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*Decans and Nakshatras (Lunar Mansions): * Following Alexander the
Great?s conquest of Babylon in 331 B.C., the way was paved for the
transmission of Babylonian science to Hellenistic Egypt.  With the
transmission to Egypt of the sidereal zodiac, originally defined by the
Babylonians as twelve 30° signs specified by the location of the star
Aldebaran (the ?Bull?s eye?) at the center (15°) of the sign of Taurus,
the /Egyptian decans/ became assimilated to the /Babylonian sidereal
zodiac/ in such a way that three decans became related to each zodiacal
sign, with each decan occupying 10° or one-third of a zodiacal sign.

/By the Hellenistic period the twelve zodiacal signs had become a
well-defined coordinate system in Babylonian mathematical astronomy, on
which the computations of Hellenistic astrology were based.  One may
conjecture that, when these doctrines reached Egypt, the native priests
claimed to have had from time immemorial the equivalent of the zodiacal
belt in the form of the belt of decans...Thus the decans, in their last,
Hellenistic phase, became simply 10° sections of the zodiacal signs./
[9] <#L9>

The assimilation of the decans to the signs of the zodiac is represented
on the circular zodiac of Dendera, from the Temple of Hathor (circa 30
B.C.), now in the Louvre Museum, which portrays the thirty-six decans in
relation to the twelve zodiacal signs, where the decans are arranged
circularly around the outside of the twelve zodiacal figures.

/Practically all fundamental concepts and methods of ancient astronomy,
for the better or the worse, can be traced back either to Babylonian or
to Greek astronomy.  In other words, none of the other civilizations of
antiquity, which have otherwise contributed so much to the material and
artistic culture of the world, have ever reached an independent level of
scientific thought.  Only into astrology were incorporated two remnants
of pre-scientific astronomical lore from other than Mesopotamian or
Greek background:  the thirty-six Egyptian ?decans? and the twenty-eight
Indian ?lunar mansions? (nakshatras)/. [11] <#L11>

The Egyptian decans are of considerable antiquity.  Similarly, the
Indian lunar mansions have a history possibly dating back to around the
beginning of the last millennium of the pre-Christian era.  The
twenty-eight lunar mansions or nakshatras are alluded to in the Vedas. 
/?Seeking favour of the twenty-eight-fold wondrous ones, shining in the
sky together, ever-moving, hasting in the creation, I worship with songs
the days, the firmament.? /[12] <#L12>

As in the Egyptian decan lists, the earliest lists of nakshatras
associate each lunar mansion with a presiding deity, e.g. the deity of
Krittika, the first nakshatra in the Vedic lists, is Agni. [13] <#L13> 
The Pleiades in the constellation of Taurus (marking the neck of the
Bull) are the stellar determinants of Krittika.[14] <#L14>  (Originally
the Egyptian decans were not rigorously defined but were only loosely
associated with certain stars or groupings of stars, and likewise the
nakshatras originally were only loosely identified with specific stars
or stellar configurations).  Just as the contribution of the Egyptian
priests to star lore was the 36 decans (?solar mansions?) following the
passage of the Sun in relation to the heliacal rising of certain stars,
beginning with Sirius, through 10-day periods during the course of the
year, so the contribution of the Vedic priests was originally a list of
twenty-eight nakshatras (?lunar mansions?) as a descriptive device for
following the passage of the Moon through the stars during the course of
a sidereal month which lasts 27? days, signifying that the Moon spends
approximately one day in each nakshatra.