ASTRONOMICAL DEFINITIONS

This section will introduce the basic terms in Jyotish, which oft times seems frightening
because of the many Sanskrit expressions which may have no initial meaning for the
novice. I plan to develop a dictionary later on, comprising all possible Jyotish terminology.

Janma Kundali - The chart drawn with the planetary positions in the twelve
signs of the Zodiac for the time and place of someone's birth is called his Janma Kundali,
or birth chart. As Jyotish deals with the changing quality of time, the moment of birth is
considered to be the primary determinating factor of the course of events in one's life. The
correct time to be taken for erecting a Janma Kundali is the time of Nadi Sodhanam, or
cutting of the umbilical chord, as this finally separates the body of the child from that of
the mother.

Ravimarga -the Ecliptic, or the Sun's course over the sky.

Bhacakra -the Zodiac, or the belt of stars on each side of the Ecliptic
extending for 9 degrees of arc.

Nakshatras -the constellations of stars comprising the belt of Zodiac.

The two basic divisions of the Zodiac is the Rasi Chakra consisting of 12 Rasis or
Sun signs, extending 30 degrees each; and the Nakshatra Cakra consisting of 27
Nakshatras or Moon signs, extending 13°20' each. The group of heavenly bodies
called Nakshatras has the common quality that they don't move relative to each
other, they just blink, i.e. their brightness change with time.

Grahas -the other group of heavenly bodies, which are distinct from
the Nakshatras in the sense that they move

relative to each other and the Nakshatras as well. The nine planets or Navagrahas of
Jyotish are Surya or Ravi (Sun), Chandra or Soma

(Moon), Mangala or Kuja (Moon), Budha (Mercury), Guru or Brihaspati

(Jupiter), Sukra (Venus), Sani (Saturn), Rahu (Dragon Head)

and Ketu (Dragon Tail ). The last two planets are the North and South Nodes of the
Moon. They are also called Chaya-Grahas or

shadowy planets, as they are more subtle and can't be observed in the sky, only during the
times of solar and lunar eclipses when they

shadow over the luminaries. They are located at the intersection points of the elliptical
apparent courses of the Sun and the Moon.
Rahu and Ketu are always in the exact opposite points of the Zodiac, forming a
karmic axis in the horoscope, and always move

into retrograde direction, as they are the karmic control planets. Some astrologers
consider the so-called True Nodes which try to

exactly follow these intersection points, thus sometimes for short periods becoming direct.
But according to Parasara's definition, they

should always be retrograde, therefore the application of Mean Nodes is advised.

Upagrahas - Rahu and Ketu are sometimes listed within the category of
Upagrahas, although actually they have more significance than the rest of the shadowy
planets. There are two categories of them:

The first category includes five Upagrahas, the position of

which is relative to the Sun's position in the Zodiac.

Their names and calculation is as follows:

Sun's position + 4 signs 13°20’ = Dhuma

Pisces 30° - Dhuma = Vyatipata

Vyatipata + 6 signs = Parivesha

Pisces 30° - Parivesha = Indrachapa

Indrachapa + 16°40 = Upaketu

Upaketu +1 sign = Sun.

The second category of Upagrahas consist of five (according to some, eight) Upagrahas,
which rise at the different portions of the day or night of birth. First divide the duration of
the day from sunrise to sunset (or of night from sunset to the next sunrise if birth is at
night) into 8 parts of equal length. Each part will be ruled by a planet in the order of
weekdays, beginning with the lord of the week. The part after Saturn is lordless.

For night births the first part is ruled by the lord of the 5th day from the day of birth. The
following table shows the lords of different portions for different days of the week:

Table 1.0 for lords of the portions of the day for day births:

Day of Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8

Week
Sunday Sun Moon Mars Mercury Jupiter Venus Saturn ----
Monday Moon Mars Mercury Jupiter Venus Saturn ---- Sun
Tuesday Mars Mercury Jupiter Venus Saturn ---- Sun Moon
Wednesday Mercury Jupiter Venus Saturn ---- Sun Moon Mars
Thursday Jupiter Venus Saturn ---- Sun Moon Mars Mercury
Friday Venus Saturn ---- Sun Moon Mars Mercury Jupiter
Saturday Saturn ---- Sun Moon Mars Mercury Jupiter Venus

Table 1.1 for lords of the portions of the night for night births (Note: a day in the
Vedic calendar is from sunrise to sunrise, so the whole night will belong to the
previous day):

Day of Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8

Week
Sunday Jupiter Venus Saturn ---- Sun Moon Mars Mercury
Monday Venus Saturn ---- Sun Moon Mars Mercury Jupiter
Tuesday Saturn ---- Sun Moon Mars Jupiter Jupiter Saturn
Wednesday Sun Moon Mars Mercury Jupiter Venus Saturn ----
Thursday Moon Mars Mercury Jupiter Venus Saturn ---- Sun
Friday Mars Mercury Jupiter Venus Saturn ---- Sun Moon
Saturday Mercury Jupiter Venus Saturn ---- Sun Moon Mars

There is an Upagraha assigned to each planet’s portion, and it will rise in the
beginning of the portion, i.e. the Upagraha’s position will be identical with the
Lagna’s position at the beginning of the portion. The list of planets and their
corresponding Upagrahas is the following:

Planet Upagraha
Sun Kalavela
Moon Paridhi
Mars Mrityu
Mercury Ardhaprahara
Jupiter Yamaghantaka
Venus Kodanda
Saturn Gulika

According to some astrologers, the portions of Moon and Venus do not have
Upagrahas, so they don’t take them into consideration. Most of the authors also
take Mandi and Gulika to be identical planets, but Venkatesha Sharma makes
distinction between them in his Sarwartha Chintamani. According to him, Mandi
rises at the middle of Saturn’s portion, and Gulika rises in the beginning, similarly
to all other Upagrahas. Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, Phala Deepika and other
classics describe the effects of Upagrahas in different houses in detail.

©Gauranga Das 2001