Brihajjataka 25

On Death

Death arises from the vitiation of that humor [indicated] by strong planets through their aspect on the house of death, / or it arises from the bodily part of the sign conjoined with them; it arises from multiple causes when there are many endowed with strength; / it is caused by fire, water, weapons, fever, disease, thirst, or hunger, caused by the Sun and the rest in the eighth house, / and in movable and other signs, in a foreign land, in one's own land, or on a path respectively.

Death of one struck by a mountaintop [occurs] when the Sun and Mars are in the tenth and fourth houses; in a well, by Saturn, the Moon, and Mars situated in the fourth, seventh, and tenth houses; / from one's own kin, when the Moon and Sun are in Virgo, aspected by malefic planets; if the Sun and Moon are in a dual sign at rising, he is then drowned in water.

When Saturn is in Cancer, death is caused by dropsy; when the Moon is in Capricorn, it arises from weapons or fire; when the Moon is situated in a sign of Mars between malefics, / or when the Moon is situated in Virgo, it is caused by blood disorders and consumption; similarly, if the Moon is in a sign of Saturn, it is caused by ropes, fire, or falls.

From imprisonment, when the two malefics are in the fifth and ninth houses from the fourth house, being aspected by a benefic planet; and death is from bondage through decans with a noose, snake, or fetters situated in the eighth house; / know that death in one's own house is caused by a woman when the Moon is in Virgo accompanied by a malefic, Venus is in Aries in the seventh house, and the Sun is in the ascendant.

One's body is pierced by an iron spike when Mars is in the fourth house and the Sun or Saturn is in the tenth, / and the malefics together with the waning Moon are in the trines and the first house; / and when the Sun is in the fourth house and Mars is in the sky, aspected by the waning Moon, one meets death struck by wood; and [the same occurs] when aspected by Saturn.

One's body is struck by a club when the eighth, tenth, first, and fourth houses are occupied by the waning Moon, Mars, Saturn, and the Sun; / when those very planets are situated in the tenth, ninth, first, and fifth houses, the end is by smoke, fire, bondage, or beatings to the body.

Death is from weapons, fire, or the anger of a king through Mars, the Sun, and Saturn occupying the fourth, seventh, and tenth houses; / and destruction of the body caused by wounds and worms should be known through Saturn, the Moon, and Mars occupying the second, fourth, and tenth houses.

Slaughter occurs from falling from a conveyance when the Sun is in the tenth and Mars is in the fourth house; / death is caused by crushing in a machine when Mars is in the seventh house and Saturn and the Moon are in the ascendant; / in the midst of feces, when Mars, Saturn, and the Moon occupy Libra, Aries, and a sign of Saturn, or when the Moon, Sun, and Mars have gone to the houses named tenth, seventh, and fourth.

When the waning Moon is aspected by a retrograde planet endowed with strength, and Saturn is situated in the eighth house, / death will occur through suffering from diseases of the private parts, or from worms, weapons, or fire.

When the Sun is in the seventh house with Mars, Saturn is in the eighth, and the waning Moon has gone to the fourth house, the end is through birds; / but through the Sun, Mars, Saturn, and the Moon in the ascendant, fifth, eighth, and ninth houses, [death is] through falls from a mountain peak, lightning, or a falling wall.

The twenty-second decan has been declared by the wise to be the cause of death; / its lord, or even the sign [itself], brings death in accordance with its own qualities.

This is to be determined from the yoga, aspect, and so forth, in a locality having the nature of that occupied by the lord of the navāṃśa of the ascendant; / but unconsciousness at the time of death is equal to the degrees [of the rising sign] that have not risen; it is doubled when aspected by its own lord, and tripled by benefics.

By fiery, watery, mixed [planets], ash, dissolution, or drying [occurs]; / by serpents' divisions standing in the eighth house, it ends in worms and dung. / In this way, the condition of the corpse should be considered as stated; / from the extensive treatise composed [by the sages], the subsequent realm of existence and so forth must be considered.

Jupiter, the Moon and Venus, the Sun and Mars, Saturn and Mercury / would cause [rebirth respectively among] the gods, ancestors, beasts, and denizens of hell. / From the lord of the decan occupied by the stronger of the Sun and Moon, / superior, middling, or inferior [status in that realm] follows from exaltation or depression.

Furthermore, liberation occurs if the lord of the decan of the sixth or eighth house stands in the seventh, / or if Jupiter, situated in his own exaltation, stands in the sixth, a cardinal house, or the eighth, / while the last sign rises in a benefic portion, / and if the remaining planets there are entirely devoid of strength.