7. The Times of Results

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

Next, in how many days following the day of the annual revolution will the results described for the sahamas occur?

This is stated in Tājikamuktāvali 35:

The degrees of the sahama, less by [those of] its own ruler, multiplied by the oblique ascensions [of the zodiacal signs involved] and divided by three hundred, give the days called kisima causing the attainment of that [sahama’s significations]; or else, if that is impossible, [it will happen] likewise in the periods of the respective [planets].^[1]

And likewise, Romaka [says]:

The degrees between the ruler of the sahama and the sahama, multiplied by the oblique ascensions [of the zodiacal signs involved] and divided by three hundred give the day of the kisima of the attainment of that [sahama’s significations].^[2]

Yādava states another method for this [in Tājikayogasudhānidhi 11.34]:

The distance between the sahama and its ruler should be found in signs and so on: as far as [the longitude of ] the sun added to that [distance] is, at the ingress [of the sun] into that sign, the result [will manifest].

If [it should be asked] which of these two positions is the better one, [in reply] it is said: the former position is definitely better, as it is approved by Romaka.

Next, the meaning of sahamas of doubtful meaning [is stated] in Saṃjñātantra [3.56–61]:

Teacher [means] instructor; knowledge, learning; instruction, Revelation and Tradition; dullness, confusion; force, army; limbs, body; water, lustre;^[3] dignity, rulership of a province; honour, enjoying respect; a king, one having the power of punishment and favour, possessing the insignia of parasol and so on; greatness, being deep in [the practice of ] mantras;^[4] wisdom, possessing insight and so on; ability, power of the body; valour, efforts to subdue enemies; hope is said [to mean] wish; faith, pious inclination; a serf, one dependent on another; falling [of/into] water, rain, or suddenly sinking in water; suffering and illness [mean] anxiety and disease, [respectively]; kinsmen are said to be those sharing oblations;^[5] living by trade, [a mixture of ] truth and falsehood; impregnation, procreation; others’ work, servitude. [The meaning of ] other [sahamas] is clear from their names.

In the Hāyanaratna composed by Balabhadra, son of the learned Dāmodara, foremost of astrologers, this concludes the fourth chapter: the sahamas.

Footnotes and references:

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[1]:

This is similar to the procedure given in section 4.4 (see note 37), but using only oblique ascensions rather than mixed (a method of direction rejected by Ptolemy but still used by some Arabic-language authors such as ʿUmar aṭ-Ṭabarī). The approximative method outlined here can be analysed as follows: first, dividing the longitudinal distance in degrees between the sahama and its ruler by 30 gives the distance in signs (with fractions). Second, multiplying this distance by the combined rising times (oblique ascensions), measured in palas, of the signs falling between these two points gives the same distance in palas. Third, dividing these palas by 10 gives the distance in degrees of oblique ascension, as 360 degrees rise in 3600 palas (24 hours). These degrees of the circle are equated with days in a year of life, which is roughly correct if a day is defined in the usual way (≈ 1⁄365 of a year), or wholly correct if a ‘solar day’ (introduced in section 7.1 below) is used, defined as the time it takes the sun to traverse 1° of the ecliptic. Qisma, Sanskritized as kisima, is properly the time it takes a directed significator to pass through a particular set of planetary terms.

[2]:

The similarities between this and the foregoing quotation are so great that one is clearly based on the other.

[3]:

See note 66.

[4]:

Viśvanātha’s commentary on this verse, which appears from its phrasing to have been directly influenced by the anonymous quotation on the same lot in section 4.⁶ (cf. note 54), states that māhātmya may refer to the state of being of a great sage (mahātman) as well as to greatness (mahattva), and that being deep in mantras means ‘exclusively performing contemplation of a mantra; his “depth” [means] not appearing [in public]’.

[5]:

That is, those offering oblations in the form of balls of rice (piṇḍa) to the same (paternal) ancestors.