The Difficult Yogas

Chapter 23 · Part of our series on the Brihat Jataka of Varahamihira

The royal yogas showed how a chart can lift a life. This chapter turns to the other side: the combinations that bring sorrow, illness, loss and hardship. The text calls them aniṣṭa, "unwelcome" combinations.

An astrologer of Varahamihira's time had to recognise these as well as the fortunate ones. They are presented here faithfully, grouped by theme. Two things should be kept in mind while reading. The illnesses are named in the categories of ancient medicine, and nothing here is a diagnosis; health questions belong with a doctor. And, as everywhere in this book, the gaze of gentle planets softens or prevents many of these results, which is stated again and again in the verses themselves.

Spouse and children

The chapter opens with a simple positive rule (23.1):

लग्नात्पुत्रकलत्रभे शुभपतिप्राप्तेऽथवालोकिते चन्द्राद्वा यदि सम्पदस्ति हि तयोर्ज्ञेयोऽन्यथासंभवः ।

lagnāt putrakalatrabhe śubhapatiprāpte 'thavālokite candrād vā yadi sampad asti hi tayor jñeyo 'nyathāsaṃbhavaḥ |

When the houses of children and of the spouse, counted from the rising sign or from the Moon, are occupied or looked upon by gentle planets or by their own lords, there is fullness in both. Otherwise, it is lacking. (first half of the verse)

The fifth house is children and the seventh the spouse. When gentle planets or the houses' own lords support them, family life flourishes.

The rest of the opening verses describe the opposite: combinations that point to the loss of a spouse or child, to childlessness, to unfaithfulness in a marriage, or to a marriage that comes late in life with an older partner (23.1 to 23.5). Most of them involve the harsh planets, the Sun, Mars and Saturn, pressing on Venus, the planet of marriage, or on the seventh house, with no gentle planet to protect them.

Family and station

One verse describes the person who ends their family line, with the Moon in the tenth, Venus in the seventh and harsh planets in the fourth (23.6). The commentators give Duryodhana of the Mahabharata as an example. The same verse also describes a skilled craftsman or painter, and a person whose work does not match their birth.

Later verses describe people who live in service to others (23.14, 23.17). The text uses the categories of its own society, which knew several kinds of servitude. The planets that decide these results are the Sun, the Moon, Jupiter and the lord of the Moon's navamsha. When they stand in weak or hostile navamshas, the person depends on others for a living; the more of them so placed, the deeper the dependence.

Illness

The largest part of the chapter names combinations for illness (23.7 to 23.13). They cover swellings and diseases of the skin, ailments of the private parts, troubles of the breath and lungs, of the spleen and of the belly, wasting illnesses, loss of sight and hearing, disorders of the teeth, and disturbances of the mind.

One verse shows the principle behind all of them (23.10):

निधनारिधनव्ययस्थिता रविचन्द्रारयमा यथा तथा । बलवद्ग्रहदोषकारणैर्मनुजानां जनयन्त्यनेत्रताम् ॥

nidhanāridhanavyayasthitā ravicandrārayamā yathā tathā | balavadgrahadoṣakāraṇair manujānāṃ janayanty anetratām ||

When the Sun, the Moon, Mars and Saturn stand in the eighth, sixth, second and twelfth houses, in whatever order, they cause loss of sight, through the fault belonging to the strongest of them.

The cause of the trouble follows the nature of the strongest planet. The commentators explain: under the Moon, the cause is phlegm; under Mars, bile; under the Sun, heat; under Saturn, wind. These are the three humours of Ayurveda that we met in Article 3, now used to explain illness.

The verse on hearing makes the condition of protection explicit: the harm comes "when not looked upon by gentle planets" (23.11).

Confinement

When harsh planets occupy the second, fifth, ninth and twelfth houses, the person may face confinement or restraint (23.16). The kind of restraint follows the nature of the rising sign. Certain drekkanas, which Article 25 describes as images of serpents and of fetters, give the same result when they rise and harsh planets look upon them.

Reading this chapter

This chapter is the shadow side of the royal yogas, and it uses the same tools. Strong, dignified, gentle planets build up a life. Weak, hostile, harsh planets in difficult houses wear it down. Almost every verse carries the same quiet qualification: the harm comes when no gentle planet looks on.

Read today, it is a record of how an ancient science tried to understand suffering: illness, loss, poverty and confinement. It is best read alongside everything else in the chart, and never as a verdict on its own.

Verses are from Varahamihira's Brihat Jataka, chapter 23. 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.