Astroज्योतिष

Today's teaching

“Wealth is the star for wealth; what will the stars do?”
— Kautilya, Arthashastra IX.4

Library · Teachers · Varahamihira of Ujjain · 6th century CE

Varahamihira: the Brihat Jataka, the Brihat Samhita and the Panchasiddhantika

All of Varahamihira's teaching in one place, in his own order: his book of horoscopy chapter by chapter, his great encyclopaedia of the sky, weather, omens and arts, and his summary of the five astronomies — explained in plain English from Chidambaram Iyer's and Thibaut's translations, every rule cited to its verse. 22 chapters, 23,575 words.

Part One · The man

  1. Varahamihira and his worksWho Varahamihira was, in his own words; his works on all three branches of Jyotisha; the translations used in this book; and the habits of mind — reporting, citing, testing, admitting doubt — that make him worth reading today.793 words

Part Two · The Brihat Jataka

  1. The signs, divisions and housesBrihat Jataka I: the invocation and the 'small boat', what hora means, the signs as the body of Time, their shapes, lords, Greek names, natures and directions; the six divisions; exaltation, vargottama and moolatrikona; and the twelve houses with their names and strengths.1,372 words
  2. The planetsBrihat Jataka II: the planets as the soul, mind and powers of Time; their names, colours, deities, directions, sexes, elements, classes, temperaments and bodies; the benefics and malefics; aspects; friendships in two versions; and the kinds of strength.1,278 words
  3. Animals, plants, conception and birthBrihat Jataka III–V: horoscopes for animals, birds and trees; the old astrology of conception and pregnancy, with its embryology; and the reading of the circumstances of birth — the place, the house, the lamp, the midwives — from the chart. Explained as the history it is.1,204 words
  4. The span of lifeBrihat Jataka VI–VII as history: the dangers to a newborn and the sixteen cancellations his commentator added; the three methods of calculating the span of life, their reductions, Varahamihira's choice among them — and why they are not applied to anyone today.897 words
  5. The periods of lifeBrihat Jataka VIII: Varahamihira's own system of planetary periods — their order by strength and position, the sub-periods shared by linked planets, the grades of a period by the planet's condition, the natural periods, how to tell good periods from bad, what each planet's period brings, and his rules for conflicting indications.1,255 words
  6. The eightfold pointsBrihat Jataka IX: the ashtakavarga in full — every planet's benefic places counted from the eight sources, the fixed totals, the transit rule of verse 8 and its qualifications, and what Aiyar's notes add (the reductions, the total table, its uses).1,276 words
  7. LivelihoodBrihat Jataka X: how a person earns a living — the source of wealth from the planets in the 10th, the kind of work from the navamsa lords of the three 10th lords, and the conditions that modify them, with a worked example.755 words
  8. The birth of kingsBrihat Jataka XI: the royal yogas — the disagreement over exalted malefics, the combinatorial yogas of exalted planets and vargottama, the sample charts, the rule that the same yoga makes a king of the royal-born and a rich man of others, the timing of royal fortune, and an impossible yoga Varahamihira reports anyway.1,086 words
  9. The shapes of the skyBrihat Jataka XII: the thirty-two Nabhasa yogas formed by the whole chart's shape — the arithmetic riddle that counts them, the Yavanas' 1,800, the support, petal, shape and number yogas, the rules of precedence, the results, and Varahamihira's objection to an impossible yoga.1,161 words
  10. The Moon, pairs of planets, and the asceticBrihat Jataka XIII–XV: the yogas round the Moon (its distance from the Sun, Adhi, Sunapha, Anapha, Durudhura, Kemadruma and its cancellations, the wealth yoga), the results of every pair of planets in one sign, and the ascetic yogas with the religious orders of sixth-century India.1,207 words
  11. The Moon and the planets in the signsBrihat Jataka XVI–XIX: portraits of a person by the Moon's nakshatra and sign (two chapters added later from Varahamihira's other works), the planets in each sign, and the Moon aspected by each planet in each sign and navamsa — with the rule that decides how fully they come true.910 words
  12. Planets in the houses and divisionsBrihat Jataka XX–XXII: every planet in every house, with the rules that scale the results by dignity; the planets in the divisions (horas, drekkanas, navamsas, trimsamsas); and the 'helping planets', the happy middle years and when a planet gives its effects within a sign.1,302 words
  13. Difficult yogas, women's charts and deathBrihat Jataka XXIII–XXV, as history: the 'malefic yogas' for marriage, illness and misfortune; the chapter on women's charts and its opening principle; and the chapter on the manner and place of death — what they contain, how they reflect their age, and why they are not used on anyone today.705 words
  14. Lost horoscopes, the drekkanas, and the conclusionBrihat Jataka XXVI–XXVIII: reconstructing a lost birth chart from the moment of a question, with arithmetic rules using the shadow of a gnomon and the letters of a name; the thirty-six drekkana figures inherited from the Egyptian decans; and Varahamihira's conclusion — his contents, his other works, his request for correction and his own life.1,016 words

Part Three · The Brihat Samhita

  1. The astronomer and the skyBrihat Samhita 1–20: why Varahamihira judged books by their content rather than their author, the ideal astronomer, the moving solstices, the Sun, the Moon, the eclipses explained, the planets and Jupiter's sixty-year cycle, comets, Canopus, the Seven Sages, the map of India in the stars, and planetary conjunctions.1,394 words
  2. Rain, wind and the earthBrihat Samhita 21–40: forecasting the monsoon from the 'pregnancy' of clouds and the days of wind, measuring rain with a gauge, the Moon's conjunctions with Rohini and the Ashadhas, winds and signs of immediate rain, crops foretold from trees, twilights, earthquakes, meteors, halos, the rainbow explained, mirages, parhelia and dust storms.1,066 words
  3. Prices, kingship and portentsBrihat Samhita 41–51: the zodiac of commodities and the forecasting of prices, the festival of Indra's banner and the king's ceremonies, the wagtail on the royal march, portents and their expiation, the royal bath, crown and sword, and the reading of a questioner's gestures.872 words
  4. Building, arts, gems and featuresBrihat Samhita 52–85: the practical knowledge of the samhita — house-building and the Vastu Purusha, finding underground water, gardening and the planting of trees, temples, cements and images (with units of measure built up from the atom), the signs of good animals, the features of men and women and the five great persons, women and household arts, perfumes, gems, lamps and more.1,135 words
  5. OmensBrihat Samhita 86–96: the science of omens for travellers — its sources, the classes of omen-creatures, the eight quarters and three-hour watches that decide whether an omen is good, the cries of birds and animals, and the stable and unstable omens for those who stay at home.655 words
  6. Times, marriage and transitsBrihat Samhita 97–106: when the effects of omens fall due, the nakshatras and their deities and uses, the tithis and karanas, the times and charts for marriage, the Moon in each nakshatra at birth, the planets' transits from the Moon with Varahamihira's limiting rules and remedies, the Star-Person, and his closing invitation to severe critics.1,185 words

Part Four · The Panchasiddhantika

  1. The five astronomiesThe Panchasiddhantika: Varahamihira's summary of five astronomical systems — two of Western origin — his ranking of them, his corrections to make calculation agree with observation, the shape of the Earth and the sphere, eclipses, his notes on rival astronomers including Aryabhata, and his generous last word on criticism.1,051 words

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