Parashara: the Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra · Chapter 5 of 9

#Good and bad lords, and the yogas

The BPHS's most influential contribution is its system of lordship: judging a planet by the houses it rules in a particular chart.

#Good and bad lords (BPHS 34.2–15)

• Lords of the trikonas (1st, 5th, 9th) are good; the ascendant lord especially.
• Natural benefics that rule kendras lose their goodness; natural malefics that rule kendras lose their harm.
• Lords of the 3rd, 6th and 11th are bad.
• Lords of the 8th and 12th act according to their associations; the 8th lordship is not bad for the Sun or Moon; an 8th lord that also rules the 3rd, 7th or 11th is especially harmful, and one that also rules a trikona is good.
• Natural benefics are Jupiter and Venus; the Moon is mildly benefic; Mercury takes the nature of its company; the Sun, Saturn and Mars are natural malefics.

#The raja yoga of kendra and trikona (BPHS 34.11–17)

A kendra lord and a trikona lord together form a yoga when they exchange signs, are joined in a kendra or trikona, sit in each other's houses, or aspect each other fully. A single planet that rules both a kendra and a trikona is a yogakaraka. The link is spoiled if either lord also rules a difficult house. Rahu or Ketu in a kendra or trikona, linked with such a lord, also becomes a yogakaraka (34.16–17).

The chapter then lists, for each ascendant, its good and bad planets and its yoga-givers (34.19–44): for Taurus, Saturn gives raja yoga; for Cancer, Mars is the full yogakaraka; for Libra, the Moon and Mercury; for Capricorn and Aquarius, Venus alone; for Pisces, Mars and Jupiter together.

#The Nabhasa yogas (BPHS 35)

The same thirty-two shape yogas as Varahamihira's (Varahamihira Book, chapter 10): the three support yogas (Rajju, Musala, Nala), the two petal yogas (Mala, Sarpa), the twenty shape yogas and the seven number yogas (Gola to Vina), formed by all seven planets (not the nodes). A number yoga does not apply when another Nabhasa yoga does (35.16–17), and their effects operate through all periods (35.50).

#Named yogas (BPHS 36)

Among many:

• Gajakesari: Jupiter in a kendra from the ascendant or the Moon, joined or aspected by a benefic, not debilitated, combust or in an enemy's sign.
• Amala: only a benefic in the 10th from the ascendant or the Moon.
• Parvata: benefics in kendras, with the 7th and 8th empty or holding only benefics.
• Lakshmi: the 9th lord in a kendra in its own, moolatrikona or exaltation sign, with a strong ascendant lord.
• Khadga: the 2nd and 9th lords in exchange, the ascendant lord in a kendra or trikona.
• Lagnadhi: benefics in the 7th and 8th from the ascendant, without malefic contact.
• and Kahala, Chamara, Shankha, Bheri, Mridanga, Shrinatha, Matsya, Kurma, Kusuma, Kalanidhi, Kalpadruma, Hari, Hara, Brahma and others.

#The Moon's and the Sun's yogas (BPHS 37–38)

• The Moon in a kendra, panaphara or apoklima from the Sun gives little, middling or excellent wealth and skill; benefics in the 6th, 7th and 8th from the Moon give Adhi yoga; benefics in the upachayas from the Moon give wealth (37).
• Sunapha, Anapha, Durudhara: a planet other than the Sun in the 2nd, 12th or both from the Moon; Kemadruma: none there, and none with the Moon or in a kendra from the ascendant (37).
• Vesi, Vosi, Ubhayachari: a planet other than the Moon in the 2nd, 12th or both from the Sun; good or bad according to the planets (38).

#Raja yogas (BPHS 39)

Judged from both the ascendant and the karakamsa (chapter 6): for example, the 1st and 5th lords in exchange; the 5th and 9th lords joined or in mutual aspect; the lords of the 6th, 8th and 12th weakened while a strong ascendant lord aspects the ascendant (the root of the later "viparita" yoga); one to three planets exalted giving rank to the royal-born, four or five to anyone, six an emperor; birth near noon or midnight.

#Royal service, wealth and poverty (BPHS 40–42)

• Royal service (40): from links between the 10th lord and the amatyakaraka (chapter 6).
• Wealth (41): particular planets in their own signs in the 5th or 1st, joined or aspected by others; the lords of the 5th and 9th, and planets joined with them, give wealth in their periods.
• Poverty (42): the ascendant lord in the 12th with the 12th lord in the ascendant joined to a killer-lord; and others. Mars and Saturn in the 2nd ruin wealth — but Mercury's aspect turns it to great wealth; the Sun in the 2nd aspected by Saturn brings poverty, without that aspect riches.

#The five great persons (BPHS 75.1–2)

Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus or Saturn in its own or exaltation sign in a kendra from the ascendant gives Ruchaka, Bhadra, Hamsa, Malavya or Sasa — with detailed portraits in the rest of the chapter.

#Summary

• Trikona lords good; kendra lords neutralised; 3rd, 6th, 11th lords bad; 8th and 12th by association (34.2–15).
• A kendra lord linked to a trikona lord makes a raja yoga; one planet ruling both is a yogakaraka (34.11–15); yoga-givers listed for each ascendant (34.19–44).
• Nabhasa yogas (35); named yogas such as Gajakesari, Amala, Lakshmi (36); Moon and Sun yogas (37–38).
• Raja, royal-service, wealth and poverty yogas (39–42); the five great persons (75).

#Exercises

1. For a Leo ascendant, is Mars a yogakaraka? Why?
2. What spoils a kendra–trikona link?
3. Define Gajakesari by the BPHS.
4. What turns Mars and Saturn in the 2nd from poverty to wealth, by BPHS 42?
5. Which planet in which signs gives Hamsa?

Answers: 1. Yes: it rules the 4th (Scorpio) and 9th (Aries), a kendra and a trikona. 2. Either lord also ruling a difficult house (6th, 8th or 12th). 3. Jupiter in a kendra from the ascendant or the Moon, joined or aspected by a benefic, and not debilitated, combust or in an enemy's sign. 4. Mercury's aspect. 5. Jupiter in Sagittarius, Pisces (own) or Cancer (exaltation), in a kendra from the ascendant.