Vakya Panchangas (To Venketesh)

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Dear Venketesh,

Read this for now. More later.

Love,

Sreenadh

 

Vakya Panchangas

================

The Vakyas used in South India for computation of planetary

longitudes is usually ascribed to Vararuchi. If we review the

astronomical tradition of South India, we could locate 3 Vararuchis.

Vararuchi I (of Kerala - 4th century AD)

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This Vararuchi is the father figure in astronomical tradition of

Kerala. He is supposed to have lived in the 1st half of the 4th

century, this date having been arrived at on the basis of the dates of

birth and death of his eldest son Mezhathol Agnihotri. The manuscript

tradition of the land ascribes to Vararuchi the authorship of the 248

Chndra-Vakyas (moon sentences) popularly called Vararuchi-Vakyas,

beginning with 'girnasreyah', and also the promulgation of the

Katapayadi notation of depicting numbers, which has been used in the

computation of said Vakyas.

Vararuchi II (of Kerala - 4th century AD)

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We could see many texts ascribed to Vararuchi such as :- Kerala-

Vararuchi-Vakya, Kerala-Vararuchi-proktha, Kerala Dwadesa bhava

phalam, Vararuchika, Vararuchi Kerala etc. The Vararuchi, who is the

author of the above works on astrology might be identical to Vararuchi

I, but it is not possible to assert that he is the same as the author

of the Chandra-Vakyas.

Vararuchi III (of Tamilnadu - 13th century)

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This astronomer is the author of the well-known Vakyakarana (ed.

T S K Sastri and K V Sarma, Madras, 1962), which is the source book of

the Vakya Panchanga, popular in South India, especially the Tamil

region. This Vararuchi belonged to the Tamil region, as is clear from

the introductory verses of the work. It has been shown that this is a

13th century work, having been composed between AD.1282 and AD.1306,

as can be inferred from the Sodhya-dina (deductive day) made use of in

that work as Zero-day for computations.

Sodhya-dina and Sodhyabda

-

Sodhya-dina (deductive day) is the Ahargana number (number of

days) that would be deducted from the Kali-dina (Ahargana) number for

computation purpose. Sodhyabdas (deductive years) is the years that

would be deducted from the Kali year for computation of Mercury,

Venus, Mars etc. The principle underlying Sodhyabdas is to fix the

year in such a way that the largest possible number of years will be

cut-off from the number of the current year, there by providing

maximum ease in calculation. The Sodhyabdas selected would be as near

as possible to the date of composition of a work, which date would be

just ahead of the largest possible sodhya. This helps us in locating

the period at which that Vakya Panchanga (or Vakyas) are created.

 

[Ref. A History of the Kerala School of Hindu Astronomy - by K V

Sarma]

 

In short, Vakya Panchangas helps us in avoiding, doing the whole

calculation from the fundamental base, and thus avoids the

complexities such as Ayanamsa etc as far as the astrologer is

concerned. But the concept of Ayanamsa is still there "hidden" in

those Vakyas.

Dear Venkatesh, hope this would clarify your doubt. If you can,

please forward the beginning Vakyas of the Vakya Panchanga you are

using, in a personal mail to me for further reference and

clarification. You can contact Chandra Hari as well, since he is an

authority on this subject (i.e. Base year used in Vakya Panchanga etc

).

Love,

Sreenadh