Bharatiya Jyotihshastra (History of Indian Astronomy), translated by R. V. Vaidya v2.c14.15

v2.c14.15

He is better known as Mahadkar. He was born on the 14th lunar day of the dark half of Vaiśākha in Śaka 1787, when the ascending sign was Sagittarius, at Pacheri Sada alias MQBHAR, near Chiplun. The extraordinary knowledge of astrology which he possesses is mostly self-acquired. His father died when he was in his 13th year. He received his early Marathi education, first at Ganapati Pule in 1877 A.D. then at Malgund from 1878 to 1880 and then up to 1882 at the Marathi School No. 1 at THANA. Later on, in 1883, he was employed in the Court in Alibag district. He continued in Alibag court up to 1886 and then joined the court at Mahad; hence, he became known as Mahadkar. Since 1893, he has left service and is carrying on legal practice at Ichalkaranji and mainly at Kolhapur. Most of his time is spent in other activities. In 1882, he met a Dravidian astrologer who was rather eccentric. He told Patvardhan certain basic principles of finding the birth ascendant by observing the physical traits of people. Later on, he developed this knowledge by reading serveral books himself reconciling as far as possible the different hints about physical traits gathered from different books and framing rules by observing hundreds of people. He became famous for the knowledge since 1891. He displays a very keen intelligence in casting horoscopes simply from the physiognomy of people; for a moment he sees a person and he can cast his horoscope. He does so mainly by looking at the facial signs and sometimes by observing the tongue and the palm. He not only tells what the ascendant was and how the planets were placed at the time of birth by observing the physical traits but can also mention the degree of the sign occupied by every point. It has been the author's experience that there used to be at the most an error of only a degree or two. It is not that he always told the degrees of planets. He generally gave out only the signs. Any Jośi who knows mathematical astronomy can tell the date and time of birth if the native and his horoscope are before him. Jupiter returns to the same sign after 12 years and Saturn after 30. The Sun comes to Aries in every Caitra and so on. The tithi can be found from the distance between the sun and the moon. It is, therefore, evident that these conditions can help in finding the time of birth. If the birth-time of a person is given, the ascending sign at that moment and the positions of planets can be found with the help of astronomy. But Patvardhan can find the ascendant and planetary positions from the physical traits; in other words, he can correctly say what sign was ascending at birth and how the planets were located in the houses. When these are inserted in the horoscope, the time of birth can be found by following the method described above.