Bṛhat Jātaka

What this text is

Varāhamihira’s compact masterwork — the most-commented natal text in Sanskrit, and one of the firmest dates in the whole corpus.

Zodiac fundamentals and exaltation degrees (I), planets in signs and houses, the nābhasa and lunar yogas (XII–XIII), longevity, daśās, women’s charts (XXIV), birth-star results (XVI), and drekkāṇas — about twenty-six chapters.

Its role in this app

Our public-domain quotable workhorse. Seats foundations (exaltation degrees I.13), planets-in-signs exemplars (XVII–XVIII), one of three independent birth-star lineages (XVI), and the yoga record: Kemadruma XIII.3 already reports and rejects named dissenters — proof the definition dispute is ancient — while XIII.9 supplies the classical override we quote; Vajra/Yava XII.5–6 is a yoga its own author argues cannot occur. Its XXIV.8 is why we grade "Saturn in the 7th delays marriage" as modern: the verse reads affliction under malefic aspect, not timing.

Editions our research holds

• 1905-edition

  Chidambaram Iyer translation, 1905 reprint — the primary copy.

  public domain · scan quality: good

• chidambaram-iyer-1885

  Iyer translation, 1885 printing.

  public domain · scan quality: good

• j108-direct

  Additional scan, PDF only.

  copyright status unclear — treated as in-copyright

What our reading found

Findings from this project's own verification passes — recorded because a source's defects are part of citing it honestly.

Chapter XX verse 6 routes most Mars placements and Mercury in houses 9–12 to the Sun’s results — citing BJ for those cells is a recorded mis-citation hazard (it speaks directly only for Mars 1/2/9 and Mercury 1–8). Two of our own shipped sentences were found reversing this text (Sun-Leo, Moon-Capricorn) and were corrected through the assertions ledger. The 1905 notes-table misprints two deep-exaltation degrees; cite the stanza, not the table.