Dear friends, I want to talk about ghati lagna in my first technical post on this list. INTRODUCTION The classic "Brihat Parasara Hora Sastra" written by Sage Parasara millennia ago is considered to be the most authentic text in Vedic astrology. In that text, Sage Parasara defined some special lagnas (e.g. hora lagna and ghati lagna). He also mentioned that "bhava chakra" (house chart) can be prepared by taking these special lagnas as the first house, just like in the case of lagna. He did not mention more on the use of these special lagnas, but he defined them and mentioned the above (that houses can be found taking these special lagnas as the first house) very early in the book, making one think that these are very basic and important concepts. Many contemporary Vedic astrologers do not employ special lagnas, but I found very interesting correlations when I used them. COMPUTATION Find the time of sunrise on the day of birth. There is a controversy regarding whether sun's center should be on the eastern horizon or the upper tip of the visual disk representing Sun, at the time of sunrise. I still need to do more research on this, but I use the upper tip (not center) and that's what I recommend. Find Sun's longitude at the time of sunrise. Ghatilagna (denoted by GL in the rest of this article) will be at that position at the time of sunrise and it will move at the rate of 30 degrees per 24 minutes. Find the minutes elapsed since sunrise. Multiply that number with 5 and divide it by 4. The result gives the movement of GL since sunrise, in degrees. Add it to Sun's longitude at sunrise (in degrees) and expunge multiples of 360 degrees. The result is the longitude of GL. You can find its position in all divisional charts, just like for planets and normal lagna. USE Ghatilagna can be used as lagna in all charts. Lagna stands for physical self and matters of relevance to physical self in the physical world. Arudha lagna stands for the manifestation of self in the material world and it deals with materialistic things to a large extent. Ghatilagna stands for self, with stress on achievements, fame, power and authority. We have to judiciously use all these lagnas. AN EXAMPLE When I stood first in my state with the record score of the decade in higher secondary school exams, I was running Taurus dasa, Taurus antardasa as per Kalachakra dasa. For
education and learning, Parasara recommended Siddhamsa (chaturvimsamsa, 24th divisional chart, denoted by D-24). In my D-24 chart, lagna is in Gemini. So Taurus is 12th. Why did Taurus dasa bring me academic distinction?? One can say that Libra, twin of Taurus, is the 5th house (which stands for distinction, fame and success in competition) and so Taurus gave its result. That's true, but there is a more compelling reason. Ghatilagna in my D-24 is in Capricorn. Taurus is the 5th from it! Being the 5th from GL, which is more important than normal lagna when dealing with achievements, Taurus gave academic achievements! However, being the 12th from lagna (physical self), it has to give the results of 12th house in physical terms. But, remember, we are dealing with D-24 here, the chart of learning and education. So Taurus (12th house with lord in the 9th from lagna) dasa and antardasa gave a big change of place for education. In the same antardasa, I was selected in the entrance exam of IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) and went to Madras. To sum up: Taurus is the 12th from lagna (physical self) and its lord occupies 9th (in D24, the chart of education). So Taurus dasa and antardasa resulted in a change of place (for education). However,from ghatilagna, Taurus is the 5th house and its lord occupies 2nd and it resulted in success in competition and academic distinction (which are better represented in the bhava chakra of GL rather than that of the normal lagna). With experience, you may appreciate the resolution given by various divisional charts and various lagnas. Each chart has a purpose and each lagna has a purpose. Life is very complicated - it has many many degrees of freedom. The degrees of freedom available with just the rasi chart and normal lagna are insufficient to model life. We need all these charts and lagnas to model life. ANOTHER EXAMPLE Amitabh Bachchan, India's most successful film star, has lagna in rasi chart in Aquarius. Mars owns 10th and he occupies 8th. It doesn't suggest a career in films. Parasara prescribed dasamsa (10th divisional chart, denoted by D-10) for profession and achievements. In D-10, Bachchan has Pisces lagna and Mercury and Mars in 10th. It again doesn't strongly suggest a career in films. Now let us look at ghatilagna in D-10. Ghatilagna in D-10 is in Capricorn and its lord Saturn aspects it from Cancer. Moon occupies GL. Samasaptaka of 1st and 7th lords from GL suggests a popular person, especially because Saturn (significator of popularity among masses) is involved. Now look at the 10th from GL. It is Libra and it is occupied by Venus and Rahu. So Venus causes a powerful Malavya yoga from GL (Venus is in a quadrant in his moolatrikona). This strong Venusian influence on the 10th from GL suggests a popular career in entertainment. Venus is in a lunar constellation and that adds to it. Rahu's presence with Venus may be a hint at the angry young man image he had and the hard roles he played.
Mercury is in 10th in D-10, but Mercury's Vimsottari dasa took his career to lows. Why?? Because Mercury is in the 12th from GL in D-10! CONCLUSION I suggest that ghatilagna should be used along with lagna, atleast in rasi chart, D-10 chart and D-24 chart. Ancient Indian sages were brilliant and they gave us all these tools. In the last few centuries, several of these tools got lost. But the renaissance of Vedic astrology will not be complete without these basic tools employed again! Best regards, Narasimha PS: I am still pretty busy with my book. I will appreciate it if the members start some interesting discussions to keep the list going, until I can participate more actively. Until my book is done, I will be making occasional contributions and making comments on interesting stuff contributed by others.
