A little reading, a little clarity.
21–30 of 40 guides
21Why a tithi is not a calendar dateA tithi, or lunar day, measures a 12-degree change in the Moon's lead over the Sun; it does not follow midnight-to-midnight dates.
Find the Moon–Sun gap
Use the Sun's and Moon's longitudes, their positions along the zodiac, for the same moment and zodiac setting. Subtract the Sun's value from the Moon's. If the result is negative, add 360°. A full 360° wraps back to 0°.
Count 12-degree intervals
Each tithi covers 12°, or 720 arcminutes. Arcminutes measure angles, not clock time. Thirty intervals fill one 360° cycle. Divide the gap by 12 and count the completed intervals; the current tithi is the next one.
Work an example
With the Moon at 68° and the Sun at 42°, the gap is 26°. Two 12° intervals are complete, with 2° left over, so this is the third tithi. It runs from exactly 24° to less than 36°. At 36°, the fourth begins.
Read the ending time
A tithi can change during a calendar date. When reading a panchang, check the listed tithi's ending time and the time zone used. Read any note about how dates are assigned, especially when an entry continues past midnight.
22What is a karana?A karana is half a tithi: a 6-degree interval in the Moon's lead over the Sun.
Count half-tithis
Subtract the Sun's longitude from the Moon's and keep the result between 0° and less than 360°, adding 360° if needed. Divide by 6°. A cycle of 30 tithis therefore contains 60 half-tithi intervals. Exactly 360° starts the cycle again.
Understand the repeating names
The 60 intervals use eleven names. Count from the start of the light half, Shukla paksha. Interval 1 has a fixed karana. Intervals 2–57 repeat seven names, starting with Bava, eight times. Intervals 58–60 hold the other three fixed karanas. The four fixed positions therefore straddle the cycle boundary.
Work an example
A gap of 26° contains four complete 6° intervals and 2° more, placing it in interval 5. This is the first half of tithi 3. The full tithi runs from 24° to less than 36°; its first half ends before 30°, where the second half begins.
Check the name table
Interval 5 is the fourth recurring karana, because Bava starts at interval 2. Use your panchang's name table to identify it. When checking the pattern, mark positions 1 and 58–60 as fixed, and positions 2–57 as recurring.
23What does yoga mean in a panchang?Calendar yoga comes from adding the Sun's and Moon's positions. Here, yoga is a panchang measure rather than exercise or a birth-chart combination.
Add the two positions
Use the Sun's and Moon's sidereal, or nirayana, longitudes from the same table for the same moment. Add them together. If the total is 360° or more, subtract 360°; exactly 360° becomes 0°. Both positions must use the same zodiac convention.
Divide into 27 parts
Each part spans 13°20′, or 800 arcminutes. These minutes measure angles, not clock time. Converting the total to arcminutes lets you divide by 800 without rounding 13°20′ to a decimal. There are 27 parts in the full circle.
Work an example
Sun at 100° plus Moon at 150° gives 250°, or 15,000′. Dividing by 800 gives 18 complete parts and a remainder of 600′. The current yoga is therefore number 19. Exactly 240° starts that same interval; exactly 360° starts number 1 again.
Use the panchang entry
Look up the interval's name in the panchang's yoga list, then check its stated ending time and time zone. The angular remainder tells you progress through the interval; it is not a number of minutes left on the clock.
24Solar and lunar months: what changes?A solar month follows the Sun through a sign; a lunar month counts 30 tithis, so the two measures need not begin together.
Solar month: one sign
In this traditional measure, a solar month runs from the Sun's entry into one 30-degree sign to its entry into the next. At 15° within a sign, another 15° remains before that next entry. This is angular distance, not a count of days.
Lunar month: thirty tithis
A lunar month contains 30 tithis. Each tithi covers a 12-degree increase in the Moon's lead over the Sun. Because this measures changing positions rather than midnight boundaries, 30 tithis do not mean 30 civil dates.
Recognize a lunar-month name
Names such as Kartika have traditional associations with nakshatras, or lunar divisions. Kartika is associated with Krittika. The name alone does not specify the Moon's exact nakshatra on a particular date; read the calendar's separate nakshatra entry for that.
Read the headings together
Compare a solar-month heading tied to Aries (Mesha) with a lunar-month heading such as Kartika. Ask what each is counting. Then check whether the numbers underneath are calendar dates or tithis, and note any stated convention for when the month starts.
25Why a traditional day may begin at sunriseA sunrise-based, or savana, day runs from one sunrise to the next, while the familiar calendar date changes at midnight.
Choose the starting point
In this traditional count, sunrise starts a new day and the following sunrise ends it. This is a way to set a day's boundary. It does not change the date shown on your phone or other civil calendar.
Compare it with midnight
A midnight-to-midnight date and a sunrise-to-sunrise interval overlap without matching. The early hours after midnight can still fall inside the interval that began at the previous morning's sunrise.
Work a hypothetical example
Suppose sunrise is 6:00 AM Tuesday and 6:00 AM Wednesday. At 3:00 AM Wednesday, the civil date is Wednesday, but the sunrise-based interval that began Tuesday is still running. Exactly at Wednesday's 6:00 AM sunrise, the next interval starts. These times are illustrative; real sunrise varies with the date and location.
Check the calendar's location
Before interpreting an entry, read how that calendar defines its day and which location its sunrise time refers to. Also check the time zone. Keep the printed civil date, sunrise boundary and event time separate when comparing entries.
26What does Sankranti mean?Sankranti is the moment the Sun enters the next zodiac sign, or rashi; in this traditional count, the boundary starts another solar month.
Count the sign entries
The zodiac has twelve signs of 30° each. In one full circuit, the Sun enters a new sign twelve times. To identify an entry, first check which zodiac convention the calendar uses.
Work an example
At 29°59′ Pisces (Meena), the Sun is one arcminute short of Aries (Mesha). At 0° Aries, Mesha Sankranti begins. The total longitude moves from 359°59′ to 360°, which wraps to 0°. The exact boundary belongs to Aries; the arcminute measures an angle, not one minute on the clock.
Check sidereal or tropical
A nirayana panchang uses sidereal sign boundaries. The December solstice is defined at 270° tropical, or sayana, longitude. These conventions use different starting points today, so modern Makara (Capricorn) Sankranti and the December solstice are not interchangeable calendar dates.
Read the published time
Subtract the Sun's degree within its sign from 30° to find the angle remaining before the next entry. For the clock time, consult that year's calendar and check its time zone and zodiac convention. Use the published entry time rather than assuming the same annual date.
27How Brihat Jataka counts a planetary aspectThe notes explain drishti, or aspect, through angles measured from a planet’s exact position. Learn the starting point, the ordinary fractions, and the special full aspects in this edition.
Count from the planet’s degree
Let the planet’s exact longitude be the starting point, A. Count that point as the first position, then move in zodiac order in 30° steps. The third position is 60° from A; the seventh is 180° from A. This construction starts from the planet, not the ascendant.
Read the ordinary aspect points
The stanza assigns a fraction of sight to seven angular positions. Here “sight” is the text’s classification for these angles.
| Position from the planet | Angle from A | Fraction of sight |
|---|---|---|
| 3rd | 60° | ¼ |
| 4th | 90° | ¾ |
| 5th | 120° | ½ |
| 7th | 180° | Full |
| 8th | 210° | ¾ |
| 9th | 240° | ½ |
| 10th | 270° | ¼ |
Apply the special full aspects
The following positions count as full instead of the ordinary fraction. Each of these planets also retains the full seventh aspect.
| Planet | Positions from the planet | Angles from A |
|---|---|---|
| Saturn | 3rd and 10th | 60° and 270° |
| Jupiter | 5th and 9th | 120° and 240° |
| Mars | 4th and 8th | 90° and 210° |
Check one example and its range
For Saturn at 10° Aries, the full-aspect centers are 10° Gemini, 10° Libra and 10° Capricorn. The notes assign a range of 15° on either side of each listed center. Around 10° Libra, that is 25° Virgo through 25° Libra. The notes apply the same range to the special aspects.
This is the angular scheme described in this edition’s notes. The fractions and ranges are traditional chart definitions, not measurements of a physical influence.
28Natural planetary relationships: read the table in the right directionBrihat Jataka adopts a fixed table attributed to Satyacharya. Friend, neutral and enemy are technical labels for how one graha is classified in relation to another.
Read from the reference planet
Choose the planet in the first column, then look for the second planet across that row. Each row lists the other six planets; it leaves out the reference planet itself.
| Reference planet | Friends | Neutral | Enemies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sun | Moon, Mars, Jupiter | Mercury | Venus, Saturn |
| Moon | Sun, Mercury | Mars, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn | None |
| Mars | Sun, Moon, Jupiter | Venus, Saturn | Mercury |
| Mercury | Sun, Venus | Mars, Jupiter, Saturn | Moon |
| Jupiter | Sun, Moon, Mars | Saturn | Mercury, Venus |
| Venus | Mercury, Saturn | Mars, Jupiter | Sun, Moon |
| Saturn | Venus, Mercury | Jupiter | Sun, Moon, Mars |
Check the reverse direction separately
In the Moon’s row, Mercury is a friend. In Mercury’s row, the Moon is an enemy. The two entries differ because each starts from a different reference planet; do not assume the table is symmetrical.
Keep this lookup separate from placement
This natural table is fixed within the stated scheme. A temporary relationship is a different lookup based on the planets’ relative positions in a chart.
Stanza 15 records another list. This guide uses only the Satyacharya table the author adopts in stanzas 16–17.
29Temporary planetary friendship: count from the reference planetTemporary relationships depend on where one planet is placed relative to another. Unlike the natural table, this classification can change when those relative positions change.
Choose the starting position
Choose one planet as the reference and count its position as first. The next position is second, and so on through twelve. Count from that planet, not automatically from the ascendant. The example below uses numbered positions so it does not assume a house-calculation system.
Use the six friendly positions
Under the stanza’s main rule, other planets in positions 2, 3, 4, 10, 11 and 12 are temporary friends of the reference planet. Other positions are classified as temporary enemies.
Try a numbered example
Take Jupiter as the reference. If Venus occupies the second position from Jupiter, Venus is Jupiter’s temporary friend. A Saturn in the seventh position is Jupiter’s temporary enemy. These are two separate comparisons with Jupiter as the starting point.
Compare without merging the labels
The natural table classifies Venus as an enemy in Jupiter’s row. In the second-position example, Venus is a temporary friend. Both labels can be recorded: one comes from the fixed table, the other from relative placement.
Stanza 18 also records an exaltation-sign friendship rule attributed to some authorities. That addition is not part of the six-position rule explained here.
30Positional strength: five classifications to distinguishSthana bala is how this passage classifies a planet’s placement using five named conditions. Own sign and own Navamsha are different entries in that list.
Recognize the five terms
Stanza 19 names these conditions without giving a numerical score for them.
| Term | What the label refers to |
|---|---|
| Exaltation sign | The planet’s designated exaltation sign. |
| Friendly sign | A sign classified as friendly for that planet under the relationship rules being used. |
| Mulatrikona | A separately named sign category in the text. |
| Own Navamsha | A Navamsha named for a sign ruled by that planet. |
| Own sign (swakshetra) | A rashi ruled by that planet. |
Separate the two uses of “own”
Own sign concerns the planet’s rashi placement. Own Navamsha concerns its derived Navamsha placement. The Chapter I notes give the same rulers to named rashis and Navamshas, so a Navamsha named Leo belongs to the Sun. Simply having a Navamsha position does not make it the planet’s own.
See how labels can overlap
The Chapter II notes name Aries as the Sun’s exaltation sign and Leo as its Mulatrikona. They also identify the Sun as Leo’s ruler. This shows why Mulatrikona and own sign are distinct labels even when the text assigns both to the same sign.
Record the basis for each label
For a chart entry, record the rashi, its ruler and the Navamsha separately. Identify which source or relationship rule supplies any further label. The notes refer elsewhere for relative values; the five names alone do not tell you to add points or rank the conditions.
This guide explains the classifications stated in these passages. It does not calculate a complete planetary-strength score.