Kalapurusha

Definition

Kalapurusha — 'Time Personified', the Cosmic Man — pictures the whole zodiac as one human body, the twelve signs forming its limbs from Aries down: head, face, breast, heart, belly, hip, groins, private part, thighs, knees, calves, and feet. In the classical texts (BPHS, Brihat Jataka, Jataka Parijata, Phaladeepika), this body-map is what grounds the bodily and medical meanings of the signs. Behari and other modern authors treat it as the macrocosmic being whose pulsating impulses move through the signs.

In Tradition

The classical Jyotish texts and modern Vedic authors agree: Kalapurusha is the zodiac seen as a cosmic human body, its twelve limbs being the twelve signs from head to feet. This body-map is the accepted foundation of bodily and medical reading — a sign's links to benefic or harmful (malefic) planets are read as the condition of its limb. Where they differ is whether the limbs are counted from Aries or from the rising sign (Lagna).

In Practice

Jyotishis (Vedic astrologers) use this body-map to read physical and medical matters. In the fixed zodiacal scheme the limbs run from Aries — head, face, breast, heart, belly, hip, groins, private part, thighs, knees, calves, and feet (Jataka Parijata, Phaladeepika, Brihat Jataka). For one person's chart, though, BPHS and Jataka Parijata count the body parts from the Lagna (rising sign) instead of from Aries: the rising sign stands for the head and each following sign for the next limb down. A planet's influence on a sign is then read as an effect on that limb, and a body part's health is judged by whether its sign connects with benefic or harmful (malefic) planets. Behari adds that you can lay the human form of Kalapurusha over the birth chart to weigh the vitality of different areas of life, and that its Tenth house stands for the main purpose of the incarnation.

Historical Origin

Kalapurusha runs through the foundational classical texts: Parasara's Brihat Parasara Hora Sastra (Ch.4), Varahamihira's Brihat Jataka (Ch.I Sl.4), Vaidyanatha Dikshita's Jataka Parijata (Ch.1 Sl.8), and Mantreswara's Phaladeepika (Ch.1 Sl.4). Raman draws on it in Hindu Predictive Astrology, and the modern author Behari develops it in Fundamentals of Vedic Astrology and the Vedic Astrologer's Handbook.

Further Reading

• Parasara, Brihat Parasara Hora Sastra
• Varahamihira, Brihat Jataka
• Vaidyanatha Dikshita, Jataka Parijata
• Mantreswara, Phaladeepika
• Raman, Hindu Predictive Astrology
• Behari, Fundamentals of Vedic Astrology
• Behari, Vedic Astrologer's Handbook Vol II