But it should here be remarked that the five vowels are not all attributable to Mars, although they are set at the head of the Table under the sign Aries. They merely characterize the five divisions of the Signs, and are seen to range through the whole zodiac from Aries to Pisces. They are associated with the five disposers, or moderators as they are called, namely, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn.
We are now able to construct a Table employing all the Consonants, which we may call the
Table of Initial Sounds.
| Saturn | Jupiter | Mars | Sun | Venus | Mercury | Moon |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| J | Y | L | M | V W | K Q | H |
| U O | O | |||||
| G | B | N | Th | R | P | Dh |
| S Z X | Ch | A | T | |||
| D Sh | I |
It will be observed that I have eliminated some sounds contained in the Sanskrit alphabet which have no English equivalents, and also that in the Table of Initial Sounds I have added some that are allied to those found in the original, as for instance Q and C (hard) under K, Z and X under S, etc.
An attempt has been made to fix the vowels under the planets, but they are not found to be consistent, and indeed it is not to be expected that they should be, since the swara, which is constantly changing, determines the vowel sound in force.
As initial sounds the vowels U and O, having affinity with the consonant W, may be classed under Venus, A under Mars, since both are initial factors in the scheme, and long I or Ee under Jupiter as related to Y. But as I have said, when in combination with the consonants, that is to say, when not initial, they are in a constant state of flux owing to the change of swara. Subject to this consideration they may be added to the Table of Initial Sounds, where they will be seen in the above scheme.
The application of this scheme of Planetary Sounds would appear originally to have been in the direction of determining what sounds should be employed at specific times in the construction of mantras appropriate to the nature of the planet then ruling. They were not originally associated with the signs of the zodiac, nor yet with the planets ruling those signs, but solely and specifically with the navamshas, of which there are 108 in the entire circle, and as these are connected with the asterisms through the Moon’s motion, there can be no doubt that they had originally a lunar basis.
Each of the signs is divided into 9 parts of 3° 20´ each, the order being as follows—
Aries 0°-3° 20´ is under the influence of Aries navamsha, 3° 20´-6° 40´ under the influence of Taurus navamsha, 6° 40´-10° under Gemini navamsha, and so on, the last 3° 20’ of this sign Aries being under Sagittarius navamsha. The sign Taurus then commences with Capricorn navamsha, and continues on to Virgo navamsha, when Gemini sign commences with Libra and ends with Gemini navamsha, and is followed by Cancer sign which begins with Cancer navamsha and ends with Pisces navamsha. Leo then commences again with Aries navamsha and follows the same course as the sign Aries. Thus nine successive signs are used to designate the navamshas of each 30 degrees of the zodiac, and so we obtain the 108 navamshas, thus—