Strength in the Divisions, and Helping Planets

Chapters 21 and 22 · Part of our series on the Brihat Jataka of Varahamihira

In the second article we met the divisions of a sign, the hora, drekkana, navamsha, dvadashamsha and trimshamsha, and saw that a planet in a division it rules itself gains strength. These two short chapters put that idea to work. The first shows what happens when several planets are at home, or far from home, at once. The second describes planets that support one another, and when in their periods and transits results arrive.

Part one: counting the planets at home

The first verse simply counts how many planets stand in their own signs, or in the signs of friends (21.1). The more of them, the higher the person rises:

The next verse adds the opposite scale (21.2). One exalted planet looked at by a friend makes a ruler; joined by a friend, it makes a person wealthy and successful. But as more planets stand in enemies' signs or in their fall, life grows harder step by step: poverty, then unhappiness, confusion, illness, confinement, and at the end great suffering.

The commentators point out that seven planets can never all be in their fall at once, since the Sun and Mercury cannot be in Libra and Pisces at the same time. Varahamihira, here as elsewhere, sets out the full scheme he received.

A debate about Aquarius

The third verse records a short and lively argument (21.3):

न कुम्भलग्नं शुभमाह सत्यो न भागभेदाद्यवना वदन्ति । कस्यांशभेदो न तथास्ति राशेरतिप्रसङ्गस्त्विति विष्णुगुप्तः ॥

na kumbhalagnaṃ śubham āha satyo na bhāgabhedād yavanā vadanti | kasyāṃśabhedo na tathāsti rāśer atiprasaṅgas tv iti viṣṇuguptaḥ ||

Satya says that Aquarius rising is not auspicious. The Yavanas say it is the Aquarius division that is not auspicious. But which sign does not contain such a division? That stretches the rule too far, says Vishnugupta.

Satya held that a birth with Aquarius rising is unfortunate. The Greek teachers refined this: it is not the whole sign but the twelfth-part named Aquarius that is unfortunate when rising. Vishnugupta objects that every sign contains a twelfth-part named Aquarius, so the rule would apply to every sign and prove too much. Varahamihira lets the three voices speak, and the reader can see the reasoning for themselves.

The divisions at work

The chapter then goes through the divisions one by one.

The horas

We saw in Article 2 that each sign has two halves, one ruled by the Sun and one by the Moon. Harsh planets in the Sun's half of an odd sign make a person famous, energetic, strong, wealthy and radiant. Gentle planets in the Moon's half of an even sign make a person gentle, beautiful, happy, fortunate, wise and sweet-spoken. When only one of the two conditions is met, the results are middling; when neither is, they fail (21.4 to 21.5).

The drekkanas

The Moon in a drekkana of her own, or of a friend, gives beauty and fine qualities. In other drekkanas, the result follows the nature of the drekkana's lord. Some drekkanas carry special images, which Article 25 describes: serpents, weapons, four-footed animals and birds. The Moon in these gives a harsh, a violent, an unruly or a wandering nature (21.6).

The rising navamsha

The navamsha that is rising at birth gives its own colour to the person (21.7):

If the rising navamsha is vargottama, repeating the rising sign, the person becomes the chief of that kind: a leader of the learned, the wealthiest of the wealthy, a king among kings.

The trimshamshas

The last division, the five unequal parts ruled by the star planets, also colours the person (21.8 to 21.10). A planet in its own trimshamsha gives its best nature: Mars gives strength, generosity and fine adornment; Jupiter wealth, fame, wisdom and health; Mercury intelligence, skill in the arts and literature; Venus children, comfort, health and beauty. Saturn in its own trimshamsha is the exception, bringing illness, sorrow and an untidy life, though with a home and possessions. The Sun and Moon in the trimshamshas of the others take on something of each one's nature.

Part two: helping planets

The next chapter introduces a new idea: planets that support one another. Such a planet is called a kāraka, "one who makes things happen" (22.1):

स्वर्क्षतुङ्गमूलत्रिकोणगाः कण्टकेषु यावन्त आश्रिताः । सर्व एव तेऽन्योन्यकारकाः कर्मगस्तु तेषां विशेषतः ॥

svarkṣatuṅgamūlatrikoṇagāḥ kaṇṭakeṣu yāvanta āśritāḥ | sarva eva te 'nyonyakārakāḥ karmagas tu teṣāṃ viśeṣataḥ ||

However many planets stand in the angles while in their own sign, exaltation or mulatrikona, all of them are helpers to one another. Among them, the one in the tenth is especially so.

When strong, dignified planets occupy the angles together, they reinforce each other. The text gives an example (22.2). With Cancer rising, Jupiter exalted in it, Saturn exalted in the fourth (Libra), Mars exalted in the seventh (Capricorn) and the Sun exalted in the tenth (Aries), these four planets are all helpers to one another. A planet in the rising sign is also helped by every planet in the fourth and tenth from it.

Signs of a fortunate birth

The fourth verse names several marks of a good birth (22.4). The rising sign is vargottama. A gentle planet stands in the sign just after the Sun. The angles are not empty. Helping planets are present.

When results arrive

The last two verses turn to timing (22.5 to 22.6). When Jupiter, the lord of the Moon's sign, or the lord of the rising sign stands in an angle, the person is happiest in the middle of life.

Within a planet's period, the timing of its results depends on how its sign rises. We met this in the first article: some signs rise head first, some back first, and Pisces both ways. A planet in a sign that rises head first gives its results at the start of its period; in a sign that rises back first, at the end; and in a sign that rises both ways, in the middle.

The chapter closes with a rule for transits (22.6):

दिनकररुधिरौ प्रवेशकाले गुरुभृगुजौ भवनस्य मध्ययातौ । रविसुतशशिनौ विनिर्गमस्थौ शशितनयः फलदस्तु सर्वकालम् ॥

dinakararudhirau praveśakāle gurubhṛgujau bhavanasya madhyayātau | ravisutaśaśinau vinirgamasthau śaśitanayaḥ phaladas tu sarvakālam ||

The Sun and Mars give their results as they enter a sign; Jupiter and Venus as they pass through its middle; Saturn and the Moon as they are about to leave it. Mercury gives results at all times.

So when a planet moves through a sign after birth, it does not act evenly through the whole sign. The Sun and Mars, the fiery planets, act at once, on entry. Jupiter and Venus act in the middle. Saturn, the slow one, and the Moon act at the end. Mercury, the quick and adaptable prince, acts throughout.

Verses are from Varahamihira's Brihat Jataka, chapters 21 and 22. 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.