Length of Life, the Method and its Limits

Chapter 7 · Part of our series on the Brihat Jataka of Varahamihira

How long will a life last? Every astrological tradition has asked this question, and the old Indian astrologers built careful methods to answer it. The method is called āyurdāya, "the gift of life". This chapter sets out three versions of it, compares them, and points out where the earlier teachers went wrong. It is one of the most technical chapters in the book, and also one of the most revealing of Varahamihira's own critical mind.

The basic idea: each planet gives years

The idea behind all three methods is simple. Each planet, and the rising sign too, is thought to contribute a certain number of years to the life. Add up the contributions and you have the span of life.

How many years a planet gives depends on how strong it is. A planet at its height, in its exaltation, gives its full share. A planet at its lowest, in its debilitation, gives only half. A planet in a difficult position, in an enemy's sign or hidden in the Sun's glare, gives less. The calculation is a long series of such adjustments.

The first method: years from the planets' full strength

The first method comes from the earliest authorities. Verse 7.1 names them and gives each planet's full share:

मययवनमणित्थशक्तिपूर्वैर्दिवसकरादिषु वत्सराः प्रदिष्टाः । नवतिथिविषयाश्विभूतरुद्रदशसहिता दशभिः स्वतुङ्गभेषु ॥

mayayavanamaṇitthaśaktipūrvair divasakarādiṣu vatsarāḥ pradiṣṭāḥ | navatithiviṣayāśvibhūtarudradaśasahitā daśabhiḥ svatuṅgabheṣu ||

Maya, the Yavana, Manittha and Shaktipurva have given the years of the Sun and the other planets in their exaltation as 9, 15, 5, 2, 5, 11 and 10, each increased by ten.

The authorities named are the old masters of the science: Maya, the Greek teacher known simply as "the Yavana", Manittha, and Shaktipurva, "the son of Shakti", that is, Parashara.

The numbers are again in word-code: nava (9), tithi (15), viṣaya (the 5 objects of sense), aśvi (the 2 Ashvin twins), bhūta (the 5 elements), rudra (the 11 Rudras), and daśa (10). Each is increased by ten:

These full shares are then adjusted for each planet's actual condition at birth (7.2 to 7.4):

• Distance from exaltation. A planet in debilitation gives half its share; anywhere between, it gives a proportional amount.
• An enemy's sign. A planet in an enemy's sign loses a third, unless it is retrograde.
• Combustion. A planet that is very close to the Sun is hidden in its glare and is called combust. It loses half its share, except Venus and Saturn.
• Position in the chart. Planets in the houses above the horizon, from the seventh to the twelfth, lose a fraction of their share: a sixth in the seventh, rising to the whole share in the twelfth. Gentle planets lose only half as much.
• A harsh planet rising. A harsh planet in the rising sign takes away a further portion, halved if a gentle planet looks at it.

The rising sign also gives years of its own, according to how much of it has risen (7.2).

The limits of a human life

Before going further, the chapter states the longest possible life for each kind of being (7.5):

समाः षष्टिर्द्विघ्ना मनुजकरिणां पञ्च च निशा हयानां द्वात्रिंशत्खरकरभयोः पञ्चककृतिः । विरूपा साप्यायुर्वृषमहिषयोर्द्वादश शुनां स्मृतं छागादीनां दशकसहिताः षट् च परमम् ॥

samāḥ ṣaṣṭir dvighnā manujakariṇāṃ pañca ca niśā hayānāṃ dvātriṃśat kharakarabhayoḥ pañcakakṛtiḥ | virūpā sāpy āyur vṛṣamahiṣayor dvādaśa śunāṃ smṛtaṃ chāgādīnāṃ daśakasahitāḥ ṣaṭ ca paramam ||

For human beings and elephants, sixty years twice over, and five nights. For horses, thirty-two. For donkeys and camels, five times five. For bulls and buffaloes, that less one. For dogs, twelve. For goats and the like, six more than ten. This is the utmost.

The full human span of 120 years and 5 days is granted only under an extremely rare sky: the very last navamsha of Pisces rising, Mercury at a precise point in Taurus, and every other planet in its sign of exaltation (7.6).

Varahamihira as critic

At this point the chapter does something unusual. Instead of simply passing on what earlier teachers said, Varahamihira examines their methods and finds them wanting.

He notes that Vishnugupta, Devaswami and Siddhasena also worked out length of life in this way, and that their method has a fault: leaving aside the dangers of the first eight years, it never gives a life shorter than twenty years (7.7). Experience shows otherwise.

He then points out a contradiction in other teachers (7.8):

यस्मिन्योगे पूर्णमायुः प्रदिष्टं तस्मिन्प्रोक्तं चक्रवर्तित्वमन्यैः । प्रत्यक्षोऽयं तेषु दोषः परोऽपि जीवत्यायुः पूर्णमर्थैर्विनापि ॥

yasmin yoge pūrṇam āyuḥ pradiṣṭaṃ tasmin proktaṃ cakravartitvam anyaiḥ | pratyakṣo 'yaṃ teṣu doṣaḥ paro 'pi jīvaty āyuḥ pūrṇam arthair vināpi ||

The very combination said to give a full life, others have said gives the rule of an emperor. The fault in this is plain to see: other people, too, live a full life, even without wealth.

The combination that gives the longest life has all the planets in exaltation, and other teachers said the same combination makes a person an emperor. But a long life and great power are different things. Ordinary people live long lives without any wealth at all, so the two cannot always go together.

This is a scientist's voice, testing theories against what can actually be seen.

The second and third methods

Varahamihira then sets out two more methods (7.9 to 7.12):

• Jivasharma's method. Each planet in exaltation gives an equal share: one-seventh of the full human life of 120 years, a little over seventeen years each. Varahamihira notes that Jivasharma holds this view alone.
• Satya's method. Each planet gives as many years as the number of navamshas it has travelled through, counted around the zodiac in repeating rounds of twelve. So no planet gives more than twelve years from this count. Its share is then tripled if it is exalted or retrograde, and doubled if it is in its own sign, navamsha or drekkana, or vargottama. The same reductions as before apply, except the one for a harsh planet rising.

Satya's method is the best

Varahamihira gives his verdict plainly (7.13):

सत्योपदेशो वरमत्र किंतु कुर्वन्त्ययोग्यं बहुवर्गणाभिः । आचार्यकत्वं च बहुघ्नतायामेकं तु यद्भूरि तदेव कार्यम् ॥

satyopadeśo varam atra kintu kurvanty ayogyaṃ bahuvargaṇābhiḥ | ācāryakatvaṃ ca bahughnatāyām ekaṃ tu yad bhūri tad eva kāryam ||

Satya's teaching is the best here. But some make it unsound through many multiplications, showing their learning by multiplying again and again. Only one, the largest, should be applied.

The point is practical. A planet might qualify for several increases at once, for example being both exalted and in its own sign. Some astrologers multiplied its share again and again for each condition, and arrived at absurd results. Varahamihira's rule is simple: apply only the single largest increase.

A life beyond reckoning

The chapter ends with one exceptional combination (7.14). When Cancer is rising with Jupiter and the Moon in it, Mercury and Venus are in the angles, and the remaining planets stand in the eleventh, sixth and third houses, the life is amita, "unmeasured", beyond the reach of any calculation.

Reading this chapter today

This chapter is the record of a long scientific debate. It preserves the methods of the earliest masters, sets them side by side, tests them against experience, and chooses the soundest one. Varahamihira's own critical spirit runs through it.

It is also a reminder of the limits of any such method. Varahamihira himself shows how different teachers reached different answers from the same sky, and how easily the calculation could be distorted. In the tradition, the length of life was never read from one calculation alone, but weighed together with many other factors. A number from this method is best understood as a description of the vitality shown in a chart, not as a date to be feared.

Verses are from Varahamihira's Brihat Jataka, chapter 7. 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.