The Kerala School · Chapter 2 of 2

#The Prasna Marga

#The book

The Prasna Marga ("the path of the question") is a book of prashna — astrology of the question, in which the chart is cast for the moment and place a question is asked, not for a birth. According to its English translator, B. V. Raman, it was written by a Namboodiri Brahmin of Kerala in Kollam year 825, that is 1649 CE, at Edakad near Thalassery.

The Sanskrit text, with notes by Punnasseri Nambi Neelakantha Sarma, was printed at Pattambi in 1926. Raman's English translation (first edition 1980) is still in copyright, so this chapter describes the book from the Sanskrit edition and from the topics listed in the translation's table of contents, without quoting it.

#A chart and much more

An ordinary prashna chart needs no birth data. The Prasna Marga reads that chart, but it adds many other signs, observed at the moment by the astrologer. The topics of the translation's table of contents include:

• the questioner: the sign, direction, posture and mood they show, and their dress;
• the first letter (pranakshara) of the question;
• omens at the moment (tatkala lakshanas), on the astrologer's way, and on entering the house;
• the lamp and its flame;
• the drawing of a chakra and the placing of a gold piece;
• the ashtamangala;
• the arudha sign, and the correction of the rising degree by kunda;
• special points of the book's own: Gulika (in the 1926 Sanskrit, computed from a table of ghatikas recited as vakyas and corrected for the length of the day), the Trisphuta, and the prana and deha;
• prediction from betel leaves (tambula prashna).

#What a student should take from it

The Prasna Marga shows how an astrologer was expected to work in this setting: the chart was one witness among many, and the reading took in the person and the moment as much as the calculation.

That is also why most of it cannot be computed. The questioner's mood, the omens and the flame are observed by a person on the spot; a website cannot see them. This site does not offer a Prasna Marga reading for that reason. For the computable core of prashna — a chart for the moment — see The Study of Jyotisha, chapter 40.

#Summary

• The Prasna Marga (Kollam 825, 1649 CE, by its translator's account) is a book of question-astrology from Kerala.
• It reads a chart for the moment of the question together with the questioner, the first letter of the question, omens, the lamp, the ashtamangala and special points.
• Most of its inputs are observed by the astrologer and cannot be computed.

#Exercises

1. When and where was the Prasna Marga written, according to its translator?
2. Name four signs, other than the chart, that it reads.
3. Why does this website not offer a Prasna Marga reading?

Answers: 1. Kollam 825 (1649 CE), at Edakad near Thalassery. 2. Any four of: the questioner's direction, posture, mood or dress; the first letter of the question; omens; the lamp and flame; the ashtamangala; betel leaves. 3. Most of its inputs are observed by a person on the spot and cannot be computed.