Other Births, and Conception

Chapters 3 and 4 · Part of our series on the Brihat Jataka of Varahamihira

A chart is a picture of the sky at a moment of beginning. For a human being, the obvious moment is birth. But jyotish looks further in two directions. It asks what kind of being a moment describes, human or otherwise. And it looks back before birth, to the moment when a life first takes root in the womb.

Births beyond the human

Not every birth is a human birth. Animals, birds and trees are born too, and a moment in time may describe any of them. This chapter, called viyoni ("other births"), describes how the chart shows such births. The commentators add that the same rules are used in horary astrology, when someone asks about an animal or a plant.

When a chart describes another kind of birth

The first two verses give the signs. The harsh planets are strong and the gentle ones weak. One of the neuter planets, Mercury or Saturn, stands in an angle or looks at the rising sign. The rising sign is not a human sign. When the sky looks like this, the birth is not human (3.1 to 3.2).

What kind of creature is it? The answer comes from the Moon. Each sign is divided into twelve small parts, the dvadashamshas, and each carries the name of a sign. The creature born is the one named by the dvadashamsha in which the Moon stands. If the Moon stands in a dvadashamsha named Pisces, for example, the creature is a fish.

The body of an animal

For human beings, the twelve signs are mapped onto the body from head to foot. For four-footed animals the map is different, because their body is shaped differently (3.3):

क्रियः शिरो वक्त्रगले वृषोऽन्ये पादांसकं पृष्ठमुरोऽथ पार्श्वे । कुक्षिस्त्वपानाङ्घ्र्यथ मेढ्रमुष्कौ स्फिक्पुच्छमित्याह चतुष्पदाङ्गे ॥

kriyaḥ śiro vaktragale vṛṣo 'nye pādāṃsakaṃ pṛṣṭham uro 'tha pārśve | kukṣis tv apānāṅghry atha meḍhramuṣkau sphik puccham ity āha catuṣpadāṅge ||

For the body of a four-footed animal: Aries is the head; Taurus the face and neck; the next signs are the forelegs and shoulders, the back, the chest, the flanks, the belly, the anus, the hind legs, the genitals, the buttocks, and the tail.

The colour of the creature comes from the planet standing in the rising sign, or, if there is none, from a planet looking at it. The number of stripes on its back comes from the planets in the seventh house (3.4). Certain divisions of the rising sign show the birth of a bird: Saturn's influence points to a land bird, and the Moon's to a water bird (3.5).

The birth of trees

When the rising sign, the Moon, Jupiter and the Sun are all weak, the birth is that of a tree. The rising navamsha shows whether it grows on land or in water (3.6). The kind of tree depends on the planet that rules the rising navamsha (3.7):

अन्तःसाराञ्जनयति रविर्दुर्भगान्सूर्यसूनुः क्षीरोपेतांस्तुहिनकिरणः कण्टकाढ्यांश्च भौमः । वागीशज्ञौ सफलविफलान्पुष्पवृक्षांश्च शुक्रः स्निग्धानिन्दुः कटुकविटपान्भूमिपुत्रश्च भूयः ॥

antaḥsārāñ janayati ravir durbhagān sūryasūnuḥ kṣīropetāṃs tuhinakiraṇaḥ kaṇṭakāḍhyāṃś ca bhaumaḥ | vāgīśajñau saphalaviphalān puṣpavṛkṣāṃś ca śukraḥ snigdhān induḥ kaṭukaviṭapān bhūmiputraś ca bhūyaḥ ||

The Sun produces trees strong at the core; Saturn, ill-favoured trees; the Moon, trees with milky sap; Mars, thorny trees. Jupiter and Mercury produce trees with fruit and without fruit; Venus, flowering trees. The Moon also produces trees with smooth, oily wood, and Mars trees with pungent branches.

A gentle planet in an unfavourable sign gives a fine tree growing in poor ground. A harsh planet in a favourable sign gives the reverse (3.8).

Conception

The chart cast for the moment of birth is the one most people know. But the tradition also speaks of an earlier beginning: the moment of conception, niṣeka, when a life first takes root in the womb. This chapter reads the sky at that moment. It covers the pregnancy that follows, the health of the mother, the nature of the child, and when the child will be born.

Much of this chapter reflects the medicine and society of the sixth century. In that world, childbirth was one of the greatest dangers in a woman's life, and many of these verses speak to that fear. They are presented here faithfully, as part of the text.

The monthly cycle and union

The chapter begins with the monthly cycle, which it links to the Moon and Mars: the Moon to the body's waters and Mars to blood. The Moon's position in relation to a woman's own birth chart shows whether her cycle is fertile. Union between husband and wife is favoured when the Moon is well placed and a gentle male planet looks at her (4.1). The setting sign at that moment describes the nature of the union. If harsh planets touch it, there is anger; if gentle planets touch it, there is play and laughter (4.2).

When conception bears fruit

The third verse names the combinations under which a union leads to a child, and adds one of the most honest lines in the book (4.3):

रवीन्दुशुक्रावनिजैः स्वभागगैर्गुरौ त्रिकोणोदयसंस्थितेऽपि वा । भवत्यपत्यं हि विबीजिनामिमे करा हिमांशोर्विदृशामिवाफलाः ॥

ravīnduśukrāvanijaiḥ svabhāgagair gurau trikoṇodayasaṃsthite 'pi vā | bhavaty apatyaṃ hi vibījinām ime karā himāṃśor vidṛśām ivāphalāḥ ||

When the Sun, the Moon, Venus and Mars stand in their own navamshas, or when Jupiter stands in the rising sign or in a trine from it, a child is born. But for those without seed, these combinations bear no fruit, like the rays of the Moon to those without sight.

The image is beautiful and exact. Moonlight is real, but it cannot help someone who cannot see. In the same way, the most favourable sky cannot create a child where the body itself cannot. Varahamihira is clear that the stars work through nature, not against it.

The parents and the family

The sky at conception also speaks of the parents. In a conception by day, the Sun stands for the father and Venus for the mother. By night, Saturn stands for the father and the Moon for the mother. The other two planets of each pair stand for the father's brother and the mother's sister. A planet for the father placed in an odd sign, or one for the mother in an even sign, shows that person will be well (4.5). Harsh planets placed against the Sun and Moon warn of illness for the parents (4.4).

Dangers during pregnancy, and a safe birth

Several verses describe combinations that warn of danger to the mother during pregnancy, especially when the rising sign or the Moon is hemmed in between harsh planets with no gentle planet looking on (4.6 to 4.9). Each month of pregnancy has a ruling planet, and if that planet is afflicted, the pregnancy may be lost in that month (4.9).

The chapter then gives the happier picture: gentle planets with the Moon or in the rising sign, or in the good houses from them, and harsh planets in the third and eleventh houses, where they do well. Under such a sky, the pregnancy is happy and the birth safe (4.10).

The sex of the child

Verses 11 to 15 discuss whether the child will be a boy or a girl, and when twins or more will be born. The principle is simple. Strong planets in odd signs and odd navamshas point to a boy. Strong planets in even signs and even navamshas point to a girl. Planets in the dual signs, under Mercury's influence, point to twins. The verses also describe combinations for a child who is neither clearly male nor female, and for the birth of three or more children.

These verses belong to the history of the text and are summarised here only for completeness. In India today, any attempt to determine the sex of a child before birth is prohibited by law. Nothing in this article should be read as a means of doing so.

The months of pregnancy

The sixteenth verse is one of the most remarkable in the chapter. It describes how the child grows, month by month, and names the planet that rules each month:

कललघनाङ्कुरास्थिचर्माङ्गजचेतनताः सितकुजजीवसूर्यचन्द्रार्किबुधाः परतः । उदयपचन्द्रसूर्यनाथाः क्रमशो गदिता भवन्ति शुभाशुभं च मासाधिपतेः सदृशम् ॥

kalalaghanāṅkurāsthicarmāṅgajacetanatāḥ sitakujajīvasūryacandrārkibudhāḥ parataḥ | udayapacandrasūryanāthāḥ kramaśo gaditā bhavanti śubhāśubhaṃ ca māsādhipateḥ sadṛśam ||

The embryo, its firming, the sprouting of limbs, the bones, the skin, the hair and consciousness: these are ruled by Venus, Mars, Jupiter, the Sun, the Moon, Saturn and Mercury. After that, the lord of the rising sign, the Moon and the Sun are the lords, in order. The good and ill of each month follow the condition of its lord.

The seventh month, ruled by Mercury, is the month in which the child becomes aware. The ten months are counted in lunar months, so the tenth falls at the end of a full-term pregnancy.

Unusual births

The next verses describe combinations for children born with differences of body or senses: a child born with teeth, a child slow to speak, a child born with a curved back, a child who cannot hear, a child of short stature, and a child with difficulties of sight (4.17 to 4.20).

The chapter closes this list with an important qualification. These difficult combinations do not come to pass fully when gentle planets look upon them. As the twentieth verse puts it, they become yāpya, mild and bearable, when aspected by benefics. Even in a harsh sky, the influence of a gentle planet softens the result.

When the child will be born

The last verses show how the sky at conception points to the time of birth. The Moon's position at conception, measured by the dvadashamsha she occupies, shows the sign the Moon will be passing through when the child is born. The rising navamsha at conception shows whether the birth will come by day or by night, and roughly at what hour (4.21).

The final verse speaks of rare, very long pregnancies under certain configurations of Saturn and the Moon, reflecting the beliefs of its time. It ends with a practical instruction: much of what has been said about conception should also be applied, with good judgement, to the moment of birth (4.22).

Verses are from Varahamihira's Brihat Jataka, chapters 3 and 4. English renderings are our own, made from the Sanskrit and checked against the public-domain translation by N. Chidambaram Aiyar (1885; second edition 1905) and against the word-by-word analysis in Michael D. Neely's edition.