The Study of Jyotisha · Chapter 12 of 54 · Part Two · The building blocks

#Divisional charts

#Charts within the chart

The birth chart of Chapter 6 places each graha in one of twelve signs. But two planets in the same sign can be at its very beginning and its very end, nearly 30° apart. Jyotisha refines the picture by dividing each sign into smaller parts and giving each part the name of a sign. A planet then has not only its sign in the birth chart, but a sign in each division. Put all the planets' signs in one division together and you get a new chart — a divisional chart, or varga ("group", "division"), also called an amsha chart ("portion").

This sounds abstract, so here is the idea in one sentence: a divisional chart magnifies one part of life by looking at the planets' positions in finer detail. The most important of them, the navamsa, is read in India almost as often as the birth chart itself.

Varahamihira uses six divisions (Brihat Jataka I.6–12). The Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra uses sixteen (Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, chapter 6, in the common numbering). This chapter explains both, shows how to compute each by hand, and then looks closely at the navamsa.

A note on names: divisional charts are written "D" plus the number of parts. The birth chart itself is D1; the navamsa, which divides each sign into nine, is D9; and so on.

#Varahamihira's six divisions

Varahamihira calls a planet "in its varga" when it is in its own sign in any of six divisions — the sign, hora, drekkana, navamsa, dvadasamsa and trimsamsa (Brihat Jataka I.9). Chidambaram Aiyar's notes explain each (notes to Brihat Jataka I.6–I.7):

#Hora

The hora is the simplest division. Each sign is cut in half. Every half belongs either to the Sun (shown as Leo) or to the Moon (shown as Cancer):

• Odd signs (Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius, Aquarius): 0°–15° Sun's hora, 15°–30° Moon's hora.
• Even signs (Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn, Pisces): 0°–15° Moon's hora, 15°–30° Sun's hora.

So the hora chart has only two signs in it, Leo and Cancer. It is read for wealth: by the later texts, a planet in the Sun's hora gives wealth through effort and authority, one in the Moon's hora through gentler means.

Varahamihira also reports Garga's different rule, in which the two horas belong to the lord of the sign and the lord of the 11th sign from it; he himself follows the first rule, which he shares with Satyacharya (Brihat Jataka I.11–12, with Aiyar's notes).

#Drekkana

The drekkana (also dreshkana, from the Greek dekanos) divides each sign into three parts of 10°. The first part belongs to the sign itself, the second to the 5th sign from it, and the third to the 9th sign from it — so the three drekkanas of any sign are its own triplicity (Brihat Jataka I.11).

Example. Leo's three drekkanas are Leo (0°–10°), Sagittarius (10°–20°) and Aries (20°–30°), whose lords are the Sun, Jupiter and Mars. Aiyar gives exactly this example in his note to I.11.

Garga's school used a different rule (the sign, the 12th from it and the 11th from it), which Varahamihira reports and does not follow (Brihat Jataka I.12).

The drekkana chart is read for siblings and courage in the later texts. Varahamihira also devotes his twenty-seventh chapter to describing the image of each of the 36 drekkanas — a man with an axe, a woman carrying a pot, and so on (Brihat Jataka XXVII) — used in prashna and in describing people and events.

#Navamsa

The navamsa divides each sign into nine parts of 3°20′. Since a nakshatra pada is also 3°20′, each navamsa is exactly one nakshatra pada, and the 108 navamsas of the zodiac are the 108 padas (Aiyar's note to Brihat Jataka I.6). This is the deepest link between the signs and the nakshatras.

The 108 navamsas are named after the twelve signs, over and over, starting from Aries. So:

• Aries: navamsas 1–9 are Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius.
• Taurus: navamsas 1–9 continue from there: Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo.
• Gemini: Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Gemini.
• Cancer: Cancer, Leo, … Pisces.
• Then the pattern repeats: Leo like Aries, Virgo like Taurus, and so on.

This is the same as Varahamihira's rule that fire signs start from Aries, earth signs from Capricorn, air signs from Libra and water signs from Cancer (Brihat Jataka I.6). An equivalent rule that many find easier: movable signs start from themselves, fixed signs from the 9th sign from themselves, dual signs from the 5th sign from themselves.

How to find a navamsa by hand.

1. Find which ninth of its sign the planet is in: divide the degrees within the sign by 3°20′ (or multiply by 3 and divide by 10), and add one.
2. Find the starting sign for that sign's navamsas (the table or rule above).
3. Count forward from the starting sign that many signs.

Example 1. The Sun at 28°23′ Cancer. 28°23′ ÷ 3°20′ = 8.5, so the 9th navamsa. Cancer is movable, so its navamsas start from Cancer. The 9th sign counted from Cancer is Pisces. The Sun is in Pisces navamsa.

Example 2. The Moon at 18°55′ Taurus. 18°55′ ÷ 3°20′ = 5.7, so the 6th navamsa. Taurus is fixed, so it starts from the 9th from Taurus, which is Capricorn. The 6th sign counted from Capricorn is Gemini.

Example 3. The lagna at 1°50′ Libra. The 1st navamsa. Libra is movable, so it starts from Libra. The navamsa is Libra.

#Vargottama

Example 3 shows something special: the lagna is in Libra in both the birth chart and the navamsa. When a planet or the lagna is in the same sign in the birth chart and the navamsa, it is called vargottama, "best in the division". This happens in the 1st navamsa of each movable sign, the 5th of each fixed sign and the 9th of each dual sign — the navamsa that bears the sign's own name. Varahamihira says planets in such positions produce good effects (Brihat Jataka I.14). A vargottama planet is treated as strong, almost as if in its own sign.

#Dvadasamsa

The dvadasamsa divides each sign into twelve parts of 2°30′, which run through all twelve signs starting from the sign itself (Aiyar's note to Brihat Jataka I.6). So the first dvadasamsa of Taurus is Taurus, the second Gemini, and so on to Aries. It is read for parents in the later texts.

#Trimsamsa

The trimsamsa is the odd one. It is not equal parts. Each sign is divided into five unequal blocks, each ruled by one of the five planets other than the Sun and Moon (Brihat Jataka I.7):

The Sun and Moon have no trimsamsas. Aiyar notes that Varahamihira uses this division in his chapter on women's horoscopes (note to I.7; Brihat Jataka XXIV). The later texts read it for misfortunes and their sources. To draw it as a chart, each block is placed in a sign of its lord (by modern convention, the lord's odd sign for odd signs and its even sign for even signs).

#Parashara's sixteen divisions

The Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra uses sixteen divisions, the shodashavarga. It gives a rule for each and names what each is read for (Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, chapters 6 and 7, in the common numbering). Here is the list, with Varahamihira's six marked:

You do not need to compute all of these by hand. Every modern program does it. What you do need to understand is the principle (each is a finer division of the sign) and the warning that follows.

#How sensitive are the divisions?

Remember that the lagna moves about one degree every four minutes (Chapter 6). Now look at the size of each division:

So the lagna of the navamsa chart changes every quarter of an hour or so, and the lagna of the D60 every two minutes. The finer divisions are only as good as the birth time. A birth time "about 10:30" cannot support any reading of the D60's lagna, and only a cautious one of the navamsa's. The planets' positions in the divisions are safer, because planets move slowly — except the Moon, which crosses a navamsa in about six hours and a D60 part in about an hour.

This is one of the most important practical lessons in Jyotisha. Before reading a fine division, always ask how accurate the birth time is.

#The navamsa in practice

The navamsa is the one divisional chart every Indian astrologer reads. Why?

• It is ancient. It is in Varahamihira (Brihat Jataka I.6) and is used throughout the Brihat Jataka, for example in judging the place of birth (V.13) and in Raja yogas (XI).
• It is the chart of the padas. It ties the zodiac to the nakshatras.
• It is the chart of marriage. The later tradition reads the spouse and married life from it, together with the 7th house of the birth chart.
• It confirms or weakens the birth chart. A planet strong in the birth chart but weak in the navamsa (for example, debilitated there) is said to give less than it promised; a planet weak in the birth chart but strong in the navamsa can recover. Many astrologers will not judge a planet's strength without looking at both.

Its lagna is the navamsa lagna, and some astrologers read the navamsa as a complete chart of its own, with houses counted from that lagna.

#The example chart in the navamsa

The example chart of Chapter 6 in the navamsa (D9), computed with this website's engine:

Things to notice:

• The lagna is vargottama — Libra in both charts — which strengthens it (Brihat Jataka I.14).
• Jupiter, exalted in the birth chart, goes to Leo, the sign of its great friend the Sun, in the navamsa. It keeps much of its strength.
• Venus, the lagna's lord, is in Virgo, its debilitation sign, in the navamsa. By the later rule of reading both charts together, Venus's promise in the birth chart is somewhat reduced. Since Venus also signifies the spouse, an astrologer would look closely at it when judging marriage — with the cancellation rules of Chapter 21 before drawing any conclusion.
• The Moon goes from Taurus to Gemini, a sign of its friend Mercury.

And in the dasamsa (D10), the chart of career: the lagna is again Libra; the Sun is in Sagittarius; Jupiter and Mercury are together in Aries; Venus is in its own sign, Taurus; Mars is exalted in Capricorn. Already you can see why astrologers compare the D10 with the 10th house of the birth chart when judging work.

#Strength across the divisions

Because a graha has a sign in every division, the later texts measure its strength by counting how many divisions put it in a good sign. Two methods are used:

• Counting good divisions. A graha in its own, exalted or moolatrikona sign in a given number of divisions gets a special name. Aiyar's notes to the Brihat Jataka (after VII.14) give names for 2 to 10 good divisions out of ten: Parijata (2), Uttama (3), Gopura (4), Simhasana (5), Paravata (6), Devaloka (7 or 8), Airavata (9) and Vaiseshika (10). This is later Parashari material that the translator added in his notes, not part of Varahamihira's text, and the common editions of the Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra give a slightly different list for the higher counts (for example Brahmaloka for 8 and Sridhama for 10).
• Vimshopaka bala, the "twenty-point strength": each division is given a weight, and the graha scores according to its relationship to the lord of its sign in each (Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra 7.17–27, in the common numbering). Chapter 15 explains it.

#Summary

• A divisional chart (varga, D-number) places each graha by a finer division of its sign; it magnifies one part of life.
• Varahamihira's six: rashi, hora, drekkana, navamsa, dvadasamsa, trimsamsa (Brihat Jataka I.6–12). Parashara uses sixteen (Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra 6–7).
• Hora: Sun's and Moon's halves. Drekkana: the sign, 5th and 9th. Navamsa: fire from Aries, earth from Capricorn, air from Libra, water from Cancer — or movable from itself, fixed from the 9th, dual from the 5th. Dvadasamsa: from the sign. Trimsamsa: five unequal blocks of the five planets.
• Each navamsa is one nakshatra pada. A planet in the same sign in D1 and D9 is vargottama and strong (Brihat Jataka I.14).
• Each division is read for one area: D2 wealth, D3 siblings, D7 children, D9 spouse and dharma, D10 career, D12 parents, and so on.
• The finer the division, the more accurate the birth time must be: the D9 lagna changes about every 13 minutes, the D60 lagna every 2 minutes.

#Exercises

1. Find the navamsa of a planet at 12°00′ Aries; at 12°00′ Taurus; at 12°00′ Gemini.
2. Which navamsa of Scorpio is vargottama? Between which degrees does it lie?
3. Find the drekkana of a planet at 22° Sagittarius, and its lord.
4. Find the hora of a planet at 20° Capricorn.
5. In which trimsamsa (which planet's block) is a planet at 14° Virgo? At 14° Libra?
6. A birth time is known only "to within half an hour". Which of these can you rely on: the D1 lagna, the D9 lagna, the D60 lagna, the Moon's navamsa?

Answers: 1. 12° is in the 4th navamsa (12 ÷ 3⅓ = 3.6). Aries starts from Aries → Cancer. Taurus starts from Capricorn → Aries. Gemini starts from Libra → Capricorn. 2. The 5th (fixed sign): 13°20′–16°40′ Scorpio. 3. The 3rd drekkana, the 9th sign from Sagittarius: Leo, lord the Sun. 4. Capricorn is even; 20° is in the second half → the Sun's hora (Leo). 5. Virgo is even: 12°–20° is Jupiter's block. Libra is odd: 10°–18° is Jupiter's block. 6. Probably the D1 lagna (unless near a sign boundary) and very likely the Moon's navamsa (unless it was about to change); not the D9 lagna, and certainly not the D60 lagna.