Using Kala I see an option to calculate Nakshatras tropically. Does anyone do this? Or know the history or argument for it? I remember a video (that I liked) of Ernst discusses Nakshatras, saying they are not truly tied to stars, but are just sections of space, similar to Rashi's. I do not think he was making a case that Nakshatra's were to be calculated tropically, however.
There are currently three tropical based nakshatras in Kala. The first is simply tropical, so Aswini starts at tropical Aries which starts at the vernal equinox. Some astrologers use this in India due to the fact that in Varaha Mihira's Brihat Jataka he says that Aswini starts at aries, and in his Panchasiddantika, he says that Aries, Mars Navamsa, Mars trimsamsa, Mars drekkana all start at the vernal equinox. So based on these statements he was using tropical rasis and tropical nakshatras. BUT, he was not aware of precession (based on other sutras in Panchasiddantika), so did he do this on tropical purpose or because he THOUGHT he was doing sidereal. We will never know, but I think it would be hard to think one is doing sidereal and calculate tropically and not be aware of an ayanamsa. I never found this tropical ayanamsa showing any promise in any technique.
THe next tropical ayanamsa is the Krittika on the Vernal equinox ayanamsa. This has some sound concepts to it for the basis of a tropical ayanamsa. It works pretty good. The first i heard of it iwas a study that looked at various nakshatras for careers and the only one that worked well was krittika on the vernal equinox. Also, lists of ayanamsa's start from krittika in the old books. I tried this ayanamsa, it showed promise, enough promise for a lot of testing, but the tests were not satisfactory enough to consider it the ayanamsa to use. SOme peopled heard me talk about this idea and after a week decided it worked and have heard feedback about these astrologers to have made very good predictions on difficult and suprising subjects, but I tested it for 3 years and was not satisfied enough to change from Dhruva Galactic center middle of mula.
For the programming of kala 2023, I did some more thinking and went back to Vedanga Jyotisha which is the oldest astronomy book we have from India that was written 900-1100 BC. Other astronomy books say they were older, but were pened around 500-1100 AD so who knows what was in the old versions from hundreds of years before... Vedanga Jyotisha says that Dhanistha, or Sravishti as its also called, is on the winter solstice. I ignored this as a possibility due to my ideas of kritika on the vernal equinox but when that ayanamsa did not satisfy me, I went back to thinking about the Vedanta Jyotisha and started to try it and it appeared VERY promising so I programmed it into kala. I have been testing it for the last 6 months. Its still very promising. many people would by now say, its RIGHT. But i have learned to take time, great time with these kinds of tests, So the testing with it continues.
Vedanga Jyotisha Ayanamsa is exactly one pada different from Krittika Ayanamsa, which explains why the Krittika had promise but did not pan out for me.
Of all the ayanamsas I have tried, the most promising were Ardra Galactic Plane, Dhruva Galactic center middle of Mula, and Vedanga Jyotisha Ayanamsa. An additional issue with an ayanamsa is should we calcualte it ecliptically, equatorially, or with Druva ecliptic coordinates. This can make a difference of upto 3 or so years in dasas sometimes.
So, have fun, and don't go crazy!
@ernst I don´t find that ayanamsa in my current version of Kala, well, i guess I should upgrade. Could you please give the settings, it sounds interesting. I´m so much in love with some of my Nakshatras that I really don´t want to give them up, Mercury in Mula for is for example awesome for revealing secrets... But for the sake of testing...
Mattias
Thank you for the reply, Ernst! Just to be clear, the Vedanga Jyotisha appears to advocate for tropical nakshatras? Albeit one pada off the Ayanamsa advocated by the Rig Veda?
My mercury is certainly thrilled by all the possibilities, I'll try to be moderate in my studies 🙂
I suppose my real question is: how do we know Vedgana Jyotisha is advocating for a Tropical Ayanamsa centered on Dhanishtha at the winder solstice? And not just the coincidence of Dhanistha being there when it was written?
Rig Veda has no Ayanamsa in it, please tell me if I am wrong? Nowhere is precession indicated in teh vedanga jyotisha. GIvign a calculation that is precession dependent without giving precession is useless, which means the book was written by idiots. Now, if an ADVANCED book on astronomy does not mention precession, then it could be expected the student would know of it. But this is the most basic and simple calculations that exist in astronomy. Just nakshatra, tithi, karana and masa if i remember right. not even having vara, the weekday! NO RASIS at all. no planter calculations at all other than the sun and moon motions required for the nakshatra, tithi, etc.
To precess 1 pada takes 238 years, which means if vedgana jyoitsh was written in 1000 BC, it would have been in 772 BC that Krittaka was on the vernal equinox. so from that you can make a theoretical sidereal ayanamsa to try.
Yes surprisingly, this vedanga jyotish ayanamsa has promise. I have had this book for 15 years or more. I never took it seriously... maybe i should have, time will tell.