Fundamentals of Jyotisha (Vedic Astrology) Part II

ॐ श्री गुरावे नमः !

Dasa/Dasha/Planetary periods: Every planet has a time period and time frame in a native's life and it depends on the rising sign of the native, dasha can be deduced in anyone of the systems listed in the table no 10, but the most common one is the Vimsottari Dasha/Dasa.

* Important

Out of all the dasha systems, Vimsottari dasha is the most common and widely used by all astrologers and as per Rishi Parasara, Vimsottari dasha is most appropriate for the general populace and as in kaliyuga the maximum life span of any human is 120 years and hence the total sum of all the Graha’s is 120 years, Vimsottari itself means 120.

Beginning from Kritika, the Lords of Dashas are Sūrya, Candr(Moon), Mangal(Mars), Rahu, Guru(Jupiter), Śani(Saturn), Budh(Mercury), Ketu and Śukr(Venus) in that order. Thus, if the Nakshatras from Kritika to the Janma Nakshatr (Birth Star) are divided by nine, the remainder will signify the Lord of the commencing Dasha. The remaining Dashas will be of the Grahas in the order, given above.

Structure of Dasha, Basically in the life span of 120 years, the periods of Maha Dashas of Sūrya, Candr(Moon), Mangal(Mars), Rahu, Guru( Jupiter), Śani( Saturn), Budh( Mercury), Ketu and Śukr(Venus) are 6, 10, 7, 18, 16, 19, 17, 7 and 20 years in that order, and under each Maha dasha there will be following further classification:

Antar Dasha’s of each Graha in years, under each Antar dasha there will be Pratyantara Dasha’s of each Graha in months, under each Pratyantara dasha there will be Sookshma Antar Dasha of each Graha in weeks or days, under each Sookshma-Antar dasha there will be Praana Antar Dasha of each Graha in days or hours, and under each Praana-Antar dasha there will be Deha Antar Dasha of each Graha in hours.
So for e.g. On Feb 21, 2007, 5.00 Pm in Montreal the structure of Dasha will be.

Mahadasha—------------------------Ketu---------From 2003-03-22 to 2010-03-22
Antar dasha------------------------- Rahu--------From 2006-02-20 to 2007-03-10
Pratyantara dasha—----------------Mars-------- From 2007-02-16 to 2007-03-10
Sookshma- Antar Dasha----------- Jupiter-------From 2007-02-20 to 2007-02-23
Praana Antar dasha----------------Saturn-------From 2007-02-21(7:26:30 am) to
2007-02-21(6:31:41 pm)
Deha Antar dasha------------------ Rahu ------- From 3:23:12 pm to 5:02:59 pm

Like this, for any event or time point the Dasha can be deduced and the native can see if the time is favorable for him to, do any thing or carry out transactions, for this the Nakshatra at that time is also considered, like Rahu kalam is generally considered inauspicious for travel or to initiate any good work, e.g. the time period of 3:23:12 pm to 5:02:59 pm on 21 of Feb. 2007 from the above e.g. could be considered inauspicious, so better avoid initaiting good transactions or travel etc during that period. I will explain this later in one of my following posts.

AshtakVarg: The meaning of AshtakaVarg is literally the group of eight things. In other words, it is the combination of the good and bad positions of a Graha with reference to the seven Grahas and Lagna. So it is the combination of the benefic and malefic marks (the Rekhas (lines) and the Bindus (dots)) in a planet’s chart with reference to the position of the eight Grahas (here Lagna is to be treated, as a Graha).

AshtakaVarg is a simple system or tool by which a direct conclusion can be drawn for inauspiciousness and auspiciousness of each Rashi/House and for each Graha/Planet. Longevity can be calculated using AshtakaVarg; I will take this in detail in one of my following posts.

Yoga – Means prospect for wealth, children, spouse, royal association, kingdom, riches, etc. and for poverty or penury and death, due to certain combinations and positions of Graha’s/Planets, and the Graha responsible for such a prospect is called the Karaka.
BPHS (Brihat Parasara Hora Shastra) and Kalyan Varma Saravali, list out hundreds of these yoga’s, the main combinations are classified as:
Nabhash Yogas, Chandra Yogas, Surya Yogas, Raj Yogas, and miscellaneous yogas, I will present the complete list with details under Yoga and Yoga karakas.

Lost Horoscopy: if the time of birth is not known or the horoscopy got lost, using Prasna Lagna (Query chart), a new chart can be created and there are other ways to correct your time of birth also.

Female Horoscopy: All the effects as described in the classics for males will also apply for the females. Matters, relating to her physical appearance, should be determined from Lagna, those, relating to children, from the 5th Bhava, fortune for the husband from the 7th and death of the husband (widowhood) should be deduced from the 8th. Those effects, which are impossible to ascribe to the female, should be declared applicable to her husband.

Remedies: Jyotisha deals with remedies in detail and I will list them in a separate post.

Lunar Year, months and days: Even before Christ, people in India were following various calendars, Vikram samvat, and the oldest is Yudhisthir Shaka, as per Yudhisthir shaka the current Gregorian year would be 7507 and as per Vikram samvat it is 2064 and as per Salivahana Shaka the current year is 1928.

The names of lunar year, months and days are listed in Table no 11, 12 and 13 resp.


* It is a 60-year cycle the names will keep repeating.


Day: The day starts with sun rise and ends with sun set, a day is given panch-angas, five properties, Tithi, Vaasara( weekdays), Nakshatra, Karanam and Yogam.

Tithi: This is already listed in the table no 13, so a day can be either Shukla paksha (Waxing moon) or Krishna paksha (Waning moon).

Vaasara: Ravi (Sunday) Soma, Mangala, Budha, Guru, Shukra, Shani (Saturday).

Nakshatra: Already listed in the table no 5.

Karanam: A Karanam is half of a Tithi, to be precise, a Karanam is the time required for the angular distance between the sun and the moon to increase in steps of 6° starting from 0°.
There are only eleven karanam's and out of 11, four are fixed Karanam's and seven are "repeating" type .

First Tithi of Krishna Paksha Pratipat is always Kimstughna Karanam followed by Shakuni Karanam, Chatuspad and Nagava for Krishna Paksha Dwitya, then the repeating seven karanam’s repeat for 8 times till full moon day with Vishti Karanam, The Karanam active during sunrise of a day is the Karanam for the day.

Yogam: the angular distance along the ecliptic of any object on the sky, measured from Meshadi (Start of Aries) is called the longitude of that object. When the longitude of the sun and the longitude of the moon are added, they produce a value ranging from 0° to 360, the 27 parts (each equal to 800')hence obtained are called Yogam. The Yogam that is active during the sunrise is the Yogam of that day. What one should look for in a Horoscope: The purpose of getting a horoscope is to understand the cosmic implications in our lives, so the parameters one should be asking for predictions are:

1 General Appearance( Appearance of a person changes with Dasha Lord)
2 Wealth from Inheritance
3 Relations with youngsters, friends etc.
4 Property
5 Children, past puNya
6 Health and Enemies, Job
7 Marriage, Spouse and Defense against enemies
8 Longevity
9 Blessings, curses and favorable deities.
10 Career, Income.
11 Wealth, Gains, friends, relation with elders.
12 Loss and litigation
13 Past lives, karma level etc.
14 Purpose of life
15 Life direction
16 Travel, Favorable times and periods etc.
17 Unexpected future happenings etc.
Horoscope/Kundali: This is a document which details out all the Graha, and astrological combinations etc, there is no hard and fast rule for constructing a Horoscope/Kundali, if all information is included it could go to 40 to 50 pages, but if only basic info is covered a two page Horoscope is sufficient. The basic information required to construct a horoscope are following.

1 Name of the Native
2 Date of birth, year, month and day
3 Time of birth of the native ( reliable source are Birth certificate or Mother, most of the times it needs correction)
4 Place of birth and time zone
5 Longitude and Latitude correction(if any)
6 Day light saving time( if any)
7 Ayanamsa followed by the family( If any)

Basic Information: The first page of Horoscope, it is a tradition that the basic info contain the raw data.
Charts Rasi Navamsa ( D-9) Match Making: Once Horoscope is prepared, it can be matched with horoscope of a person from the opposite sex for marriage purposes and it is in fact a very good tool to know the strengths and weaknesses in the marriage and also if the marriage is good enough or not. To get an idea we have to see what Ashta kootas are, Ashta Kootas are eight parameters with maximum and minimum points for a match to qualify.

Any match with 18 and above is considered good and less than 18 is not recommended, above 28 is rare combination. If the first seven Ashta Koota are same for the couple, the points earned are maximum, but for Nadi it should never be the same, Bhakut and Nadi are the most important, for a marriage to survive and go a long way.
Learning, practicing and teaching Jyotisha:Maharishi Parasara said. O Brahmin! I have described to you the Jyotish Shastra, as narrated by Lord Brahma to the Sage Narada and by Narada to Shaunaka and other Sages, from whom I received the knowledge of this Shastra. I have narrated the same Jyotish Shastra, which I learnt from them. Do not impart the knowledge of this Shastra to one, who is insignificative, slanders, or calumniates others, nor to one, who is not intelligent, is wicked and unknown to you. Teach this supreme Vedanga Jyotish Shastra only to one, who is gentle and amiable, devoted, truthful, brilliant and well known to you.

Only that person, who possesses adequate knowledge of time and the positions of Grahas and Nakshatras, can understand this Hora Shastra. Only that
person, who has complete knowledge of the Hora Shastra and who is truthful, can make correct favorable or unfavorable predictions.
One, who reads, or listens with attention and devotion to this excellent Hora Shastra, becomes long-lived and is blessed with increase in his strength, wealth and good reputation.
Om Tat Sat!
I will try to cover and explain each topic in detail and it will sure take hell of a time, I will also try to add individual biographies of famous and infamous Indian and International personalities.

Keep checking ……………………………………………….:-)

ॐ नमः शिवाय!

Surya Ianala, Feb 22, 2007