History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c82.351

v6.c82.351

The Bṛhajjātaka compresses these details in I. 10-11 and Utpala explains the purpose of some of these technical terms. Yātrā (invasion) undertaken on śīrṣodaya rāśis yields the desired result but if undertaken on pṛṣṭhodaya rāśis there is failure and one's army is routed. Those born on krūra signs are of cruel nature and those born on saumya signs are mild by nature, while those born on male signs are energetic and those born on female signs are mild Those born on *cara* signs are unsteady by nature, those born on *sthira* signs are of a fixed nature and those born on dvisvabhāva signs are of mixed character. The knowledge of the signs as lords of quarters is useful in finding out the direction where a person who stole something on a particular sign could be found or the stolen article could be found. Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos I. 11 speaks of Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius as solid signs (*sthira*) and Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces as bi-corporeal (*dvidcha* or *dvisvabhāva*), and in I. 12 there is agreement with Bṛhajjātaka as to the masculine and feminine signs but there is disagreement as to diurnal (dinabala) and nocturnal signs (niśābala), since Ptolemy holds that Aries and other signs are alternately diurnal or nocturnal, while Varāha holds Aries and the next three and also Sagittarius and Capricornus as nocturnal and the rest diurnal. It does not appear that the Bṛhajjātaka knows of the commanding and obeying signs (Tetrabiblos I. 14) and of signs which behold each other or of disjunct signs (Tetrabiblos I 15 and 16) The Br. J. (I. 20) and Laghujātaka I. 6 assign the following colours to the twelve rāśis from Meṣa onwards viz. red, white, green (like a parrot's body), dark-red (pink), whitish like smoke, speckled, dark, golden, yellowish, variegated, deep brown (like ichneumon), white. There is hardly anything corresponding to this in the Tetrabiblos. The *rāśis* are also divided into four classes viz. anthropomorphic (Mithuna, Kanyā, Tulā, Dhanus forepart, Kumbha), quadruped (Meṣa, Vṛṣa, Siṁha, Dhanus latter portion, Makara forepart), aquatic (Karkaṭa, Mīna, Makara latter part), insect (Scorpion). Vide Tetrabiblos IV. 4 pp. 389 and 391 for slightly varying enumeration.