I see. VJ does not say it is fixed at Dhanistha, but it stands to reason that it was meant this way, given the context. Thanks for the clarification, I appreciate it.
Do you find that the personality traits of the nakshatras fit when you use this Ayanamsa? Or is it just used for prediction?
Yes and the "extreme case sampling" that some western-oriented astrology researchers have done on the tropical signs in the past decade or so, in an attempt to isolate and show the most pure and unique effects of each rashi on a person's character and life themes, has shown the limitations of those convenient shortcuts of the quantitative type.
Simply picking out case-studies based on whoever has the most planets in a said rashi won't show the rashi's true qualities, would it?
Since having more than 3 grahas in a sign actually damages or muddies up the house involved, wouldn't it do the same to the qualities of the rashi and its ability to manifest in the person's life and character?? (Would this be true even if friends or great dignity is involved? I'm not sure but I guess it would vary.)
And we know that bad lajjitadi avashthas damage the rashi where they occur. The more planets you have in a sign, the more they are likely have bad LAs.
With regard to nakshatras, I'm thinking studying cases that have Moon, asc. cusp, and Ketu all in a single nakshatra may be a good place to start if we want to isolate the qualities of a nakshatra in a person and save a little time. At least give the most points to those 3 first, then the Sun and asc. lord (if in good dignity and not afflicting the Sun or Moon), would get less points but still show some relevant info. I'm sure it would be profoundly rare to have all 5 of those things in one, which might cloud the effects of the nakshatra just like it would do to its rashi.
But this wouldn't cover most classical and prediction techniques because most of the personality-oriented traits assigned to nakshatras these days are relatively modern and have accumulated when nakshatras have been deemed strictly sidereal for some time.
We would be starting from scratch and may just have to compare them to the ancient qualities of the ruling deities in the scriptures to see how accurate they are. Definitely shouldn't be relying soley on the vimshottari lords.
Otherwise we only have ancient electional and prediction techniques, and little, if any, subjective stuff.
That is very interesting.
I have just implemented this precessed Vedanga Jyotisha ayanamsa in my own private calculation software. At first glance it feels more accurate over other sidereal ayanamshas, which never felt like a fit to me.
Moon: 8º Lib. Lahiri: Hasta pada 2 -> VJN: Chitrā pada 2
Sun: 17º Tau. Lahiri: Bharani pada 4 -> VJN: Krittikā pada 3
I will also explore using it with Vimshottari Dasha. Thank you Ernst! 🙏
PS I'm also curious about how this might affect Navamsha rashis. Reminds me of Cyril Fagan's experiments with the Novien (shifting start of zodiac to 0º Tau, by subtracting 30º before harmonic multiplication and adding it back afterwards)
PPS I think it would be 762 BC not 772 BC, for the Krittika vernal equinox alignment? For programming nerds, these are the arguments I provide to the Swiss Ephemeris swe_set_sid_mode function.
t0 = DateTime.parse("March 20, 762 BC").jd # approximately when Krittika was 0º Aries
ayan_t0 = 360.0/27 * -2 # count back two Nakahatras to start at Ashwini
[Swe4r::SE_SIDM_USER + Swe4r::SE_SIDBIT_USER_UT, t0, ayan_t0] # [1279, 1443181, -26.666666666666668]
I am glad you are testing it and find it worth examining. If using krittika on vernal equinox as a tropical ayanamsa, then there would be no alignment. If using it as a sidereal ayanamsa, then the alignment date would depend on the ayanamsa. So I am a bit confused as to why you gave us the alignment date?
@ernst did I misunderstand something then?
I thought this was a proposed new ayanamsa, with alignment date calibrated by VJ’s Dhansitha at winter solstice (0° Capricorn ~1000 BC) precessed forward 1 pada to Krittika at vernal equinox (0° Aries ~762 BC).
In modern terms, the Nakshatra wheel begins with Ashwini so I am looking for an ayanamsa to shift relative to this, which matches historical alignments from ancient texts. Is my logic incorrect?
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.