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Dashas - A Primer 4

by Rohini Ranjan

Krishnamurthy’s Theory: K.S. Krishnamurthy, from all accounts, was an uncannily accurate astrologer
who developed an interesting system popularly known as Krishnamurthy Paddhati or K.P. as is popularly
known. He primarily used it for horary or prashna Jyotish but the principles work in natal or phalit
Jyotish as well. Very briefly: His system utilized the planets ruling the weekday, the asterism that the
Moon is in at the time of asking of the question and the ascendant rising at that instant. The system was
claimed as capable of providing highly accurate readings and Krishnamurthy acknowledged having
received the 'method' in the form of a divine inspiration from his Ishta Devta Uchchista Ganapathy. He
chose to use the western placidian house divisions with these sidereal charts, a major divergence from
classical vedic astrology; moreover, he placed the rising degree at the beginning of a house and not in
the middle as is practiced by other jyotishis. His 'system' also had another interesting feature. Since the
zodiac can be divided into 249 divisions, each ruled by a sign-lord (one per 30 deg), star-lord (one per 13
deg 20 min) and a star-sub-lord (variable dimensions, 40 min to 2 deg 13 min 20 sec), he often asked
clients to provide a number between 1 and 249 which he used to determine the ascendant in a chart
drawn for the moment of the query (planetary longitudes were calculated for the actual current
moment). A client providing a number that was outside this range was told that the venture would not
be a success!
Subdivisions: The KP subdivisions are essentially a way of viewing the vimshottari bhukti or antardasha
in terms of nakshatra longitudes. We all know for example, that, if moon is just entering krittika, at birth,
the child will begin life with sun’s dasha. If the moon has just entered krittika the child will have sun dasa
and sun bhukti at the beginning of life. If the birth moon is a bit more advanced, the child will begin life
with sun dasa and moon bhukti and thus depending on how advanced the moon is at birth in krittika,
the first bhukti could belong to mars, rahu, Jupiter, etc. Now view these segments of krittika as
subdivisions, with the first segment ruled by sun (sun bhukti), next one ruled by moon, the third by mars
and so on. The dimensions of the segments would be proportional to the proportion of the bhukti to
that of the dasa (nakshatra). Looked another way, Venus dasa rules for 20 years whereas moon dasa
rules for 10 years. Both moon and Venus nakshatra would have nine segments each ruled by the nine
planets, however, each segment in Venus dasa would be twice as large as the segment ruled by the
same planet in moon dasa. According to Krishnamurthy the nakshatra dispositor of the dasa lord
defined the nature of the result whereas the dasa lord was treated as the source of the effect. The ‘sub’
then determined the positive or negative outcomes, gain or loss of the effect. So, for illustration let us
say a person is undergoing the dasa of the lord of 10th house which is in the nakshatra of the lord of
11th. This would be interpreted as the source (tenth = workplace) giving the effect of 11th (raise or
bonus) with the subdivision indicating a gain or a denial of a raise. The relationship between the dasa
dispositor (effect) and the sub-lord would have a say in whether the effect will be positive or negative.
So in our example if the sublord is placed in a trika sthan (6, 8 or 12) from lagna or from the dasa
dispositor would indicate a loss but placement in 1, 5, 9 would indicate the individual getting a raise. In
actual experience, the effect being defined by the dasa dispositor works out more reliably than the role
of the sub-lord in birth charts. Some individual, on the other hand, have demonstrated very good results
when using KP in a horary application, much better than in natal horoscopy, much in keeping with what
Krishnamurthy originally proposed and utilized this very interesting technique.

Through this method, Krishnamurthy revived a very important fundamental concept on the Indian
astrological scene, that of the role of asterisms in chart analysis and particularly by refining the use and
improving the usefulness of the vimshottari dasha system of timing. He must be commended for that,
even though his system remains a somewhat controversial approach for many main-stream jyotishis.

The system is essentially not very different from that used for delineating any other chart as per jyotish
parlance. The chart is drawn by using either the numerical representative for the ascendant, or for the
epoch of the query. The planets in both cases are calculated for the moment of making the query. A list
of significant planets are drawn; the planet ruling over the weekday, the lords of the signs, stars and
subs of the rising degree (ascendant) and the Moon. The ascendant is taken to represent the client while
the seventh house represents the astrologer. When the astrologer also happens to be the querist (self-
prashna), it is interesting that at times this is indicated in the chart itself in terms of 'connectivities'
between the two representative houses. Next, the house/houses pertaining to the question are
examined and these are checked to see if they agree with the significant planets. The success or failure
of the undertaking then would be indicated by the mutual agreement or disagreement between the
planets. Things such as friendship (or lack thereof) between the planets concerned, their association
with each other by aspect, any beneficial combinations (yogas) between relevant planets and the
strength of the planets are taken into account. An examination of the vimshottari dasha is then made
and this is used, in addition to transits of the significant planets and stars for estimating the timing.
Situations where the indicators are fewer and clear, the outcome can be expected to be better
predictable. If too many conflicting influences exist, there is usually reason to believe that the issue is
riddled with problems. In his writings, Krishnamurthy gave numerous examples of things such as long-
distance phone calls that he tested his system on. This might amuse the modern reader who is used to
dialing a number and expecting to get through right away. But in India of years ago, decades before
direct dialing became available, one had to place a call by 'booking' it through an operator and then wait
and wait and wait, often at the post-office because most people did not have personal phones. It was a
big deal for most and Krishnamurthy used it to test his system. Perhaps we can emulate Krishnamurthy’s
experiment with our postal-mail, these days!

Krishnamurthy enumerated in his 'Readers', houses that are involved in determining and examining
different areas/issues in life. I am presenting a tiny sampling here which may be utilized in addition to
the more extensive lists presented elsewhere in this manual, taken from standard mainstream jyotish
texts, all of which can also be used for horary purposes:

Health issues - 1, 6, 8 houses

Income - 2, 11, 10
Children - 5
Love affairs - 5, 7
spirituality - 9, 12
Expenditure - 12
Litigations/insurance matters - 8, 12
Siblings - 3, 11
Home, property etc. - 4, 8
Education - 5, 9
Communication, letters etc. - 3, 11
Business/interview - 7
service/working for others - 6
fame/profession - 10
spouse - 7
family, wealth - 2
pets/animals - 5, Venus
Mystery/intrigue - 8, nodes of Moon

The KP Indicators: Once an indicator is decided upon, its placement in the horary horoscope is
examined and basing on the positions and the mutual relationship between the star and sub-
lords, success or failure is assessed. Generally, if the sub-lord is in an angle or trine from the
houses ruled by the star-lord, success is indicated, whereas, if the sub-lord is in the 6th, 8th or
12th from the house under examination, then delays, obstacles and failure may be expected.
Sometimes, the nature of the signs and planets involved gives a clue about the rapidity with
which the issue would progress to a culmination. Fixed signs, earthy influences, retrograde
planets and planets such as Jupiter (if malefic) and Saturn generally indicate delays, Sun,
Venus, Mars (if benefic), Moon and Mercury represent speedy progress. The nodes (Rahu and
Ketu) add unpredictability and suddenness, and generally result in uneven progress in the
matters at hand.
How does it all come together?
When the question is posed, it is recommended that there should not be any distraction and the
querist should meditate on the question for a while, examining all known aspects of it before
verbalizing the question. Clarity, sincerity and seriousness of intent when posing the question is
probably rewarded with answers that are of a kindred nature. The reasoning behind this is
remarkably similar to that applicable to other kinds of divinatory procedures. The sincerity of
the querist must first be examined in order to determine if the chart would hold well and
represent the process adequately or not. If the two houses (1 and 7) are strong and well
connected, then the communication could prove to be fruitful. A similar positive connection
between the first house (querist) and the house representing the matter under query are strongly
connected then the query was sincere and has a higher chance of being analyzed positively.
This is important, because even if the query is about an important matter, the querist may not
believe sufficiently in astrology or the astrologer and this would be reflected in the chart and
could lead to a 'noisy' imprecise reading. The likelihood of this is much lower in a professional
situation where a cost is involved and the idly curious are screened out to a large extent. It is
not very useful to do an after the fact (post mortem) analysis of a horary epoch. This is because
the transits under which the analysis would be carried out would be different from the original
epoch and would influence the reading. Both the astrologer as well as the nativity must together
be in the same astrological environment (horary epoch transits) for the horary phenomenon to
work efficiently.

Are planets Schizophrenic?

 Scholars in Jyotish and many teachers have maintained for at least within the last 60-70 years
of published Jyotish literature that there are two distinct systems in Jyotish, one following the
teaching of Parashara Rishi and the other of Jaimini Rishi. It is of interest that neither of them
refer to the other in their writings as far as I know, although mention of other sages and
pioneers in Jyotish does exist in their works. This makes it difficult to wonder if they were
contemporaries or figures that appeared in historical sequence. What is notable, though, is that
Jaimini’s writings do not touch upon so called Parashari methodology at all, whereas a fair
amount of what would constitute Jamini system appears prominently in Brihat Parashara Hora
Shastra. People have expressed their discontentment at Jyotishis and particularly researchers
using both methods simultaneously during the same reading or examination. While on the one
hand, not doing so would simplify matters and arguably hone the acuity and focus of the
method used, on the other hand, such discrimination would understandably lead to the
incompleteness of such a delineation. Astrology is best dealt with a multifactorial, matrix type
approach and as long as the jyotishi is not ‘picking and choosing’ in a hurry and mixing logic
and intuition and all that exists between these two faculties, the result should be richer than
using only one system in isolation. Completely aside from personal viewpoints, it is difficult to
comprehend or even assume that the very same planet, such as mars that is the lord of 4th and
11th, for instance and also Jaimini putrakaraka plus many other inherent roles (karakatwas)
would fulfil one role but not the other. This is where one must intelligently apply the ‘roles’
that planets play because in a given situation (desh, kal, paristhiti: locality, temporality,
situational circumstances), they would express only one or a few sides of their portfolio and not
everything at the same time. After all a mother who is also working outside her home does not
entirely cease to be the ‘mother’ in office, or the boss at home!
Conditional Dashas

 In addition to Vimshottari dasha which is used by nearly everyone by default, although in this
series I have also shown situations where Ashtottari one of the many conditional dashas in
BPHS might be more appropriate, scores of other possibilities exist. In recent years several
reknowned jyotishis and their students and followers have done a lot of research and
demonstrated how the different conditional dashas can be utilized in daily practice. The fact
remains though that for most beginners, juggling more than one or two dashas can generally
produce confusion due to multiplicity of overwhelming and often conflicting information
generated by such an approach. It is to be noted that even those who use just one dasha are still
dealing with the complexities of transit influences, combined with the annual horoscopic
considerations and several vargas pointing in different directions and the tri-
oriented sudarshana kundali (predictions based on the lunar, solar and lagna charts overlapping
one another). The complexity is already substantial. My advice, therefore, would be to work
with one or two dashas at a time and then proceed towards learning more.

Parashara has described certain dashas as being generally applicable, such as Vimshottari,
Kalachakra, Yogini, whereas others are prescribed to apply when certain conditions are met in
a given horoscope (hence termed conditional dashas). For example, Dwadashottari to be
applied when the navamsha lagna belongs to venus (Taurus or libra navamsha rising).
Panchottari dasha to be applied when one is born in cancer ascendant and also having cancer
dwadashamsha rising whereas shashtihayini dasha has been recommended for those who have
sun rising in the first house in their charts. Most followers of Jaimini system also utilize Chara
dasha and Sthira dasha to a lesser extent. Most dashas are relatively easy to calculate and many
are already incorporated in readily available software some of which are simply labours of love
and are offered freely. One popular software is JHora which started out essentially as a
software created by a brilliant engineer, programmer and a jyotishi P.V.R. Narasimha Rao.
Over the years he has refined the product and has been offering it free. It also contains some of
the novel techniques that he is experimenting with and would be of great interest to researchers.
This brings a key point which must be remembered. There have been ongoing discussions
between jyotishis about the correct way of calculating and interpreting the dashas. While the
calculation procedures for dashas such as Vimshottari, Ashtottari, Yogini are unambiguous,
others such as Chara and Kalachakra and some others are not quite so. Different scholars have
recommended different methods for calculating the same dasha and which you may see
reflected in the software which gives different options for calculating the same dasha. Many of
these differences arise from what is known as differences between Paramparas or schools
(similar to Gharanas in the realm of classical music). This has been a major puzzling fact about
Jyotish factors and does not remain isolated to the calculation of dashas alone. It extends to
fundamental things such as ayanamsha, lordships of lunar nodes, distribution of rashis in
certain vargas and several other factors. Delving in these uncertain terrains demands lot of
time-consuming research since blind faith is not going to help for a long time. Having raised
that cautionary note, we can move on. However, I must reiterate that once we throw ourselves
into this smorgasbord (a Nordic term representing a collection of servings of different delicious
food items like a Chinese dim-sum for those who are familiar with that term or a pot-luck food-
fest or the native north American Pot Lach meal combos where each participant brings a
different food item and the variety of food items then grows enormously varied!), the chances
of indigestion exist too!

If something does not make sense directly or logically, then such a dasa system that requires
one to go through contortions of mental gymnastics, then perhaps there is a serious flaw in such
an approach. One should consciously avoid to mix too much esotericism into astrological
techniques. Common sense must always remain the yardstick in much of astrological
considerations and esoteria or mystical secrets perhaps better belong in the realm of other
occult pursuits.

Matrix Approach

While too many different techniques applied at the same time can be confusing and produce the
opposite effect than desired, one should try and develop the habit of utilizing a multi-pronged
approach when analysing a chart. Unfortunately, when a delineation is written out, it gives the
impression that a given factor is the ‘clincher’ in a given case. Be it a mahapurusha yoga or
KSY or combustion or low ashtakvarga scores or transits etc, however, in truth it is the
multiplicity of pointers that add to the weight of evidence as it is called. One should therefore
factor in these and other pointers and when they add up, these often point to situations where a
positive or negative effect may be anticipated. The only way to arrive at that level is to keep
practicing with real chart. Reading yet another book, article or internet discussion is simply not
going to do it! Reading a chart properly may take at least 2 hours although a full-scale reading
takes a lot longer. Now if one were to analyze two charts per day (assuming that they have to
work to earn a living, eat, sleep, watch TV etc) they would probably be analyzing about 400 or
so charts a year. Over a period of 10 years they would have sampled 4000 charts. It sounds like
a large number, but there are about 6.8 billion individuals at a given instant. 4000 Represents
only 0.00006% of the population! The experience and familiarity is simply not enough to avoid
hit and miss analysis.

Technology can make life easier for Jyotishis (and confusing!)

Many beginners these days must be getting very confused when they read messages and
readings on the Internet where the same chart that is being read by a variety of jyotishis (often
with different backgrounds and levels of experience) to address the same question or issue and
even seasoned astrologers come up with different explanations and even outcomes. One
justifiably becomes discouraged, sceptical and cynical when encountering such variations.
Often the ‘tone’ of confidence in what one jyotishi writes, as opposed to another is also
interesting to observe. Some would tend to give the impression that astrology is a black or
white pronouncement. That if you get the right ayanamsha, the right zodiac in some instances,
the right dasha, then everything should work uniformly and perfectly! While a comforting
thought, realistically, such is not the case. To the research-minded astrologer, such variability
and variations on the theme indicate a fertile potential for search, research and exploration, for
others it can be unsettling and some even get defensive about it all. This is the biggest mystery
within Jyotish! In each horoscope there are so many hints which are differently revealed or
touched upon when different minds (of jyotishis) apply themselves to a given chart. It is also
interesting to observe that while some individuals tend to be rather terse and give a yes/no kind
of answer, others elaborately try to weave a sequence of happenings or descriptions of a
process. The personality, background, and other individual qualities of the astrologer perhaps
enter into the process and define the output. Jyotishis like other human beings can be good
communicators, or poor communicators, brilliant and clear or not. All of these and more factors
lead to the colourful variegated flavours that show up when different astrologers read the same
chart. In the past this was revealed or observed infrequently and rather locally, in study groups
where astrologers met and discussed or through the slow sequence offered by magazines which
came out once a month or even less frequently. Internet has made that obsolete and with the
Jyotish lists and fora and discussion groups, a lot of such interaction happens more rapidly and
makes it that much more interesting and intriguing. Unfortunately, it has its negative aspects
too and honest discussions often do not take place. Back in the very early 80s when I was a
young man, not quite 30 and arrived in North America, telecommunications was in its infancy,
as was personal computer usage. I was fortunate to very quickly guess the potential of both on
astrology and astrologers and even though livelihood and other mundane considerations were
critically important, I set aside chunks of time a few times each week to explore these
computer-clubs. My first reward was in being able to put together for myself a software using
BASIC which allowed me to create a chart within a minute as opposed to 60-90 times the
TIME it took me to draw a detailed chart using proportional log tables and so on. What a
wonderful boon it was! Of course later on commercial software became available and made it
on the one hand easier but on the other hand a bit of a headache due to errors in programming
and erroneous techniques that got incorporated in most software in the early nineties and
ongoing! The Bulletin Board Systems and their successors, like Compuserve for a and Delphi
and Genie etc brought opportunities to discuss, collect and share charts with others interested in
astrology and it really enhanced my experience and boosted my confidence. Of course, one
must be very careful and critical of what the currently flooded internet represents, as has been
touched upon in my articles in EST and elsewhere.

Software comes to the aid of rectification

Dashas have always had a very important function: in rectification of birth times! The
technique is simple. Armed with a series of significant events and their dates/times, the
astrologer checks those against the prevailing dasa periods and by moving the stated birth time
ahead or behind the first one stated tries to find one where most or ideally ALL events match
up. The process sounds a lot simpler than it is and can be quite nerve racking! It may seem
easier to do this if one is determined to use rigid factors such as ONE ayanamsha, ONE type of
‘year’ (solar, lunar, synodic, savanmana), and one or two types of dashas! If you are toying
with different ayanamshas and other variables, imagine how complicated the process can
become! Even if you are using software like Parashara’s Light that allows one to line up dashas
(different kinds, pick one!) with the events against birth time intervals that can be changed (fig
1).
The birth time intervals ranging from 1 second to one hour can be changed by zooming in or
out, the dashas can be changed as well to get a different ‘perspective’. The choice is limited to
three dashas for the rectification screen but wisely chosen by Geovision. There is something
special about these three dashas: Vimshottari, Ashtottari and Yogini and if used wisely, most of
the field of possibilities can be covered by most jyotishis.

In fact having such capabilities in software can make one, who is motivated to do so, to be able
to experiment with different ayanamshas and dasha durations etc and tune into what gets one
closer to reality.

An example: For a demonstration let us look at a nativity who was born on September 4, 1968
at 8 AM in New Delhi. The ayanamsha that I use is -22:27:31. The birth time was stated as
being approximate but within 10 minutes or so of the exact time.
Some considerations: Usually, it is best to select events which are significant and somewhat
destined. For instance the following types of events can be utilized for rectification:

Beginning of a significant educational pursuit

First Job
Jobloss
Marriage
Births (children, siblings, grandchildren)
Acquisition of automobile, house, lands
Loss of relatives (parents, siblings, spouse, children etc)
Gaining substantial sums of money (large raises, lottery)
Loss of significant amounts of money or precious objects

For the current example, two significant events chosen for illustration were the first travel
abroad and the birth of daughter. Both are fairly significant events as all would agree. Neither
was a planned event in a sense, at least not in the timing of it and both represented important
desires and milestones for the nativity,

The procedure: Being a shuklapaksha daytime birth, vimshottari will be dominant in this chart.
In it, for birth times around 8 AM, Rahu, mars, and Venus will operate for a significant time.
Rahu is placed in the 7th and is generally speaking a representative of foreign places, cultures
etc. Seventh rules over journeys. Mars is atmakaraka placed in cancelled debility in the house
of gains and in the nakshatra of lagnesha and hence again represents gains to self which was so
in this instance. Venus, the antara lord holding sway from 7:53 AM to beyond 8:10 AM is the
lord of the 9th another indicator of long journeys and placed in the star of the lord of 12th
(immigration). Venus makes contact with rahu ketu axis and becomes relevant to the matter of
travel abroad even more. Then for the 4th level we have Venus, sun, moon. mars, rahu, guru
and Saturn ruling for short periods. Subperiods generally do not give effects in their own sub-
sub periods, so we can rule out Venus itself. sun, Jupiter, rahu are more directly related to the
journey abroad, while mars, moon are less directly related. Rahu is less relevant than Jupiter
and sun and sun while in moolatrikona is weaker in shadbal to Jupiter. Moreover, Jupiter being
the lord of 7th placed in the 12th describes the effect (journey to countries abroad) more
directly. Saturn which rules after 8:08 AM is less relevant and can be dismissed. The birth time
therefore can be between 8:05 and 8:08. Rather than Jupiter itself, the 5th level subperiod of
Venus would make sense though sun ruling the 5th level at 8:07 works well too.

The second event: The next event we have is the birth of a daughter. Building up on earlier
analysis, if we focus first on the 3-4 minute window we see that Saturn’s period begins around
8:07. One may argue that 8:06 could work because the finest level is ruled by moon which is
placed in the 5th house, however it is aspected by mars and Saturn and hence may be less
conducive to an auspicious matter like as a birth. Also the antara lord Jupiter would not be
helpful because it is placed in the 12th house of the chart indicating loss and in the 8th from the
5th house so again less likely to be of benefit. Saturn, although placed in the 8th gains strength
due to retrogression and also mild cancellation of its debility by being in kendra to moon and
mars. Moreover its relevance to matter of childbirth increases because it is the lord of 5th
house, aspects the 5th house and is placed on the pada of 5th house (as well as 4 and 11,
happiness and gains). It is of interest to note that on Sept 4, 1998 when the daughter was born,
sun, moon, mars and Saturn were transiting in their natal signs. Going to a finer time resolution
(Fig 2)the slice between 8:07:10 AM to 8:07:54 has mercury as the ruler. Mercury is the
putrakaraka in this chart and although in 6/8 relationship with Saturn, is well-placed (in lagna,
in trikona from the 5th house). It is also associated with ketu in whose nakshatra Saturn is
placed in this chart. The following 5th level period of ketu from 8:07:54 also works.

Finer adjustments: Here, we must remember that the window can only extend up to 8:08:05
because that is when the 5th level of Saturn would start for the journey abroad event and that
would not fit as described earlier! So now we re-examine the potential birth time window from
8:07:10 to 8:08:05 to see if the earlier event matches up within this window which describes
the childbirth event.

Even though sun as the 5th level period would suit for the journey abroad as described earlier,
it would make the childbirth falling into a period when Saturn would rule the last three levels
of the dasha, which is generally stated to be not possible. So if the birth were to have taken
place after 8:07:10, then we would have for the childbirth mercury as the 5th level period lord
which is fine but then for the journey abroad we would have as the 5th level period:

Moon from 8:07:09 to 8:07:25

Mars from 8:07:25 to 8:07:36
Rahu from 8:07:36 onwards
For the journey abroad, rahu would be the most relevant by its placement in the 7th and other
reasons described earlier.

So the possible window now extends from 8:07:36 to 8:08:05. Without splitting further hair,
we can consider the mid-point 8:07:50 as the birth time. Ideally, one should use more than just
2 events to rectify birth times but for ease of understanding only 2 were utilized in this case.
Even so, some may find it pretty complex and doing so without software can be really
confusing as one can realize. To make it even more of a matrix approach, one would utilize
more than one dasha to cross check that everything lines up. It is easy to see how much more
difficult the process can be if the birth time is really off, by a couple of hours as opposed to a
few minutes as in this case.

Now, I will present a pot-pourri of a couple of short examples that touch upon the role that
some of the fundamental astrological factors play when we consider dasas.

Case #1: Male suffering from Multiple Sclerosis

DOB: May 6th, 1964 5:52 EDT
Place: Reading, PA, USA 75W56 40N20
Ayanamsha: -22d 23m 37sec
After the Vimshottari saturn dasa started in March of 1992 the first symptoms appeared. The
native had recently been divorced and was working very heavily, very irregular in diet, eating
lots of fatty junk food and enormous quantities of coffee to remain alert. Over the next decade,
symptoms of a vague nature arose and subsided as often is the case with multiple sclerosis. In
1999 the lightheadedness worsened and around that time he had a series of sinus infections and
severe allergies. Around mid-2003 numbness of feet appeared. Then hands and arms. MRI was
repeated and revealed MS lesions in the spinal cord and brain. Then followed a phase of
depression and finally in 2004 the nativity began to make lifestyle changes (low fat diet, yoga,
meditation) and ayurvedic treatment and remains stable so far. Venus is darakaraka and is lord
of the 7th. Its placement with rahu in a mercurian sign and placement of gulika in the 7th house
gave malefic results for marriage which dissolved. Jupiter is in nakshatra of venus and became
the executor of the effect. The bhukti was of rahu which as we have seen is afflicting venus.
Rahu is in own nakshatra and brought on the negative influence. Saturn dasa brought on the
self-destructive life style but also enormous work-related success. All of these coincided with
his sadesati that started in 1990 and ended in 1998. Once saturn entered the lagna in debility
(late 1998) his symptoms worsened coinciding with the joint period of saturn and venus. When
saturn crossed venus and rahu (Saturn-moon) the lesions were detected and diagnosis
established. This coincided with the depressed phase thereafter which is often seen when saturn
and moon are conjoined. Repeated sinus infections and allergies are also seen when saturn and
moon are joined. In this case both are in rahu's nakshatra and also placed in the 11th house
which is badhaksthana in this chart. Superficially, saturn should not cause so much problems
because it is in moolatrikona and strong lord of 10th and 11th. its association with rahu
(nakshatra dispositor) and rahu being associated with saturn and moon in navamsha and again
in shastamsha (where saturn rules the 6th and 7th houses) resulted in it giving mixed effects -
good for work and earnings and hard work and a devastating disease. The coincidental adverse
transit influences (sade sati, then transit through mesha lagna then crossing venus and rahu
triggered all the changes. During Saturn-mars the nativity came to terms with reality and made
the necessary changes. mars as lagnesha placed in lagna (moolatrikona) began in July 2004 and
situation stabilized.

Case #2:
DOB 16 January 1972 23:05 IST
Place: Mumbai, India
Ayanamsha: -22d 30m 38sec
Event-examination: The way we learn astrology, a posteriori
14-feb-1996 first marriage in court:
Vimshottari: RA-Me-Su
Other than mercury which is placed with Jupiter lord of 7th and darakaraka, rahu and surya do
not make any direct association with any of the marriage-related factors. Rahu is in moon's
nakshatra, mercury is in saturn's and sun is in saturn's star.

Ashtottari: JU ME SA - In ashtottari the mahadasa is of Jupiter who is directly related with

marriage (being lord of 7th and darakaraka. Mercury is associated with Jupiter in rashi in 10th
from 7th and is placed in the 7th house in navamsha chart. Saturn the antaranath is in the 9th
and placed in pisces in navamsha and fits in the navamsha tulya rashi situation because Pisces
is the 7th house in the rashi chart. 2nd house deals with family and so there is indirect
connection because saturn is in the 2nd house of the marriage-specific navamsha chart. In terms
of nakshatra dispositions, ashtottari uses a different nakshatra zone rulership and in this chart
Jupiter is in moola which is in the zone of mercury (in 7th house of D9 and associated with
darakaraka and lord of 7th, namely jupiter in D1), mercury is in poorvashadha which is in
saturn's zone and saturn the antara lord is in Krittika which is in the zone of Venus, the natural
significator of marriage and spouse and placed in dhanu in D9, the tulya sign which in rashi
chart holds the saptamesh and darakaraka Jupiter. A stronger connection is seen when
Ashtottari is utilized in other words.
On Wednesday, Feb 14, 1996 when the marriage was consummated, a day ruled by mercury,
Jupiter was in dhanu, mercury was in makar and shani was in pisces with venus and ketu.

Please note that while there was a good consonance between jupiter and mercury, the dasha and
bhuktinaths, retrograde saturn was the third level indicator and is placed in the 6th from jupiter
and mercury. Also notice that the pada of first house (Arudha) was where jupiter and mercury
were placed whereas saturn was placed on the shatrupada. The clear indication of there being
problems arising in the marriage were evident. Of course no jyotish consultation was carried
out before the court marriage.

20-Jan-1997 break up:

Vimshottari: RA Me Ju
Ashtottari: JU ME RA

Barely months passed before troubles arose and the marriage became unsustainable. The date
of breakup of marriage coincided in vimshottari scheme with rahu, mercury and jupiter. The
period as per ashtottari, interestingly was ruled by the same planets but in the reverse order!
Rahu the amatyakarka becomes the third level planet whereas in vimshottari jupiter the
darakaraka is the antharanath! As we move from the general to specific in the dasha hierarchy,
while the major lord rightly indicates the general setting and ambience, the finer period lord
indicates the specific nature of the effect. One may argue that it was the debilitated jupiter
(darakaraka and saptamesh) in transit over natal moon that blew up the marriage, but rahu was
transiting with mars in the ascendant and right across from saturn that was transiting the 7th
house. I think this is stronger as explanations go because of there being not just one factor into
which one need fit the entire occurrence. Rahu is in Shravana which falls in the zone of saturn
as per ashtottari. Once again, I submit, that ashtottari is giving more direct indications and
consonant with the event.

21-Jan-1997 tried to commit suicide:

Vimshottari: RA Me Ju
Ashtottari: JU ME RA

The very next day obviously very upset and in mental pain, the individual tried to commit
suicide. The day was Tuesday the day of mars and mars was transiting the lagna under watch
from saturn moving through the marak sthan. Mars is placed in the 7th house in the natal chart
and by virtue of that has maraka propensity. It is also the lord of 8th house. Being the strongest
planet, atmakaraka, and essentially a malefic (lord of 8th and 3rd houses), it brought her to the
brink of self-imposed death but did not actually make her complete the act. There were other
lessons remaining to be learned yet! Mars is very powerful in this chart and also is placed in
Revati which is ashtottari scheme is Rahu's nakshatra. This indicates that mars will produce the
effects of rahu! It is a volatile combination when the fire of mars is enveloped in the smoke of
rahu! Rahu also stands for poison and mental aberrations and so mars during that period
impulsively tried to kill herself by taking poison. Rahu and mars were conjoined in virgo
(lagna) at that time with Saturn placed in badhaksthana casting its malefic glance on lagna and
lagnesha (mercury) while the transit moon was in sixth from its natal position as well. All of
these factors upset the mind and interfered with calm thinking creating the near disaster.

25-June-1997 annulment came through:

Vimshottari: RA ME SA
Ashtottari: JU ME ve

While annulment of this marriage may seem like a negative event, in reality it was not! It was
the moment of legal freedom, the marriage now could be put behind oneself. Certainly saturn
would represent the ultimate termination as per the vimshottari scheme and being in Krittika,
the cutting becomes symbolically convincing! However, Venus being pitrikaraka and lord of
9th also symbolically indicates that the daughter returned back to her father's home (away from
her husband's home)! That poetic symbolism aside, what concerns me is that if vimshottari is
utilized, saturn would produce roadblocks which it did not. Venus, on the other hand is placed
in shatabisha (Jupiter's zone) in the 6th and represents a positive outcome over enemies,
although in a marital breakup, enmity even amongst estranged people sounds inappropriate.
When lovers become inimical it fits with the symbolism of venus the icon of love placed in
shatrusthan, though. However, both dashas seem to work for this specific event.

27-Aug-1997 first travel abroad:

Vimshottari: RA ME SA
Ashtottari: JU ME ve

While the same antharas were operating in the two dasha schemes, the native travelled abroad.
Ju and mercury are placed in the 4th house (homeland) while saturn is placed in the 9th house,
the house of foreign journeys. Saturn could also have represented pilgrimages and higher
education or something associated with father, of course. However, if we look from the
ashtottari angle, venus becomes the anthara lord. Venus, quite interestingly is the lord of the
9th house in rashi and navamsha and also pitrikarka so thereby becomes a secondary indicator
for the 9th house, just as jupiter was for 7th house (lord and darakaraka). But please note that
venus being in natal 6th house is aspecting the 12th house which indicates foreign residence
and it is kendra from saturn in 9 and in kendra from 3rd house (moves and travels again), so
once again it has a stronger signature and association with the event. The move was to a more
comfortable and luxurious surroundings and thus again is described better by venus than saturn.
Shatabhisha the ashtottari zone in which venus is placed is ruled by jupiter and transit jupiter
was transiting the 5th house whereas venus was transiting the 1st under the aspect of jupiter.
Though debilitated, the transit jupiter was retrograde and thus strengthened. The mutual kendra
disposition of mars which is the exaltation lord and aspecting jupiter from Libra further helped
reduce the debility.

Why This One?

 The reason why this example was
chosen was because it highlights the conditional factor that is in Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra.
While the segment on BPHS on Ashtottari opens with the condition which implies a certain
placement of rahu being the condition used for selecting ashtottari, further down there is also
the conditionality given that Vimshottari applies better to individuals born during daytime of
Shuklapaksha and night-time of Krishnapaksha whereas Ashtottari applies best to those born
during daytime of Krishnapaksha or night-time of Shuklapaksha. I have been finding that this
is true in nearly all cases I have examined and some examples were given in this series earlier
as well. When the birth is very close to amavasya or poornima, thought, a caution must be
sounded. If the sun and moon are within a few degrees of each other or the 180 degree (in cases
of poornima), it is safe to test using both the dashas. Of course it would depend a lot on other
parameters used such as dasha durations and ayanamsha etc. Like Shri Raman ji used to say,
test things for yourself and taste the pudding!

Please do not post reading requests in the comments section here. ONLY comments on the contents of
this article are welcome here. If you wish to order an astrological session (SKYPE Interactive Only!) with
Rohiniranjan - Click here
 

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11-Apr-2010

More by :  Rohini Ranjan

 
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Comments on this Article

Satyavati,

I have always discouraged this kind of piece-meal approach where people start talking about 'what if'
scenarios using one or two pointers. Delineations must be done wholistically while considering all
factors. Astrology is heavily dependent on an approach where all associations and states and
strengths of planets play a crucial role.

I would strongly encourage you to adopt that as a standard practice.

Thanks!

rohiniranjan.homestead.com

Rohiniranjan
06/16/2013 17:42 PM

Moon in 8th house weak mahadasha, plus sade sati mars in 12th house.
would like to hear your comments.

satyavati
06/16/2013 15:20 PM

 
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Dashas - A Primer 4

by Rohini Ranjan

Krishnamurthy’s Theory: K.S. Krishnamurthy, from all accounts, was an uncannily accurate astrologer
who developed an interesting system popularly known as Krishnamurthy Paddhati or K.P. as is popularly
known. He primarily used it for horary or prashna Jyotish but the principles work in natal or phalit
Jyotish as well. Very briefly: His system utilized the planets ruling the weekday, the asterism that the
Moon is in at the time of asking of the question and the ascendant rising at that instant. The system was
claimed as capable of providing highly accurate readings and Krishnamurthy acknowledged having
received the 'method' in the form of a divine inspiration from his Ishta Devta Uchchista Ganapathy. He
chose to use the western placidian house divisions with these sidereal charts, a major divergence from
classical vedic astrology; moreover, he placed the rising degree at the beginning of a house and not in
the middle as is practiced by other jyotishis. His 'system' also had another interesting feature. Since the
zodiac can be divided into 249 divisions, each ruled by a sign-lord (one per 30 deg), star-lord (one per 13
deg 20 min) and a star-sub-lord (variable dimensions, 40 min to 2 deg 13 min 20 sec), he often asked
clients to provide a number between 1 and 249 which he used to determine the ascendant in a chart
drawn for the moment of the query (planetary longitudes were calculated for the actual current
moment). A client providing a number that was outside this range was told that the venture would not
be a success!

Subdivisions: The KP subdivisions are essentially a way of viewing the vimshottari bhukti or antardasha
in terms of nakshatra longitudes. We all know for example, that, if moon is just entering krittika, at birth,
the child will begin life with sun’s dasha. If the moon has just entered krittika the child will have sun dasa
and sun bhukti at the beginning of life. If the birth moon is a bit more advanced, the child will begin life
with sun dasa and moon bhukti and thus depending on how advanced the moon is at birth in krittika,
the first bhukti could belong to mars, rahu, Jupiter, etc. Now view these segments of krittika as
subdivisions, with the first segment ruled by sun (sun bhukti), next one ruled by moon, the third by mars
and so on. The dimensions of the segments would be proportional to the proportion of the bhukti to
that of the dasa (nakshatra). Looked another way, Venus dasa rules for 20 years whereas moon dasa
rules for 10 years. Both moon and Venus nakshatra would have nine segments each ruled by the nine
planets, however, each segment in Venus dasa would be twice as large as the segment ruled by the
same planet in moon dasa. According to Krishnamurthy the nakshatra dispositor of the dasa lord
defined the nature of the result whereas the dasa lord was treated as the source of the effect. The ‘sub’
then determined the positive or negative outcomes, gain or loss of the effect. So, for illustration let us
say a person is undergoing the dasa of the lord of 10th house which is in the nakshatra of the lord of
11th. This would be interpreted as the source (tenth = workplace) giving the effect of 11th (raise or
bonus) with the subdivision indicating a gain or a denial of a raise. The relationship between the dasa
dispositor (effect) and the sub-lord would have a say in whether the effect will be positive or negative.
So in our example if the sublord is placed in a trika sthan (6, 8 or 12) from lagna or from the dasa
dispositor would indicate a loss but placement in 1, 5, 9 would indicate the individual getting a raise. In
actual experience, the effect being defined by the dasa dispositor works out more reliably than the role
of the sub-lord in birth charts. Some individual, on the other hand, have demonstrated very good results
when using KP in a horary application, much better than in natal horoscopy, much in keeping with what
Krishnamurthy originally proposed and utilized this very interesting technique.

Through this method, Krishnamurthy revived a very important fundamental concept on the Indian
astrological scene, that of the role of asterisms in chart analysis and particularly by refining the use and
improving the usefulness of the vimshottari dasha system of timing. He must be commended for that,
even though his system remains a somewhat controversial approach for many main-stream jyotishis.

The system is essentially not very different from that used for delineating any other chart as per jyotish
parlance. The chart is drawn by using either the numerical representative for the ascendant, or for the
epoch of the query. The planets in both cases are calculated for the moment of making the query. A list
of significant planets are drawn; the planet ruling over the weekday, the lords of the signs, stars and
subs of the rising degree (ascendant) and the Moon. The ascendant is taken to represent the client while
the seventh house represents the astrologer. When the astrologer also happens to be the querist (self-
prashna), it is interesting that at times this is indicated in the chart itself in terms of 'connectivities'
between the two representative houses. Next, the house/houses pertaining to the question are
examined and these are checked to see if they agree with the significant planets. The success or failure
of the undertaking then would be indicated by the mutual agreement or disagreement between the
planets. Things such as friendship (or lack thereof) between the planets concerned, their association
with each other by aspect, any beneficial combinations (yogas) between relevant planets and the
strength of the planets are taken into account. An examination of the vimshottari dasha is then made
and this is used, in addition to transits of the significant planets and stars for estimating the timing.
Situations where the indicators are fewer and clear, the outcome can be expected to be better
predictable. If too many conflicting influences exist, there is usually reason to believe that the issue is
riddled with problems. In his writings, Krishnamurthy gave numerous examples of things such as long-
distance phone calls that he tested his system on. This might amuse the modern reader who is used to
dialing a number and expecting to get through right away. But in India of years ago, decades before
direct dialing became available, one had to place a call by 'booking' it through an operator and then wait
and wait and wait, often at the post-office because most people did not have personal phones. It was a
big deal for most and Krishnamurthy used it to test his system. Perhaps we can emulate Krishnamurthy’s
experiment with our postal-mail, these days!

Krishnamurthy enumerated in his 'Readers', houses that are involved in determining and examining
different areas/issues in life. I am presenting a tiny sampling here which may be utilized in addition to
the more extensive lists presented elsewhere in this manual, taken from standard mainstream jyotish
texts, all of which can also be used for horary purposes:

Health issues - 1, 6, 8 houses

Income - 2, 11, 10
Children - 5
Love affairs - 5, 7
spirituality - 9, 12
Expenditure - 12
Litigations/insurance matters - 8, 12
Siblings - 3, 11
Home, property etc. - 4, 8
Education - 5, 9
Communication, letters etc. - 3, 11
Business/interview - 7
service/working for others - 6
fame/profession - 10
spouse - 7
family, wealth - 2
pets/animals - 5, Venus
Mystery/intrigue - 8, nodes of Moon

The KP Indicators: Once an indicator is decided upon, its placement in the horary horoscope is
examined and basing on the positions and the mutual relationship between the star and sub-
lords, success or failure is assessed. Generally, if the sub-lord is in an angle or trine from the
houses ruled by the star-lord, success is indicated, whereas, if the sub-lord is in the 6th, 8th or
12th from the house under examination, then delays, obstacles and failure may be expected.
Sometimes, the nature of the signs and planets involved gives a clue about the rapidity with
which the issue would progress to a culmination. Fixed signs, earthy influences, retrograde
planets and planets such as Jupiter (if malefic) and Saturn generally indicate delays, Sun,
Venus, Mars (if benefic), Moon and Mercury represent speedy progress. The nodes (Rahu and
Ketu) add unpredictability and suddenness, and generally result in uneven progress in the
matters at hand.

How does it all come together?

When the question is posed, it is recommended that there should not be any distraction and the
querist should meditate on the question for a while, examining all known aspects of it before
verbalizing the question. Clarity, sincerity and seriousness of intent when posing the question is
probably rewarded with answers that are of a kindred nature. The reasoning behind this is
remarkably similar to that applicable to other kinds of divinatory procedures. The sincerity of
the querist must first be examined in order to determine if the chart would hold well and
represent the process adequately or not. If the two houses (1 and 7) are strong and well
connected, then the communication could prove to be fruitful. A similar positive connection
between the first house (querist) and the house representing the matter under query are strongly
connected then the query was sincere and has a higher chance of being analyzed positively.
This is important, because even if the query is about an important matter, the querist may not
believe sufficiently in astrology or the astrologer and this would be reflected in the chart and
could lead to a 'noisy' imprecise reading. The likelihood of this is much lower in a professional
situation where a cost is involved and the idly curious are screened out to a large extent. It is
not very useful to do an after the fact (post mortem) analysis of a horary epoch. This is because
the transits under which the analysis would be carried out would be different from the original
epoch and would influence the reading. Both the astrologer as well as the nativity must together
be in the same astrological environment (horary epoch transits) for the horary phenomenon to
work efficiently.

Are planets Schizophrenic?

 Scholars in Jyotish and many teachers have maintained for at least within the last 60-70 years
of published Jyotish literature that there are two distinct systems in Jyotish, one following the
teaching of Parashara Rishi and the other of Jaimini Rishi. It is of interest that neither of them
refer to the other in their writings as far as I know, although mention of other sages and
pioneers in Jyotish does exist in their works. This makes it difficult to wonder if they were
contemporaries or figures that appeared in historical sequence. What is notable, though, is that
Jaimini’s writings do not touch upon so called Parashari methodology at all, whereas a fair
amount of what would constitute Jamini system appears prominently in Brihat Parashara Hora
Shastra. People have expressed their discontentment at Jyotishis and particularly researchers
using both methods simultaneously during the same reading or examination. While on the one
hand, not doing so would simplify matters and arguably hone the acuity and focus of the
method used, on the other hand, such discrimination would understandably lead to the
incompleteness of such a delineation. Astrology is best dealt with a multifactorial, matrix type
approach and as long as the jyotishi is not ‘picking and choosing’ in a hurry and mixing logic
and intuition and all that exists between these two faculties, the result should be richer than
using only one system in isolation. Completely aside from personal viewpoints, it is difficult to
comprehend or even assume that the very same planet, such as mars that is the lord of 4th and
11th, for instance and also Jaimini putrakaraka plus many other inherent roles (karakatwas)
would fulfil one role but not the other. This is where one must intelligently apply the ‘roles’
that planets play because in a given situation (desh, kal, paristhiti: locality, temporality,
situational circumstances), they would express only one or a few sides of their portfolio and not
everything at the same time. After all a mother who is also working outside her home does not
entirely cease to be the ‘mother’ in office, or the boss at home!

Conditional Dashas

 In addition to Vimshottari dasha which is used by nearly everyone by default, although in this
series I have also shown situations where Ashtottari one of the many conditional dashas in
BPHS might be more appropriate, scores of other possibilities exist. In recent years several
reknowned jyotishis and their students and followers have done a lot of research and
demonstrated how the different conditional dashas can be utilized in daily practice. The fact
remains though that for most beginners, juggling more than one or two dashas can generally
produce confusion due to multiplicity of overwhelming and often conflicting information
generated by such an approach. It is to be noted that even those who use just one dasha are still
dealing with the complexities of transit influences, combined with the annual horoscopic
considerations and several vargas pointing in different directions and the tri-
oriented sudarshana kundali (predictions based on the lunar, solar and lagna charts overlapping
one another). The complexity is already substantial. My advice, therefore, would be to work
with one or two dashas at a time and then proceed towards learning more.

Parashara has described certain dashas as being generally applicable, such as Vimshottari,
Kalachakra, Yogini, whereas others are prescribed to apply when certain conditions are met in
a given horoscope (hence termed conditional dashas). For example, Dwadashottari to be
applied when the navamsha lagna belongs to venus (Taurus or libra navamsha rising).
Panchottari dasha to be applied when one is born in cancer ascendant and also having cancer
dwadashamsha rising whereas shashtihayini dasha has been recommended for those who have
sun rising in the first house in their charts. Most followers of Jaimini system also utilize Chara
dasha and Sthira dasha to a lesser extent. Most dashas are relatively easy to calculate and many
are already incorporated in readily available software some of which are simply labours of love
and are offered freely. One popular software is JHora which started out essentially as a
software created by a brilliant engineer, programmer and a jyotishi P.V.R. Narasimha Rao.
Over the years he has refined the product and has been offering it free. It also contains some of
the novel techniques that he is experimenting with and would be of great interest to researchers.
This brings a key point which must be remembered. There have been ongoing discussions
between jyotishis about the correct way of calculating and interpreting the dashas. While the
calculation procedures for dashas such as Vimshottari, Ashtottari, Yogini are unambiguous,
others such as Chara and Kalachakra and some others are not quite so. Different scholars have
recommended different methods for calculating the same dasha and which you may see
reflected in the software which gives different options for calculating the same dasha. Many of
these differences arise from what is known as differences between Paramparas or schools
(similar to Gharanas in the realm of classical music). This has been a major puzzling fact about
Jyotish factors and does not remain isolated to the calculation of dashas alone. It extends to
fundamental things such as ayanamsha, lordships of lunar nodes, distribution of rashis in
certain vargas and several other factors. Delving in these uncertain terrains demands lot of
time-consuming research since blind faith is not going to help for a long time. Having raised
that cautionary note, we can move on. However, I must reiterate that once we throw ourselves
into this smorgasbord (a Nordic term representing a collection of servings of different delicious
food items like a Chinese dim-sum for those who are familiar with that term or a pot-luck food-
fest or the native north American Pot Lach meal combos where each participant brings a
different food item and the variety of food items then grows enormously varied!), the chances
of indigestion exist too!

If something does not make sense directly or logically, then such a dasa system that requires
one to go through contortions of mental gymnastics, then perhaps there is a serious flaw in such
an approach. One should consciously avoid to mix too much esotericism into astrological
techniques. Common sense must always remain the yardstick in much of astrological
considerations and esoteria or mystical secrets perhaps better belong in the realm of other
occult pursuits.

Matrix Approach

While too many different techniques applied at the same time can be confusing and produce the
opposite effect than desired, one should try and develop the habit of utilizing a multi-pronged
approach when analysing a chart. Unfortunately, when a delineation is written out, it gives the
impression that a given factor is the ‘clincher’ in a given case. Be it a mahapurusha yoga or
KSY or combustion or low ashtakvarga scores or transits etc, however, in truth it is the
multiplicity of pointers that add to the weight of evidence as it is called. One should therefore
factor in these and other pointers and when they add up, these often point to situations where a
positive or negative effect may be anticipated. The only way to arrive at that level is to keep
practicing with real chart. Reading yet another book, article or internet discussion is simply not
going to do it! Reading a chart properly may take at least 2 hours although a full-scale reading
takes a lot longer. Now if one were to analyze two charts per day (assuming that they have to
work to earn a living, eat, sleep, watch TV etc) they would probably be analyzing about 400 or
so charts a year. Over a period of 10 years they would have sampled 4000 charts. It sounds like
a large number, but there are about 6.8 billion individuals at a given instant. 4000 Represents
only 0.00006% of the population! The experience and familiarity is simply not enough to avoid
hit and miss analysis.

Technology can make life easier for Jyotishis (and confusing!)

Many beginners these days must be getting very confused when they read messages and
readings on the Internet where the same chart that is being read by a variety of jyotishis (often
with different backgrounds and levels of experience) to address the same question or issue and
even seasoned astrologers come up with different explanations and even outcomes. One
justifiably becomes discouraged, sceptical and cynical when encountering such variations.
Often the ‘tone’ of confidence in what one jyotishi writes, as opposed to another is also
interesting to observe. Some would tend to give the impression that astrology is a black or
white pronouncement. That if you get the right ayanamsha, the right zodiac in some instances,
the right dasha, then everything should work uniformly and perfectly! While a comforting
thought, realistically, such is not the case. To the research-minded astrologer, such variability
and variations on the theme indicate a fertile potential for search, research and exploration, for
others it can be unsettling and some even get defensive about it all. This is the biggest mystery
within Jyotish! In each horoscope there are so many hints which are differently revealed or
touched upon when different minds (of jyotishis) apply themselves to a given chart. It is also
interesting to observe that while some individuals tend to be rather terse and give a yes/no kind
of answer, others elaborately try to weave a sequence of happenings or descriptions of a
process. The personality, background, and other individual qualities of the astrologer perhaps
enter into the process and define the output. Jyotishis like other human beings can be good
communicators, or poor communicators, brilliant and clear or not. All of these and more factors
lead to the colourful variegated flavours that show up when different astrologers read the same
chart. In the past this was revealed or observed infrequently and rather locally, in study groups
where astrologers met and discussed or through the slow sequence offered by magazines which
came out once a month or even less frequently. Internet has made that obsolete and with the
Jyotish lists and fora and discussion groups, a lot of such interaction happens more rapidly and
makes it that much more interesting and intriguing. Unfortunately, it has its negative aspects
too and honest discussions often do not take place. Back in the very early 80s when I was a
young man, not quite 30 and arrived in North America, telecommunications was in its infancy,
as was personal computer usage. I was fortunate to very quickly guess the potential of both on
astrology and astrologers and even though livelihood and other mundane considerations were
critically important, I set aside chunks of time a few times each week to explore these
computer-clubs. My first reward was in being able to put together for myself a software using
BASIC which allowed me to create a chart within a minute as opposed to 60-90 times the
TIME it took me to draw a detailed chart using proportional log tables and so on. What a
wonderful boon it was! Of course later on commercial software became available and made it
on the one hand easier but on the other hand a bit of a headache due to errors in programming
and erroneous techniques that got incorporated in most software in the early nineties and
ongoing! The Bulletin Board Systems and their successors, like Compuserve for a and Delphi
and Genie etc brought opportunities to discuss, collect and share charts with others interested in
astrology and it really enhanced my experience and boosted my confidence. Of course, one
must be very careful and critical of what the currently flooded internet represents, as has been
touched upon in my articles in EST and elsewhere.

Software comes to the aid of rectification

Dashas have always had a very important function: in rectification of birth times! The
technique is simple. Armed with a series of significant events and their dates/times, the
astrologer checks those against the prevailing dasa periods and by moving the stated birth time
ahead or behind the first one stated tries to find one where most or ideally ALL events match
up. The process sounds a lot simpler than it is and can be quite nerve racking! It may seem
easier to do this if one is determined to use rigid factors such as ONE ayanamsha, ONE type of
‘year’ (solar, lunar, synodic, savanmana), and one or two types of dashas! If you are toying
with different ayanamshas and other variables, imagine how complicated the process can
become! Even if you are using software like Parashara’s Light that allows one to line up dashas
(different kinds, pick one!) with the events against birth time intervals that can be changed (fig
1).

The birth time intervals ranging from 1 second to one hour can be changed by zooming in or
out, the dashas can be changed as well to get a different ‘perspective’. The choice is limited to
three dashas for the rectification screen but wisely chosen by Geovision. There is something
special about these three dashas: Vimshottari, Ashtottari and Yogini and if used wisely, most of
the field of possibilities can be covered by most jyotishis.

In fact having such capabilities in software can make one, who is motivated to do so, to be able
to experiment with different ayanamshas and dasha durations etc and tune into what gets one
closer to reality.

An example: For a demonstration let us look at a nativity who was born on September 4, 1968
at 8 AM in New Delhi. The ayanamsha that I use is -22:27:31. The birth time was stated as
being approximate but within 10 minutes or so of the exact time.
Some considerations: Usually, it is best to select events which are significant and somewhat
destined. For instance the following types of events can be utilized for rectification:

Beginning of a significant educational pursuit

First Job
Jobloss
Marriage
Births (children, siblings, grandchildren)
Acquisition of automobile, house, lands
Loss of relatives (parents, siblings, spouse, children etc)
Gaining substantial sums of money (large raises, lottery)
Loss of significant amounts of money or precious objects

For the current example, two significant events chosen for illustration were the first travel
abroad and the birth of daughter. Both are fairly significant events as all would agree. Neither
was a planned event in a sense, at least not in the timing of it and both represented important
desires and milestones for the nativity,

The procedure: Being a shuklapaksha daytime birth, vimshottari will be dominant in this chart.
In it, for birth times around 8 AM, Rahu, mars, and Venus will operate for a significant time.
Rahu is placed in the 7th and is generally speaking a representative of foreign places, cultures
etc. Seventh rules over journeys. Mars is atmakaraka placed in cancelled debility in the house
of gains and in the nakshatra of lagnesha and hence again represents gains to self which was so
in this instance. Venus, the antara lord holding sway from 7:53 AM to beyond 8:10 AM is the
lord of the 9th another indicator of long journeys and placed in the star of the lord of 12th
(immigration). Venus makes contact with rahu ketu axis and becomes relevant to the matter of
travel abroad even more. Then for the 4th level we have Venus, sun, moon. mars, rahu, guru
and Saturn ruling for short periods. Subperiods generally do not give effects in their own sub-
sub periods, so we can rule out Venus itself. sun, Jupiter, rahu are more directly related to the
journey abroad, while mars, moon are less directly related. Rahu is less relevant than Jupiter
and sun and sun while in moolatrikona is weaker in shadbal to Jupiter. Moreover, Jupiter being
the lord of 7th placed in the 12th describes the effect (journey to countries abroad) more
directly. Saturn which rules after 8:08 AM is less relevant and can be dismissed. The birth time
therefore can be between 8:05 and 8:08. Rather than Jupiter itself, the 5th level subperiod of
Venus would make sense though sun ruling the 5th level at 8:07 works well too.

The second event: The next event we have is the birth of a daughter. Building up on earlier
analysis, if we focus first on the 3-4 minute window we see that Saturn’s period begins around
8:07. One may argue that 8:06 could work because the finest level is ruled by moon which is
placed in the 5th house, however it is aspected by mars and Saturn and hence may be less
conducive to an auspicious matter like as a birth. Also the antara lord Jupiter would not be
helpful because it is placed in the 12th house of the chart indicating loss and in the 8th from the
5th house so again less likely to be of benefit. Saturn, although placed in the 8th gains strength
due to retrogression and also mild cancellation of its debility by being in kendra to moon and
mars. Moreover its relevance to matter of childbirth increases because it is the lord of 5th
house, aspects the 5th house and is placed on the pada of 5th house (as well as 4 and 11,
happiness and gains). It is of interest to note that on Sept 4, 1998 when the daughter was born,
sun, moon, mars and Saturn were transiting in their natal signs. Going to a finer time resolution
(Fig 2)the slice between 8:07:10 AM to 8:07:54 has mercury as the ruler. Mercury is the
putrakaraka in this chart and although in 6/8 relationship with Saturn, is well-placed (in lagna,
in trikona from the 5th house). It is also associated with ketu in whose nakshatra Saturn is
placed in this chart. The following 5th level period of ketu from 8:07:54 also works.

Finer adjustments: Here, we must remember that the window can only extend up to 8:08:05
because that is when the 5th level of Saturn would start for the journey abroad event and that
would not fit as described earlier! So now we re-examine the potential birth time window from
8:07:10 to 8:08:05 to see if the earlier event matches up within this window which describes
the childbirth event.

Even though sun as the 5th level period would suit for the journey abroad as described earlier,
it would make the childbirth falling into a period when Saturn would rule the last three levels
of the dasha, which is generally stated to be not possible. So if the birth were to have taken
place after 8:07:10, then we would have for the childbirth mercury as the 5th level period lord
which is fine but then for the journey abroad we would have as the 5th level period:

Moon from 8:07:09 to 8:07:25

Mars from 8:07:25 to 8:07:36
Rahu from 8:07:36 onwards
For the journey abroad, rahu would be the most relevant by its placement in the 7th and other
reasons described earlier.

So the possible window now extends from 8:07:36 to 8:08:05. Without splitting further hair,
we can consider the mid-point 8:07:50 as the birth time. Ideally, one should use more than just
2 events to rectify birth times but for ease of understanding only 2 were utilized in this case.
Even so, some may find it pretty complex and doing so without software can be really
confusing as one can realize. To make it even more of a matrix approach, one would utilize
more than one dasha to cross check that everything lines up. It is easy to see how much more
difficult the process can be if the birth time is really off, by a couple of hours as opposed to a
few minutes as in this case.

Now, I will present a pot-pourri of a couple of short examples that touch upon the role that
some of the fundamental astrological factors play when we consider dasas.

Case #1: Male suffering from Multiple Sclerosis

DOB: May 6th, 1964 5:52 EDT
Place: Reading, PA, USA 75W56 40N20
Ayanamsha: -22d 23m 37sec
After the Vimshottari saturn dasa started in March of 1992 the first symptoms appeared. The
native had recently been divorced and was working very heavily, very irregular in diet, eating
lots of fatty junk food and enormous quantities of coffee to remain alert. Over the next decade,
symptoms of a vague nature arose and subsided as often is the case with multiple sclerosis. In
1999 the lightheadedness worsened and around that time he had a series of sinus infections and
severe allergies. Around mid-2003 numbness of feet appeared. Then hands and arms. MRI was
repeated and revealed MS lesions in the spinal cord and brain. Then followed a phase of
depression and finally in 2004 the nativity began to make lifestyle changes (low fat diet, yoga,
meditation) and ayurvedic treatment and remains stable so far. Venus is darakaraka and is lord
of the 7th. Its placement with rahu in a mercurian sign and placement of gulika in the 7th house
gave malefic results for marriage which dissolved. Jupiter is in nakshatra of venus and became
the executor of the effect. The bhukti was of rahu which as we have seen is afflicting venus.
Rahu is in own nakshatra and brought on the negative influence. Saturn dasa brought on the
self-destructive life style but also enormous work-related success. All of these coincided with
his sadesati that started in 1990 and ended in 1998. Once saturn entered the lagna in debility
(late 1998) his symptoms worsened coinciding with the joint period of saturn and venus. When
saturn crossed venus and rahu (Saturn-moon) the lesions were detected and diagnosis
established. This coincided with the depressed phase thereafter which is often seen when saturn
and moon are conjoined. Repeated sinus infections and allergies are also seen when saturn and
moon are joined. In this case both are in rahu's nakshatra and also placed in the 11th house
which is badhaksthana in this chart. Superficially, saturn should not cause so much problems
because it is in moolatrikona and strong lord of 10th and 11th. its association with rahu
(nakshatra dispositor) and rahu being associated with saturn and moon in navamsha and again
in shastamsha (where saturn rules the 6th and 7th houses) resulted in it giving mixed effects -
good for work and earnings and hard work and a devastating disease. The coincidental adverse
transit influences (sade sati, then transit through mesha lagna then crossing venus and rahu
triggered all the changes. During Saturn-mars the nativity came to terms with reality and made
the necessary changes. mars as lagnesha placed in lagna (moolatrikona) began in July 2004 and
situation stabilized.

Case #2:
DOB 16 January 1972 23:05 IST
Place: Mumbai, India
Ayanamsha: -22d 30m 38sec
Event-examination: The way we learn astrology, a posteriori
14-feb-1996 first marriage in court:
Vimshottari: RA-Me-Su
Other than mercury which is placed with Jupiter lord of 7th and darakaraka, rahu and surya do
not make any direct association with any of the marriage-related factors. Rahu is in moon's
nakshatra, mercury is in saturn's and sun is in saturn's star.

Ashtottari: JU ME SA - In ashtottari the mahadasa is of Jupiter who is directly related with

marriage (being lord of 7th and darakaraka. Mercury is associated with Jupiter in rashi in 10th
from 7th and is placed in the 7th house in navamsha chart. Saturn the antaranath is in the 9th
and placed in pisces in navamsha and fits in the navamsha tulya rashi situation because Pisces
is the 7th house in the rashi chart. 2nd house deals with family and so there is indirect
connection because saturn is in the 2nd house of the marriage-specific navamsha chart. In terms
of nakshatra dispositions, ashtottari uses a different nakshatra zone rulership and in this chart
Jupiter is in moola which is in the zone of mercury (in 7th house of D9 and associated with
darakaraka and lord of 7th, namely jupiter in D1), mercury is in poorvashadha which is in
saturn's zone and saturn the antara lord is in Krittika which is in the zone of Venus, the natural
significator of marriage and spouse and placed in dhanu in D9, the tulya sign which in rashi
chart holds the saptamesh and darakaraka Jupiter. A stronger connection is seen when
Ashtottari is utilized in other words.
On Wednesday, Feb 14, 1996 when the marriage was consummated, a day ruled by mercury,
Jupiter was in dhanu, mercury was in makar and shani was in pisces with venus and ketu.

Please note that while there was a good consonance between jupiter and mercury, the dasha and
bhuktinaths, retrograde saturn was the third level indicator and is placed in the 6th from jupiter
and mercury. Also notice that the pada of first house (Arudha) was where jupiter and mercury
were placed whereas saturn was placed on the shatrupada. The clear indication of there being
problems arising in the marriage were evident. Of course no jyotish consultation was carried
out before the court marriage.

20-Jan-1997 break up:

Vimshottari: RA Me Ju
Ashtottari: JU ME RA

Barely months passed before troubles arose and the marriage became unsustainable. The date
of breakup of marriage coincided in vimshottari scheme with rahu, mercury and jupiter. The
period as per ashtottari, interestingly was ruled by the same planets but in the reverse order!
Rahu the amatyakarka becomes the third level planet whereas in vimshottari jupiter the
darakaraka is the antharanath! As we move from the general to specific in the dasha hierarchy,
while the major lord rightly indicates the general setting and ambience, the finer period lord
indicates the specific nature of the effect. One may argue that it was the debilitated jupiter
(darakaraka and saptamesh) in transit over natal moon that blew up the marriage, but rahu was
transiting with mars in the ascendant and right across from saturn that was transiting the 7th
house. I think this is stronger as explanations go because of there being not just one factor into
which one need fit the entire occurrence. Rahu is in Shravana which falls in the zone of saturn
as per ashtottari. Once again, I submit, that ashtottari is giving more direct indications and
consonant with the event.

21-Jan-1997 tried to commit suicide:

Vimshottari: RA Me Ju
Ashtottari: JU ME RA

The very next day obviously very upset and in mental pain, the individual tried to commit
suicide. The day was Tuesday the day of mars and mars was transiting the lagna under watch
from saturn moving through the marak sthan. Mars is placed in the 7th house in the natal chart
and by virtue of that has maraka propensity. It is also the lord of 8th house. Being the strongest
planet, atmakaraka, and essentially a malefic (lord of 8th and 3rd houses), it brought her to the
brink of self-imposed death but did not actually make her complete the act. There were other
lessons remaining to be learned yet! Mars is very powerful in this chart and also is placed in
Revati which is ashtottari scheme is Rahu's nakshatra. This indicates that mars will produce the
effects of rahu! It is a volatile combination when the fire of mars is enveloped in the smoke of
rahu! Rahu also stands for poison and mental aberrations and so mars during that period
impulsively tried to kill herself by taking poison. Rahu and mars were conjoined in virgo
(lagna) at that time with Saturn placed in badhaksthana casting its malefic glance on lagna and
lagnesha (mercury) while the transit moon was in sixth from its natal position as well. All of
these factors upset the mind and interfered with calm thinking creating the near disaster.

25-June-1997 annulment came through:

Vimshottari: RA ME SA
Ashtottari: JU ME ve

While annulment of this marriage may seem like a negative event, in reality it was not! It was
the moment of legal freedom, the marriage now could be put behind oneself. Certainly saturn
would represent the ultimate termination as per the vimshottari scheme and being in Krittika,
the cutting becomes symbolically convincing! However, Venus being pitrikaraka and lord of
9th also symbolically indicates that the daughter returned back to her father's home (away from
her husband's home)! That poetic symbolism aside, what concerns me is that if vimshottari is
utilized, saturn would produce roadblocks which it did not. Venus, on the other hand is placed
in shatabisha (Jupiter's zone) in the 6th and represents a positive outcome over enemies,
although in a marital breakup, enmity even amongst estranged people sounds inappropriate.
When lovers become inimical it fits with the symbolism of venus the icon of love placed in
shatrusthan, though. However, both dashas seem to work for this specific event.

27-Aug-1997 first travel abroad:

Vimshottari: RA ME SA
Ashtottari: JU ME ve

While the same antharas were operating in the two dasha schemes, the native travelled abroad.
Ju and mercury are placed in the 4th house (homeland) while saturn is placed in the 9th house,
the house of foreign journeys. Saturn could also have represented pilgrimages and higher
education or something associated with father, of course. However, if we look from the
ashtottari angle, venus becomes the anthara lord. Venus, quite interestingly is the lord of the
9th house in rashi and navamsha and also pitrikarka so thereby becomes a secondary indicator
for the 9th house, just as jupiter was for 7th house (lord and darakaraka). But please note that
venus being in natal 6th house is aspecting the 12th house which indicates foreign residence
and it is kendra from saturn in 9 and in kendra from 3rd house (moves and travels again), so
once again it has a stronger signature and association with the event. The move was to a more
comfortable and luxurious surroundings and thus again is described better by venus than saturn.
Shatabhisha the ashtottari zone in which venus is placed is ruled by jupiter and transit jupiter
was transiting the 5th house whereas venus was transiting the 1st under the aspect of jupiter.
Though debilitated, the transit jupiter was retrograde and thus strengthened. The mutual kendra
disposition of mars which is the exaltation lord and aspecting jupiter from Libra further helped
reduce the debility.

Why This One?

 The reason why this example was
chosen was because it highlights the conditional factor that is in Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra.
While the segment on BPHS on Ashtottari opens with the condition which implies a certain
placement of rahu being the condition used for selecting ashtottari, further down there is also
the conditionality given that Vimshottari applies better to individuals born during daytime of
Shuklapaksha and night-time of Krishnapaksha whereas Ashtottari applies best to those born
during daytime of Krishnapaksha or night-time of Shuklapaksha. I have been finding that this
is true in nearly all cases I have examined and some examples were given in this series earlier
as well. When the birth is very close to amavasya or poornima, thought, a caution must be
sounded. If the sun and moon are within a few degrees of each other or the 180 degree (in cases
of poornima), it is safe to test using both the dashas. Of course it would depend a lot on other
parameters used such as dasha durations and ayanamsha etc. Like Shri Raman ji used to say,
test things for yourself and taste the pudding!

Please do not post reading requests in the comments section here. ONLY comments on the contents of
this article are welcome here. If you wish to order an astrological session (SKYPE Interactive Only!) with
Rohiniranjan - Click here
 

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11-Apr-2010

More by :  Rohini Ranjan

 
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Comments on this Article

Satyavati,

I have always discouraged this kind of piece-meal approach where people start talking about 'what if'
scenarios using one or two pointers. Delineations must be done wholistically while considering all
factors. Astrology is heavily dependent on an approach where all associations and states and
strengths of planets play a crucial role.

I would strongly encourage you to adopt that as a standard practice.

Thanks!

rohiniranjan.homestead.com

Rohiniranjan
06/16/2013 17:42 PM

Moon in 8th house weak mahadasha, plus sade sati mars in 12th house.
would like to hear your comments.

satyavati
06/16/2013 15:20 PM

 
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× ☰Channels Astrology Share This Page Dashas - A Primer 4 by Rohini Ranjan

Krishnamurthy’s Theory: K.S. Krishnamurthy, from all accounts, was an uncannily
accurate astrologer who developed an interesting system popularly known as
Krishnamurthy Paddhati or K.P. as is popularly known. He primarily used it for horary
or prashna Jyotish but the principles work in natal or phalit Jyotish as well. Very
briefly: His system utilized the planets ruling the weekday, the asterism that the
Moon is in at the time of asking of the question and the ascendant rising at that
instant. The system was claimed as capable of providing highly accurate readings and
Krishnamurthy acknowledged having received the 'method' in the form of a divine
inspiration from his Ishta Devta Uchchista Ganapathy. He chose to use the western
placidian house divisions with these sidereal charts, a major divergence from
classical vedic astrology; moreover, he placed the rising degree at the beginning of a
house and not in the middle as is practiced by other jyotishis. His 'system' also had
another interesting feature. Since the zodiac can be divided into 249 divisions, each
ruled by a sign-lord (one per 30 deg), star-lord (one per 13 deg 20 min) and a star-
sub-lord (variable dimensions, 40 min to 2 deg 13 min 20 sec), he often asked clients
to provide a number between 1 and 249 which he used to determine the ascendant
in a chart drawn for the moment of the query (planetary longitudes were calculated
for the actual current moment). A client providing a number that was outside this
range was told that the venture would not be a success! Subdivisions: The KP
subdivisions are essentially a way of viewing the vimshottari bhukti or antardasha in
terms of nakshatra longitudes. We all know for example, that, if moon is just
entering krittika, at birth, the child will begin life with sun’s dasha. If the moon has
just entered krittika the child will have sun dasa and sun bhukti at the beginning of
life. If the birth moon is a bit more advanced, the child will begin life with sun dasa
and moon bhukti and thus depending on how advanced the moon is at birth in
krittika, the first bhukti could belong to mars, rahu, Jupiter, etc. Now view these
segments of krittika as subdivisions, with the first segment ruled by sun (sun bhukti),
next one ruled by moon, the third by mars and so on. The dimensions of the
segments would be proportional to the proportion of the bhukti to that of the dasa
(nakshatra). Looked another way, Venus dasa rules for 20 years whereas moon dasa
rules for 10 years. Both moon and Venus nakshatra would have nine segments each
ruled by the nine planets, however, each segment in Venus dasa would be twice as
large as the segment ruled by the same planet in moon dasa. According to
Krishnamurthy the nakshatra dispositor of the dasa lord defined the nature of the
result whereas the dasa lord was treated as the source of the effect. The ‘sub’ then
determined the positive or negative outcomes, gain or loss of the effect. So, for
illustration let us say a person is undergoing the dasa of the lord of 10th house which
is in the nakshatra of the lord of 11th. This would be interpreted as the source (tenth
= workplace) giving the effect of 11th (raise or bonus) with the subdivision indicating
a gain or a denial of a raise. The relationship between the dasa dispositor (effect) and
the sub-lord would have a say in whether the effect will be positive or negative. So in
our example if the sublord is placed in a trika sthan (6, 8 or 12) from lagna or from
the dasa dispositor would indicate a loss but placement in 1, 5, 9 would indicate the
individual getting a raise. In actual experience, the effect being defined by the dasa
dispositor works out more reliably than the role of the sub-lord in birth charts. Some
individual, on the other hand, have demonstrated very good results when using KP in
a horary application, much better than in natal horoscopy, much in keeping with
what Krishnamurthy originally proposed and utilized this very interesting technique.
Through this method, Krishnamurthy revived a very important fundamental concept
on the Indian astrological scene, that of the role of asterisms in chart analysis and
particularly by refining the use and improving the usefulness of the vimshottari dasha
system of timing. He must be commended for that, even though his system remains
a somewhat controversial approach for many main-stream jyotishis. The system is
essentially not very different from that used for delineating any other chart as per
jyotish parlance. The chart is drawn by using either the numerical representative for
the ascendant, or for the epoch of the query. The planets in both cases are
calculated for the moment of making the query. A list of significant planets are
drawn; the planet ruling over the weekday, the lords of the signs, stars and subs of
the rising degree (ascendant) and the Moon. The ascendant is taken to represent the
client while the seventh house represents the astrologer. When the astrologer also
happens to be the querist (self-prashna), it is interesting that at times this is
indicated in the chart itself in terms of 'connectivities' between the two
representative houses. Next, the house/houses pertaining to the question are
examined and these are checked to see if they agree with the significant planets. The
success or failure of the undertaking then would be indicated by the mutual
agreement or disagreement between the planets. Things such as friendship (or lack
thereof) between the planets concerned, their association with each other by aspect,
any beneficial combinations (yogas) between relevant planets and the strength of
the planets are taken into account. An examination of the vimshottari dasha is then
made and this is used, in addition to transits of the significant planets and stars for
estimating the timing. Situations where the indicators are fewer and clear, the
outcome can be expected to be better predictable. If too many conflicting influences
exist, there is usually reason to believe that the issue is riddled with problems. In his
writings, Krishnamurthy gave numerous examples of things such as long-distance
phone calls that he tested his system on. This might amuse the modern reader who
is used to dialing a number and expecting to get through right away. But in India of
years ago, decades before direct dialing became available, one had to place a call by
'booking' it through an operator and then wait and wait and wait, often at the post-
office because most people did not have personal phones. It was a big deal for most
and Krishnamurthy used it to test his system. Perhaps we can emulate
Krishnamurthy’s experiment with our postal-mail, these days! Krishnamurthy
enumerated in his 'Readers', houses that are involved in determining and examining
different areas/issues in life. I am presenting a tiny sampling here which may be
utilized in addition to the more extensive lists presented elsewhere in this manual,
taken from standard mainstream jyotish texts, all of which can also be used for
horary purposes: Health issues - 1, 6, 8 houses Income - 2, 11, 10 Children - 5 Love
affairs - 5, 7 spirituality - 9, 12 Expenditure - 12 Litigations/insurance matters - 8, 12
Siblings - 3, 11 Home, property etc. - 4, 8 Education - 5, 9 Communication, letters etc.
- 3, 11 Business/interview - 7 service/working for others - 6 fame/profession - 10
spouse - 7 family, wealth - 2 pets/animals - 5, Venus Mystery/intrigue - 8, nodes of
Moon The KP Indicators: Once an indicator is decided upon, its placement in the
horary horoscope is examined and basing on the positions and the mutual
relationship between the star and sub-lords, success or failure is assessed. Generally,
if the sub-lord is in an angle or trine from the houses ruled by the star-lord, success is
indicated, whereas, if the sub-lord is in the 6th, 8th or 12th from the house under
examination, then delays, obstacles and failure may be expected. Sometimes, the
nature of the signs and planets involved gives a clue about the rapidity with which
the issue would progress to a culmination. Fixed signs, earthy influences, retrograde
planets and planets such as Jupiter (if malefic) and Saturn generally indicate delays,
Sun, Venus, Mars (if benefic), Moon and Mercury represent speedy progress. The
nodes (Rahu and Ketu) add unpredictability and suddenness, and generally result in
uneven progress in the matters at hand. How does it all come together? When the
question is posed, it is recommended that there should not be any distraction and
the querist should meditate on the question for a while, examining all known aspects
of it before verbalizing the question. Clarity, sincerity and seriousness of intent when
posing the question is probably rewarded with answers that are of a kindred nature.
The reasoning behind this is remarkably similar to that applicable to other kinds of
divinatory procedures. The sincerity of the querist must first be examined in order to
determine if the chart would hold well and represent the process adequately or not.
If the two houses (1 and 7) are strong and well connected, then the communication
could prove to be fruitful. A similar positive connection between the first house
(querist) and the house representing the matter under query are strongly connected
then the query was sincere and has a higher chance of being analyzed positively. This
is important, because even if the query is about an important matter, the querist
may not believe sufficiently in astrology or the astrologer and this would be reflected
in the chart and could lead to a 'noisy' imprecise reading. The likelihood of this is
much lower in a professional situation where a cost is involved and the idly curious
are screened out to a large extent. It is not very useful to do an after the fact (post
mortem) analysis of a horary epoch. This is because the transits under which the
analysis would be carried out would be different from the original epoch and would
influence the reading. Both the astrologer as well as the nativity must together be in
the same astrological environment (horary epoch transits) for the horary
phenomenon to work efficiently. Are planets Schizophrenic?  Scholars in Jyotish and
many teachers have maintained for at least within the last 60-70 years of published
Jyotish literature that there are two distinct systems in Jyotish, one following the
teaching of Parashara Rishi and the other of Jaimini Rishi. It is of interest that neither
of them refer to the other in their writings as far as I know, although mention of
other sages and pioneers in Jyotish does exist in their works. This makes it difficult to
wonder if they were contemporaries or figures that appeared in historical sequence.
What is notable, though, is that Jaimini’s writings do not touch upon so called
Parashari methodology at all, whereas a fair amount of what would constitute Jamini
system appears prominently in Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra. People have
expressed their discontentment at Jyotishis and particularly researchers using both
methods simultaneously during the same reading or examination. While on the one
hand, not doing so would simplify matters and arguably hone the acuity and focus of
the method used, on the other hand, such discrimination would understandably lead
to the incompleteness of such a delineation. Astrology is best dealt with a
multifactorial, matrix type approach and as long as the jyotishi is not ‘picking and
choosing’ in a hurry and mixing logic and intuition and all that exists between these
two faculties, the result should be richer than using only one system in isolation.
Completely aside from personal viewpoints, it is difficult to comprehend or even
assume that the very same planet, such as mars that is the lord of 4th and 11th, for
instance and also Jaimini putrakaraka plus many other inherent roles (karakatwas)
would fulfil one role but not the other. This is where one must intelligently apply the
‘roles’ that planets play because in a given situation (desh, kal, paristhiti: locality,
temporality, situational circumstances), they would express only one or a few sides
of their portfolio and not everything at the same time. After all a mother who is also
working outside her home does not entirely cease to be the ‘mother’ in office, or the
boss at home! Conditional Dashas  In addition to Vimshottari dasha which is used by
nearly everyone by default, although in this series I have also shown situations where
Ashtottari one of the many conditional dashas in BPHS might be more appropriate,
scores of other possibilities exist. In recent years several reknowned jyotishis and
their students and followers have done a lot of research and demonstrated how the
different conditional dashas can be utilized in daily practice. The fact remains though
that for most beginners, juggling more than one or two dashas can generally produce
confusion due to multiplicity of overwhelming and often conflicting information
generated by such an approach. It is to be noted that even those who use just one
dasha are still dealing with the complexities of transit influences, combined with the
annual horoscopic considerations and several vargas pointing in different directions
and the tri-oriented sudarshana kundali (predictions based on the lunar, solar and
lagna charts overlapping one another). The complexity is already substantial. My
advice, therefore, would be to work with one or two dashas at a time and then
proceed towards learning more. Parashara has described certain dashas as being
generally applicable, such as Vimshottari, Kalachakra, Yogini, whereas others are
prescribed to apply when certain conditions are met in a given horoscope (hence
termed conditional dashas). For example, Dwadashottari to be applied when the
navamsha lagna belongs to venus (Taurus or libra navamsha rising). Panchottari
dasha to be applied when one is born in cancer ascendant and also having cancer
dwadashamsha rising whereas shashtihayini dasha has been recommended for those
who have sun rising in the first house in their charts. Most followers of Jaimini
system also utilize Chara dasha and Sthira dasha to a lesser extent. Most dashas are
relatively easy to calculate and many are already incorporated in readily available
software some of which are simply labours of love and are offered freely. One
popular software is JHora which started out essentially as a software created by a
brilliant engineer, programmer and a jyotishi P.V.R. Narasimha Rao. Over the years
he has refined the product and has been offering it free. It also contains some of the
novel techniques that he is experimenting with and would be of great interest to
researchers. This brings a key point which must be remembered. There have been
ongoing discussions between jyotishis about the correct way of calculating and
interpreting the dashas. While the calculation procedures for dashas such as
Vimshottari, Ashtottari, Yogini are unambiguous, others such as Chara and
Kalachakra and some others are not quite so. Different scholars have recommended
different methods for calculating the same dasha and which you may see reflected in
the software which gives different options for calculating the same dasha. Many of
these differences arise from what is known as differences between Paramparas or
schools (similar to Gharanas in the realm of classical music). This has been a major
puzzling fact about Jyotish factors and does not remain isolated to the calculation of
dashas alone. It extends to fundamental things such as ayanamsha, lordships of lunar
nodes, distribution of rashis in certain vargas and several other factors. Delving in
these uncertain terrains demands lot of time-consuming research since blind faith is
not going to help for a long time. Having raised that cautionary note, we can move
on. However, I must reiterate that once we throw ourselves into this smorgasbord (a
Nordic term representing a collection of servings of different delicious food items like
a Chinese dim-sum for those who are familiar with that term or a pot-luck food-fest
or the native north American Pot Lach meal combos where each participant brings a
different food item and the variety of food items then grows enormously varied!),
the chances of indigestion exist too! If something does not make sense directly or
logically, then such a dasa system that requires one to go through contortions of
mental gymnastics, then perhaps there is a serious flaw in such an approach. One
should consciously avoid to mix too much esotericism into astrological techniques.
Common sense must always remain the yardstick in much of astrological
considerations and esoteria or mystical secrets perhaps better belong in the realm of
other occult pursuits. Matrix Approach While too many different techniques applied
at the same time can be confusing and produce the opposite effect than desired, one
should try and develop the habit of utilizing a multi-pronged approach when
analysing a chart. Unfortunately, when a delineation is written out, it gives the
impression that a given factor is the ‘clincher’ in a given case. Be it a mahapurusha
yoga or KSY or combustion or low ashtakvarga scores or transits etc, however, in
truth it is the multiplicity of pointers that add to the weight of evidence as it is called.
One should therefore factor in these and other pointers and when they add up,
these often point to situations where a positive or negative effect may be
anticipated. The only way to arrive at that level is to keep practicing with real chart.
Reading yet another book, article or internet discussion is simply not going to do it!
Reading a chart properly may take at least 2 hours although a full-scale reading takes
a lot longer. Now if one were to analyze two charts per day (assuming that they have
to work to earn a living, eat, sleep, watch TV etc) they would probably be analyzing
about 400 or so charts a year. Over a period of 10 years they would have sampled
4000 charts. It sounds like a large number, but there are about 6.8 billion individuals
at a given instant. 4000 Represents only 0.00006% of the population! The experience
and familiarity is simply not enough to avoid hit and miss analysis. Technology can
make life easier for Jyotishis (and confusing!) Many beginners these days must be
getting very confused when they read messages and readings on the Internet where
the same chart that is being read by a variety of jyotishis (often with different
backgrounds and levels of experience) to address the same question or issue and
even seasoned astrologers come up with different explanations and even outcomes.
One justifiably becomes discouraged, sceptical and cynical when encountering such
variations. Often the ‘tone’ of confidence in what one jyotishi writes, as opposed to
another is also interesting to observe. Some would tend to give the impression that
astrology is a black or white pronouncement. That if you get the right ayanamsha,
the right zodiac in some instances, the right dasha, then everything should work
uniformly and perfectly! While a comforting thought, realistically, such is not the
case. To the research-minded astrologer, such variability and variations on the theme
indicate a fertile potential for search, research and exploration, for others it can be
unsettling and some even get defensive about it all. This is the biggest mystery within
Jyotish! In each horoscope there are so many hints which are differently revealed or
touched upon when different minds (of jyotishis) apply themselves to a given chart.
It is also interesting to observe that while some individuals tend to be rather terse
and give a yes/no kind of answer, others elaborately try to weave a sequence of
happenings or descriptions of a process. The personality, background, and other
individual qualities of the astrologer perhaps enter into the process and define the
output. Jyotishis like other human beings can be good communicators, or poor
communicators, brilliant and clear or not. All of these and more factors lead to the
colourful variegated flavours that show up when different astrologers read the same
chart. In the past this was revealed or observed infrequently and rather locally, in
study groups where astrologers met and discussed or through the slow sequence
offered by magazines which came out once a month or even less frequently. Internet
has made that obsolete and with the Jyotish lists and fora and discussion groups, a
lot of such interaction happens more rapidly and makes it that much more
interesting and intriguing. Unfortunately, it has its negative aspects too and honest
discussions often do not take place. Back in the very early 80s when I was a young
man, not quite 30 and arrived in North America, telecommunications was in its
infancy, as was personal computer usage. I was fortunate to very quickly guess the
potential of both on astrology and astrologers and even though livelihood and other
mundane considerations were critically important, I set aside chunks of time a few
times each week to explore these computer-clubs. My first reward was in being able
to put together for myself a software using BASIC which allowed me to create a chart
within a minute as opposed to 60-90 times the TIME it took me to draw a detailed
chart using proportional log tables and so on. What a wonderful boon it was! Of
course later on commercial software became available and made it on the one hand
easier but on the other hand a bit of a headache due to errors in programming and
erroneous techniques that got incorporated in most software in the early nineties
and ongoing! The Bulletin Board Systems and their successors, like Compuserve for a
and Delphi and Genie etc brought opportunities to discuss, collect and share charts
with others interested in astrology and it really enhanced my experience and
boosted my confidence. Of course, one must be very careful and critical of what the
currently flooded internet represents, as has been touched upon in my articles in EST
and elsewhere. Software comes to the aid of rectification Dashas have always had a
very important function: in rectification of birth times! The technique is simple.
Armed with a series of significant events and their dates/times, the astrologer checks
those against the prevailing dasa periods and by moving the stated birth time ahead
or behind the first one stated tries to find one where most or ideally ALL events
match up. The process sounds a lot simpler than it is and can be quite nerve racking!
It may seem easier to do this if one is determined to use rigid factors such as ONE
ayanamsha, ONE type of ‘year’ (solar, lunar, synodic, savanmana), and one or two
types of dashas! If you are toying with different ayanamshas and other variables,
imagine how complicated the process can become! Even if you are using software
like Parashara’s Light that allows one to line up dashas (different kinds, pick one!)
with the events against birth time intervals that can be changed (fig 1). The birth
time intervals ranging from 1 second to one hour can be changed by zooming in or
out, the dashas can be changed as well to get a different ‘perspective’. The choice is
limited to three dashas for the rectification screen but wisely chosen by Geovision.
There is something special about these three dashas: Vimshottari, Ashtottari and
Yogini and if used wisely, most of the field of possibilities can be covered by most
jyotishis. In fact having such capabilities in software can make one, who is motivated
to do so, to be able to experiment with different ayanamshas and dasha durations
etc and tune into what gets one closer to reality. An example: For a demonstration
let us look at a nativity who was born on September 4, 1968 at 8 AM in New Delhi.
The ayanamsha that I use is -22:27:31. The birth time was stated as being
approximate but within 10 minutes or so of the exact time. Some considerations:
Usually, it is best to select events which are significant and somewhat destined. For
instance the following types of events can be utilized for rectification: Beginning of a
significant educational pursuit First Job Jobloss Marriage Births (children, siblings,
grandchildren) Acquisition of automobile, house, lands Loss of relatives (parents,
siblings, spouse, children etc) Gaining substantial sums of money (large raises,
lottery) Loss of significant amounts of money or precious objects For the current
example, two significant events chosen for illustration were the first travel abroad
and the birth of daughter. Both are fairly significant events as all would agree.
Neither was a planned event in a sense, at least not in the timing of it and both
represented important desires and milestones for the nativity, The procedure: Being
a shuklapaksha daytime birth, vimshottari will be dominant in this chart. In it, for
birth times around 8 AM, Rahu, mars, and Venus will operate for a significant time.
Rahu is placed in the 7th and is generally speaking a representative of foreign places,
cultures etc. Seventh rules over journeys. Mars is atmakaraka placed in cancelled
debility in the house of gains and in the nakshatra of lagnesha and hence again
represents gains to self which was so in this instance. Venus, the antara lord holding
sway from 7:53 AM to beyond 8:10 AM is the lord of the 9th another indicator of
long journeys and placed in the star of the lord of 12th (immigration). Venus makes
contact with rahu ketu axis and becomes relevant to the matter of travel abroad
even more. Then for the 4th level we have Venus, sun, moon. mars, rahu, guru and
Saturn ruling for short periods. Subperiods generally do not give effects in their own
sub-sub periods, so we can rule out Venus itself. sun, Jupiter, rahu are more directly
related to the journey abroad, while mars, moon are less directly related. Rahu is less
relevant than Jupiter and sun and sun while in moolatrikona is weaker in shadbal to
Jupiter. Moreover, Jupiter being the lord of 7th placed in the 12th describes the
effect (journey to countries abroad) more directly. Saturn which rules after 8:08 AM
is less relevant and can be dismissed. The birth time therefore can be between 8:05
and 8:08. Rather than Jupiter itself, the 5th level subperiod of Venus would make
sense though sun ruling the 5th level at 8:07 works well too. The second event: The
next event we have is the birth of a daughter. Building up on earlier analysis, if we
focus first on the 3-4 minute window we see that Saturn’s period begins around
8:07. One may argue that 8:06 could work because the finest level is ruled by moon
which is placed in the 5th house, however it is aspected by mars and Saturn and
hence may be less conducive to an auspicious matter like as a birth. Also the antara
lord Jupiter would not be helpful because it is placed in the 12th house of the chart
indicating loss and in the 8th from the 5th house so again less likely to be of benefit.
Saturn, although placed in the 8th gains strength due to retrogression and also mild
cancellation of its debility by being in kendra to moon and mars. Moreover its
relevance to matter of childbirth increases because it is the lord of 5th house,
aspects the 5th house and is placed on the pada of 5th house (as well as 4 and 11,
happiness and gains). It is of interest to note that on Sept 4, 1998 when the daughter
was born, sun, moon, mars and Saturn were transiting in their natal signs. Going to a
finer time resolution (Fig 2)the slice between 8:07:10 AM to 8:07:54 has mercury as
the ruler. Mercury is the putrakaraka in this chart and although in 6/8 relationship
with Saturn, is well-placed (in lagna, in trikona from the 5th house). It is also
associated with ketu in whose nakshatra Saturn is placed in this chart. The following
5th level period of ketu from 8:07:54 also works. Finer adjustments: Here, we must
remember that the window can only extend up to 8:08:05 because that is when the
5th level of Saturn would start for the journey abroad event and that would not fit as
described earlier! So now we re-examine the potential birth time window from
8:07:10 to 8:08:05 to see if the earlier event matches up within this window which
describes the childbirth event. Even though sun as the 5th level period would suit for
the journey abroad as described earlier, it would make the childbirth falling into a
period when Saturn would rule the last three levels of the dasha, which is generally
stated to be not possible. So if the birth were to have taken place after 8:07:10, then
we would have for the childbirth mercury as the 5th level period lord which is fine
but then for the journey abroad we would have as the 5th level period: Moon from
8:07:09 to 8:07:25 Mars from 8:07:25 to 8:07:36 Rahu from 8:07:36 onwards For the
journey abroad, rahu would be the most relevant by its placement in the 7th and
other reasons described earlier. So the possible window now extends from 8:07:36
to 8:08:05. Without splitting further hair, we can consider the mid-point 8:07:50 as
the birth time. Ideally, one should use more than just 2 events to rectify birth times
but for ease of understanding only 2 were utilized in this case. Even so, some may
find it pretty complex and doing so without software can be really confusing as one
can realize. To make it even more of a matrix approach, one would utilize more than
one dasha to cross check that everything lines up. It is easy to see how much more
difficult the process can be if the birth time is really off, by a couple of hours as
opposed to a few minutes as in this case. Now, I will present a pot-pourri of a couple
of short examples that touch upon the role that some of the fundamental
astrological factors play when we consider dasas. Case #1: Male suffering from
Multiple Sclerosis DOB: May 6th, 1964 5:52 EDT Place: Reading, PA, USA 75W56
40N20 Ayanamsha: -22d 23m 37sec After the Vimshottari saturn dasa started in
March of 1992 the first symptoms appeared. The native had recently been divorced
and was working very heavily, very irregular in diet, eating lots of fatty junk food and
enormous quantities of coffee to remain alert. Over the next decade, symptoms of a
vague nature arose and subsided as often is the case with multiple sclerosis. In 1999
the lightheadedness worsened and around that time he had a series of sinus
infections and severe allergies. Around mid-2003 numbness of feet appeared. Then
hands and arms. MRI was repeated and revealed MS lesions in the spinal cord and
brain. Then followed a phase of depression and finally in 2004 the nativity began to
make lifestyle changes (low fat diet, yoga, meditation) and ayurvedic treatment and
remains stable so far. Venus is darakaraka and is lord of the 7th. Its placement with
rahu in a mercurian sign and placement of gulika in the 7th house gave malefic
results for marriage which dissolved. Jupiter is in nakshatra of venus and became the
executor of the effect. The bhukti was of rahu which as we have seen is afflicting
venus. Rahu is in own nakshatra and brought on the negative influence. Saturn dasa
brought on the self-destructive life style but also enormous work-related success. All
of these coincided with his sadesati that started in 1990 and ended in 1998. Once
saturn entered the lagna in debility (late 1998) his symptoms worsened coinciding
with the joint period of saturn and venus. When saturn crossed venus and rahu
(Saturn-moon) the lesions were detected and diagnosis established. This coincided
with the depressed phase thereafter which is often seen when saturn and moon are
conjoined. Repeated sinus infections and allergies are also seen when saturn and
moon are joined. In this case both are in rahu's nakshatra and also placed in the 11th
house which is badhaksthana in this chart. Superficially, saturn should not cause so
much problems because it is in moolatrikona and strong lord of 10th and 11th. its
association with rahu (nakshatra dispositor) and rahu being associated with saturn
and moon in navamsha and again in shastamsha (where saturn rules the 6th and 7th
houses) resulted in it giving mixed effects - good for work and earnings and hard
work and a devastating disease. The coincidental adverse transit influences (sade
sati, then transit through mesha lagna then crossing venus and rahu triggered all the
changes. During Saturn-mars the nativity came to terms with reality and made the
necessary changes. mars as lagnesha placed in lagna (moolatrikona) began in July
2004 and situation stabilized. Case #2: DOB 16 January 1972 23:05 IST Place:
Mumbai, India Ayanamsha: -22d 30m 38sec Event-examination: The way we learn
astrology, a posteriori 14-feb-1996 first marriage in court: Vimshottari: RA-Me-Su
Other than mercury which is placed with Jupiter lord of 7th and darakaraka, rahu and
surya do not make any direct association with any of the marriage-related factors.
Rahu is in moon's nakshatra, mercury is in saturn's and sun is in saturn's star.
Ashtottari: JU ME SA - In ashtottari the mahadasa is of Jupiter who is directly related
with marriage (being lord of 7th and darakaraka. Mercury is associated with Jupiter
in rashi in 10th from 7th and is placed in the 7th house in navamsha chart. Saturn the
antaranath is in the 9th and placed in pisces in navamsha and fits in the navamsha
tulya rashi situation because Pisces is the 7th house in the rashi chart. 2nd house
deals with family and so there is indirect connection because saturn is in the 2nd
house of the marriage-specific navamsha chart. In terms of nakshatra dispositions,
ashtottari uses a different nakshatra zone rulership and in this chart Jupiter is in
moola which is in the zone of mercury (in 7th house of D9 and associated with
darakaraka and lord of 7th, namely jupiter in D1), mercury is in poorvashadha which
is in saturn's zone and saturn the antara lord is in Krittika which is in the zone of
Venus, the natural significator of marriage and spouse and placed in dhanu in D9, the
tulya sign which in rashi chart holds the saptamesh and darakaraka Jupiter. A
stronger connection is seen when Ashtottari is utilized in other words. On
Wednesday, Feb 14, 1996 when the marriage was consummated, a day ruled by
mercury, Jupiter was in dhanu, mercury was in makar and shani was in pisces with
venus and ketu. Please note that while there was a good consonance between
jupiter and mercury, the dasha and bhuktinaths, retrograde saturn was the third
level indicator and is placed in the 6th from jupiter and mercury. Also notice that the
pada of first house (Arudha) was where jupiter and mercury were placed whereas
saturn was placed on the shatrupada. The clear indication of there being problems
arising in the marriage were evident. Of course no jyotish consultation was carried
out before the court marriage. 20-Jan-1997 break up: Vimshottari: RA Me Ju
Ashtottari: JU ME RA Barely months passed before troubles arose and the marriage
became unsustainable. The date of breakup of marriage coincided in vimshottari
scheme with rahu, mercury and jupiter. The period as per ashtottari, interestingly
was ruled by the same planets but in the reverse order! Rahu the amatyakarka
becomes the third level planet whereas in vimshottari jupiter the darakaraka is the
antharanath! As we move from the general to specific in the dasha hierarchy, while
the major lord rightly indicates the general setting and ambience, the finer period
lord indicates the specific nature of the effect. One may argue that it was the
debilitated jupiter (darakaraka and saptamesh) in transit over natal moon that blew
up the marriage, but rahu was transiting with mars in the ascendant and right across
from saturn that was transiting the 7th house. I think this is stronger as explanations
go because of there being not just one factor into which one need fit the entire
occurrence. Rahu is in Shravana which falls in the zone of saturn as per ashtottari.
Once again, I submit, that ashtottari is giving more direct indications and consonant
with the event. 21-Jan-1997 tried to commit suicide: Vimshottari: RA Me Ju
Ashtottari: JU ME RA The very next day obviously very upset and in mental pain, the
individual tried to commit suicide. The day was Tuesday the day of mars and mars
was transiting the lagna under watch from saturn moving through the marak sthan.
Mars is placed in the 7th house in the natal chart and by virtue of that has maraka
propensity. It is also the lord of 8th house. Being the strongest planet, atmakaraka,
and essentially a malefic (lord of 8th and 3rd houses), it brought her to the brink of
self-imposed death but did not actually make her complete the act. There were other
lessons remaining to be learned yet! Mars is very powerful in this chart and also is
placed in Revati which is ashtottari scheme is Rahu's nakshatra. This indicates that
mars will produce the effects of rahu! It is a volatile combination when the fire of
mars is enveloped in the smoke of rahu! Rahu also stands for poison and mental
aberrations and so mars during that period impulsively tried to kill herself by taking
poison. Rahu and mars were conjoined in virgo (lagna) at that time with Saturn
placed in badhaksthana casting its malefic glance on lagna and lagnesha (mercury)
while the transit moon was in sixth from its natal position as well. All of these factors
upset the mind and interfered with calm thinking creating the near disaster. 25-June-
1997 annulment came through: Vimshottari: RA ME SA Ashtottari: JU ME ve While
annulment of this marriage may seem like a negative event, in reality it was not! It
was the moment of legal freedom, the marriage now could be put behind oneself.
Certainly saturn would represent the ultimate termination as per the vimshottari
scheme and being in Krittika, the cutting becomes symbolically convincing! However,
Venus being pitrikaraka and lord of 9th also symbolically indicates that the daughter
returned back to her father's home (away from her husband's home)! That poetic
symbolism aside, what concerns me is that if vimshottari is utilized, saturn would
produce roadblocks which it did not. Venus, on the other hand is placed in
shatabisha (Jupiter's zone) in the 6th and represents a positive outcome over
enemies, although in a marital breakup, enmity even amongst estranged people
sounds inappropriate. When lovers become inimical it fits with the symbolism of
venus the icon of love placed in shatrusthan, though. However, both dashas seem to
work for this specific event. 27-Aug-1997 first travel abroad: Vimshottari: RA ME SA
Ashtottari: JU ME ve While the same antharas were operating in the two dasha
schemes, the native travelled abroad. Ju and mercury are placed in the 4th house
(homeland) while saturn is placed in the 9th house, the house of foreign journeys.
Saturn could also have represented pilgrimages and higher education or something
associated with father, of course. However, if we look from the ashtottari angle,
venus becomes the anthara lord. Venus, quite interestingly is the lord of the 9th
house in rashi and navamsha and also pitrikarka so thereby becomes a secondary
indicator for the 9th house, just as jupiter was for 7th house (lord and darakaraka).
But please note that venus being in natal 6th house is aspecting the 12th house
which indicates foreign residence and it is kendra from saturn in 9 and in kendra
from 3rd house (moves and travels again), so once again it has a stronger signature
and association with the event. The move was to a more comfortable and luxurious
surroundings and thus again is described better by venus than saturn. Shatabhisha
the ashtottari zone in which venus is placed is ruled by jupiter and transit jupiter was
transiting the 5th house whereas venus was transiting the 1st under the aspect of
jupiter. Though debilitated, the transit jupiter was retrograde and thus strengthened.
The mutual kendra disposition of mars which is the exaltation lord and aspecting
jupiter from Libra further helped reduce the debility. Why This One? The reason why
this example was chosen was because it highlights the conditional factor that is in
Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra. While the segment on BPHS on Ashtottari opens with
the condition which implies a certain placement of rahu being the condition used for
selecting ashtottari, further down there is also the conditionality given that
Vimshottari applies better to individuals born during daytime of Shuklapaksha and
night-time of Krishnapaksha whereas Ashtottari applies best to those born during
daytime of Krishnapaksha or night-time of Shuklapaksha. I have been finding that
this is true in nearly all cases I have examined and some examples were given in this
series earlier as well. When the birth is very close to amavasya or poornima, thought,
a caution must be sounded. If the sun and moon are within a few degrees of each
other or the 180 degree (in cases of poornima), it is safe to test using both the
dashas. Of course it would depend a lot on other parameters used such as dasha
durations and ayanamsha etc. Like Shri Raman ji used to say, test things for yourself
and taste the pudding! Please do not post reading requests in the comments section
here. ONLY comments on the contents of this article are welcome here. If you wish
to order an astrological session (SKYPE Interactive Only!) with Rohiniranjan - Click
here   Share This: 11-Apr-2010 More by :  Rohini Ranjan   Views: 12563      Comments:
2 Comments on this Article Satyavati, I have always discouraged this kind of piece-
meal approach where people start talking about 'what if' scenarios using one or two
pointers. Delineations must be done wholistically while considering all factors.
Astrology is heavily dependent on an approach where all associations and states and
strengths of planets play a crucial role. I would strongly encourage you to adopt that
as a standard practice. Thanks! rohiniranjan.homestead.com Rohiniranjan
06/16/2013 17:42 PM Moon in 8th house weak mahadasha, plus sade sati mars in
12th house. would like to hear your comments. satyavati 06/16/2013 15:20 PM   Top
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solutions × ☰Channels Astrology Share This Page Dashas - A Primer 4 by Rohini
Ranjan Krishnamurthy’s Theory: K.S. Krishnamurthy, from all accounts, was an
uncannily accurate astrologer who developed an interesting system popularly known
as Krishnamurthy Paddhati or K.P. as is popularly known. He primarily used it for
horary or prashna Jyotish but the principles work in natal or phalit Jyotish as well.
Very briefly: His system utilized the planets ruling the weekday, the asterism that the
Moon is in at the time of asking of the question and the ascendant rising at that
instant. The system was claimed as capable of providing highly accurate readings and
Krishnamurthy acknowledged having received the 'method' in the form of a divine
inspiration from his Ishta Devta Uchchista Ganapathy. He chose to use the western
placidian house divisions with these sidereal charts, a major divergence from
classical vedic astrology; moreover, he placed the rising degree at the beginning of a
house and not in the middle as is practiced by other jyotishis. His 'system' also had
another interesting feature. Since the zodiac can be divided into 249 divisions, each
ruled by a sign-lord (one per 30 deg), star-lord (one per 13 deg 20 min) and a star-
sub-lord (variable dimensions, 40 min to 2 deg 13 min 20 sec), he often asked clients
to provide a number between 1 and 249 which he used to determine the ascendant
in a chart drawn for the moment of the query (planetary longitudes were calculated
for the actual current moment). A client providing a number that was outside this
range was told that the venture would not be a success! Subdivisions: The KP
subdivisions are essentially a way of viewing the vimshottari bhukti or antardasha in
terms of nakshatra longitudes. We all know for example, that, if moon is just
entering krittika, at birth, the child will begin life with sun’s dasha. If the moon has
just entered krittika the child will have sun dasa and sun bhukti at the beginning of
life. If the birth moon is a bit more advanced, the child will begin life with sun dasa
and moon bhukti and thus depending on how advanced the moon is at birth in
krittika, the first bhukti could belong to mars, rahu, Jupiter, etc. Now view these
segments of krittika as subdivisions, with the first segment ruled by sun (sun bhukti),
next one ruled by moon, the third by mars and so on. The dimensions of the
segments would be proportional to the proportion of the bhukti to that of the dasa
(nakshatra). Looked another way, Venus dasa rules for 20 years whereas moon dasa
rules for 10 years. Both moon and Venus nakshatra would have nine segments each
ruled by the nine planets, however, each segment in Venus dasa would be twice as
large as the segment ruled by the same planet in moon dasa. According to
Krishnamurthy the nakshatra dispositor of the dasa lord defined the nature of the
result whereas the dasa lord was treated as the source of the effect. The ‘sub’ then
determined the positive or negative outcomes, gain or loss of the effect. So, for
illustration let us say a person is undergoing the dasa of the lord of 10th house which
is in the nakshatra of the lord of 11th. This would be interpreted as the source (tenth
= workplace) giving the effect of 11th (raise or bonus) with the subdivision indicating
a gain or a denial of a raise. The relationship between the dasa dispositor (effect) and
the sub-lord would have a say in whether the effect will be positive or negative. So in
our example if the sublord is placed in a trika sthan (6, 8 or 12) from lagna or from
the dasa dispositor would indicate a loss but placement in 1, 5, 9 would indicate the
individual getting a raise. In actual experience, the effect being defined by the dasa
dispositor works out more reliably than the role of the sub-lord in birth charts. Some
individual, on the other hand, have demonstrated very good results when using KP in
a horary application, much better than in natal horoscopy, much in keeping with
what Krishnamurthy originally proposed and utilized this very interesting technique.
Through this method, Krishnamurthy revived a very important fundamental concept
on the Indian astrological scene, that of the role of asterisms in chart analysis and
particularly by refining the use and improving the usefulness of the vimshottari dasha
system of timing. He must be commended for that, even though his system remains
a somewhat controversial approach for many main-stream jyotishis. The system is
essentially not very different from that used for delineating any other chart as per
jyotish parlance. The chart is drawn by using either the numerical representative for
the ascendant, or for the epoch of the query. The planets in both cases are
calculated for the moment of making the query. A list of significant planets are
drawn; the planet ruling over the weekday, the lords of the signs, stars and subs of
the rising degree (ascendant) and the Moon. The ascendant is taken to represent the
client while the seventh house represents the astrologer. When the astrologer also
happens to be the querist (self-prashna), it is interesting that at times this is
indicated in the chart itself in terms of 'connectivities' between the two
representative houses. Next, the house/houses pertaining to the question are
examined and these are checked to see if they agree with the significant planets. The
success or failure of the undertaking then would be indicated by the mutual
agreement or disagreement between the planets. Things such as friendship (or lack
thereof) between the planets concerned, their association with each other by aspect,
any beneficial combinations (yogas) between relevant planets and the strength of
the planets are taken into account. An examination of the vimshottari dasha is then
made and this is used, in addition to transits of the significant planets and stars for
estimating the timing. Situations where the indicators are fewer and clear, the
outcome can be expected to be better predictable. If too many conflicting influences
exist, there is usually reason to believe that the issue is riddled with problems. In his
writings, Krishnamurthy gave numerous examples of things such as long-distance
phone calls that he tested his system on. This might amuse the modern reader who
is used to dialing a number and expecting to get through right away. But in India of
years ago, decades before direct dialing became available, one had to place a call by
'booking' it through an operator and then wait and wait and wait, often at the post-
office because most people did not have personal phones. It was a big deal for most
and Krishnamurthy used it to test his system. Perhaps we can emulate
Krishnamurthy’s experiment with our postal-mail, these days! Krishnamurthy
enumerated in his 'Readers', houses that are involved in determining and examining
different areas/issues in life. I am presenting a tiny sampling here which may be
utilized in addition to the more extensive lists presented elsewhere in this manual,
taken from standard mainstream jyotish texts, all of which can also be used for
horary purposes: Health issues - 1, 6, 8 houses Income - 2, 11, 10 Children - 5 Love
affairs - 5, 7 spirituality - 9, 12 Expenditure - 12 Litigations/insurance matters - 8, 12
Siblings - 3, 11 Home, property etc. - 4, 8 Education - 5, 9 Communication, letters etc.
- 3, 11 Business/interview - 7 service/working for others - 6 fame/profession - 10
spouse - 7 family, wealth - 2 pets/animals - 5, Venus Mystery/intrigue - 8, nodes of
Moon The KP Indicators: Once an indicator is decided upon, its placement in the
horary horoscope is examined and basing on the positions and the mutual
relationship between the star and sub-lords, success or failure is assessed. Generally,
if the sub-lord is in an angle or trine from the houses ruled by the star-lord, success is
indicated, whereas, if the sub-lord is in the 6th, 8th or 12th from the house under
examination, then delays, obstacles and failure may be expected. Sometimes, the
nature of the signs and planets involved gives a clue about the rapidity with which
the issue would progress to a culmination. Fixed signs, earthy influences, retrograde
planets and planets such as Jupiter (if malefic) and Saturn generally indicate delays,
Sun, Venus, Mars (if benefic), Moon and Mercury represent speedy progress. The
nodes (Rahu and Ketu) add unpredictability and suddenness, and generally result in
uneven progress in the matters at hand. How does it all come together? When the
question is posed, it is recommended that there should not be any distraction and
the querist should meditate on the question for a while, examining all known aspects
of it before verbalizing the question. Clarity, sincerity and seriousness of intent when
posing the question is probably rewarded with answers that are of a kindred nature.
The reasoning behind this is remarkably similar to that applicable to other kinds of
divinatory procedures. The sincerity of the querist must first be examined in order to
determine if the chart would hold well and represent the process adequately or not.
If the two houses (1 and 7) are strong and well connected, then the communication
could prove to be fruitful. A similar positive connection between the first house
(querist) and the house representing the matter under query are strongly connected
then the query was sincere and has a higher chance of being analyzed positively. This
is important, because even if the query is about an important matter, the querist
may not believe sufficiently in astrology or the astrologer and this would be reflected
in the chart and could lead to a 'noisy' imprecise reading. The likelihood of this is
much lower in a professional situation where a cost is involved and the idly curious
are screened out to a large extent. It is not very useful to do an after the fact (post
mortem) analysis of a horary epoch. This is because the transits under which the
analysis would be carried out would be different from the original epoch and would
influence the reading. Both the astrologer as well as the nativity must together be in
the same astrological environment (horary epoch transits) for the horary
phenomenon to work efficiently. Are planets Schizophrenic?  Scholars in Jyotish and
many teachers have maintained for at least within the last 60-70 years of published
Jyotish literature that there are two distinct systems in Jyotish, one following the
teaching of Parashara Rishi and the other of Jaimini Rishi. It is of interest that neither
of them refer to the other in their writings as far as I know, although mention of
other sages and pioneers in Jyotish does exist in their works. This makes it difficult to
wonder if they were contemporaries or figures that appeared in historical sequence.
What is notable, though, is that Jaimini’s writings do not touch upon so called
Parashari methodology at all, whereas a fair amount of what would constitute Jamini
system appears prominently in Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra. People have
expressed their discontentment at Jyotishis and particularly researchers using both
methods simultaneously during the same reading or examination. While on the one
hand, not doing so would simplify matters and arguably hone the acuity and focus of
the method used, on the other hand, such discrimination would understandably lead
to the incompleteness of such a delineation. Astrology is best dealt with a
multifactorial, matrix type approach and as long as the jyotishi is not ‘picking and
choosing’ in a hurry and mixing logic and intuition and all that exists between these
two faculties, the result should be richer than using only one system in isolation.
Completely aside from personal viewpoints, it is difficult to comprehend or even
assume that the very same planet, such as mars that is the lord of 4th and 11th, for
instance and also Jaimini putrakaraka plus many other inherent roles (karakatwas)
would fulfil one role but not the other. This is where one must intelligently apply the
‘roles’ that planets play because in a given situation (desh, kal, paristhiti: locality,
temporality, situational circumstances), they would express only one or a few sides
of their portfolio and not everything at the same time. After all a mother who is also
working outside her home does not entirely cease to be the ‘mother’ in office, or the
boss at home! Conditional Dashas  In addition to Vimshottari dasha which is used by
nearly everyone by default, although in this series I have also shown situations where
Ashtottari one of the many conditional dashas in BPHS might be more appropriate,
scores of other possibilities exist. In recent years several reknowned jyotishis and
their students and followers have done a lot of research and demonstrated how the
different conditional dashas can be utilized in daily practice. The fact remains though
that for most beginners, juggling more than one or two dashas can generally produce
confusion due to multiplicity of overwhelming and often conflicting information
generated by such an approach. It is to be noted that even those who use just one
dasha are still dealing with the complexities of transit influences, combined with the
annual horoscopic considerations and several vargas pointing in different directions
and the tri-oriented sudarshana kundali (predictions based on the lunar, solar and
lagna charts overlapping one another). The complexity is already substantial. My
advice, therefore, would be to work with one or two dashas at a time and then
proceed towards learning more. Parashara has described certain dashas as being
generally applicable, such as Vimshottari, Kalachakra, Yogini, whereas others are
prescribed to apply when certain conditions are met in a given horoscope (hence
termed conditional dashas). For example, Dwadashottari to be applied when the
navamsha lagna belongs to venus (Taurus or libra navamsha rising). Panchottari
dasha to be applied when one is born in cancer ascendant and also having cancer
dwadashamsha rising whereas shashtihayini dasha has been recommended for those
who have sun rising in the first house in their charts. Most followers of Jaimini
system also utilize Chara dasha and Sthira dasha to a lesser extent. Most dashas are
relatively easy to calculate and many are already incorporated in readily available
software some of which are simply labours of love and are offered freely. One
popular software is JHora which started out essentially as a software created by a
brilliant engineer, programmer and a jyotishi P.V.R. Narasimha Rao. Over the years
he has refined the product and has been offering it free. It also contains some of the
novel techniques that he is experimenting with and would be of great interest to
researchers. This brings a key point which must be remembered. There have been
ongoing discussions between jyotishis about the correct way of calculating and
interpreting the dashas. While the calculation procedures for dashas such as
Vimshottari, Ashtottari, Yogini are unambiguous, others such as Chara and
Kalachakra and some others are not quite so. Different scholars have recommended
different methods for calculating the same dasha and which you may see reflected in
the software which gives different options for calculating the same dasha. Many of
these differences arise from what is known as differences between Paramparas or
schools (similar to Gharanas in the realm of classical music). This has been a major
puzzling fact about Jyotish factors and does not remain isolated to the calculation of
dashas alone. It extends to fundamental things such as ayanamsha, lordships of lunar
nodes, distribution of rashis in certain vargas and several other factors. Delving in
these uncertain terrains demands lot of time-consuming research since blind faith is
not going to help for a long time. Having raised that cautionary note, we can move
on. However, I must reiterate that once we throw ourselves into this smorgasbord (a
Nordic term representing a collection of servings of different delicious food items like
a Chinese dim-sum for those who are familiar with that term or a pot-luck food-fest
or the native north American Pot Lach meal combos where each participant brings a
different food item and the variety of food items then grows enormously varied!),
the chances of indigestion exist too! If something does not make sense directly or
logically, then such a dasa system that requires one to go through contortions of
mental gymnastics, then perhaps there is a serious flaw in such an approach. One
should consciously avoid to mix too much esotericism into astrological techniques.
Common sense must always remain the yardstick in much of astrological
considerations and esoteria or mystical secrets perhaps better belong in the realm of
other occult pursuits. Matrix Approach While too many different techniques applied
at the same time can be confusing and produce the opposite effect than desired, one
should try and develop the habit of utilizing a multi-pronged approach when
analysing a chart. Unfortunately, when a delineation is written out, it gives the
impression that a given factor is the ‘clincher’ in a given case. Be it a mahapurusha
yoga or KSY or combustion or low ashtakvarga scores or transits etc, however, in
truth it is the multiplicity of pointers that add to the weight of evidence as it is called.
One should therefore factor in these and other pointers and when they add up,
these often point to situations where a positive or negative effect may be
anticipated. The only way to arrive at that level is to keep practicing with real chart.
Reading yet another book, article or internet discussion is simply not going to do it!
Reading a chart properly may take at least 2 hours although a full-scale reading takes
a lot longer. Now if one were to analyze two charts per day (assuming that they have
to work to earn a living, eat, sleep, watch TV etc) they would probably be analyzing
about 400 or so charts a year. Over a period of 10 years they would have sampled
4000 charts. It sounds like a large number, but there are about 6.8 billion individuals
at a given instant. 4000 Represents only 0.00006% of the population! The experience
and familiarity is simply not enough to avoid hit and miss analysis. Technology can
make life easier for Jyotishis (and confusing!) Many beginners these days must be
getting very confused when they read messages and readings on the Internet where
the same chart that is being read by a variety of jyotishis (often with different
backgrounds and levels of experience) to address the same question or issue and
even seasoned astrologers come up with different explanations and even outcomes.
One justifiably becomes discouraged, sceptical and cynical when encountering such
variations. Often the ‘tone’ of confidence in what one jyotishi writes, as opposed to
another is also interesting to observe. Some would tend to give the impression that
astrology is a black or white pronouncement. That if you get the right ayanamsha,
the right zodiac in some instances, the right dasha, then everything should work
uniformly and perfectly! While a comforting thought, realistically, such is not the
case. To the research-minded astrologer, such variability and variations on the theme
indicate a fertile potential for search, research and exploration, for others it can be
unsettling and some even get defensive about it all. This is the biggest mystery within
Jyotish! In each horoscope there are so many hints which are differently revealed or
touched upon when different minds (of jyotishis) apply themselves to a given chart.
It is also interesting to observe that while some individuals tend to be rather terse
and give a yes/no kind of answer, others elaborately try to weave a sequence of
happenings or descriptions of a process. The personality, background, and other
individual qualities of the astrologer perhaps enter into the process and define the
output. Jyotishis like other human beings can be good communicators, or poor
communicators, brilliant and clear or not. All of these and more factors lead to the
colourful variegated flavours that show up when different astrologers read the same
chart. In the past this was revealed or observed infrequently and rather locally, in
study groups where astrologers met and discussed or through the slow sequence
offered by magazines which came out once a month or even less frequently. Internet
has made that obsolete and with the Jyotish lists and fora and discussion groups, a
lot of such interaction happens more rapidly and makes it that much more
interesting and intriguing. Unfortunately, it has its negative aspects too and honest
discussions often do not take place. Back in the very early 80s when I was a young
man, not quite 30 and arrived in North America, telecommunications was in its
infancy, as was personal computer usage. I was fortunate to very quickly guess the
potential of both on astrology and astrologers and even though livelihood and other
mundane considerations were critically important, I set aside chunks of time a few
times each week to explore these computer-clubs. My first reward was in being able
to put together for myself a software using BASIC which allowed me to create a chart
within a minute as opposed to 60-90 times the TIME it took me to draw a detailed
chart using proportional log tables and so on. What a wonderful boon it was! Of
course later on commercial software became available and made it on the one hand
easier but on the other hand a bit of a headache due to errors in programming and
erroneous techniques that got incorporated in most software in the early nineties
and ongoing! The Bulletin Board Systems and their successors, like Compuserve for a
and Delphi and Genie etc brought opportunities to discuss, collect and share charts
with others interested in astrology and it really enhanced my experience and
boosted my confidence. Of course, one must be very careful and critical of what the
currently flooded internet represents, as has been touched upon in my articles in EST
and elsewhere. Software comes to the aid of rectification Dashas have always had a
very important function: in rectification of birth times! The technique is simple.
Armed with a series of significant events and their dates/times, the astrologer checks
those against the prevailing dasa periods and by moving the stated birth time ahead
or behind the first one stated tries to find one where most or ideally ALL events
match up. The process sounds a lot simpler than it is and can be quite nerve racking!
It may seem easier to do this if one is determined to use rigid factors such as ONE
ayanamsha, ONE type of ‘year’ (solar, lunar, synodic, savanmana), and one or two
types of dashas! If you are toying with different ayanamshas and other
variables, imagine how complicated the process can become! Even if you are using
software like Parashara’s Light that allows one to line up dashas (different kinds, pick
one!) with the events against birth time intervals that can be changed (fig 1). The
birth time intervals ranging from 1 second to one hour can be changed by zooming in
or out, the dashas can be changed as well to get a different ‘perspective’. The choice
is limited to three dashas for the rectification screen but wisely chosen by Geovision.
There is something special about these three dashas: Vimshottari, Ashtottari and
Yogini and if used wisely, most of the field of possibilities can be covered by most
jyotishis. In fact having such capabilities in software can make one, who is motivated
to do so, to be able to experiment with different ayanamshas and dasha durations
etc and tune into what gets one closer to reality. An example: For a demonstration
let us look at a nativity who was born on September 4, 1968 at 8 AM in New Delhi.
The ayanamsha that I use is -22:27:31. The birth time was stated as being
approximate but within 10 minutes or so of the exact time. Some considerations:
Usually, it is best to select events which are significant and somewhat destined. For
instance the following types of events can be utilized for rectification: Beginning of a
significant educational pursuit First Job Jobloss Marriage Births (children, siblings,
grandchildren) Acquisition of automobile, house, lands Loss of relatives (parents,
siblings, spouse, children etc) Gaining substantial sums of money (large raises,
lottery) Loss of significant amounts of money or precious objects For the current
example, two significant events chosen for illustration were the first travel abroad
and the birth of daughter. Both are fairly significant events as all would agree.
Neither was a planned event in a sense, at least not in the timing of it and both
represented important desires and milestones for the nativity, The procedure: Being
a shuklapaksha daytime birth, vimshottari will be dominant in this chart. In it, for
birth times around 8 AM, Rahu, mars, and Venus will operate for a significant time.
Rahu is placed in the 7th and is generally speaking a representative of foreign places,
cultures etc. Seventh rules over journeys. Mars is atmakaraka placed in cancelled
debility in the house of gains and in the nakshatra of lagnesha and hence again
represents gains to self which was so in this instance. Venus, the antara lord holding
sway from 7:53 AM to beyond 8:10 AM is the lord of the 9th another indicator of
long journeys and placed in the star of the lord of 12th (immigration). Venus makes
contact with rahu ketu axis and becomes relevant to the matter of travel abroad
even more. Then for the 4th level we have Venus, sun, moon. mars, rahu, guru and
Saturn ruling for short periods. Subperiods generally do not give effects in their own
sub-sub periods, so we can rule out Venus itself. sun, Jupiter, rahu are more directly
related to the journey abroad, while mars, moon are less directly related. Rahu is less
relevant than Jupiter and sun and sun while in moolatrikona is weaker in shadbal to
Jupiter. Moreover, Jupiter being the lord of 7th placed in the 12th describes the
effect (journey to countries abroad) more directly. Saturn which rules after 8:08 AM
is less relevant and can be dismissed. The birth time therefore can be between 8:05
and 8:08. Rather than Jupiter itself, the 5th level subperiod of Venus would make
sense though sun ruling the 5th level at 8:07 works well too. The second event: The
next event we have is the birth of a daughter. Building up on earlier analysis, if we
focus first on the 3-4 minute window we see that Saturn’s period begins around
8:07. One may argue that 8:06 could work because the finest level is ruled by moon
which is placed in the 5th house, however it is aspected by mars and Saturn and
hence may be less conducive to an auspicious matter like as a birth. Also the antara
lord Jupiter would not be helpful because it is placed in the 12th house of the chart
indicating loss and in the 8th from the 5th house so again less likely to be of benefit.
Saturn, although placed in the 8th gains strength due to retrogression and also mild
cancellation of its debility by being in kendra to moon and mars. Moreover its
relevance to matter of childbirth increases because it is the lord of 5th house,
aspects the 5th house and is placed on the pada of 5th house (as well as 4 and 11,
happiness and gains). It is of interest to note that on Sept 4, 1998 when the daughter
was born, sun, moon, mars and Saturn were transiting in their natal signs. Going to a
finer time resolution (Fig 2)the slice between 8:07:10 AM to 8:07:54 has mercury as
the ruler. Mercury is the putrakaraka in this chart and although in 6/8 relationship
with Saturn, is well-placed (in lagna, in trikona from the 5th house). It is also
associated with ketu in whose nakshatra Saturn is placed in this chart. The following
5th level period of ketu from 8:07:54 also works. Finer adjustments: Here, we must
remember that the window can only extend up to 8:08:05 because that is when the
5th level of Saturn would start for the journey abroad event and that would not fit as
described earlier! So now we re-examine the potential birth time window from
8:07:10 to 8:08:05 to see if the earlier event matches up within this window which
describes the childbirth event. Even though sun as the 5th level period would suit for
the journey abroad as described earlier, it would make the childbirth falling into a
period when Saturn would rule the last three levels of the dasha, which is generally
stated to be not possible. So if the birth were to have taken place after 8:07:10, then
we would have for the childbirth mercury as the 5th level period lord which is fine
but then for the journey abroad we would have as the 5th level period: Moon from
8:07:09 to 8:07:25 Mars from 8:07:25 to 8:07:36 Rahu from 8:07:36 onwards For the
journey abroad, rahu would be the most relevant by its placement in the 7th and
other reasons described earlier. So the possible window now extends from 8:07:36
to 8:08:05. Without splitting further hair, we can consider the mid-point 8:07:50 as
the birth time. Ideally, one should use more than just 2 events to rectify birth times
but for ease of understanding only 2 were utilized in this case. Even so, some may
find it pretty complex and doing so without software can be really confusing as one
can realize. To make it even more of a matrix approach, one would utilize more than
one dasha to cross check that everything lines up. It is easy to see how much more
difficult the process can be if the birth time is really off, by a couple of hours as
opposed to a few minutes as in this case. Now, I will present a pot-pourri of a couple
of short examples that touch upon the role that some of the fundamental
astrological factors play when we consider dasas. Case #1: Male suffering from
Multiple Sclerosis DOB: May 6th, 1964 5:52 EDT Place: Reading, PA, USA 75W56
40N20 Ayanamsha: -22d 23m 37sec After the Vimshottari saturn dasa started in
March of 1992 the first symptoms appeared. The native had recently been divorced
and was working very heavily, very irregular in diet, eating lots of fatty junk food and
enormous quantities of coffee to remain alert. Over the next decade, symptoms of a
vague nature arose and subsided as often is the case with multiple sclerosis. In 1999
the lightheadedness worsened and around that time he had a series of sinus
infections and severe allergies. Around mid-2003 numbness of feet appeared. Then
hands and arms. MRI was repeated and revealed MS lesions in the spinal cord and
brain. Then followed a phase of depression and finally in 2004 the nativity began to
make lifestyle changes (low fat diet, yoga, meditation) and ayurvedic treatment and
remains stable so far. Venus is darakaraka and is lord of the 7th. Its placement with
rahu in a mercurian sign and placement of gulika in the 7th house gave malefic
results for marriage which dissolved. Jupiter is in nakshatra of venus and became the
executor of the effect. The bhukti was of rahu which as we have seen is afflicting
venus. Rahu is in own nakshatra and brought on the negative influence. Saturn dasa
brought on the self-destructive life style but also enormous work-related success. All
of these coincided with his sadesati that started in 1990 and ended in 1998. Once
saturn entered the lagna in debility (late 1998) his symptoms worsened coinciding
with the joint period of saturn and venus. When saturn crossed venus and rahu
(Saturn-moon) the lesions were detected and diagnosis established. This coincided
with the depressed phase thereafter which is often seen when saturn and moon are
conjoined. Repeated sinus infections and allergies are also seen when saturn and
moon are joined. In this case both are in rahu's nakshatra and also placed in the 11th
house which is badhaksthana in this chart. Superficially, saturn should not cause so
much problems because it is in moolatrikona and strong lord of 10th and 11th. its
association with rahu (nakshatra dispositor) and rahu being associated with saturn
and moon in navamsha and again in shastamsha (where saturn rules the 6th and 7th
houses) resulted in it giving mixed effects - good for work and earnings and hard
work and a devastating disease. The coincidental adverse transit influences (sade
sati, then transit through mesha lagna then crossing venus and rahu triggered all the
changes. During Saturn-mars the nativity came to terms with reality and made the
necessary changes. mars as lagnesha placed in lagna (moolatrikona) began in July
2004 and situation stabilized. Case #2: DOB 16 January 1972 23:05 IST Place:
Mumbai, India Ayanamsha: -22d 30m 38sec Event-examination: The way we learn
astrology, a posteriori 14-feb-1996 first marriage in court: Vimshottari: RA-Me-Su
Other than mercury which is placed with Jupiter lord of 7th and darakaraka, rahu and
surya do not make any direct association with any of the marriage-related factors.
Rahu is in moon's nakshatra, mercury is in saturn's and sun is in saturn's star.
Ashtottari: JU ME SA - In ashtottari the mahadasa is of Jupiter who is directly related
with marriage (being lord of 7th and darakaraka. Mercury is associated with Jupiter
in rashi in 10th from 7th and is placed in the 7th house in navamsha chart. Saturn the
antaranath is in the 9th and placed in pisces in navamsha and fits in the navamsha
tulya rashi situation because Pisces is the 7th house in the rashi chart. 2nd house
deals with family and so there is indirect connection because saturn is in the 2nd
house of the marriage-specific navamsha chart. In terms of nakshatra dispositions,
ashtottari uses a different nakshatra zone rulership and in this chart Jupiter is in
moola which is in the zone of mercury (in 7th house of D9 and associated with
darakaraka and lord of 7th, namely jupiter in D1), mercury is in poorvashadha which
is in saturn's zone and saturn the antara lord is in Krittika which is in the zone of
Venus, the natural significator of marriage and spouse and placed in dhanu in D9, the
tulya sign which in rashi chart holds the saptamesh and darakaraka Jupiter. A
stronger connection is seen when Ashtottari is utilized in other words. On
Wednesday, Feb 14, 1996 when the marriage was consummated, a day ruled by
mercury, Jupiter was in dhanu, mercury was in makar and shani was in pisces with
venus and ketu. Please note that while there was a good consonance between
jupiter and mercury, the dasha and bhuktinaths, retrograde saturn was the third
level indicator and is placed in the 6th from jupiter and mercury. Also notice that the
pada of first house (Arudha) was where jupiter and mercury were placed whereas
saturn was placed on the shatrupada. The clear indication of there being problems
arising in the marriage were evident. Of course no jyotish consultation was carried
out before the court marriage. 20-Jan-1997 break up: Vimshottari: RA Me Ju
Ashtottari: JU ME RA Barely months passed before troubles arose and the marriage
became unsustainable. The date of breakup of marriage coincided in vimshottari
scheme with rahu, mercury and jupiter. The period as per ashtottari, interestingly
was ruled by the same planets but in the reverse order! Rahu the amatyakarka
becomes the third level planet whereas in vimshottari jupiter the darakaraka is the
antharanath! As we move from the general to specific in the dasha hierarchy, while
the major lord rightly indicates the general setting and ambience, the finer period
lord indicates the specific nature of the effect. One may argue that it was the
debilitated jupiter (darakaraka and saptamesh) in transit over natal moon that blew
up the marriage, but rahu was transiting with mars in the ascendant and right across
from saturn that was transiting the 7th house. I think this is stronger as explanations
go because of there being not just one factor into which one need fit the entire
occurrence. Rahu is in Shravana which falls in the zone of saturn as per ashtottari.
Once again, I submit, that ashtottari is giving more direct indications and consonant
with the event. 21-Jan-1997 tried to commit suicide: Vimshottari: RA Me Ju
Ashtottari: JU ME RA The very next day obviously very upset and in mental pain, the
individual tried to commit suicide. The day was Tuesday the day of mars and mars
was transiting the lagna under watch from saturn moving through the marak sthan.
Mars is placed in the 7th house in the natal chart and by virtue of that has maraka
propensity. It is also the lord of 8th house. Being the strongest planet, atmakaraka,
and essentially a malefic (lord of 8th and 3rd houses), it brought her to the brink of
self-imposed death but did not actually make her complete the act. There were other
lessons remaining to be learned yet! Mars is very powerful in this chart and also is
placed in Revati which is ashtottari scheme is Rahu's nakshatra. This indicates that
mars will produce the effects of rahu! It is a volatile combination when the fire of
mars is enveloped in the smoke of rahu! Rahu also stands for poison and mental
aberrations and so mars during that period impulsively tried to kill herself by taking
poison. Rahu and mars were conjoined in virgo (lagna) at that time with Saturn
placed in badhaksthana casting its malefic glance on lagna and lagnesha (mercury)
while the transit moon was in sixth from its natal position as well. All of these factors
upset the mind and interfered with calm thinking creating the near disaster. 25-June-
1997 annulment came through: Vimshottari: RA ME SA Ashtottari: JU ME ve While
annulment of this marriage may seem like a negative event, in reality it was not! It
was the moment of legal freedom, the marriage now could be put behind oneself.
Certainly saturn would represent the ultimate termination as per the vimshottari
scheme and being in Krittika, the cutting becomes symbolically convincing! However,
Venus being pitrikaraka and lord of 9th also symbolically indicates that the daughter
returned back to her father's home (away from her husband's home)! That poetic
symbolism aside, what concerns me is that if vimshottari is utilized, saturn would
produce roadblocks which it did not. Venus, on the other hand is placed in
shatabisha (Jupiter's zone) in the 6th and represents a positive outcome over
enemies, although in a marital breakup, enmity even amongst estranged people
sounds inappropriate. When lovers become inimical it fits with the symbolism of
venus the icon of love placed in shatrusthan, though. However, both dashas seem to
work for this specific event. 27-Aug-1997 first travel abroad: Vimshottari: RA ME SA
Ashtottari: JU ME ve While the same antharas were operating in the two dasha
schemes, the native travelled abroad. Ju and mercury are placed in the 4th house
(homeland) while saturn is placed in the 9th house, the house of foreign journeys.
Saturn could also have represented pilgrimages and higher education or something
associated with father, of course. However, if we look from the ashtottari angle,
venus becomes the anthara lord. Venus, quite interestingly is the lord of the 9th
house in rashi and navamsha and also pitrikarka so thereby becomes a secondary
indicator for the 9th house, just as jupiter was for 7th house (lord and darakaraka).
But please note that venus being in natal 6th house is aspecting the 12th house
which indicates foreign residence and it is kendra from saturn in 9 and in kendra
from 3rd house (moves and travels again), so once again it has a stronger signature
and association with the event. The move was to a more comfortable and luxurious
surroundings and thus again is described better by venus than saturn. Shatabhisha
the ashtottari zone in which venus is placed is ruled by jupiter and transit jupiter was
transiting the 5th house whereas venus was transiting the 1st under the aspect of
jupiter. Though debilitated, the transit jupiter was retrograde and thus strengthened.
The mutual kendra disposition of mars which is the exaltation lord and aspecting
jupiter from Libra further helped reduce the debility. Why This One? The reason why
this example was chosen was because it highlights the conditional factor that is in
Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra. While the segment on BPHS on Ashtottari opens with
the condition which implies a certain placement of rahu being the condition used for
selecting ashtottari, further down there is also the conditionality given that
Vimshottari applies better to individuals born during daytime of Shuklapaksha and
night-time of Krishnapaksha whereas Ashtottari applies best to those born during
daytime of Krishnapaksha or night-time of Shuklapaksha. I have been finding that
this is true in nearly all cases I have examined and some examples were given in this
series earlier as well. When the birth is very close to amavasya or poornima, thought,
a caution must be sounded. If the sun and moon are within a few degrees of each
other or the 180 degree (in cases of poornima), it is safe to test using both the
dashas. Of course it would depend a lot on other parameters used such as dasha
durations and ayanamsha etc. Like Shri Raman ji used to say, test things for yourself
and taste the pudding! Please do not post reading requests in the comments section
here. ONLY comments on the contents of this article are welcome here. If you wish
to order an astrological session (SKYPE Interactive Only!) with Rohiniranjan - Click
here   Share This: 11-Apr-2010 More by :  Rohini Ranjan   Views: 12563      Comments:
2 Comments on this Article Satyavati, I have always discouraged this kind of piece-
meal approach where people start talking about 'what if' scenarios using one or two
pointers. Delineations must be done wholistically while considering all factors.
Astrology is heavily dependent on an approach where all associations and states and
strengths of planets play a crucial role. I would strongly encourage you to adopt that
as a standard practice. Thanks! rohiniranjan.homestead.com Rohiniranjan
06/16/2013 17:42 PM Moon in 8th house weak mahadasha, plus sade sati mars in
12th house. would like to hear your comments. satyavati 06/16/2013 15:20 PM   Top
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