Varahamihira: the Brihat Jataka, the Brihat Samhita and the Panchasiddhantika · Chapter 5 of 22 · Part Two · The Brihat Jataka

#The span of life

Brihat Jataka, chapters VI–VII

Two chapters of the Brihat Jataka deal with early death and the length of life. They were central to the old astrology. This chapter explains what they contain and how Varahamihira handled them, as history. It does not give the configurations in a form that could be used to frighten anyone, and no one should apply these methods to a real person: they disagree with one another, they have never been shown to work, and their predictions do harm.

#Chapter VI: dangers to the newborn

Chapter VI, Balarishta, lists configurations said to threaten a child's life in its early years. Most involve the Moon afflicted by malefics in the 6th, 8th or 12th houses, a waning Moon on the ascendant, an eclipse at birth, and malefics in the angles (VI.1–12).

It was written in a world where many children did die young. What happened to it next is instructive. Varahamihira's great commentator Bhattotpala attached a list of sixteen conditions that cancel these dangers (Aiyar's notes at the end of chapter VI), among them:

• a powerful Jupiter in the ascendant;
• a powerful ascendant lord aspected by benefics in angles;
• the Moon in the 8th but in a drekkana of Jupiter, Mercury or Venus;
• a full Moon in benefic signs between benefics;
• any of Mercury, Venus or Jupiter powerful in an angle;
• a benefic in an angle, or the lord of the Moon's sign in an angle;
• Rahu in the 3rd, 6th or 11th aspected by benefics;
• the full Moon aspected by all the planets.

With sixteen such escapes, most charts with a "dangerous" pattern also have a cancellation. The tradition's own practice was to look for the cancellations as carefully as for the dangers.

#Chapter VII: three methods for the span of life

#The planetary years (VII.1–8)

"According to Maya, Yavanacharya, Manittha and Parashara", each planet at its deepest exaltation gives a fixed number of years: the Sun 19, the Moon 25, Mars 15, Mercury 12, Jupiter 15, Venus 21, Saturn 20 (VII.1). Aiyar notes that these are savana years of 360 days.

The years are then reduced according to the planet's position (VII.2):

• at its deepest debilitation, a planet gives half; in between, in proportion;
• in an enemy's sign, it loses a third — except Mars;
• when combust, it loses half — except Saturn and Venus;
• the ascendant adds years according to the navamsas risen.

Further reductions follow for planets in the visible half of the chart (VII.3–4). The full span of human life is given as "120 years and 5 days" (VII.5).

#Jeevasarma's method (VII.9)

Jeevasarma gave every planet an equal share: one-seventh of the full span, about 17 years and 1 month each, reduced in the same ways. Varahamihira notes that in this view Jeevasarma "stands alone and is not supported by other authorities" (VII.9).

#Satyacharya's method (VII.10–12)

Satyacharya's method, called amsayu, works from the navamsas. Count the navamsas a planet has travelled from the start of Aries, divide by 12, and the remainder (with its fraction) is that planet's years — so no planet gives more than 12 (VII.9–10). The years are trebled if the planet is exalted or retrograde, and doubled if it is vargottama or in its own sign, navamsa or drekkana (VII.11).

#Varahamihira's choice (VII.13)

In the matter of ayurdaya, the method of Satyacharya (known as amsayurdaya) is the best (VII.13).

He answers an objection to it — that a planet's years would be multiplied many times over — by ruling that only the largest multiplier applies (VII.13).

#What this shows

These chapters show Varahamihira as a careful compiler: he names his sources, sets out three methods, states his preference and defends it. They also show the weakness of the whole enterprise. Three methods for one quantity, with no agreed way to choose; later, according to Aiyar, Parashara's work "has treated of 32 distinct processes" (notes after chapter IX). When methods multiply like this, the question of which is right has no answer.

The full span of "120 years" survives in another form: it is the length of the Vimshottari dasha cycle.

#Summary

• Chapter VI lists dangers to the newborn; Bhattotpala added sixteen cancellations.
• Chapter VII gives three methods for the span of life: the planetary years (Sun 19, Moon 25, Mars 15, Mercury 12, Jupiter 15, Venus 21, Saturn 20) with reductions (VII.1–8); Jeevasarma's equal shares (VII.9); Satyacharya's navamsa method (VII.10–12), which Varahamihira calls the best (VII.13).
• The full span is 120 years and 5 days (VII.5).
• These methods disagree and are not applied to anyone today.

#Exercises

1. What did Bhattotpala add to chapter VI, and what does it show about the tradition?
2. Which planets lose nothing for combustion in the planetary-years method?
3. Whose method does Varahamihira call the best?
4. Why can't the length of life be predicted reliably by these methods?

Answers: 1. Sixteen cancellations of the dangers; that the tradition looked as carefully for cancellations as for dangers. 2. Saturn and Venus (VII.2). 3. Satyacharya's navamsa method (VII.13). 4. Because there are several methods (three here, thirty-two in Parashara by Aiyar's count) that give different answers, with no agreed way to choose, and none has been shown to work.