Indian astrologers on Friday said the decision to drop Pluto as a planet had endorsed the mathematical and astrological treatises written by Aryabhatta and Varahamihira centuries ago.
"Indian astrology did not include Pluto as a planet and the latest announcement by leading global astronomers after a marathon week-long meeting at Prague only endorsed the Indian mathematical astrology of Aryabhatta and Varahamihira in the sixth century," eminent mathematical astrologer Mangal Prasad said.
"Western astrology uses Pluto as a planet while it was always out of Indian astrology and we do not use it in our calculations. This is the practice from the days of Aryabhatta and Varahamihira," Prasad said.
"Indian astrology is mathematically concerned with the nine planets, two of which are Raghu and Ketu that are nothing but derivatives from the diameter of earth, which is a circle having a value Pi (22/7) imbedded in the equator of earth," he said.
"This was discovered and mathematically shown by Aryabhatta and Varahamihira in the sixth century during the golden period of the Guptas," said Prasad, the author of books based on the work of the two great sixth century scientists.
Indian astrology is concerned more with astronomy and the derivations are from the equator of the earth, diameter of the moon, the solar year and how the planets are viewed in the northern latitudinal region during January and February, soon after the sun has crossed the Tropic of Capricorn and moved towards the northern part of the hemisphere, he said.
"Indian astrologers use only seven planets plus Rahu and Ketu factors for their predictions and research," Prasad said.
"Indian astronomy takes into consideration the sun, moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn," said Prasad, who has written a book on the science of astrology using matheamtical models.
Eminent astrologer Bejan Daruwalla, who uses western and Indian astrology, however, said, "Pluto does exist and is a planet of war and terror."
"Just by demoting or dropping a planet from their list, it is not going to change its influence," Daruwalla asserted.
Astrologer Ravi K Goyal said, "Pluto is a slow moving planet and the impact of its energy is calculated in western astrology and now many Indian astrologers do a combined study."
Leading astronomers yesterday declared in Prague that Pluto is no longer a planet under historic new guidelines that downsize the solar system from nine planets to eight. After a tumultuous week of clashing over the essence of the cosmos, the International Astronomical Union stripped Pluto of the planetary status it has held since its discovery in 1930.
