The Jewel of Annual Astrology is an encyclopaedic treatise on Tajika or Sanskritized Perso-Arabic astrology, dealing particularly with the casting and interpretation of anniversary horoscopes. Authored in 1649 CE by Balabhadra Daivajna, court astrologer to Shah Shuja' - governor of Bengal and second son of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan - it casts light on the historical development of the Tajika school by extensive quotations from earlier works spanning five centuries. With this first-ever scholarly edition and translation of a Tajika text, Martin Gansten makes a significant contribution not only to the study of an important but little known knowledge tradition, but also to the intellectual historiography of Asia and the transmission of horoscopic astrology in the medieval and early modern periods.

Predictions for each year of life go back to the earliest times of Hellenistic astrology. Elaborated by Persian and Arabic astrologers who emphasized the revolution of the nativity, known today as the solar return chart, annual predictive techniques then spread eastward into India and westward into Latin Europe during the Middle Ages. For the first time, this book draws together material on annual predictions from ancient and medieval authors writing in Greek, Arabic and Sanskrit, demonstrating their methods with a wealth of present-day example charts. While covering historical background and principles of interpretation, Annual Predictive Techniques is above all a manual of practical astrology, a guide to concrete prediction intended for intermediate students. Separate chapters are devoted to illustrating the use of primary directions and profections together with anniversary transits. The reader is then shown how to integrate these techniques step by step with the solar return chart. The final chapter discusses ways of subdividing a year and identifying times of major importance.

The technique known today as primary directions is one of the most ancient and renowned methods of astrological forecasting, and also one of the most powerful. From classical antiquity throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and even into the twentieth century, all the great names of western astrology have worked with primary directions. It was the predictive technique of Dorotheus and Ptolemy, of Masha'allah and Abu Ma'shar, of Regiomontanus and Placidus, of Morin de Villefranche and William Lilly. To understand the Old Masters of astrology, we must understand primary directions. Students of traditional astrology have often been deterred by overly mathematical presentations from approaching the important subject of directions. This comprehensive study explains the principles of primary directions in an accessible form, illustrating them by practical examples. It also draws on many original source texts to outline the historical origins and development of the technique, and shows how it has been reinterpreted and occasionally misunderstood. A full glossary and appendices with software reviews as well as formulae for manual calculations complement the text. The craft of the Old Masters can still be learnt.