Chapter 96 - Omens (11): Supplementary to omens (śākuna-uttara)

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

1. A person learned in the science of omens (śākuna) shall make predictions taking into account the dik (direction), place, motion, sound, week day, the Nakṣatra, the Muhūrta, the rising sign, the karaṇa (half a lunar day), the rising Navāṃśa and the fixed, moveable and the double nature of signs and their strength or weakness.

2. In the case of persons who do not proceed on a journey, omens are divided into two sorts—the stable and the unstable. Omens pointing to the king, the messenger, the spy and foreign lands as well as those connected with troubles and kinsmen are known as unstable.

3. Omens (śākuna) pointing to death by hanging, abduction of a woman, meals, thieves, fire, rain, festivals, sons, torture, quarrels and fears are known as stable omens if the sign occupied by the Moon at the time be a fixed one and they are known as unstable omens if the sign occupied by the Moon at the time of their occurrence be a moveable one.

4. Omens occurring in hard and firm places, in stone houses, in temples, in land and in waters are known as stable; and omens occurring on weak or moving objects are known as unstable—the latter omens point to gain.

5. Omens occuring when the rising sign, the Nakṣatra, the Muhūrta and the Dik are watery ones and those occurring in water and on new and full Moon periods and which are at the same time dīpta (malefic) and attended with sound, point to gain; also if the creatures of water be Śānta (benefic), there will be rain.

6. Ominous cries occurring in the direction, rising sign, Muhūrtas and places appropriate to fire and when the Sun is dīpta (malefic) point to injury by fire. Ominous cries of a malefic character occurring in thorns and leafless creepers when the karaṇa at the time is Bhadra and when the rising sign is either Capricorn or Aquarius, point to thieves.

7. If the creatures of the village, malefic in character and in their tone and motion, be found to cry from thorny trees and an cither side of the south-western quarter when the rising sign is either Aries or Scorpio, there will be quarrels.

8. If creatures, malefic in character, be found to cry with their necks bent to the ground and from one of the four corners when the rising sign is Cancer or when the rising sign or Navāṃśa is either Taurus or Libra, there will be a meeting with a woman and the woman will be one of the class belonging to the particular corner.

9. If the omen occur in an odd lunar day, in one of the prime quarters, and when the rising sign is a malefic one and if the creature be of the male kind, there will be a meeting with a man and if the omen be of the hermaphrodite kind, there will be a meeting with a hermaphrodite.

[Note—If the omen be one of a creature of the female sex and if it occur in one of the comers or on an even lunar day when the rising sign or Navāṃśa is that of Taurus, there will be a meeting with a person of the class belonging to the north-eastern quarter.]

10. If the omen be malefic in character and occur when Leo is the rising sign or Navāṃśa or when the Sun occupies the rising sign, the chief person will proceed on a journey to foreign lands.

11. At the time of commencement of a work if the rising sign be odd when counted from the sign occupied by the Sun, the work will end well and if it be an even sign the attempt will fail.

12. If the omen (śākuna) be malefic in character and occur when the Sun occupies the 12^th house from the rising sign, the person concerned will lose his right eye; and if at the time, the Sun occupy the rising sign and be aspected by malefic planets the person will lose both his eyes; if at the time, the Sun occupy sign Leo and be aspected by malefic planets, the person will become lame or deaf or an idiot.

13. If at the time of occurrence of an omen malefic planets occupy the sixth house and be aspected at the same time by other malefic planets, the person concerned will receive a wound in the part of body which corresponds to such sixth house. All that has been said by me regarding wounds, moles and the like in my Jātaka applies here also (vide stanzas 24 amd 25 of Chapter-5 of Varāha Mihira’s Bṛhat Jātaka.)

14. If, at the time of query, the rising sign of Navāṃśa be a movable one the name of the person with whom there will be a meeting will consist of two syllables; if the rising sign or Navāṃśa be a fixed one, the name will consist of four syllables and if it be both movable and immovable, the name will be a combination of two names and will consist of three or five letters.

15. If the powerful planet be Mars the letters will be of the group ka, kha, ga, gha, ṅga; if the powerful planet be Venus the letters will be of the group ca, cha, ja, jha, ñja; if the planet be Mercury the letters will be those of the group ta, tha, da, dha, na; if the planet be Jupiter the letters will belong to the group ta, tha, da, dha, na, if the planet be Saturn, the letters belong to the group pa, pha, ba, bha, ma; if the planet be the Moon, the letters belong to the group, ya ra, la, va, śa, ṣa, sa, ha, and if the planet be the Sun, the letters belong to the group of vowels from a to au.

16. Also in the cases of the planets from the Sun to Saturn, the names will be the names of the Devas—Agni, Varuṇa, Skanda, Viṣṇu, Indra, Indrāṇi and Brahmā respectively. The particular name required shall be determined from the number of syllables it consists of.

17. If at the time of query, relating to the age of a person, the lord of the rising sign be the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, the Sun or Saturn, the age will respectively be that of infancy (1 to 4), boyhood (5 to 8), period succeeding investiture with the thread (9 to 12), youth (13 to 32) middle-age (33-50), old age (51to 70) and very old age (above 70).