Varahamihira: the Brihat Jataka, the Brihat Samhita and the Panchasiddhantika · Chapter 18 of 22 · Part Three · The Brihat Samhita

#Prices, kingship and portents

Brihat Samhita, chapters 41–51

These chapters show the samhita serving two clients: the merchant, who wants to know what will be cheap or dear, and the king, whose health, rites and campaigns were thought to decide the fortune of his people.

#Commodities and prices (41–42)

I shall now proceed to state the zodiacal division of commodities, adopting the views of the sages of the past, with a view to enable men to know beforehand what articles can be had in abundance and what will become dear (41.1).

Each sign governs certain goods: Aries, for example, cotton and woollen cloth, leather oil-jars, beans, wheat, millet, barley, dry crops and gold (41.2). The planets' movements through the signs then forecast plenty or scarcity.

Chapter 42 turns this into trading advice: from unusual phenomena — heavy rain, meteors, halos, eclipses — at the new or full moon of a given month, a merchant should buy certain produce and hold it until a stated time, then sell (42.1–9). This is astrology as commodity forecasting, sixth-century style.

#Indra's banner and the king's ceremonies (43–44)

• Indra's banner (Indradhvaja, 43): the myth of the gods given a banner by Vishnu to frighten the asuras (43.1–2), and the great annual festival of raising a banner-pole for the king's victory, with omens read from the ceremony.
• The lustration of arms (44): a purification of the army's weapons, horses and elephants after Vishnu "rises" from his sleep (the end of the rainy season), with instructions for building the ceremonial hall from particular woods (44.1–4).

#The wagtail (45)

The first sighting of the wagtail (khanjana) in the season, and where and on what it is seen, are read as omens for the king's march: some species are auspicious, others — with a dark spot on the neck, or yellow — forebode evil (45.1, 8).

#Portents (46–47)

I shall now proceed to state the laws relating to portents which Bhagavan Garga taught to Atri (46.1). Mankind, because of their sins, suffer misfortunes, and the approach of these is indicated by portents, stellar, atmospheric and terrestrial (46.2).

Portents (utpata) are unusual events: in the sky, in the air, on the earth — strange births, statues that weep, trees that flower out of season. Terrestrial portents can be averted by expiatory rites (46.5). Chapter 47, a "motley miscellany", gives further combinations of planets and nakshatras and their effects on rulers and regions (47.5–6).

Here the moral framework of the samhita is explicit: misfortunes follow sins, portents announce them, and rites can avert some of them.

#The king (48–50)

The king forms the root of the tree of society. As the society prospers or suffers according as the king is in a healthy or unhealthy condition of mind or body, he becomes an important subject for consideration (48.1).

• The royal bath (Pushya snana, 48): a purification of the king under the nakshatra Pushya, as "Vriddha Garga taught to Bhaguri" (48.2).
• The crown plate (patta, 49).
• The sword (50): the marks on a blade — shapes like a bilva tree, an umbrella, a lotus or a banner are auspicious; like a lizard, a crow or a scorpion, inauspicious (50.2, 8).

#Reading the questioner (51)

Angavidya ("knowledge of the limbs") teaches the astrologer to observe the direction, place, objects carried, gestures and words of a person who asks a question, and the time:

For the all-knowing Universal Intelligence pervading all movable and immovable objects indicates coming events by motions and casual words to devout souls who have faith in Him (51.1).

The chapter describes good and bad places to sit — under fruiting, flowering trees, near temples and pure water; not near cremation grounds, broken trees or barren ground (51.2–4) — and the meanings of the questioner touching parts of the body. This is the root of the omen-reading side of prashna.

#Summary

• The zodiac of commodities (41) and trading advice from phenomena at new and full moons (42).
• Royal rites: Indra's banner (43), the lustration of arms (44), the wagtail on the march (45), the royal bath, crown and sword (48–50).
• Portents announce misfortunes caused by sins; some can be averted by rites (46–47).
• "The king forms the root of the tree of society" (48.1).
• Reading a questioner's gestures, place and words (51).

#Exercises

1. What goods does Aries govern in the zodiac of commodities?
2. What does chapter 42 advise a merchant to do?
3. What is the moral idea behind the chapter on portents?
4. What does Varahamihira say about the king in 48.1?
5. What does the astrologer observe in Angavidya, and why?

Answers: 1. Cotton and woollen cloth, leather oil-jars, beans, wheat, millet, barley, dry crops and gold (41.2). 2. To buy certain produce after particular phenomena at the new or full moon and sell it later. 3. That misfortunes follow sins, portents announce them, and some can be averted by rites (46.2, 5). 4. That he is the root of the tree of society, so his health matters to all. 5. Direction, place, objects, gestures and words; because the universal intelligence indicates events through them (51.1).