Varahamihira

1. Ashvini Mythologically the nakshatra is ruled by the Ashvini Kumaras , the divine physicians named Dashra and Nasatya. Being divine physicians they are adept in healing, medicine, counseling and all other allied disciplines. It so happened that aṅjñā had to penance for many years to gain enough spiritual strength (Tapobal) before she got married with someone like Sūrya who is full of spiritual brilliance. However with time her spiritual energy withered away. To gain her spiritual energies again she left her shadow (Chaya) with Sun and went to a hermitage to do tapasya (penance). S ūrya had many other kids from Chaya (may be discussed later), when he realized the truth he rushed to find his real wife and found that she is doing her tapasya in the form of a Mare. Ashvini Kumaras (two kumaras) are born from their union while she was in a hermitage doing penance in the form of mere. Hence the name Ashvini which means, born from a female horse. This makes them adept in horse ridin...

There are many methods of prognosticating the nature of the query and the future from the Prasna Chart. I am narrating here one of the methods from the our tradition. This method involves use of a number between 1 to 108 to find the nature of the query, hidden aspects of the query and the answer too. There are two ways of using this method which are as follows: Method 1: Divide the number by 9 and find the rasi and navamsa from the quotient and remainder respectively. Add 1 to the quotient to get the rasi in the following order, 1- Aries to 12- Pisces. In this case, 13 would be treated as Aries again (for number 108). Similarly the navamsa gained in the sign can be seen from the remainder. In this case if the remainder is 0, then it is taken as 9 (the last navamsa) and for such cases the quotient will not be added with 1. For example, lets see what should be the rasi and navamsa for number 45. In this case quotient will be 5 and remainder 0. Thus the rasi would be Leo (quotient 5 and t...

The basic requirement for Astrology is to have a Horoscope and the details required for casting a horoscope are the Date of Birth, Time of Birth and the place of birth. However, many times it so happen that the native who comes to an astrologer does not have a horoscope and he even does not know his birth date or time. In such cases, it is necessary to cast a horoscope for the native before venturing into the details of query. Although most queries can be answered using Praśna alone, it is nevertheless to draw the horoscope for overall analysis of the horoscope. Since it is difficult to cast a lost horoscope it is not very popular among the modern days astrologers. There are many scholars who have written on this subject. However, without the effort of Mukunda Daivagna who beautifully compiled all such views of the scholars and given his comments, these could have been lost as well with time like many other ancient classics on Jyotish Shastra. Among all the prevalent views of the schol...

As the name suggests, tri-sphuta is a sum of three longitudes; the longitudes of the Lagna, Moon and the Gulika. The involvement of three participants in the formula suggest that this has something to do with health and longevity. Lagna and Moon are the keeper of health and Gulika is the destroyer of health. When we combine the longitudes of these three bodies we arrive at a potent point which can indicate about the health at the time of Prasna. Thus if a prasna is about health and diseases, then it is of utmost importance to get this potent point and use it to know about the past, present and future condition of the native under consideration. Prasna Marga deals quite extensively on the Trisphuta. While computing this point, there is no ambiguity with the longitudes of Lagna and the Moon, however there can be some ambiguity with the longitudes of Gulika. There are some difference in opinions on the longitude of the Gulika among the scholars and hence we should know what should be the ...

Prasna shastra is a branch of Jyotish Shastra which deals with the prognosticating things based on the horoscope cast when a query is put to the astrologer. This technique is useful if birth time of the querist is not accurate or missing or to support analysis of the birth horoscope. Even though all questions can be answered with some degree of accuracy, through analysis of birth horoscope it is a good practice to draw up of the prasna horoscope to support the analysis. Since there is an element of free will in human lives, the assessment of natal horoscope can never be 100% accurate as our destiny is not only shaped by our karma in past lives but also in this life. Prasna Marga sums it up quite beautifully by saying that if the Prasna chart shows negetive things compared to the natal horoscope, the native's destiny has deteriorated till the time he asked prasna and vice-versa. Thus analysis of a chart should be a combination of the Prasna as well as Natal horoscopes. The difficult...

Note: This article is my personal opinion which may be misleading (so read with caution!). This does not represent the views and opinions or my Guru or my Jyotish Tradition. The astronomers from the ancient civilisations noted that the occurrence of the seasons shift gradually with respect to the fixed start of the zodiac. Later this was attributed to a phenomenon called the precession of the equinox. Although the first knowledge of precession of the equinoxes is attributed to Greek philosopher and mathematician Hipparcus, studies of the ancient civilisation such as that of the Mayan, Babylonian and Harappan reveal that the knowledge was quite common during those times, however lost with time. The implication of precession of the equinox has not only caused the sidereal zodiac to precede with respect to the tropical zodiac with a constant rate, but it also implies a greater cycle is at work; a cycle which is much beyond our own solar system. This cycle is the movement of the vernal eq...

The measure of a tropical day is seen from the motion of earth around the Sun which cause Sunrise and Sunset. To keep track of time within the day, the day is further divided into Hours, Minutes and Seconds. Have you every wondered, if the duration of the day changed with time, how difficult it would have been to keep track of time with a watch which we all use! Fortunately the duration of the day is constant and any further subdivision is not tagged to an astronomical phenomenon; like the way it is done with year (tagging it to days which is marked by revolution of earth, keeping a balance of .2425 to accumulate each year). That is why no adjustment is necessary to keep the watch synchronized with actual duration of the day. Thus if a watch with enough power and accuracy is set inside a deep cave which does not have any human access and the watch is retrieved after thousands of years; it should show the correct time (as synchronized with the part of the astronomical day). Any variatio...

Here is a discussion on Calendar with one of my student. Q: Why do we need a calendar? Student: To watch and follow day to day life, climatic conditions, happenings throughout the world, calender is needed to specify and to remember to correlate for futures. My comments: Yes. Good reasoning. The first calendar was developed to mark the seasonal changes so that right activities can be done in agriculture without missing the season. Again this happened due to the realization that the time is cyclical and astronomical phenomenon such as seasons recur in a cyclical manner. Again they needed to know how much time has passed from a specific event, which is not possible without a calendar. When the civilizations developed, they need to keep track of such events. Anyway, since they were more tuned to the nature, they could see the patterns in seasonal variation such as heavy rains or light rain, hotter summer/ warmer summer etc and they needed a measure of time to mark these patterns with resp...