Glossary: the words Jyotishya uses
What each word means and how it's worked out. Definitions only: Jyotishya applies the rules and shows the working, without interpreting them.
Literal meanings are from Monier-Williams' Sanskrit-English Dictionary unless noted. "In the classical texts" cites chapter and verse in published translations, and says so plainly where no classical source was found or the texts disagree.
Vedic
- Sidereal zodiac
The zodiac measured against the fixed stars, used in Vedic astrology. Its 0° Aries is tied to a star (Spica sits at 0° Libra in the Lahiri version), so it slowly drifts against the seasons.
- Ayanamsa (Lahiri)
Literally: ayanāṃśa: the portion (aṃśa) of the ayana, the equinoxes' movement; the amount of precession.
The gap between the tropical (Western) and sidereal (Vedic) zodiacs: tropical longitude = sidereal longitude + ayanamsa. It grows by about 50 arcseconds a year as the equinoxes precess, and is about 24° today. Jyotishya uses the Lahiri value, India's official standard.
- Nakshatra (lunar mansion)
Literally: nakṣatra: star; lunar mansion.
One of 27 equal parts of the sidereal zodiac, each 13°20′ wide, starting at 0° Aries. The Moon passes through one in about a day.
Your birth nakshatra is the one the Moon was in when you were born. The day's nakshatra is the one it's in at local noon. Each nakshatra is split into four padas (quarters) of 3°20′.
- Tara bala (the nine taras)
Literally: tārā: star; tara bala: star-strength.
Count nakshatras from your birth nakshatra (counted as 1) to the day's nakshatra, then take the remainder after dividing by 9 (a remainder of 0 counts as 9). It picks one of nine taras, named here with literal translations: 1 Janma (birth), 2 Sampat (wealth), 3 Vipat (danger), 4 Kshema (well-being), 5 Pratyak (obstacle), 6 Sadhana (achievement), 7 Naidhana (destruction), 8 Mitra (friend), 9 Parama Mitra (best friend).
Each tara carries the points shown in the day's working. The names are labels; Jyotishya doesn't read meaning into them.
- House (counting signs)
A sign's position counted from a starting sign, which counts as 1. In the daily Vedic rule, the Moon's sign that day is counted from your natal Moon's sign: the same sign is house 1, the next sign house 2, and so on to 12.
Your chart's houses are counted the same way from the rising sign (whole-sign houses).
- Chandrashtama
Literally: candra (Moon) + aṣṭama (eighth): the Moon in the eighth.
From chandra (Moon) and ashtama (eighth): the days when the Moon is in the 8th sign counted from your natal Moon's sign. It comes round about every 27.3 days and lasts about 2.5 days. It is the lowest-scoring house in the Moon-from-Moon rule (−2).
- Rising sign (ascendant, lagna)
Literally: lagna: attached; the point where the horizon meets the ecliptic.
The sign rising on the eastern horizon at the moment and place of birth. It changes about every two hours, so it needs an accurate birth time. Vedic and Western charts both use it, each in their own zodiac.
- Kundali (birth chart, rasi chart)
Literally: kuṇḍalī: ring or coil. The sense 'birth chart' is later Hindi usage (Platts).
A diagram of the twelve signs with the planets placed in them at birth. North Indian charts fix the houses and rotate the signs; South Indian charts fix the signs and mark the rising sign.
Literally: navāṃśa: ninth part.
A divisional chart: each sign is cut into nine parts of 3°20′, and each part maps to a sign by a fixed rule. Every planet gets a second sign this way, drawn as a second kundali.
- Dasha (Vimshottari periods)
Literally: daśā: state, period of life. Viṃśottarī: 'of 120' (years).
A 120-year sequence of planetary periods (Ketu 7 years, Venus 20, Sun 6, Moon 10, Mars 7, Rahu 18, Jupiter 16, Saturn 19, Mercury 17). Where it starts, and how much of the first period is left, comes from the Moon's nakshatra at birth. Each period divides into sub-periods in the same order.
- Rahu and Ketu (lunar nodes)
Literally: Rāhu: the seizer. Ketu: brightness, banner, comet. In the myth of the churning of the ocean, a demon who drank the nectar of immortality was beheaded; the head became Rahu and the body Ketu (reported as myth).
The two points where the Moon's path crosses the Sun's path: Rahu the north node, Ketu the south node, always exactly opposite. They aren't physical bodies, but Vedic astrology counts them as planets. Jyotishya uses the mean node.
- Ashtakavarga (bindus)
Literally: aṣṭakavarga: group of eights. bindu: dot, drop.
A table from the classical texts (BPHS chapter 66) that gives each sign 0 to 8 points, called bindus, from the positions of the seven planets and the rising sign at birth. Jyotishya shows the Moon's table: the bindus in the sign the Moon is passing through.
The common reading is that more than 4 favours a transit and fewer than 4 weakens it. Jyotishya shows it for reference only; it isn't in the score.
- Kendra
Literally: kendra: centre, a loan word from Greek kentron.
Houses 1, 4, 7 and 10, the angular houses. A technical category only.
- Panchang (Hindu almanac)
Literally: pañcāṅga: five limbs.
A daily almanac of five elements of time: weekday, tithi (lunar day), nakshatra, yoga and karana, with sunrise, sunset and periods such as Rahu Kalam. Panchangs list the nakshatra in force at sunrise; Jyotishya reads the day at local noon.
Times of day
- Rahu Kalam (Rahu's time)
Literally: Rāhu (the seizer, the Moon's north node) + kāla (time): Rahu's time.
Daylight, from sunrise to sunset, is split into eight equal parts, and a fixed weekday table gives one of them to Rahu (the Moon's north node). Sunday first, the parts are 8, 2, 7, 5, 6, 4, 3.
By tradition, panchangs list it as a time not used for starting new work. Jyotishya shows it for reference only; it isn't in any score.
In the classical texts
No rule for it was found in the classical texts checked: Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (BPHS), Phaladeepika, Jataka Parijata, Muhurta Chintamani and Muhurta Martanda. BPHS's own scheme (3.66–70) gives an eighth of the day to each of the seven planets and leaves the last eighth without a lord; Rahu gets none, and the Rahu Kalam table can't be derived from that order.
The earliest mention found is a passing one in Uttara Kalamrita (2.29), a text from after the 16th century. Its translator, P.S. Sastri, notes that Rahu Kala is observed especially in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala and that standard texts don't mention it. B.V. Raman's Muhurtha gives the table without a textual source.
- Yamaganda (Yamaghantaka)
Literally: yama-ghaṇṭa: Yama's bell (Yama, the god of death in Hindu tradition; ghaṇṭā, bell). BPHS spells it yamaghaṇṭaka; some translations read yamakaṇṭaka, Yama's thorn. The modern spelling Yamaganda appears in panchangs.
One of the eight equal parts of daylight, from a fixed weekday table (Sunday first: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 7, 6): the part the classical order gives to Jupiter.
Panchangs list it alongside Rahu Kalam, by tradition. Reference only; it isn't in any score.
In the classical texts
BPHS 3.69: Jupiter's portion of the day is called Yamaghantaka. Taking the planets' portions in weekday order from the day's own lord gives exactly the table above. Muhurta Chintamani also ties yamaghanta to Jupiter, as a 48-minute period to leave out when choosing a time; the same text uses the word for a weekday-and-nakshatra combination too, which is a different thing.
The texts don't agree on its character: muhurta texts and commentaries exclude it, while Phaladeepika (25.19), describing a birth-chart point of the same name, says it produces good results.
- Gulika (Gulika Kalam, Mandi)
Literally: Uncertain. gulikā means ball or pill; the Tamil Lexicon derives the Tamil form from Kulika, a serpent king. Its other name, Māndi, reads as 'son of Manda' (Saturn).
One of the eight equal parts of daylight, from a fixed weekday table (Sunday first: 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1): the part the classical texts give to Saturn.
Panchangs list it alongside Rahu Kalam, by tradition. Reference only; it isn't in any score.
In the classical texts
BPHS 3.67–68: the portion of the day belonging to Saturn is called Gulika. That gives the table above. Jataka Parijata (2.5) calls Gulika the son of Manda, that is, of Saturn.
The same name is also used for a point in the birth chart, not a time period: BPHS 3.70 takes the degree rising at the start of Saturn's portion, and Phaladeepika (25.2) places the related point Mandi near its end.
The texts don't agree on its character either: modern panchangs list it with the periods left out when choosing a time, while V. Subrahmanya Iyer's notes to Kalaprakasika (1917) say it is not treated as an unfavourable time, and list activities for which it has no adverse effect.
Western
- Tropical zodiac
The zodiac measured from the March equinox, used in Western astrology: 0° Aries is where the Sun is at the equinox. It stays fixed to the seasons, so it drifts against the stars.
- Aspect (conjunction, sextile, square, trine, opposition)
An angle between two planets along the zodiac. The five major aspects are conjunction (0°), sextile (60°), square (90°), trine (120°) and opposition (180°).
By convention sextiles and trines count as easy, squares and oppositions as hard, and a conjunction takes the nature of the planet involved. Jyotishya's daily Western rule scores the Moon's aspects to your birth planets this way.
- Orb
How far from exact an angle can be and still count as an aspect. Jyotishya's birth-chart orbs are conjunction, trine and opposition 8°, square 7°, sextile 6°. For the daily rule it uses three quarters of those, because one moment (noon) stands for the whole day. That's wider than the 1–3° many astrologers use for the Moon.
- Relocated chart
The same birth moment, with the rising sign and houses recalculated for where you live now. Planets keep their signs and degrees. It's a modern Western technique, not classical Vedic or BaZi, and no daily score uses it.
Chinese
- BaZi (Four Pillars)
Chinese astrology from the calendar, not the planets. The birth year, month, day and hour each get a pillar: a heavenly stem (one of ten) over an earthly branch (one of twelve, the animals). The year starts at Lichun (about 4 February), and months change at the solar terms.
- Day Master
The heavenly stem of your birth day pillar, taken as the chart's reference point. Each day's pillar is compared with it.
- Five Elements (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water)
Every stem and branch belongs to one element. Each element produces the next (Wood → Fire → Earth → Metal → Water → Wood) and controls the one two steps on (Wood → Earth → Water → Fire → Metal → Wood). Jyotishya counts each branch by its main element only.
- Resource, wealth, pressure, output, companion
Names for how the day's element relates to your Day Master's: resource (it produces yours), wealth (yours controls it), pressure (it controls yours), output (yours produces it), companion (the same element).
Jyotishya's simplified rule scores resource and wealth +1, pressure −1, output and companion 0. Fuller BaZi practice also weighs the Day Master's strength, which Jyotishya leaves out.
- Clash and six-harmony
Relations between earthly branches. A clash is two branches opposite each other in the cycle of twelve (six apart, such as Rat and Horse). The six harmonies are fixed pairs: Rat–Ox, Tiger–Pig, Rabbit–Dog, Dragon–Rooster, Snake–Monkey, Horse–Goat.
- Double-hour
The Chinese day is divided into twelve two-hour periods, one per branch, starting with Zi (Rat) at 23:00, in local mean solar time (clock time corrected for longitude). The day clock shows them as reference lines.