Recovering a Lost Birth Chart

Chapter 26 · Part of our series on the Brihat Jataka of Varahamihira

Everything in this book depends on knowing the moment of birth. But in the ancient world, as for many people today, that moment was often not recorded. What can an astrologer do for someone who does not know when they were born?

This chapter, called naṣṭa-jātaka, "the lost birth chart", gives an answer. It uses the moment the person comes and asks the question. The sky at the moment of asking is treated as a key that can unlock the sky at the moment of birth.

The question itself becomes a chart

The idea behind the chapter belongs to praśna, horary astrology, the reading of a chart cast for the moment a question is asked. The question is not treated as an accident of timing. The moment a person sincerely asks is thought to carry the answer within it. The first verse sets out the principle (26.1):

आधानजन्मापरिबोधकाले सम्पृच्छतो जन्म वदेद्विलग्नात् । पूर्वापरार्धे भवनस्य विन्द्याद्भानावुदग्दक्षिणगे प्रसूतिम् ॥

ādhānajanmāparibodhakāle sampṛcchato janma vaded vilagnāt | pūrvāparārdhe bhavanasya vindyād bhānāv udagdakṣiṇage prasūtim ||

When the time of conception or of birth is not known, one should declare the birth of the one who asks from the sign rising at the time of asking. If the first half of that sign is rising, know that the birth took place when the Sun was on its northern course; if the second half, on its southern course.

Rebuilding the birth step by step

The chapter then rebuilds the moment of birth piece by piece, from the largest unit of time to the smallest. At each step, a feature of the sky at the time of asking points to a feature of the sky at the time of birth.

The half-year. As the first verse says, the half of the rising sign that is coming up shows whether the birth was in the Sun's northern or southern course, the two halves of the year.

The year. Jupiter takes about twelve years to travel once around the zodiac, so it works like the hour hand of a great twelve-year clock. The rising drekkana at the time of asking shows which sign Jupiter was in at birth: the rising sign itself, the fifth from it, or the ninth (26.2). Combined with an estimate of the person's age from their appearance, this fixes the year of birth.

The season. The planet in the rising sign, or the lord of the rising drekkana, shows the season of birth, each planet ruling one of the six seasons of the Indian year (26.2 to 26.3). If the season does not match the half-year already found, a paired planet's season is used instead.

The month and the day. The first or second half of the rising drekkana shows the first or second month of that season. How far that half has risen shows the day within the month (26.3). Some learned teachers, the text adds, take the lunar day from the number of degrees the Sun has travelled in its sign (26.4).

Day or night, and the hour. If the rising sign is a day sign, the birth was by night, and if a night sign, by day. The degree of the rising sign gives the hour (26.4).

The Moon's sign and the rising sign. Further verses give ways to find the Moon's sign at birth and the rising sign at birth from the positions of the Moon, the Sun and the rising navamsha at the time of asking (26.5 to 26.8).

Signs in the world around the question

Some of the methods reach beyond the sky. When the astrologer is unsure which of several signs is meant, the text suggests looking at what happens around the question: the part of the body the person happens to touch, the food that is brought in, the shapes that appear, the sounds that are heard (26.5 to 26.6). Each can be matched to a sign through the images of the signs we met in the first article: a ram, a bull, a pair of fish.

Another method looks at the posture of the person asking: whether they are sitting, lying down, standing, or rising from their seat (26.8). Each posture points to a different angle of the chart as the rising sign of their birth. The commentators explain this as a living intelligence that guides the astrologer through such signs.

Numbers that point to the stars

The last part of the chapter gives arithmetical methods (26.9 to 26.16). Each sign and planet is given a number. The longitude of the rising point at the time of asking is multiplied by these numbers, adjusted by a fixed amount, and divided by twelve, twenty-seven, or other divisors, to arrive at the rising sign, the nakshatra, the lunar day, the month and the year of birth. The same procedure, applied to other houses, gives the birth stars of the person's sibling, child, rival and spouse.

Two further methods find the birth nakshatra from the person's name, by counting the syllables, and from the direction the person faces while asking (26.15 to 26.16).

"Let good students test it"

The chapter ends with a remarkable line (26.17):

इति नष्टजातकमिदं बहुप्रकारं मया विनिर्दिष्टम् । ग्राह्यमतः सच्छिष्यैः परीक्ष्य यत्नाद्यथा भवति ॥

iti naṣṭajātakam idaṃ bahuprakāraṃ mayā vinirdiṣṭam | grāhyam ataḥ sacchiṣyaiḥ parīkṣya yatnād yathā bhavati ||

Thus I have set out the lost birth chart in many ways. Good students should take it up from here, testing it with care, so that it proves true.

Varahamihira does not ask his readers to accept these methods on faith. He offers several different ways, and asks good students to test them carefully, and to keep what proves true. It is the same critical spirit we saw in the chapters on length of life and on the nabhasa yogas.

Reading this chapter today

Today, many people do know their time of birth, and modern astrologers have other ways of refining an uncertain one. But this chapter remains a fascinating window into the ancient art of praśna. It rests on a striking idea: that the moment a person sincerely asks a question about their life is connected to the moment that life began, and that the sky at one can lead the astrologer back to the sky at the other.

Verses are from Varahamihira's Brihat Jataka, chapter 26. 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.