The Study of Jyotisha · Chapter 40 of 54 · Part Eight · The applied branches

#Prashna: the chart of a question

#What prashna is

Prashna means "question". Prashna astrology casts a chart for the moment and place a question is asked, and reads the answer from that chart. It is called "horary astrology" in the West. Its great practical advantage is that it needs no birth data: anyone can ask a question, whether or not they know their time of birth.

The underlying idea is the same as in muhurta (Chapter 39) and in the birth chart: a moment has a quality, and what begins in it — here, the question — shares that quality.

#Its classical roots

The question chart in Varahamihira. Varahamihira uses a question chart (prashna lagna) for a striking purpose: to reconstruct a person's lost birth details. "When a person is ignorant of the time of his conception or birth, the time of birth shall, when duly questioned about, be determined from the prashna lagna" (Brihat Jataka XXVI.1). For example, if the first half of the rising sign is on the horizon at the time of the question, the birth was in the northern course of the Sun (XXVI.1); the drekkana rising gives the sign Jupiter was in at birth (XXVI.2); and so on through the whole chapter.

Reading signs and gestures. The Brihat Samhita's chapter Angavidya ("knowledge of the limbs") tells the astrologer to note the direction, place, things carried, movements and touches of the questioner, and the time:

For the all-knowing Universal Intelligence pervading all movable and immovable objects indicates coming events by motions and casual words to devout souls who have faith in Him (Brihat Samhita 51.1, Iyer).

This sentence is the philosophical basis of prashna: the moment of a sincere question, and everything around it, is meaningful.

The later texts. Two are standard:

• the Shatpanchasika ("fifty-six [verses]"), attributed to Prithuyashas, Varahamihira's son, a compact book of rules for question charts;
• the Prasna Marga, written in Kerala in 1649, a long and elaborate work. It adds a whole ritual setting: omens on the astrologer's way to the questioner's house, the questioner's posture, dress and first words (pranakshara), the flame of the lamp, the placing of a gold coin on a drawn chart (ashtamangala), and special calculated points such as trisphuta. Kerala astrologers still practise this tradition, called Ashtamangala prashna, especially for temples.

The Prasna Tantra, often attributed to Nilakantha (the author of the Tajika Nilakanthi, Chapter 25), is a third; scholars doubt the attribution except perhaps as compiler.

#The basic method

Different texts give different rules, but the core method most astrologers use is this:

1. Cast the chart for the exact moment and place the question is asked.
2. The ascendant and its lord stand for the questioner.
3. The house of the matter and its lord stand for the thing asked about: the 7th for a marriage or a partner, the 10th for a job, the 2nd or 11th for money, the 4th for a house, the 5th for children or studies, the 6th for a dispute or illness, the 3rd or 9th for a journey, and so on (Chapter 9).
4. Look for a connection between the two lords — joined in one sign, in exchange, aspecting each other. A strong connection suggests the matter will come about; no connection suggests it will not, or not easily.
5. Look at the Moon, the mind of the question: its strength (waxing or waning, dignity) and its next aspect or conjunction.
6. Look at the general strength of the chart: benefics in the kendras are favourable; malefics there unfavourable. A sign rising "head first" (shirshodaya, Chapter 7) is often taken as favourable, and one rising "by the back" as less so.

Many of these rules are similar to those of Western horary astrology, which also came down from the Greeks through the Arabs (Chapter 25).

#A worked example (hypothetical)

Suppose someone in Hyderabad asks, at 11:00 on 15 October 2026: "Will I get the job I have applied for?" The chart for that moment:

1. The questioner: the ascendant Sagittarius; its lord Jupiter, exalted, but in the 8th house — strong but in a hidden, uncertain place.
2. The job: the 10th house, Virgo, holding the Sun; its lord Mercury, in the 11th (gains) with Venus.
3. Connection: Jupiter (in Cancer) and Mercury (in Libra) are not joined, not in exchange, and do not aspect each other (Jupiter aspects Scorpio, Capricorn and Pisces; Mercury aspects Aries). No direct connection.
4. The Moon: waxing, but in Scorpio, its debilitation sign, in the 12th house: a mind uncertain or anxious about the matter.
5. The kendras: the 1st and 7th are empty; the 4th holds Saturn and the 10th the Sun — both malefics. Sagittarius rises by the back.

By the textbook rules, the reading is unfavourable or delayed: no link between the questioner and the job, a weak Moon in the 12th, malefics in the kendras. A careful reader would add the positive signs — the 10th lord in the house of gains, an exalted ascendant lord — and say that this application looks uncertain, while the chart does not deny gains from work in general.

Notice how much depends on choices: which house for the matter, which aspects count, which rules of strength apply. Two astrologers following two texts could read this chart differently.

#Keeping yourself honest: a question journal

Prashna has one great advantage for a student: its predictions are short-term and specific, so they can be checked. A student who wants to know whether prashna works for them can keep a simple journal:

1. Before casting the chart, write down the question, the date, time and place, and your honest expectation without astrology.
2. Cast the chart and write down the astrological answer, with the rules you used, before the outcome is known.
3. When the outcome is known, record it.
4. After many questions, count: how often was the astrological answer right? How often was your plain expectation right?

This is the method of Chapter 52 in miniature. It protects the student from the most common trap in astrology: remembering the hits and forgetting the misses.

#Using prashna well

• Answer questions that matter to the questioner's own choices; do not answer questions about other people's private lives, or about death and serious illness (Chapter 46).
• A prashna answer is a perspective, not a verdict. The questioner still decides.
• Do not ask the same question again and again until the answer changes.

#Summary

• Prashna casts a chart for the moment a question is asked; it needs no birth data.
• Varahamihira used the question chart to reconstruct lost birth details (Brihat Jataka XXVI) and taught the reading of the questioner's signs and gestures (Brihat Samhita 51).
• The standard later texts are the Shatpanchasika (attributed to Prithuyashas, Varahamihira's son) and the Prasna Marga (Kerala, 1649).
• The basic method: the ascendant is the questioner, the house of the matter is the thing asked; a connection between their lords suggests "yes"; the Moon and the kendras qualify the answer.
• Prashna's short-term predictions can be checked; keep a question journal.

#Exercises

1. Which house would you use for a question about buying a house? About a lawsuit?
2. In a question chart, the ascendant lord and the 7th lord are in exchange. What does this suggest for a question about marriage?
3. Why does prashna need no birth data?
4. What did Varahamihira use the prashna lagna for in Brihat Jataka XXVI?
5. Describe the four steps of a question journal.

Answers: 1. The 4th; the 6th (disputes) and 7th (the opponent). 2. A strong connection between the questioner and the partner: the marriage is likely, other factors permitting. 3. Because the chart is cast for the moment of the question itself. 4. To reconstruct the lost birth details of a person who did not know them. 5. Write the question and your plain expectation; write the astrological answer and rules before the outcome; record the outcome; after many questions, compare the hit rates.