time, person, and gender in Sinhalese astrology

Abstract

One of the defining characteristics of Ayurvedic healing in South Asia is its search for what is appropriate both to the time (Skt. kala satmya) and t o the place (deSa satmya) (Zimmerman 1975:90). The same can be said of South Asian astrology It too treats the person not as standing apart from time and place, but in relation to both. At birth, place is just as determinative of one's nature and destiny as the time of birth. After birth, place becomes less important; but as time proceeds, one's nature continues to change with it. Embedded in these conditions, the individual changes as much as does the world that he inhabits. The corollary to this proposition is a surprising one in the context of South Asian societies or, at least, in the context of the Western study of such societies. Because all persons are constituted by time and place, in this one way all persons are the same Male and female, young and old, high caste and low caste-all are equally bound by these conditions. For the astrologer, this fact has important consequences: all persons can be scrutinized simply as persons. There is no gender-specific astrological knowledge or technique; there is just astrological knowledge Here, astrological thinking seems to part ways with the generally Inferior, and certainly separate, position of women in South Asian social thought. This

Narratives of Choice: Marriage, Choosing Right and the Responsibility of Agency in Urban Middle-Class Sri Lanka

“…The practice of 'matching horoscopes' of a man and woman before marriage is considered to be part of the repertoire of 'traditional' practices associated with Sinhala-Buddhist marriage in Sri Lanka that has endured to this day (Kemper, 1979(Kemper, , 1980. Comparing horoscopes to ascertain whether the two people are compatible is a popular practice, especially among the middle-class Sinhala-Buddhist community.…”

A question of medicine answering

“…One's constitutional endowments are affected by the processes and humoral predominances of developmental stages, the characteristics of their immediate physical and social environment, and changes in the movement of stars and planets which influence one's overall state of well-being (Kemper 1980). One's constitutional endowments are affected by the processes and humoral predominances of developmental stages, the characteristics of their immediate physical and social environment, and changes in the movement of stars and planets which influence one's overall state of well-being (Kemper 1980).…”