4 June,Dr. Avnish Jolly :Lal kitab was written by Pt. Rup Chand Joshi, born on 18th January, 1888, in the home of Shri Jyoti Ram Joshi, resident of village Pharwala, Tehsil Noormahal, District Julundhar, Punjab. Pt. ji was exceptionally good in studies and was rewarded with scholarships during his student life. He had a particular interest in linguistics and studied Urdu, English and Persian with great enthusiasm, he also excelled in mathematics. He was blessed with an exceptionally good handwriting and it continued to excel in it till his very end, was very fond of good quality pens and had a remarkable collection of expensive pens of all brands.
He got employed in the Defense Accounts and retired as Assistant Accounts Officer.Pt. ji started his astrological journey with the study of palmistry. Thereafter he delved in astronomy and astrology and studied all the astrological works in detail.
He reached the conclusion that the planetary effect of planets on human destiny can be judged by both palmistry and astrology. He also had god gifted knowledge of reading signs, such as facial features, built etc. also he possessed the knowledge of vastu.
He attempted to combine all these by inter-linking them and termed this combined knowledge as Samudrik knowledge i.e. the ocean where all these predictive and remedial science or arts mingled.
In his maiden attempt he authored the book titled Samudrik Ki Lalkitab Ke Farmaan in 1939 AD.
This book was a little difficult to understand as it relied heavily on palmistry and had many mistakes maybe due to some printing error or negligence.
This book was followed by another book in 1940 titled Samudrik Ki Lalkitab Ke Armaan.
This book in it’s introductory noted advised the reader to read this book alongwith the previous one and had a detailed line and page wise correction list for 1939 edition at its end.
It was followed by Lalkitab Teesra Hissa in 1941, it was a book for ready reference, poetry was used in lalkitab for the first time to help the readers help in memorizing the concepts.
The next edition was titled Lalkitab Tarmeemshuda published in 1942 , it is the most elaborate and detailed book on lalkitab ideology. It was followed by next edition after a span of 10 years in 1952 as Ilm-e Samudrik ki buniyad par jyotish ki lalkitab.
The books featured the name of Pt Rup Chand Joshi’s cousin (son of his parental uncle) Pt. Girdahari Lal as he publisher and Pt Atma Ram Sharma, resident of village Rahan, Tehsil Noorpur, District Kangra as the calligrapher.
After his retirement pt. ji continued the practice of astrological consultancy full fledged at his native village. Pt ji’s family had a good land holding and his son joined government service as a n officer in revenue department. He took up this practice purely out of his interest in the subject.
Pt ji was a whimsical person.
At times he looked out to be a simple villager but he was also found of latest suits and conversed fluently in flawless English. Since he was in constant touch with britishers during most o his service, these mannerism grooped in him.
Although he had himself authored the books but he never gave his opinion on the kundali without reading from the book. He expired on 24th December 1982.