Varahamihira: the Brihat Jataka, the Brihat Samhita and the Panchasiddhantika · Chapter 7 of 22 · Part Two · The Brihat Jataka

#The eightfold points

Brihat Jataka, chapter IX

Chapter IX sets out the ashtakavarga, "the eightfold division": for each planet, the places (counted from eight reference points) where it is well placed. The chapter is short — eight verses — and the whole system is in them.

#The benefic places (IX.1–7)

For each planet, Varahamihira lists its benefic places counted from each of eight sources: the seven planets and the ascendant. For example, the Sun's:

The benefic places of the Sun are the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th houses from himself; the same houses from Mars and Saturn; the 6th, 7th and 12th from Venus; the 5th, 6th, 9th and 11th from Jupiter; the 3rd, 6th, 10th and 11th from the Moon; the 3rd, 5th, 6th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th from Mercury; and the 3rd, 4th, 6th, 10th, 11th and 12th from the ascendant (IX.1).

Verses 2 to 7 give the same for the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn. The complete table (each number is a house counted from the source, the source's own sign being 1):

(Brihat Jataka IX.1–7. The totals are Aiyar's, notes to IX; they always add up to 337.)

#How to use the table

To make a planet's table for a chart: from each of the eight sources, mark a point in each of the signs listed; then count the points in each sign (0 to 8). A sign with many points is a good place for that planet in this chart; one with few, a poor one.

#The rule for transits (IX.8)

Thus have been described the benefic places of the planets; the other places are malefic. A place will produce benefic or malefic effects if it be more benefic for the planet than malefic, or vice versa (IX.8).

Each sign has eight possible points. A planet passing through a sign where its own table has more than four points brings good; fewer than four, bad.

The verse adds a qualification: the good effects come fully when the sign is also an upachaya house (3rd, 6th, 10th, 11th from the ascendant — and, according to the commentator Devakirti, from the Moon), or the planet's own, friendly or exaltation sign; and the bad effects come fully when the sign is one of the other houses, or the planet's enemy's or debilitation sign (IX.8 with Aiyar's notes). Aiyar's example: Mars passing through Capricorn, an upachaya and its exaltation sign, gives its good effects fully even though its table there has only two points.

#Dots and lines

Aiyar notes that in drawing up these tables "it is usual to mark the benefic places with dots and the malefic places with lines" (note to IX.8). Later books reverse this convention. Always check which is meant.

#What Aiyar's notes add

Varahamihira's chapter ends at verse 8. Aiyar adds long notes from later works:

• Reductions (shodhana): the triangle reduction and the same-lord reduction, with their rules, used to compute a single number (pinda) for the old methods of longevity.
• The total table (sarvashtakavarga): the sum of the seven tables, always 337. Signs with more than 30 points are good for planets passing through them, 25–30 middling, under 25 bad; and the effort–gain rule for the 10th, 11th and 12th houses ("labour slight, gain much, loss small").
• Rules using the totals to time events of life, including death — material this book, like the course, treats as history.

These notes are later material, not Varahamihira's.

#Summary

• Each planet's benefic places are counted from eight sources — the seven planets and the ascendant (IX.1–7); the totals are Sun 48, Moon 49, Mars 39, Mercury 54, Jupiter 56, Venus 52, Saturn 39, all 337.
• A transit through a sign with more benefic than malefic points of the planet's own table is good (IX.8), most fully in upachayas and friendly or exaltation signs.
• The reductions, the total table and its thresholds come from Aiyar's notes, from later works.

#Exercises

1. From which sources does the Sun get benefic places in the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th houses?
2. How many benefic places does Venus have in total? Jupiter?
3. A planet's table has 5 points in a sign. Is its transit there good or bad?
4. When are the good effects of a transit felt fully, according to IX.8?
5. Which parts of the usual ashtakavarga doctrine are Varahamihira's, and which come from later works?

Answers: 1. From itself, Mars and Saturn (IX.1). 2. Venus 52; Jupiter 56. 3. Good: more than four of eight. 4. When the sign is also an upachaya, or the planet's own, friendly or exaltation sign. 5. The benefic places and the transit rule are his (IX.1–8); the reductions, the total table and its thresholds are from later works, in Aiyar's notes.