent.  This dichotomy as practiced  by Indians,  was not recognized by present scholars and they equate the ancient Indian astronomy with Astrology.

hope this helps,

Kishore patnaik