Planets, Signs, Year Entry

Next, the short results of the panchanga (almanac) at the year's entry, told in the Trailokyaprakasha. The tithis (moon days) Nanda, Bhadra, Jaya and Purna (the tithi groups) are held to give good. The tithis from the 12th on, and the rikta (empty tithi), are not good at the year's entry.

Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday: these four weekdays are best. Tuesday, Sunday and Saturday bring loss and fear in the year.

Ashvini, Mrigashira, Hasta, Pushya, Punarvasu, Svati and Revati bring good at the year's entry.

Krittika, Rohini, Ardra, Jyeshtha, the star named Mula, Shravana and Anuradha are middling. So are the three Purvas and the three Uttaras.

Bharani, Magha, Chitra, Vishakha, Shatataraka (Shatabhisha), Dhanishtha and Ashlesha are said to be very bad at the year's entry. In a bad yoga (one of the 27 daily Sun-Moon yogas), and in vishti (bad half of a moon day), the year's entry is not good.

A special rule is told here in the Dipika. In the birth month, a person's birth tithi (moon day) may surely come joined with the birth nakshatra (star). Then from that very day on, he always has freedom from illness, good fortune and happiness.

A person's birthday may fall on the day of Saturn or of Mars, with no nakshatra (star) joined to it. Then he meets obstacles at every step.

Anriksha means 'not a nakshatra (star)'. Kritanta means Saturn.

The good and bad results of the lagna (rising sign) are told in the Hayanasundara. The lagna may be joined with good planets and be gentle itself, with the year lord's look on it. Then illness, worry and troubles end. There is wealth of children, wife and the rest.

There is gain of lands, ground and money. He is a giver, enjoys life, and is dear to the king. He is gentle, and his mind is broad. When the year lagna (rising sign) is good, [the year is] good.

The year [lagna] may be harsh, joined with harsh planets, with a harsh lord's look on it. Then there may be illness, worry, fear, sorrow, fever, loss and poverty.

There may be loss of rule, low spirits, and quarrels with one's own kin in the family. He may lose his place. When the year lagna (rising sign) is bad, [the year is] bad.

Next, for knowing good and bad results at the year's entry, the Samudra chakra (sea wheel) is told in the Vishnuyamala. Draw four lines there, across and upright. Write the nakshatras (stars) from Krittika on. Start from the eastern sea and go round to the left.

The middle ones are called the seas. The shores are on the two sides of each sea. The four corners are the mountains, in order in the corner directions from the east.

Put three nakshatras (stars) in each sea and one in each shore box. Put two in each corner. Starting from the middle, [these are] the twenty-eight stars.

Where the birth nakshatra (star) falls, from that one gets the year's result. The months come from the year, and the days from the months.

In a sea, a person meets sorrow. On a shore, happiness. On a mountain, he gains wealth. If the year falls in the birth nakshatra (star), there too is sorrow. So it is said in the Vishnu Tantra.

The chart shows the Samudra chakra (sea wheel): which nakshatras (stars) sit in its seas, shores and mountains. Top row, left corner: a mountain, Punarvasu and Pushya. Next, a shore: Ardra. Next, a sea: Mrigashira, Rohini and Krittika. Next, a shore: Bharani. Right corner: a mountain, Ashvini and Revati. Left side, top to bottom: a shore, Ashlesha. Then a sea: Magha, Purva Phalguni and Uttara Phalguni. Then a shore: Hasta. Bottom row, left corner: a mountain, Chitra and Svati. Next, a shore: Vishakha. Next, a sea: Anuradha, Jyeshtha and Mula. Next, a shore: Purva Ashadha. Right corner: a mountain, Uttara Ashadha and Abhijit. Right side, top to bottom: a shore, Uttara Bhadrapada. Then a sea: Dhanishtha, Shatabhisha and Purva Bhadrapada. Then a shore: Shravana. The middle reads 'Samudra chakra'.

Next, for knowing good and bad results at the year's entry, the tripataka chakra (three-flag wheel drawn from the year lagna) is told in the Muktavali. Draw three lines across and three upright, with tips crossing one another from corner to corner. The wise call this the tripataka chakra. From the year lagna at the tip of the eastern middle line...

...set out the circle of signs there. Add one to the number of years gone. Divide by nine. Count the remainder from the birth Moon's sign. Write the Moon in the sign so reached.

For the other planets, divide by four. Write them at the place matching the remainder, counting from their own sign. If the Moon is struck by Rahu, there is hardship. If it is struck by the Sun, there is distress. If it is struck by Saturn, there is illness.

If it is struck by Mars, the body suffers. If it is struck by good planets, there is victory, comfort and gain. Here the wise should tell the year's result from the strength of the good and bad planets.

In the wheel, the sign Aries is only a marker. Put the lagna (rising sign) of the year in the place of Aries.

The table shows the tripataka chakra (three-flag wheel drawn from the year lagna) told above, with its twelve points. Its title reads: "The tripataka chakra told above." Top side: left point 2, middle point 1, right point 12. Left side: upper point 3, middle point 4, lower point 5. Bottom side: left point 6, middle point 7, right point 8. Right side: lower point 9, middle point 10, upper point 11. The drawing has three upright and three flat lines. Slanting lines cross them and make diamonds. Each small triangle and the four open diamonds carry only a dot. There are no letters or numbers inside.

Now, since the topic has come up, a result is written here, as told in the Prashnavaishnava. It is the result of the lagna (rising sign) at the Sun's entry into Aries, counted from one's own birth lagna. It is for knowing the good and bad results of the year. Count from the birth lagna. See which house the lagna of the Sun's entry into Aries falls in. If it is joined with a shubha (good planet), it makes that house grow for people in that year. If it is joined with a papa (bad planet), it is the other way.

In the birth lagna (rising sign): bodily comfort. In the 2nd house: gain. In the 3rd: growth of the family. In the 4th: happiness from friends. In the 5th: getting a child. In the 6th: defeat of enemies.

In the 7th: happiness from the wife. In the 8th: there may be danger to life and illness. In the 9th: gain of dharma (right duty) and wealth. In the 10th: wealth, comfort and a good position. In the 11th: gain, and a heap of comfort and wealth. In the 12th: sorrow and poverty. These hold for men, by where the lagna (rising sign) falls from the birth lagna, when the Sun enters Aries.

This result holds when [the lagna] is joined with shubha (good planets). When it is joined with papa (bad planets), all of it is reversed. When joined with both, the result is mixed.

The Yavana (foreign teachers) call the lagna (rising sign) of the Sun's entry into Aries the jagal lagna (world rising sign).

This study of the world lagna (rising sign), from the year lagna too, is told in the Yantradhikara. The world lagna may fall in the 8th or the 12th from the birth lagna or the year lagna. Then that year does not bring good.

Another special point, in the same work. The world lagna (rising sign) may fall in the 8th or the 12th from a city's sign. Then there is loss to that city, no doubt.

At birth the planets were found by some work. It may be a siddhanta (planet-maths text), a karana (short handbook for planet maths), or a book of tables such as Makaranda or Ramavinoda. They were corrected by the six steps. By that same work the true planets must be found at the year's entry too. They are corrected by the six steps, such as udayantara (rising-time correction). Their daily motions are found as well.

And it is said in the Paddhati. At the year's entry, find the planets with their motions from one's own karana (short handbook for planet maths). And make the lagna (rising sign) exact with the rising times of one's own place.

Those planets must be true ones. Bhaskaracharya says: In journeys, marriage, festivals, birth charts and the like, a result is exact only with true planets.

Here the word "and the like" takes in the year's entry and so on.

Also in the Tajikasara: Without very true planets, no one can tell any result at all.

Now there are schools such as the Brahma, the Saura and the Arya. In which school should the planets be worked out? This is told in the Damodarapaddhati. With some school, the worked planets agree with what is seen in the sky. By that school they should be made true for that time.

An objection: the planets should be found only from a rishi's work, not from a human work. For a human work is not true. If you say so, that is right. Finding the planets is proper only from a work made by the sages. But even there a difference comes in with time.

And it is said in the Surya Siddhanta: This is that same first science that the Sun told long ago. Only the time differs here, by the turning of the yuga (age of the world).

Also in the Vasishtha Siddhanta: O Mandavya, so I have told you this science in short. In every yuga (age of the world), the Sun, the Moon and the others will slip.

Visramsana is visrasti. That is, it means getting loose.

Also in the Siddhanta Sundara: Sometimes people see a difference in what the sages wrote. Then only that should be worked in. Not everything should be done another way.

That difference is called the bija (correction number). Brahmagupta, Makaranda Mishra and others found it in their own time. They applied it to the planets found from the sages' works. That is quite right.

So also in the Brahma Siddhanta: Find a truer bija (correction number) with the tube and other instruments. From the planets corrected by it, make both the decisions and the forecasts. That is enough on this.

Now the revered Nilakantha Daivajna tells how to find the true planets straight from the panchanga (almanac) table, by bringing them to the wanted time. The same verse is in Tajika Nilakanthi 1.18, with our English meaning there.

Now he himself tells how to find the true Moon from the nakshatra (star) given in the panchanga (almanac). Take the ghatikas (24-minute units) of the star that has gone. Subtract them from 60. Add the wanted ghatikas counted from sunrise. This is called the bhayata (part of the star already passed). In the same way, add [that first figure] to the ghatikas of the running star. That is the bhabhoga (full span of the star).

The same verse is in Tajika Nilakanthi 1.19, with our English meaning there.

Note this here. Of what country are the planets of a panchanga (almanac)? And of what country is the person born? The true planets of people of every country cannot be made from an almanac made in one country. For with a change of country, corrections apply. They are deshantara (correction for distance east or west), bhujantara (time correction for the Sun's uneven motion), udayantara (rising-time correction), the chara (day-length difference) in palas (24-second units) and so on. So the Sun and all the planets are seen otherwise. So for the people of a country, make the true planets from that country's almanacs, which give true planets. Not from another country's.

Now, finding the twelve houses from the lagna (rising sign). It is said in the Jatakasudhanidhi. Think of the good and bad of birth, the year, questions and the like. For these, a wise man should work out the houses. For here the planets always give the good and bad born of the houses, each through its own dasha (planet period).

Also in the Tajikatilaka. Now the finding of the houses is told. It is to settle the results that come from the year. In the question, the journey, birth and the year's entry, finding the houses is the first step.

The names of the houses are given in the Tajikamuktavali. In order from the lagna (rising sign), they are: body, wealth, brother, friend, son and enemy. Then come wife, randhra (8th house), dharma (right duty), work, gain and loss. These are twelve, and they run the reverse way.

Here the houses from the lagna (rising sign) have names that mean what they say. For example, the body is judged from the lagna, wealth from the 2nd. It is so for all. We will tell this in the section on judging the houses in detail.

There, the way to find the houses is told. Now, finding the charakhandas (steps of the day-length change) and the half-day. The sayana (tropical) Sun may have reached the start of Aries or Libra. Then the shadow of the 12 [-unit gnomon] at one's own midday is the akshabha (noon shadow at the equinox). Put the akshabha in three places. Multiply them by 10, 8 and 10. Divide the last by 3. These are the charakhandas.

Take the bhuja (distance from the nearest equinox point) of the sayana (tropical) Sun. Add the chara pieces for as many signs as it holds. Then multiply its degrees by the running piece and divide by 30. Add that too. This is the chara (day-length difference) in palas (24-second units). Divided by 60, it is in ghatikas (24-minute units) and so on.

Add the chara to 15 ghatikas (24-minute units), or take it away. Add it when the sayana (tropical) Sun is in the six signs from Aries. Take it away when it is in the six signs from Libra. These are the half-days. Take the half-day from 30. The rest is the half-night.