Chapter 61 - The situation of the planets (graha-saṃkhyā)

1-2. All these are the abodes which blaze by means of solar rays. The constellations and stars are the abodes to be attained by merits. They are called Tārakas because they enable people to cross the ocean of worldly existence and also because they are white.

3. The sun is called Āditya because he takes up the divine and terrestrial splendours as well as the nocturnal darkness.

4. The root ‘su’ is used in two meanings to extract juice or to flow. Since the sun extracts refulgence and makes water flow, it is called Savitṛ.

5. The root ‘cadi’ from which the word Candra is derived means ‘to delight’. It implies whiteness, chillness, and nectarine nature of the moon (Candra).

6. The divine discs of the sun and the moon are refulgent. They move in the sky. They are white and are of the nature of fire and water. They are splendid and they resemble a circular pot.

7. The disc of the moon is of the nature of dense water. The disc of the sun is white and is of the nature of dense fire.

8. Devas reside in constellations, sun and planets. They live everywhere in these abodes in all the manvantaras.

9. Hence the planets are abodes named after their respective planets. The Sun entered the abode Saura. The Moon entered the abode Saumya.

10. Venus entered the abode Śaukra. Jupiter, the valorous, with sixteen rays entered the abode Bṛhad (big). The Mars entered the abode Lohita pertaining to Mars.

11. The Saturn entered the abode Śanaiścara. The Mercury entered the abode Baudha. The evil planet Rāhu entered the abode Svarbhānu (named after him).

12. The deities of constellations entered all these abodes. These luminaries are the abodes of meritorious souls.

13. These abodes have been created by the self-born deity. They began to function at the beginning of kalpa and they stay until all the living beings are dissolved.

14. In all the manvantaras they alone are the abodes of Devas. These deities who have identified themselves with the abodes occupy these divine abodes again and again.

15-20. They occupy these abodes along with Devas of the past, present and future. In this current manvantara the planets are moving about in aerial chariots.

In the Vaivasvata manvantara the sun is Vivasvān the son of Aditi; the lustrous lord Moon the son of sage Atri; lord Śukra, Bhārgava, is known as the priest of Asuras.

The preceptor of Devas, the shining one of massive splendour, is the son of Aṅgiras (Bṛhaspati). Budha (Mercury) is the charming son of a sage. Saturn is the ugly son of Vivasvān born of Saṃjñā. Agni was born of Vikeśī^[1] as the youthful son of Lohitārchis. The constellations named Nakṣatra and Ṛkṣa are Dākṣāyaṇīs (daughters of Dakṣa). Rāhu is the son of Siṃhikā. He is an Asura causing distress to living beings.

21. Thus the constellations and planets in the sun and the moon as also their abodes and the various deities occupying them have all been mentioned.

22. The fiery abode Saura belongs to the thousand-rayed Vivasvān. The abode of the snow-rayed moon is watery and white.

23. The abode of Budha (mercury) is watery, dark-coloured and charming. The region of Śukra (Venus) is also watery but white with sixteen rays.

24. The abode of Bhauma (Mars) is reddish and it has nine rays. The abode of Bṛhaspati (Jupiter) is yellow with sixteen rays and is very large.

25. The abode Śani (Saturn) is black with eight rays. The abode of Svarbhānu (Rāhu) is gloomy and is a place of great distress to living beings.

26. All the stars should be known as the abodes of sages with one ray each. They are the resorts of men of meritorious renown and are white in colour.

27. They are of the nature of dense water (snow). They were created in the beginning of the kalpa. Thanks to the contact with the rays of the sun they have a shining appearance.

28. The diameter of the sun is nine thousand yojanas. The extent of its circular surface is three times that.

29. The extent of the moon is twice that of the sun. Rāhu assumes a form equal to both of them and moves about beneath them.

30. The third massive abode of Rāhu is dark and dreary. It is created in the form of a circle out of the shadow of the earth.

31-32a. Setting out from the sun during the parvan days it goes to the moon.^[2] Again during the solar parvan days it goes to the sun from the moon. Since Rāhu pushes and prompts the sun in the heaven it is called Svarbhānu.

32b-33. The diameter, circumference and distance in terms of yojanas of Venus is a sixteenth part of that of the moon. Jupiter is three-fourths of the size of Venus.

34. Mars and Saturn are a fourth less than Jupiter. In extent and width Mercury is a fourth less than these two.

35. The forms of those constellations and stars that are embodied are equal to Mercury in width and circular area.

36-39. The constellations that are in conjunction with the moon are ordinarily known as Ṛkṣas. The spheres of the comparatively smaller stars are five, four, three or two yojanas. Over all these there are clusters of still smaller stars which extend to only half a yojana in width. There is none smaller than this. Over and above these starry spheres are the three planets which move at a great distance from them. They should be known as slow moving ones. The speed of these has already been mentioned in due order.

40-45. All the planets are born of constellations. O excellent sages, the sun, the son of Aditi, the first among the planets, is born of the constellation Viśākhā. The lustrous son of Dharma, lord Vasu, Soma (moon), the cool-rayed lord of the night, is born of the constellation Kṛttikā. The sixteen-rayed son of Bhṛgu, Śukra (Venus) who is the most excellent among the stars and planets after the sun, is born of the constellation Tiṣya. The planet Bṛhaspati (Jupiter), the twelve-rayed son of Aṅgiras, the preceptor of the universe, is born of the constellation Pūrvaphālgunī.

The planet (Mars) son of Prajāpati, the nine-rayed red bodied planet is born of the constellation Pūrvāṣāḍhā.

The son of sun, the seven-rayed Saturn, was born of the constellation Revatī.

46-47. The five-rayed planet Budha (Mercury) the son of the moon is born of the constellation Dhaniṣṭhā.

Śikhī (Ketu) the great planet that destroys all, who is dark in nature, who is the son of Mṛtyu the god of Death and who is the cause of destruction of the subjects, is born of the constellation Āsleṣā. Dakṣa’s daughters were born of the constellations which have their own names.

48. Dark-sphered Rāhu who is full of Tāmasaic vigour, is the planet that suppresses the moon and the sun. He is born of the constellation Bharaṇī

49-50. It should be noted that the planets beginning with Bhārgava (Venus) are known as star-planets (i.e planets resembling stars). Persons who are affected by afflictions from their birthday stars are liberated from that defect by devotion to their respective planets. Among all the planets the first one, it is said, is Āditya (Sun).

51-54. Among all the star-planets Śukra is the first. Among all the Ketus (flag-like Meteors) the smoky one is the first. (It is usually called Dhūmaketu). Dhruva is the first among the planets distributed in all the four quarters. Among constellations the first is Śraviṣṭhā^[3]. Among the Ayanas (transits) the Uttarāyaṇa (northern transit) is the first. Among the five^[4] years the first is Saṃvatsara. Among the seasons it is the late winter (śiśira). Among the months it is Māgha. Among the fortnights it is the bright half and among Tithis it is Pratipat (first day). Among the division of days and nights, the day is the first. The first of the muhūrtas is that the deity of which is Rudra.

55-58. Kṣaṇa has the nimeṣa as its first unit of time, O excellent ones among the knowers of time. Beginning with the constellation Dhaniṣṭhā and ending with Śravaṇa shall be a yuga comprising of five years. The universe whirls like a wheel due to the movement of the sun. Hence the sun is the lord and deity delimiting time. He is the instigator and castigator of the four types of living beings. Rudra, the lord himself, is the inducer of that sun^[5]. Thus the specific and fixed establishment of the luminaries and planets has been evolved by the great lord for the working of the world.

59-63. It has been made to function intelligently by the lord at the beginning of the kalpa. The lord is the support of all luminaries and he identifies himself with them. This is a wonderful phenomenon that is caused by the unique Pradhāna and is incomprehensible. The movement of the luminaries cannot be understood by the man with his physical eye. It can be understood by the learned man only through Vedic treatises, by inference and direct perception, by cogent arrangements and careful analysis in his mind.

O excellent sages, the causes for the decision in regard to the validity concerning the luminaries are five viz:—the eye, scripture, water, the written document and calculation.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Vikeśī: The graha Bhauma (Maṅgala) born of Vikeśī is here called agni (fire). Cf. [agnir mūrdhā] (Ṛgveda 8.44.16) wherein Bhauma is called agni. Vikeśī is one of the eight wives of the eight-formed (aṣṭamūrti) Rudra, others Becalā, Svavarcalā, Umā, Śivā, Svāhā, Dik, Dīkṣā and Rohiṇī.

[2]:

Read Somam for samam.

[3]:

Śraviṣṭhā—Dhaniṣṭhā.

[4]:

A group of five years constitutes a yuga which should not be confused with the cycle of four yugas. This five-yearly cycle forming a yuga corresponds to the Vedic doctrine of pañca-devatā or five deities who have entered the Puruṣa. Cf. Tattirīya Brāhmaṇa 1.4.10.1. The five years with their presiding deities are named (i) saṃvatsara—agni; (ii) parivatsara—sūrya; (iii) iḍāvatsara—soma; (iv) anuvatsara—vāyu; (v) vatsara—rudra. Cf. Matsya. 141.17-18.

[5]:

For Rudra as the life-principle of the sun compare: ‘bhīṣodeti sūryaḥ.’—cited in Śivatoṣiṇī.