Work and Vocation

Chapter 10 · Part of our series on the Brihat Jataka of Varahamihira

How will a person earn their living? This short chapter of four verses answers in two parts. It shows from whom wealth comes, and through what kind of work. Both answers centre on the tenth house, the house of action.

The tenth house: the house of action

In the first chapter we met the names of the houses. The tenth is karma, "action", and āspada, "position" or "standing". It is the highest point of the sky at birth, and it describes a person's work in the world and the standing that work brings.

Varahamihira reads the tenth house from three starting points, not one: from the rising sign, from the Moon, and from the Sun. Each of the three shows a side of a person's working life, and together they give the full picture.

From whom wealth comes

The first verse looks at any planet standing in the tenth house, counted from the rising sign or from the Moon. The planet there shows the person through whom wealth comes (10.1):

So Mars in the tenth, the planet of conflict, brings gain through competition or through those who oppose one. Saturn, the servant, brings gain through the labour of others. If there are several planets in the tenth, wealth comes from several sources.

What kind of work

The second part of the first verse gives the rule for the work itself. It takes a few steps, so it is worth following slowly.

1. Find the tenth house, counted from the rising sign.
2. Find the planet that rules that sign: the lord of the tenth.
3. See which navamsha that lord stands in.
4. Find the planet that rules that navamsha.

That last planet describes the person's kind of work. The same is then done from the Moon and from the Sun.

An example makes it concrete. Suppose Leo is rising. The tenth sign from Leo is Taurus, ruled by Venus. Suppose Venus stands in a navamsha named Sagittarius. Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter. So Jupiter describes this person's work.

Why look at the navamsha of the tenth lord, and not simply at the tenth lord itself? Because the navamsha, as we saw, shows the deeper quality of a placement. The tenth house shows that there is work to do. The navamsha of its lord shows what that work is made of.

The work of each planet

The next two verses describe the work that each planet gives (10.2 to 10.3):

अर्कांशे तृणकनकोर्णभेषजाद्यैश्चन्द्रांशे कृषिजलजाङ्गनाश्रयाच्च । धात्वग्निप्रहरणसाहसैः कुजांशे सौम्यांशे लिपिगणितादिकाव्यशिल्पैः ॥ जीवांशे द्विजविबुधाकरादिधर्मैः काव्यांशे मणिरजतादिगोमहिष्यैः । सौरांशे श्रमवधभारनीचशिल्पैः कर्मेशाध्युषितनवांशकर्मसिद्धिः ॥

arkāṃśe tṛṇakanakorṇabheṣajādyaiś candrāṃśe kṛṣijalajāṅganāśrayāc ca | dhātvagnipraharaṇasāhasaiḥ kujāṃśe saumyāṃśe lipigaṇitādikāvyaśilpaiḥ || jīvāṃśe dvijavibudhākarādidharmaiḥ kāvyāṃśe maṇirajatādigomahiṣyaiḥ | saurāṃśe śramavadhabhāranīcaśilpaiḥ karmeśādhyuṣitanavāṃśakarmasiddhiḥ ||

In the Sun's navamsha: through grasses, gold, wool, medicines and the like. In the Moon's navamsha: through farming, the produce of water, and the support of women. In Mars's navamsha: through metals, fire, weapons and bold deeds. In Mercury's navamsha: through writing, calculation, poetry and the crafts. In Jupiter's navamsha: through the learned, the gods, mines, and works of dharma. In Venus's navamsha: through gems, silver, cattle and buffaloes. In Saturn's navamsha: through toil, harsh work, carrying loads, and humble crafts. Success in work comes through the navamsha in which the lord of the tenth stands.

Each list follows the planet's nature, as described in the second chapter. The Sun, the king and healer, deals in gold and medicine. The Moon, linked to water and nourishment, deals in farming and the produce of rivers and seas. Mars, the commander, works with fire, metal and weapons. Mercury, the prince who speaks and calculates, is the writer, the accountant and the craftsman. Jupiter, the teacher of the gods, works with learning and the sacred. Venus, the planet of beauty and pleasure, deals in gems, silver and fine things. Saturn, the servant, brings work that is long, heavy and hard.

The occupations are those of the sixth century. But the principle carries easily into our own time. The planet describes the nature of the work, and the forms of work change with the age. Mercury's writing and calculating, for example, today reaches far beyond the scribe and the accountant.

How the wealth comes

The last verse adds a few refinements (10.4). If the planet that describes the work stands in a friend's sign, wealth comes through friends. In an enemy's sign, it comes through rivals. In its own sign, it comes from one's own home and resources. When the Sun is strong and in its sign of exaltation, a person earns by their own strength and effort.

The verse ends with an encouraging picture. When strong, gentle planets stand in the eleventh house of gains, in the rising sign, or in the second house of wealth, the person earns in many ways, whatever work they choose.

Reading this chapter

The method of this chapter is a fine example of how jyotish thinks. It does not look at one factor alone. It reads the tenth house from three points: the rising sign, the Moon and the Sun. It goes from the house to its lord, and from the lord to the navamsha, layer by layer, to reach the nature of a person's work. And it reads the result in terms of a planet's essential nature, not a fixed job title, so that the same principle can describe the work of any age.

Verses are from Varahamihira's Brihat Jataka, chapter 10. 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.