Rama Daivajna: the Muhurta Chintamani · Chapter 3 of 3

#Exceptions, widowhood and the daily periods

#The exceptions (MC 6.32–37)

Most of the popular cancellations of matching faults are genuinely classical — they are in the Muhurta Chintamani itself:

• Bhakoot is cancelled if the two signs have the same lord (for example Aries and Scorpio), or if their lords are friends — provided the nadis differ (MC 6.32); failing that, if the navamsa lords are strong and friendly (6.32).
• Friendship of the sign lords, or of the navamsa lords, removes the gana fault (6.33); good bhakoot removes enmity of the lords, and friendship of the lords removes bad bhakoot (6.33).
• Same sign, different nakshatras, or same nakshatra, different signs: no nadi or gana fault (6.37); the same nakshatra in a different quarter is auspicious (6.37).
• The Pramitakshara quotes Garga: in the same sign with different nakshatras, it is very auspicious if the man's nakshatra comes first (on 6.37); and a rakshasa groom with a manushya bride is acceptable when bhakoot and graha friendship are good (on 6.30).
• The Muhurta Martanda adds that with graha friendship the 2/12 and 5/9 faults are good, and with six good parts even 6/8 (MM v.8); and that south of the Godavari a side-nadi match may be allowed when no other bride is available (MM v.8, commentary).

So a careful matching applies the exceptions as well as the faults. Modern calculators usually do not.

#Widowhood and Mars (MC 6.7)

Verse 6.7 deals with widowhood yogas in a girl's birth chart. Rama's commentary quotes a verse from an unnamed jataka work: Mars in the 2nd, 12th, 4th, 7th or 8th — the girl harms the husband, the husband the girl. This five-house list is one of the roots of the modern "Mangala dosha" (The Study of Jyotisha, chapter 41).

For such a yoga, verse 6.7 prescribes a ritual remedy: the father performs the Savitri vow with the girl, or, secretly, at a good moment, marries her to an image of Vishnu, a pippala tree or a pot; she is then given to a long-lived groom, and no fault of remarriage arises. This is the earliest textual source found for the "marriage to a tree or pot" (kumbha vivaha) still performed today. It is recorded here as history; this book does not recommend it.

#The short daily periods (MC 1.37–39)

Rama's rule for the inauspicious short periods differs from the "eighth-of-the-day" rule of the Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra and the Kalaprakasika. He takes Kulika, Kalavela, Yamaghanta and Kantaka as single short units: count from the weekday to Saturn, Mercury, Jupiter and Mars respectively, double the count, and take that numbered unit of the day; the Pramitakshara makes a unit one-sixteenth of the day (MC 1.37–39). The 1928 editor's note then quotes the eighth-part rule as well. Rahu kalam does not appear.

#Summary

• Classical exceptions cancel bhakoot (same or friendly lords, with different nadis), gana (friendly lords) and nadi (same sign, different nakshatras; same nakshatra, different signs) (MC 6.32–37); the Martanda adds more.
• MC 6.7 and its commentary give the five-house Mars verse and the ritual "marriage" to an image, tree or pot.
• Rama's short daily periods are one-sixteenth units, differently counted from the eighth-of-the-day rule (MC 1.37–39).

#Exercises

1. When is a bad bhakoot cancelled, by MC 6.32?
2. Two partners have their Moons in the same sign but different nakshatras. What does MC 6.37 say?
3. What five houses does the Mars verse in Rama's commentary name?
4. What remedy does MC 6.7 prescribe for a widowhood yoga?

Answers: 1. When the two signs have the same lord, or friendly lords provided the nadis differ. 2. There is no nadi or gana fault. 3. The 2nd, 12th, 4th, 7th and 8th. 4. The Savitri vow, or a secret "marriage" to an image of Vishnu, a pippala tree or a pot, before giving her to a long-lived groom.