Jataka Parijata

Jataka Parijata is an Indian astrological text that is ranked alongside Bṛhat Parāśara Horāśāstra of Parāśara Muni, Bṛhat Jātaka of Varāhamihira and Phaladīpikāḥ of Mantreśvara. It is regularly studied as a textbook and a reliable reference-book, and is one of the few books that gives time on the nativity, the other two being Horā Ratnaṃ and Jātaka Bharaṇaṃ.

Jataka Parijata (Devanāgarī: जातक पारिजात, IAST: jātaka pārijāta) is written in Sanskrit in the usual Śloka-format. Its author, Vaidyanātha Dīkṣita, was probably born c.1425-1450. Many noted scholars and authors like - V.Subramanya Sastri, G.S.Kapoor, Gopesh Kumar Ojha, Bangalore Venkata Raman, Bepin Behari, Gayatri Vasudev, S.S.Chaterjee, Ernst Wilhelm, Hart De Fouw, Arthur Llewellyn Basham, Komilla Sutton - have translated and written commentaries on Jataka Parijata beside referring to its contents in their own works.

Jātaka Pārijāta, according to Gopesh Kumar Ojha, was completed in the year 1347 Śaka/1482 Vikram Saṃvat i.e. in the year 1426 A.D. It is based on various earlier works such as Garga Horā, Bṛhat Parāśara Horāśāstra, Śrīpati-Paddhati, Sārāvalī, Bṛhat Jātaka, Sarvārtha Cintāmaṇi etc. Its author, Vaidyantha,who was a devotee of Ranganatha (Lord Viṣṇu) and lived in South India in Karṇāṭaka or Andhra, belonged to the Bharadvāja Gotra and was the son of Veṅkaṭadri. Some scholars are of the opinion that Vaidyanātha is the same person who wrote Prataprudriya. Keśava Daivajṅa, the author of Keśava Jātaka and Muhūrta-Tattva, was his disciple.