James Braha began studying Western astrology in Boston and Cambridge in 1978, then travelled to Delhi in 1982 to study privately with R. Santhanam, the renowned scholar and translator of eight classical Jyotish texts including Horasara, Saravali, and Brihat Parasara Hora Shastra. In 1984 he continued his studies in Bombay with P.M. Padia. His 1986 book Ancient Hindu Astrology for the Modern Western Astrologer, called a masterpiece by Robert Hand, was the first easily accessible introduction to Jyotish for Western readers and has since been revised and expanded to 564 pages. He has authored six further books on astrology and one on non-duality, and is known internationally for training astrologers to combine Vedic predictive methods with Western psychological depth. He is the recipient of the Jyotish Kovida award and the B.V. Raman Jyotisha Choodamani award, two of the most prestigious honours in the international Vedic astrology community. He has appeared in over 85 YouTube teaching sessions and podcast interviews, including a widely cited 2019 interview with Chris Brennan, and delivered a 12-session Vedic Astrology Master Class video series. He is a member of the board of the Council of Vedic Astrology and has lectured at the American College of Vedic Astrology.