Gargācārya
Gargācārya · garga-ācārya, “the teacher Garga”
Garga has other meanings too: see all meanings of Garga.
Gargācārya was a Vedic astronomer-ṛshi and the founder of the Gārgya jyotisha tradition. The Vishṇu Purāṇa says that he went down into the pātāla-lokas and received jyotisha-vidyā (the science of astronomy and astrology) straight from Śesha-nāga, also called Ananta. Śesha is the thousand-hooded cosmic serpent who rests at the base of creation. Gargācārya is also known in other Purāṇas as the family priest of the Yādava clan, who named Kṛshṇa and Balarāma when they were infants.
The Agni Purāṇa names the jyotiśśāstra of Gargācārya as the science by which an ācārya reckons the āya (income) and vyaya (expenditure) of a house from its measures.
Descent into Pātāla
The Pātāla Varṇana of the Vishṇu Purāṇa (Chapter 5) first describes Śesha-nāga at the base of the seven pātāla-lokas. Then Parāśara says that the great ṛshi Gargācārya went to the pātāla worlds and received jyotisha-vidyā from Śesha himself.
Śesha carries the earth on his thousand hoods. The jyotisha he gave covers the full range of astronomical and astrological knowledge: the motions of the planets, the positions of the nakshatras (lunar stars), kāla-māna (the reckoning of time) and the rules of predictive astrology.
Gargācārya went down and took this knowledge at its source. He did not receive it second-hand. The Purāṇa presents this as what makes his system authoritative.
Śesha
Śesha, also called Ananta, bears the earth on his hood. He lives at the deepest point of the brahmāṇḍa (the cosmic egg), below all the pātālas.
Garga’s jyotisha in the building of a house
The Agni Purāṇa shows Gargācārya’s jyotiśśāstra in use. Bhagavān Hayagrīva, teaching how sabhās and houses are set up, says that a house must not be built on a plot where vyaya (expenditure) is greater than āya (income), for in such a house expenditure will be greater; where āya is greater, no affliction comes, so āya and vyaya must be kept in balance. The length of the house in hastas multiplied by its width in hastas is called the kararāśi. An ācārya skilled in the jyotiśśāstra of Gargācārya multiplies the kararāśi by eight and divides it by seven, and the remainder is the vyaya. Or the kararāśi is multiplied by seven and divided by eight, and from the remainder the eight āyas, dhvaja and the rest, are fixed.
Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 65
Sources
- Vishṇu Purāṇa, Dvitīyāṃśa, Chapter 5
- Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 65