Argala

Definition

Argala is the Vedic idea that one planet or house can step into the affairs of another point you are studying — a house, a planet, or a significator. The word literally means a bolt or bar. A planet in the 2nd, 4th or 11th from that point creates primary argala, and one in the 5th gives a secondary argala. When the intervening planet is a benefic it is subhargala (benefic intervention); when it is a malefic, papargala (malefic intervention). This intervention can be cancelled by virodhargala, the obstruction described below.

In Tradition

The BPHS Argala chapter and its modern expositions agree that how many planets intervene sets how strong the argala is: one planet gives the smallest or most limited result, two a medium result, and three or more the strongest or most excellent. The effect is read as it ripens in the dasa (planetary period) of the rasi (sign) or planet concerned.

In Practice

A jyotishi (Vedic astrologer) leans on argala to judge how houses and planets decisively influence one another, reading it from every reference point and giving special weight to the lagna (ascendant) and the arudha lagna. Planets in the 2nd, 4th and 11th from a house intervene in its matters, and virodhargala obstructs them from the 12th, 10th and 3rd; the 5th gives secondary argala, obstructed from the 9th. When several malefics sit in the 3rd they cause argala rather than obstruction, the favourable Vipareeta or reversal argala. Where argala and obstruction both act, you judge the stronger by the number of planets, and by strength if those tie; the matter then ripens in the relevant dasa. Named varieties such as dhanargala (wealth intervention) and labhargala (gains intervention) are read for particular houses.

Historical Origin

Argala is laid out in the Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, attributed to Maharshi Parasara, in its Argala chapter — the Argala-Adhyaya, given as Ch.31 Sl.2-9 in Santhanam's edition. Modern authors have elaborated it: Sanjay Rath in Crux of Vedic Astrology, Freedom Cole in Science of Light (which follows Parashara's Argala-Adhyaya), and Narasimha Rao in Vedic Astrology: An Integrated Approach. Cole also notes Monier-Williams' definition of argala as a door-fastening bolt.

Further Reading

• Maharshi Parasara, Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra
• Rath, Crux of Vedic Astrology
• Cole, Science of Light, Vol. I
• Narasimha Rao, Vedic Astrology: An Integrated Approach