Any case can be worked out with perfect ease from the Table of Navamshas, and will serve to show that there is a veritable law of periodicity at work in the lives of men. Not that all events or periods recur at the end of twelve years as might be thought by the impatient student from the examples here given. On the contrary, it will be seen upon closer study that Jupiter has a period of three years, followed by one of nine years; Mars, one of five years, followed by one of seven; Venus one of seven, followed by one of five; Mercury one of nine years, followed by one of three; and so on. But all the planets recur eighteen times in the course of the cycle of 108 years, and the Sun and Moon nine times each. Then as there are five planets, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus and Mercury, they will amount in all their periods to ninety years, and the Sun and Moon will amount together to eighteen years, thus making the complete cycle.
In the Brihat-Paras’arahora there are many systems of planetary cycles, employing the same factors variously, and all of them symbolically, since they do not depend on the true motions of the planets in their orbits. Indeed, the ancient writers appear to have devoted themselves very closely to the interpretation of cosmic symbology, and there are grounds which lead me to think that some of their famous Nadigranthams or Books of Destiny are built up entirely on a symbolical basis.
One of the most famous of these is the S’ukranadi in which the horoscopes are written out for every 6´ of the ecliptic rising, making some 21,600 different delineations. But in addition to this there are purva and uttara, or first half and latter half, subdivisions of each of the periods dealt with. The planets are distributed after a certain order beginning with the ruler of the rising sign, and this order differs according to the consideration whether the sign is cardinal, fixed or mutable.
By this means a complete interpretation of the permutations of the cosmical kaleidoscope is effected, and from various of the readings that have been submitted to me I am persuaded that there is without doubt a great deal of truth in them. One such grantham applies to all those who, whether European or Hindu, were born between the Vindhyas and the Himavats, but unfortunately, having other engagements of a karmic nature, I find myself among the large number whose horoscopes are not contained in the kadjan. These monumental works have hardly received the attention they deserve and I am therefore collecting information with a view to their analysis and study.
Another very important subdivision of the ecliptic circle is that of the Das’amsha or tenfold division of the sign into amshas of 3° each. Applied to the twelve signs we have as a result 120 divisions in the circle, answering to the Vimshottaradasha system of Planetary periods, notice of which has already been made. In this system the amshas do not run consecutively in the order of the signs of the zodiac through the various signs, but follow the order of the triplicities, known as the four “Elements,” Fire, Earth, Air, Water.
Thus the Fiery Triplicity comprises Aries, Leo and Sagittarius. The Das’amshas begin with Aries, and the first 3° or amsha of Aries is ruled by Aries, the first of Taurus by Leo, and the first of Gemini by Sagittarius. The first amsha of Cancer is ruled by Taurus, the first of Leo by Virgo, and the first of Virgo by Capricorn, these being the Earthy Triplicity. The first amshas of Libra, Scorpio and Sagittarius are ruled by Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius, these being of the Airy Triplicity, and the first amshas of Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces are ruled by the Watery Triplicity comprising the signs Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces. The second amshas of Aries, Taurus and Gemini are ruled by the Earthy Triplicity, the third by the Airy and the fourth by the Watery, the triplicities then recurring again in their order. A study of the following Table of Das’amshas will make the arrangement quite clear.
The twelve signs of the zodiac which occupy the first column are seen to be divided into four groups answering to the four “Elements,” and the first divisions of these groups are occupied by the four Triplicities. These serve as entries or indices, and from them the signs run on in their natural order.
Those who uphold the Vimshottaradasha system, in which the circle is divided into 120 parts answering to 120 years of life, will find their interpretations from the occursions of the Moon into these amshas, each of which answers to one year of life. Thus the Moon remains in one sign for ten years, during which it successively passes through ten sub-signs or amshas, reflecting the nature of the planets governing those amshas. It then passes into the next sign and takes up ten influences successively, and so passes to the next sign. Thus in one complete circle of the zodiac it will take up 120 different influences exerted by the several planets in the various signs.
Figure 21. Table of Das’amshas.