The Study of Jyotisha · Chapter 19 of 54 · Part Four · Yogas

#Raja yogas and dhana yogas

Raja yoga means "royal combination": a pattern that the books say raises a person to power, rank or eminence. Dhana yoga means "wealth combination". These are the yogas people most want to hear about, and the ones most often inflated. This chapter describes the two great traditions of them — Varahamihira's and Parashara's — and works them through the example chart.

#Varahamihira's royal yogas

Brihat Jataka chapter XI, "On the birth of kings", is the oldest systematic account.

#Exalted planets

Varahamihira opens with a disagreement among his predecessors. The Greek-influenced authors (the Yavanas) said that a person born with three or more malefics exalted becomes a tyrannical king; another authority, Jeevasarma, said such a person becomes rich and quarrelsome but not a king (Brihat Jataka XI.1, with Aiyar's note). Varahamihira's own view, from his shorter work quoted in the note: three or more planets in exaltation make a king if the person is born in a king's family; five or more make a king whatever family they are born in. The same applies to planets in their moolatrikona signs.

He returns to this later in the chapter in more careful words:

When three or more planets are powerful and occupy either their exaltation signs or their moolatrikona signs, a person born becomes a king if he belongs to a king's family. Again, when five or more planets are powerful and occupy their exaltation signs or their moolatrikona signs, a person born becomes a king even if he be born in a low family. If, in either case, the number of powerful planets be less than three or five, the persons described above will not become kings but will become only rich (Brihat Jataka XI.13, Aiyar).

Note the word powerful. Aiyar's note is explicit: "If the 3 or 5 planets be not all powerful, the person will not become a king."

#Combinations and sample charts

Varahamihira then gives:

• 32 combinations of Mars, Saturn, the Sun and Jupiter in exaltation with one of them rising (Brihat Jataka XI.2);
• 44 combinations in which a vargottama ascendant or Moon is aspected by four, five or six planets (XI.3);
• a series of specific charts, each said to produce a king (XI.4–11) — for example, "when Mars occupies Aries and Jupiter Cancer, a person born becomes a king when Aries is the rising sign, or when Cancer is the rising sign" (XI.8);
• and a second series that makes a king "if he belongs to a king's family, and only rich if otherwise" (XI.14–18).

Aiyar counts 96 royal yogas in all (note to XI.12).

#The family rule and the timing rule

Two of Varahamihira's general rules have already appeared in Chapter 17 and are worth repeating here, because they govern everything else:

• The same yoga gives kingship to one born to rank and wealth to one who is not (Brihat Jataka XI.12–13). The promise is scaled to the life.
• A royal yoga acts in the dasha of the planet in the 10th house or the ascendant, or of the strongest planet; and a person may lose what they gained in the dasha of a planet in an enemy's or debilitation sign (XI.19).

#In the example chart

• Exalted or moolatrikona planets (Varahamihira gives moolatrikona by sign, Brihat Jataka I.14): the Moon in Taurus (its exaltation and moolatrikona sign), Mars in Aries (its moolatrikona sign) and Jupiter in Cancer (exaltation). That is three, all reasonably strong. By XI.13 this is the lesser form: "only rich" for one not born to rank. In modern terms: a promise of a comfortable, well-resourced life, earned by effort.
• XI.8 needs Mars in Aries and Jupiter in Cancer — which this chart has — but with Aries or Cancer rising. The ascendant is Libra, so the yoga does not form. This is a useful reminder that a yoga's conditions must all be met.

#Parashara's lordship yogas

The later books, above all the Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, built a different system, based not on where the planets are but on which houses they rule.

#Good and bad lords

The first step is to decide, for a given ascendant, which planets are good and which are difficult by lordship (Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra 34.2–15):

• The lords of the trikonas (1st, 5th, 9th) are good. The lord of the ascendant is especially good.
• The lords of the kendras (1st, 4th, 7th, 10th) are neutralised: a natural benefic that rules a kendra loses some of its goodness, and a natural malefic that rules a kendra loses some of its harm.
• The lords of the 3rd, 6th and 11th are difficult.
• The lords of the 8th and 12th act according to the other house they rule and the planets they join. The 8th lordship is not counted against the Sun or the Moon.

Planets that are good by lordship for a particular ascendant are often called functional benefics, and difficult ones functional malefics. A planet's functional nature can differ from its natural nature: Jupiter, the greatest natural benefic, can be a functional malefic for some ascendants.

#The yogakaraka

A single planet that rules both a kendra and a trikona is called a yogakaraka, "the maker of yoga" (Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra 34.11–15). It is the best planet in the chart by lordship. Because only Mars, Venus and Saturn can rule such a pair of houses, there are only a few:

The other six ascendants have no single yogakaraka.

#The kendra–trikona link

The central raja yoga of the Parashari system: the lord of a kendra and the lord of a trikona joined together — "the kendra is Vishnu, the trikona is Lakshmi", as later writers put it. The link counts if the two lords (Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra 34.11–15):

• exchange signs (each in the other's sign);
• are in the same sign, in a kendra or a trikona;
• are placed so that one is in the other's house;
• or aspect each other.

The text adds a condition: the link is spoiled if either lord also rules a difficult house (the 6th, 8th or 12th). Here the books leave room for judgement, since the lord of the ascendant is excused much of the blame of its other house.

Parashara lists, for each ascendant, the planets that give raja yoga when they combine; for Libra, for example, he names the Moon and Mercury (the lords of the 10th and 9th) (Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra 34.19–44).

#Sign exchange

Two planets each in the other's sign are said to be in exchange (parivartana). An exchange binds the two planets and their houses closely together. The Phaladeepika counts 66 possible exchanges and sorts them by the houses involved (Phaladeepika 6.32 onward):

• an exchange involving the lord of the 6th, 8th or 12th is Dainya ("misery") — 30 of them;
• one involving the lord of the 3rd is Khala ("rogue") — 8;
• the rest are Maha ("great") — 28.

#In the example chart (Libra ascendant)

First the lordships:

Then the yogas:

• The Moon and Venus exchange signs: the Moon is in Taurus (Venus's sign) and Venus in Cancer (the Moon's). Venus rules the 1st, which is both a kendra and a trikona; the Moon rules the 10th, a kendra. By Parashara's rule this is a kendra–trikona exchange: a raja yoga, linking the self (1st) and career (10th). But Venus also rules the 8th, so the Phaladeepika's scheme classes the same exchange as Dainya. Two books, two names, for one placement. The reasonable reading: a strong bond between the person and their work, with something of the 8th house in it — hidden matters, other people's resources, sudden change.
• Saturn is the yogakaraka. It sits in the 3rd house, Sagittarius, a neutral's sign. A yogakaraka in the 3rd is not ideal, but Saturn aspects the 5th and 9th houses (the 3rd and 7th signs from it), the two trikonas, and was strong in shadbala through its retrogression and the aspects it receives (Chapter 14). Expect its gifts to come through persistent effort, and in its dasha.
• The Moon and Mercury, the raja-yoga pair for Libra, are in Taurus and Leo, neither joined nor in mutual aspect. No yoga between them.
• Jupiter shows the tension between the two systems. It is exalted in the 10th and forms Hamsa (Chapter 18) — but for a Libra ascendant it rules the 3rd and 6th and is a functional malefic. Parashari astrologers would say its exaltation gives its natural gifts (wisdom, ethics, respect) in the career, while its lordship ties those gifts to the 3rd and 6th houses: effort, competition, service, problems to be solved. That is a richer reading than either "exalted Jupiter is wonderful" or "Jupiter is a malefic for Libra".

#Wealth yogas

The Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra gives its wealth yogas in chapter 41. Many are specific: for example, a planet in its own sign in the 5th house combined with particular planets in the 11th (41.2–8), or in its own sign in the ascendant joined or aspected by particular planets (41.9–15). And it gives a general rule: the lords of the 5th and 9th, and the planets joined to them, give wealth in their dashas.

Three other wealth patterns often quoted:

• Lakshmi yoga. The lord of the 9th in a kendra, in its own, moolatrikona or exaltation sign, with a strong ascendant lord (Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra 36). The Phaladeepika's version asks for the 9th lord and Venus in dignity in kendras or trikonas (Phaladeepika 6). In the example chart, the 9th lord Mercury is in Leo in the 11th: no Lakshmi yoga by either definition.
• Benefics in the growing houses (Brihat Jataka XIII.9, Chapter 18) — the example chart has this fully.
• The 2nd and 11th houses and their lords — the houses of wealth and gain — strong, linked to each other or to the lords of the trikonas. This is less a named yoga than a principle (Chapter 27).

The books also give poverty yogas (Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra 42). They are treated like Kemadruma (Chapter 18): patterns to weigh, with their own conditions and with the whole chart against them. They are not pronouncements to make to a person.

#Putting it together for the example chart

• Varahamihira: three planets in exaltation or moolatrikona — the "rich" form of his royal yoga.
• Parashara: a kendra–trikona exchange between the 1st and 10th lords (with a complication from the 8th); Saturn as yogakaraka; no Lakshmi yoga; no Moon–Mercury yoga.
• From Chapter 18: two great-person yogas in the 7th and 10th; the full wealth yoga of benefics in upachayas.

The consistent message is capability in work and partnership, and resources built by effort over time, with the 10th house — career and reputation — at the centre. The timing (Chapter 22) will say when these promises are most active. And the person's actual life will say what form they take.

#Summary

• Varahamihira's royal yogas (Brihat Jataka XI): planets in exaltation or moolatrikona (three for one born to rank, five for anyone; "only rich" otherwise, XI.13), combinations of exalted planets with one rising (XI.2), aspects to a vargottama ascendant or Moon (XI.3), and specific charts (XI.4–18). They act in the dasha of the planet in the 10th or the ascendant, or of the strongest planet (XI.19).
• Parashara's system is based on lordship: trikona lords good, kendra lords neutral, 3rd/6th/11th lords difficult, 8th and 12th lords by association (Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra 34.2–15).
• A planet ruling a kendra and a trikona is a yogakaraka; a kendra lord linked with a trikona lord forms a raja yoga (34.11–15).
• Sign exchanges are graded by the houses involved: Maha, Khala or Dainya (Phaladeepika 6).
• Wealth yogas: Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra 41; Lakshmi yoga (BPHS 36; Phaladeepika 6); benefics in upachayas (Brihat Jataka XIII.9).
• The two systems can disagree about the same planet; good reading holds both views together.

#Exercises

1. For a Leo ascendant, which planet is the yogakaraka, and which houses does it rule?
2. For a Gemini ascendant, which planets rule the kendras and which the trikonas? Is there a yogakaraka?
3. A chart has a Cancer ascendant, with Mars in Aries and Jupiter in Cancer. Which of Varahamihira's royal yogas is this? What other yoga from Chapter 18 does Jupiter form?
4. In the example chart, why does the Moon–Venus exchange count as a raja yoga by one rule and as Dainya by another?
5. Why is Jupiter a "functional malefic" for a Libra ascendant? Does that make an exalted Jupiter in the 10th bad?

Answers: 1. Mars, ruling the 4th (Scorpio) and 9th (Aries). 2. Kendras: 1st Gemini (Mercury), 4th Virgo (Mercury), 7th Sagittarius (Jupiter), 10th Pisces (Jupiter). Trikonas: 1st Gemini (Mercury), 5th Libra (Venus), 9th Aquarius (Saturn). Mercury rules the 1st, which is both, and the 4th; but by the usual convention the yogakaraka is a planet ruling a kendra other than the 1st and a trikona other than the 1st, so there is none. 3. Brihat Jataka XI.8 (Mars in Aries, Jupiter in Cancer, Cancer rising). Jupiter exalted in the 1st, a kendra, also forms Hamsa. 4. Because Venus rules both the 1st (making a kendra–trikona link with the 10th lord, the Moon) and the 8th (making the exchange Dainya in the Phaladeepika's scheme). 5. Because it rules the 3rd and 6th houses. No: its exaltation still gives its natural gifts; its lordship shows which areas of life (effort, service, problem-solving) those gifts work through.