In the ancient society where the ‘heaven-earth interaction theory,’ which insists that the heaven and the earth move interactively with each other, was admitted naturally as truth, changes in heavenly bodies were regarded as major incidents determining the fate of individuals or countries. Accordingly, it was a matter of course that stars in heaven became the objects of worshipping. The belief in Tejaprabha Buddha is a new astrological religion created in the mid 8th ～ late 8thcentury through the introduction of belief in fate?based astrology imported from foreign countries to the Chinese traditional belief in heavenly phenomenon?based astrology. The Tejaprabha Buddha which raised the North Star to the status of Buddha, represents Chinese belief in heavenly bodies that was formed from the combination of belief in the crown of the Buddha from esoteric Buddhism, which means the suppression of misfortunes and the promotion of fortunes, and Indian belief in heavenly bodies.
Navagraha(九曜), the followers of the Tejaprabha Buddha(金輪佛頂熾盛光如來) in Chinese Buddhism is a kind of astrolatry that flourished in the Tang(唐) dynasty when the Tantric Buddhism(密敎) and Astrology were introduced from India. This is based on a belief that movement of the nine celestial bodies-the sun(日曜), the moon(月曜), Mars(火曜), Mercury(水曜), Jupiter(木曜), Venus(金曜), Saturn(土曜), the Rahu(羅?) and the Ketu(計都)- has a tremendous impact on human lives, fortune and misfortune. It is supposed that the notion of the Navagraha thrived in 8th century, when the Sutras about it were translated.
There are two reasons why the foreign astrolatry, or the Navagraha was so prosperous. One is that astronomy introduced from India and Central Asia was nationally authorized in the dynasty, and the other is that it is more familiar than other foreign beliefs because the Seven Stars(七曜) had been already worshipped as a folk belief ‘七政‘ in Taoism.
In the early period, the icons of Tejaprabha Buddha reflected the icons of heavenly bodies in India and Central Asia, but in the late period, the influence diminished and rather they were influenced by the traditional Chinese icons. This shows the process of localization of the icons. The icons consist of Tejaprabha Buddha, nava gr?ha, signs of zodiac, and 28 mansions. That is, surrounding Tejaprabha Buddha at the center of the screen, Navagraha, signs of zodiac and 28 mansions are deployed in order of their importance.