Planets, Signs, Year Entry

Saturn is lord of skin, flesh and hair. The Sun is lord of marrow and bones. Mars is lord of blood, Venus of semen, the Moon of fat.

The Sun, Venus, Mars and Rahu. Saturn, the Moon, Mercury and Jupiter. These are the lords of the directions from the east on.

The Sun, Moon and Jupiter are called sattva (the pure, calm quality). Mercury and Venus have rajas (the restless, active quality). Rahu, Mars and Saturn are said to be made of tamas (the dark, heavy quality).

Chandeshvara gives the marks of vinashta (ruined) and the other planet states. A planet may be looked at by a papa (bad planet), or joined with one. It may be overcome by a bad planet, or be without rays. Such a planet is vinashta. The detail is set out here.

The Sun and the Moon, when their bodies are seized by Rahu. A planet beaten by a papa (bad planet), or even one standing in the same sign [with it]. One joined with a bad planet in the same degree. Such a planet is called papakranta (overcome by a bad planet).

The one that looks with a full drishti (a planet's look), with no gap between, is to be known as papasandrishta (looked at by a bad planet). One that stands within the Sun is rashmihina (without rays).

Next, the use of the planet natures. Here: knowing caste, brahmin and so on. Knowing age, old and so on. Knowing dwelling, village and so on. Knowing nature, vata (the wind humour) and so on. Knowing shape, square and so on. Knowing male and female.

The use is this. Someone asks: by whom will my work be done this year? Then the work should be known [to be done] by a certain person. He is of the same caste and so on as the lord of the year's lagna (rising sign). Or by one of the same caste and so on as the year lord.

Knowing tastes, pungent and so on. This is said in lines such as: 'The planet in the 4th and its dwelling. On the day of the meal one should tell the taste.'

Gold and other goods are named for meanings like this. In the year, a strong planet's goods are gained, and a weak planet's goods are lost.

Morning and the other times are named to know the time, in judging meals.

The use of planet colours: to know this. In the year, things of a strong planet's colour are gained. Things of a weak planet's colour are lost.

Other things too should be known in the same way. Thus the nature of the planets.

Now, finding the time of the year's entry. Yadava has given the way to work it out. Take the current Shaka (Indian era) year. Take away the Shaka year of birth. That gives the years gone. Put them down in four places. Multiply them by the dhruva (fixed yearly figure) numbers 1, 15, 31 and 30.

Add the birth weekday, ghatika (24-minute unit) and pala (24-second unit). Carry every sixty up to the next place, up into the days. Divide by seven and keep the remainder. Read from the days down, this is the time the year comes in.

Here an easy way is told by the revered astrologer Nilakantha, crest jewel of all astrologers, our guru's elder brother. The same verse is in Tajika Nilakanthi 1.16, with our English meaning there.

Another way is given in the Grahajnabharana. Take the chosen Shaka year less the birth Shaka year. Put it in three places: with a quarter added, halved, and with a half added. Then add the birth weekday and the rest. This gives the exact time of the year's entry.

In this way the Tajika authors have given many methods based on the year dhruva (fixed yearly figure). They serve no purpose here. The book would also grow too long. So they are not written.

Next, for a night birth, the Tajikalankara gives a special rule for adding the time. When the birth is at night, take the night's ghatika (24-minute unit), pala (24-second unit) and the rest. Add the day length to them. Add these to the weekday gone. Here the weekday counts as the one gone.

Or, for a night birth: add the night ghatikas (24-minute unit) gone to the ghatikas from the year total. Then make the year lagna (rising sign) exact from the Sun plus six signs. This is because the ghatikas gone are counted from sunset. Or else: take the ghatikas and the rest from the year total as the chosen time. Take the birth lagna as the Sun. The lagna that comes out is the lagna of the year's entry.

In this way, people like me, taught by the revered astrologer Rama, emperor of all reckoners, can add many refinements. But for fear of length, they are left as a question [for the reader].

Note this here. The birth may come after the start of Chaitra (the first lunar month), with the Sun still in Pisces. Then take the Shaka (Indian era) year before as the birth Shaka. In the same way, the Sun may equal the birth Sun after the start of Chaitra but before Aries begins. Then take the year before as the chosen Shaka. After Aries begins, take the next Shaka.

Otherwise [with lunar years], an adhimasa (extra lunar month) may come. Then the Sun equal to the birth Sun can sometimes come twice in one lunar year. The weekday and the rest of those two years should then differ. But they would not, since the years gone are the same. In the same way, take the year after a year with an adhimasa. There the Sun may equal the birth Sun only after the lunar year has passed. Then the weekday and the rest would be off by one year's weekday and the rest. So the Shaka should be taken to start at the start of the solar year.

Here is a point to know. The year's entry falls in the very month in which the Sun equals the birth Sun.

And it is said: Look in the almanac of tithis (moon days) and the rest. The month is the one in which the Sun equals the birth Sun.

There, the Sun equal to the birth Sun may not come in the birth month. If it comes in the month after or before, take the birth month less one or plus one.

Next, the proof of the year dhruva (fixed yearly figure). Here the start of the year must be found, and it is solar only.

And it is said in the Siddhanta Shiromani: 'The year, ayana (half-year), season, yuga (age of the world) and the rest are solar here'. And: 'The Sun's passing through the circle is called the solar year'. He himself says so. So a solar year is the Sun's passing through the whole circle of signs. The Sun's true motion is uneven. So one asks: when will the solar year begin? It is seen directly. On the day the Sun equals the Sun at birth, the round is complete. So the year has begun there. The way to know this [follows].

If the solar years of a kalpa (the great world-age) give the savana (sunrise-to-sunrise) days of a kalpa, how many for one year? So one year has these savana days: 365; 15; 31; 30. Only the weekday is needed, so sevens are cast out from the top. This gives 0 1; 15; 31; 30. Now a proportion. If one year has these savana days, how many do the years of life gone have? So multiply the years gone by this dhruva (fixed yearly figure), 0 1; 15; 31; 30, in four places. Divide by one. The result is the savana days counted from the time of birth. The birth weekday and the rest are added to this. This is done to know the day, ghatika (24-minute unit) and pala (24-second unit) of the year's entry. Here palas and ghatikas carry up by sixties into each higher place. The birth palas and ghatikas are never over sixty. So the days made are only to be cast out by seven. That is why 'cast out sevens' was said. When this is done, the year starts exactly on that day with its parts. So it is proved.

Next, finding the next year's entry from one year's entry. Add 1, 15, 31 and 30 to the weekday and the rest. This gives the next year's entry, with its month and day. Add 11 to the tithi (moon day).

One may ask: besides the solar year there are savana (sunrise-to-sunrise), lunar, nakshatra (star) and Jupiter years. So why is the year's entry told by solar measure only? The answer: savana and lunar years are left out. In them the Sun or the Moon does not come back to the same place.

By Jupiter's measure, at the chosen Jupiter year, Jupiter matches the mean Jupiter of birth in degrees. Even so, the sign does not match, so it is left out. At the end of a nakshatra (star) year the Moon matches. Even so, [the solar year is taken]. For in the solar year the Sun matches in sign, degree, minute and second. The Sun leads the planets and gives them light.

So the year's entry is rightly made by solar measure only. The Siddhanta says, 'The year, ayana (half-year), season, yuga (age of the world) and the rest are solar here'. The old Tajika says, 'As far as the Sun is at birth...'. The Surya Siddhanta also says, 'A year is twelve months'. And the old Tajika says, 'By the year Sun's degree, as for the year, the wise tell the ... month result'. So the month's entry too is made by solar measure only. (Our text is unclear here: the word before 'month' reads 'with eight', which does not fit.)

One may object. The Siddhanta says, 'Months and tithis (moon days) go by the Moon'. So in a month's entry the lunar month is the main one. No. In a solar month's entry, the Sun's degree matching is the marker. There is nothing like that for a lunar month's entry.

Or else: with an adhimasa (extra lunar month), there would be thirteen months. Then the Surya Siddhanta's words given before, and common use, would be broken. So the settled view is this. The entry of the month, the day and the rest is made by solar measure only.

Now, at the year's entry, work out the Sun by the siddhanta (planet-maths text), karana (short handbook for planet maths) and the rest one has studied. That Sun is surely equal to the Sun at birth. This alone is the proof of the year's entry time.

And Samarasimha has said: The true [Sun] stands in the year just as far as the Sun stood at birth.

The revered astrologer Nilakantha has also said: '...because the Sun at that time equals the birth Sun.'

In this way, the correction of the year-entry time so found is given by Haribhatta in the Tajikasara. The Sun of the year may not equal the birth Sun. Then take the difference between them, multiplied by its speed. Take the result off the ghatikas (24-minute unit) and palas (24-second unit) of the year's entry, or add it. Take it off when the birth Sun is less than the year Sun. Add it when the birth Sun is more. In this way the year time becomes exact.

Ganesha the astrologer, who lived in Parthapura, also gave it in the Tajikabhushana. The Sun at the year time may not come equal, to the minute, to the Sun at birth time. Then take the difference between them, divided by the motion. Add it or take it off. This is to be done in the year dhruva (fixed yearly figure). From that, it becomes exact.

Here the time correction is told because the year Sun and the birth Sun do not match. But take the karana (short handbook for planet maths) one has studied. By it, the true birth Sun is corrected for one's own place, east-west and north-south. The yearly true Sun is corrected by that karana for longitude and the rest. Then it is surely equal to the birth Sun. Then the match is ... (Our text is unclear here: the last word, telling how the match is shown, cannot be read.)

Here let the long-lived [reader] clear his own doubt by working it on the dust board too. On this reckoning, the month entry of the great lord Shri Shah Shuja is now worked out and written. The crest jewels of all kings honour his lotus feet with lamps. He is the Indra of the earth.

So correcting the time is not right.

Now suppose someone says this. The dhruva (fixed yearly figure) was found by the proportion given before. It comes from the mean revolutions of a kalpa (the great world-age). So this sayana (tropical) dhruva is also mean, like a mean planet. So the year time found from it is also mean. So a mean-to-true correction is surely right.

That too is not so. At the end of a solar year the gains and losses even out. So the mean and the true sayana (tropical) [values] are equal. So the sayana dhruva (fixed yearly figure) inside the solar year, cast out by sevens, is already true. The year start found from it is surely true too. What is true needs no second correction.

For this very reason Samarasimha spoke as he did. Among the Tajika authors he is set in the seat of a sage. In the verse 'As far as the Sun at birth', he spoke of the true Sun matching. He did this with no correction of the year time. He did not speak of the mean Sun matching. So the time correction made by Haribhatta and Ganesha the astrologer is not right.

But this must be noted here. The ayanamsha (the zodiac shift) moves one minute each year. When much time has passed since birth, the ayanamsha changes the rising times and the day-length differences. Then the year Sun does not equal the birth Sun. This holds even when it is corrected by that karana (short handbook for planet maths) for these, and for longitude and the rest. For that, find the difference by proportion.

It goes like this. The minutes of the Sun's true daily motion give sixty ghatikas (24-minute unit). Then what do the minutes of the Sun's difference give? Correct the year-entry time by the result found. So take the year Sun corrected by that karana (short handbook for planet maths) for longitude and bhujantara (time correction for the Sun's uneven motion). Correct it also for the rising difference from the chosen ayanamsha (the zodiac shift). Correct it also for the chara (day-length difference) of that time, from that place's palabha (noon shadow at the equinox). If it then still does not equal the birth Sun, only then is the time corrected. Otherwise not. This is the settled view.

The revered astrologer Nilakantha did not tell this, as the difference is very small. So there is no fault at all.

Next, finding the tithi (moon day) at the year's entry, told in the Paddhatibhushana. Multiply the years gone by 11. Add a 26th part [of the years gone] to it. Add one's own birth tithi too. Cast out thirties. The remainder is the tithi. Sometimes it is one less or one more.

Finding the nakshatra (star) and the yoga (one of the 27 daily Sun-Moon yogas) is told in the Tajikasara. Multiply the years gone by 10. Take off their 240th part. Put this in two places. Add the birth nakshatra to one and the birth yoga to the other. Cast out 27s. This gives the nakshatra and the yoga.

Finding the lagna (rising sign) is told in the Paddhati. Multiply the years gone by 3. Add a tenth of the years. Add the birth lagna. Divide by 12. The lagna is equal to the remainder. The most honoured [teachers] have said this as a rough rule.

The tithi (moon day), nakshatra (star) and yoga (one of the 27 daily Sun-Moon yogas) found here mostly do not come out as those of the year-entry day itself.

And it is said in the Sudhanidhi: In the year, certainty always comes from the weekday, in every case. Through the tithi (moon day), nakshatra (star) and yoga (one of the 27 daily Sun-Moon yogas) it should be known. For the nakshatra and yoga, it is only an estimate.

Know that the lagna (rising sign) too comes out [right] only near the time.