Jaimini: the Upadesha Sutras · Chapter 1 of 4

#The sutras and how to read them

#A second school

Most Indian horoscopy descends from Varahamihira and the Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra. A second classical school is named after the sage Jaimini, whose teaching survives as the Upadesha Sutras, usually called the Jaimini Sutras. Its methods are distinctive: signs aspect signs; significators change from chart to chart; periods are given to signs rather than planets.

This book keeps Jaimini's teaching on its own, so that a student can study it as a system.

#What survives

• The text is a set of sutras — very short aphorisms — in four chapters (adhyayas), each in four parts (padas).
• Its date is unknown. It is certainly later than the sage of legend; nothing in it allows a firm date.
• The standard English translation is by B. Suryanarain Rao (who died in 1937), in a third edition revised by B. V. Raman in 1949. Rao says he saw four adhyayas and translated two; others claim the full work had eight.
• References in this book follow Rao's numbering: "JS 1.1.11" is adhyaya 1, pada 1, sutra 11.

#A coded style

The sutras are compressed almost to a code. The same sutra can be read in more than one way, and the meaning often depends entirely on the commentaries, which differ. A student of Jaimini is always, in part, a student of his commentators.

#Jaimini and Parashara

Several Jaimini techniques — sign aspects, the movable significators, arudhas, argala, Chara dasha — also appear in the modern Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (BPHS 8, 29–33, 46), sometimes with different rules. Historians suspect that the later recensions of the BPHS absorbed them from the Jaimini tradition. Where the two differ, this book says so.

#The plan of this book

#Summary

• The Jaimini (Upadesha) Sutras are the second classical school of horoscopy; date unknown.
• Rao translated two of the four adhyayas he saw; this book cites his numbering.
• The sutras are compressed almost to a code and depend on commentaries.
• Many Jaimini methods also appear, sometimes altered, in the modern BPHS.

#Exercises

1. How many adhyayas did Rao see, and how many did he translate?
2. Why do the sutras depend on their commentaries?
3. Which Jaimini methods also appear in the BPHS?

Answers: 1. He saw four and translated two. 2. They are compressed almost to a code, and the same sutra can be read in more than one way. 3. Sign aspects, movable significators, arudhas, argala and Chara dasha.