Royal Yogas

Chapter 11 · Part of our series on the Brihat Jataka of Varahamihira

Some charts show an ordinary life. Others show a life that rises to power and authority. The old astrologers called the combinations that mark such a rise rājayogas, "royal yogas". In Varahamihira's world, the highest form of power was kingship, and so this chapter speaks of the birth of kings.

What a yoga is

The word yoga means "joining" or "union". In jyotish, a yoga is a particular combination of placements in a chart, several planets, signs and houses joined together in a pattern, that produces a specific result. A single planet in a sign tells part of the story. A yoga is a pattern formed by several factors at once.

A rājayoga, then, is a combination that produces royal status. Read in today's terms, it describes a life of high position, leadership and authority.

The key ingredient: exaltation

Almost every royal yoga in this chapter is built on the same foundation: planets at their strongest. We met the idea of exaltation in the first article. Each planet has one sign where it is at its height, its exaltation, and one where it is at its lowest, its fall. A planet in its exaltation, its own sign or its mūlatrikoṇa is strong and dignified. When several planets in a chart stand in such places at once, the chart as a whole is powerful.

A debate among the masters

The chapter opens with a disagreement (11.1):

प्राहुर्यवनाः स्वतुङ्गगैः क्रूरैः क्रूरमतिर्महीपतिः । क्रूरैस्तु न जीवशर्मणः पक्षे क्षित्यधिपः प्रजायते ॥

prāhur yavanāḥ svatuṅgagaiḥ krūraiḥ krūramatir mahīpatiḥ | krūrais tu na jīvaśarmaṇaḥ pakṣe kṣityadhipaḥ prajāyate ||

The Yavanas say that when harsh planets stand in their exaltation, a ruler of harsh mind is born. But in Jivasharma's view, harsh planets in this way do not produce a ruler at all.

The Greek teachers held that the harsh planets, the Sun, Mars and Saturn, when strongly placed, give power, but power used harshly. Jivasharma disagreed: harsh planets, however strong, cannot make a ruler. Varahamihira records both views. As elsewhere in the book, he sets out the debate rather than hiding it.

Counting the royal yogas

The next verses build royal yogas systematically, by combining a few simple conditions (11.2 to 11.3).

The first group uses four planets: Mars, Saturn, the Sun and Jupiter. When three or all four of them are in exaltation and one of them is in the rising sign, a king is born. When only one or two are exalted and rising, the Moon must also be in her own sign, Cancer. Counting every possible combination gives sixteen yogas of each kind.

The second group uses the vargottama position, the sign repeated in its own navamsha. When the rising sign or the Moon is vargottama, and four or more planets look at it, a king is born. Counting the possible groups of planets gives twenty-two yogas for each.

The method is almost mathematical. Varahamihira takes a few basic conditions of strength and lists every way they can combine.

Royal charts

The chapter then describes particular royal charts, each a complete arrangement of the sky (11.4 to 11.11). Almost all of them share the same marks: several planets exalted or in their own signs, and strong placements in the angles. One example shows this clearly (11.9):

कर्किणि लग्ने तत्स्थे जीवे चन्द्रसितज्ञैरायप्राप्तैः । मेषगतेऽर्के जातं विद्याद्विक्रमयुक्तं पृथ्वीनाथम् ॥

karkiṇi lagne tatsthe jīve candrasitajñair āyaprāptaiḥ | meṣagate 'rke jātaṃ vidyād vikramayuktaṃ pṛthvīnātham ||

When Cancer is rising with Jupiter in it, the Moon, Venus and Mercury are in the eleventh, and the Sun is in Aries, know that the one born will be a powerful lord of the earth.

Look at what this arrangement contains. Jupiter in Cancer is exalted, in the rising sign. The eleventh sign from Cancer is Taurus, where the Moon is exalted. The Sun in Aries is exalted. Three planets stand at their height at once, one of them rising, and the eleventh house, the house of gains, is full.

Another chart works through planets in their own signs (11.10). Capricorn is rising with its lord Saturn in it. Mars is in Aries, the Moon in Cancer and the Sun in Leo, each in its own sign. Mercury and Venus are in Gemini and Libra, also their own signs. Every planet is at home, and the one born becomes a ruler of wide fame.

Birth and destiny

One of the most interesting verses in the chapter says what these yogas mean for people born into different families (11.12):

अपि खलकुलजाता मानवा राज्यभाजः किमुत नृपकुलोत्थाः प्रोक्तभूपालयोगैः । नृपतिकुलसमुत्थाः पार्थिवा वक्ष्यमाणैर्भवति नृपतितुल्यस्तेष्वभूपालपुत्रः ॥

api khalakulajātā mānavā rājyabhājaḥ kim uta nṛpakulotthāḥ proktabhūpālayogaiḥ | nṛpatikulasamutthāḥ pārthivā vakṣyamāṇair bhavati nṛpatitulyas teṣv abhūpālaputraḥ ||

Under the royal yogas just described, even people born in humble families come to share in rule; how much more those born in royal families. Under the yogas that follow, those born in royal families become kings, and one who is not a king's son becomes like a king.

The verse divides the royal yogas into two grades. The first, stronger grade lifts a person to power whatever family they are born into. The second grade makes a ruler only of someone born to rule, and for anyone else gives wealth and standing like a king's.

The next verse makes the same point with a simple count (11.13):

उच्चस्वत्रिकोणगैर्बलस्थैस्त्र्याद्यैर्भूपतिवंशजा नरेन्द्राः । पञ्चादिभिरन्यवंशजाता हीनैर्वित्तयुता न भूमिपालाः ॥

uccasvatrikoṇagair balasthais tryādyair bhūpativaṃśajā narendrāḥ | pañcādibhir anyavaṃśajātā hīnair vittayutā na bhūmipālāḥ ||

With three or more strong planets in their exaltation or own trikona, those born in royal lines become kings. With five or more, those born in other lines too. With fewer, they have wealth, but do not rule.

The idea is striking for its time. The chart does not simply confirm the station a person is born into. A strong enough sky can lift anyone. The text recognises both birth and the stars, and allows the stars to outweigh birth when they are strong enough.

The second grade of yogas follows (11.14 to 11.18). These are particular arrangements in which the one born becomes a ruler if born into a royal family, and otherwise wealthy.

When power comes, and when it goes

A royal yoga does not mean power at every moment of life. It arrives in a particular chapter of life, and it can be lost in another (11.19):

कर्मलग्नयुतपाकदशायां राज्यलब्धिरथ वा प्रबलस्य । शत्रुनीचगृहयातदशायां छिद्रसंश्रयदशा परिकल्प्या ॥

karmalagnayutapākadaśāyāṃ rājyalabdhir atha vā prabalasya | śatrunīcagṛhayātadaśāyāṃ chidrasaṃśrayadaśā parikalpyā ||

Power is gained in the period of a planet in the tenth house or the rising sign, or else of the strongest planet. In the period of a planet that stands in an enemy's sign or in its fall, a time of loss and of reliance on others should be expected.

This links the royal yogas to the chapters of life described in Article 8. Power comes in the period of the planet that stands in the tenth house of action or in the rising sign. A planet in a weak or hostile position brings a time of decline, when the person must lean on others.

Two final yogas

The chapter ends with two more combinations (11.20). In the first, gentle planets in the rising sign, Saturn in the seventh and the Sun in the tenth give a life of great comfort and pleasure. In the second, strong gentle signs in the angles and harsh planets in harsh signs give wealth and power of a different kind: leadership over hunters and outlaws.

This last yoga is a reminder that the chapter is about power, not virtue. A strong chart can raise a leader of any kind.

The commentators noticed a problem with the first of these two yogas. Mercury and Venus never stray far from the Sun in the sky, so they cannot both be in the rising sign while the Sun is overhead in the tenth house. The commentator Bhattotpala accepted the objection, but kept the yoga because older authorities had given it. This tension between inherited teaching and what the sky actually allows appears again in the next chapter, where Varahamihira himself raises the same objection.

Reading this chapter today

The language is the language of kings and kingdoms. Read today, the royal yogas describe a chart with unusual strength: several planets at their height, strong angles, and powerful placements of the rising sign, the Moon and the tenth house. Such a chart points to a life of high position, leadership and influence, whatever form that takes in the person's own world.

Verses are from Varahamihira's Brihat Jataka, chapter 11. 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.