Nilakantha: the Tajika Nilakanthi · Chapter 2 of 2

#The chart of the year

A note on sources. The rules for the aspects, the orbs, the five divisions and their strength, the three-sign lords, the office-holders and the year's lord, and the Muntha were read in the Sanskrit of the Tajika Nilakanthi, Samjna-tantra, in the Bombay printings of 1888 and 1893 with their commentary, and the tables were checked against the page images (verse numbers are the 1888 printing's). Anything the Sanskrit could not confirm has been left out. The example uses The Study of Jyotisha's example chart: born 15 August 1990, 10:30 IST, Hyderabad, Libra ascendant.

#1. The solar return

The chart of the year (varshaphala, "fruit of the year") is cast for the moment the Sun returns to its exact sidereal longitude at birth — in the commentary's words, the year begins in the month "in which the Sun becomes equal to the Sun at birth". Each year this moment comes about six hours later in the day than the year before.

Example. At birth the Sun was at 28°23′ Cancer. In 2026 it returned there on 15 August 2026 at 15:54 IST. Cast for Hyderabad: ascendant Sagittarius 15°41′; Moon Virgo 3°34′; Mars Gemini 8°27′; Mercury Cancer 15°50′; Jupiter Cancer 15°54′; Venus Virgo 14°16′; Saturn Pisces 20°11′ (retrograde); Rahu Aquarius 5°57′. This chart governs the 37th year, August 2026 to August 2027.

#2. The Muntha

The Muntha moves one sign a year from the birth ascendant:

Muntha sign = birth ascendant sign + completed years.

The book gives the Muntha's results in each of the twelve houses of the annual chart, one verse for each (Varsha-tantra, 1893 printing, vv. 49–60).

Example. 36 completed years = three full rounds, so the Muntha is back in Libra — the 11th house from Sagittarius.

#3. The five office-holders and the year's lord

The lord of the year (varsheshvara) is chosen from five "office-holders" (panchadhikari):

1. the lord of the birth ascendant;
2. the lord of the annual ascendant;
3. the lord of the Muntha's sign;
4. the lord of the "three-sign" (tri-rashi) of the annual ascendant, from a fixed table for day and night returns;
5. the lord of the Sun's sign (day return) or the Moon's sign (night return).

The text's rule (Samjna-tantra 62–65): the year's lord is the strongest of these that aspects the annual ascendant; a planet that does not aspect the ascendant can never be the year's lord. If two are equally strong, the one with the stronger aspect wins; if they are equal in that too, the lord of the Muntha. If none of the five aspects the ascendant, the strongest of them is the lord. If the Moon is chosen, the office-holder the Moon applies to (ithasala) takes its place, or else the lord of the Moon's sign.

The three-sign lords (v. 60): for a return by day, Aries to Cancer are ruled by the Sun, Venus, Saturn and Venus, and by night by Jupiter, the Moon, Mercury and Mars; Leo to Scorpio take the same two lists the other way round (by day Jupiter, Moon, Mercury, Mars; by night Sun, Venus, Saturn, Venus); Sagittarius to Pisces are ruled by Saturn, Mars, Jupiter and the Moon by day and night alike.

Strength is the pancha-vargi bala, the strength in five divisions (vv. 39–40): up to 30 for the sign, 20 for exaltation (full at the exaltation degree, nothing at the debilitation degree), 15 for the term (hadda), 10 for the decanate and 5 for the navamsa. In its own division a planet gets the full amount; in a friend's division three-quarters, a neutral's half, an enemy's a quarter. The total divided by four is its strength out of 20. "Friend" here is Tajika friendship, judged in the annual chart itself: a planet aspecting another from the 3rd, 5th, 9th or 11th is its friend; from the 1st, 4th, 7th or 10th, its enemy; otherwise neutral (v. 13).

Example. The candidates: Venus (birth ascendant Libra); Jupiter (annual ascendant Sagittarius); Venus (Muntha in Libra); Saturn (the three-sign lord of Sagittarius); and, for this day return with the Sun in Cancer, the Moon. Jupiter, in Cancer, is in the 6th sign from Sagittarius — no aspect — so it is out. Venus and the Moon (in Virgo) aspect Sagittarius from the 4th, and Saturn (in Pisces) from the 10th. Their strengths: Venus 13.5, the Moon 12.3, Saturn 9.3 (of 20). Venus, debilitated as it is by sign, wins on its own term, decanate and navamsa: it is the lord of the year. (The site's kundli page shows each step for any chart.)

#4. Tajika aspects

Tajika's aspects are the same for every planet, and they are not the aspects of the rest of Jyotisha:

The text gives each a strength out of 60 (vv. 9–12): the 7th and the same sign 60, the 5th and 9th 45, the 3rd 40, the 4th and 10th 15, the 11th 10 — the 3rd and 11th are not equal.

#5. Application and separation

Each planet has an orb (deeptamsha): Sun 15°, Moon 12°, Mars 8°, Mercury 7°, Jupiter 9°, Venus 7°, Saturn 9°.

• Ithasala (application, also muthashila): the faster planet, at fewer degrees of its sign, with the slower planet ahead of it at more degrees, in a sign it aspects, the gap within the faster planet's orb (v. 18; the commentary takes the faster planet's orb). It also counts when the faster planet is in the last degree of a sign and the slower one early in the next (v. 19). What the two planets signify will come together during the year.
• Isharapha (separation): the faster planet has just passed the exact aspect. The matter has passed or will not be completed.

About sixteen yogas in all describe more complex cases — Ikkavala, Induvara, Nakta, Yamaya, Kamboola, Khallasara, Radda and others: a third planet carrying the light between two, an aspect blocked, and so on.

Example. Mercury (15°50′ Cancer) is 4′ behind Jupiter (15°54′ Cancer) and faster: an Ithasala of conjunction. Jupiter rules the 1st and 4th of the annual chart, Mercury the 7th and 10th: the self joined with partnership and career.

#6. The Punya saham

The sahams are sensitive points made by adding and subtracting longitudes; the book lists fifty. The first is the Punya saham, and the commentary gives its rule exactly:

By day, subtract the Sun from the Moon; by night, subtract the Moon from the Sun; add the ascendant — and add one sign more unless the ascendant lies between the two (counting forward from the planet subtracted to the planet it is subtracted from).

The commentary's own example: the Sun at 9 signs 7°30′, the Moon at 5 signs 22°10′, the ascendant at 0 signs 18°04′, by day. The ascendant (Aries) lies between Capricorn and Virgo counted forward, so no sign is added: 5s 22°10′ − 9s 7°30′ + 0s 18°04′ = 9s 2°44′.

When the ascendant is in the same sign as the Sun or the Moon, the text does not settle whether it counts as "between"; the site's kundli page then gives no value.

Example (day). The Sun is in Cancer, the Moon in Virgo; Sagittarius is not between them, so a sign is added: 153°34′ − 118°23′ + 255°41′ + 30° = 320°52′ = Aquarius 20°52′, the 3rd house of the annual chart.

#7. Reading the year

The book judges the year through the Muntha and its lord, the year's lord, the yogas among the planets, and the sahams. Raman (1941) insists that the annual chart be read with the birth chart and its dashas, never alone.

#Summary

• The year's chart is the solar return; the Muntha moves one sign a year.
• The year's lord is the strongest (by the five-division strength) of five office-holders that aspects the annual ascendant (Samjna-tantra 62–65).
• Tajika has its own aspects and orbs; Ithasala joins, Isharapha separates.
• The Punya saham: Moon − Sun + ascendant by day, Sun − Moon + ascendant by night, plus a sign unless the ascendant lies between them.
• Read the annual chart with the birth chart (Raman).

#Exercises

1. Birth ascendant Gemini, 25 completed years: where is the Muntha?
2. Is 120° a Tajika aspect? Is 30°?
3. Punya saham, day return: Moon 10° Aries, Sun 20° Pisces, ascendant 5° Cancer.

Answers: 1. 25 = 24 + 1: Cancer. 2. 120° (the 5th or 9th sign) is a friendly open aspect; 30° (the 2nd or 12th) is no aspect. 3. From Pisces (the Sun) forward to Aries (the Moon), Cancer is not between them, so a sign is added: 10° − 350° + 95° + 30° = −215° + 360° = 145°: Leo 25°.