Nisheka (Conception Chart)

nih-SHEH-kah

sanskrit: निषेक / आधान (Niṣeka / Ādhāna)

Definition

Nisheka, also called Adhana, is the conception chart — the horoscope cast for the moment of sexual union that brings about conception, from which you read the Nisheka or Adhana Lagna (the rising sign at that moment). In the BPHS, Santhanam clarifies that the moment meant is the coitus, not the instant of conception, and that some texts keep Adhana for a couple's first union and Nisheka for later ones; the Uttara Kalamrita calls Nisheka the first union after menstruation, set apart from Garbhadhana. The birth ascendant and the conception ascendant are held to be derivable from each other.

In Tradition

Across the classical and modern Jyotish texts, the conception chart is read as a foundation that parallels the birth chart. Several works take from the Nisheka or Adhana Lagna the sex of the child and the month and time of the eventual delivery. Past this shared use, the texts part ways on what else the chart yields and on how it connects to the menstrual cycle.

In Practice

Astrologers cast the conception chart as a counterpart to the birth chart, and the texts disagree on what it shows. BPHS reads the Nisheka Lagna for your experiences in the womb and the parents' longevity, finding it from the Saturn-to-Gulika distance plus the arc from ascendant to ninth cusp (corrected when the lagna lord sits in the chart's unseen half), one degree of longitude counting as one day. Brihat Jataka roots conception in the menstrual cycle, expecting it when the Moon, aspected by Mars, sits in an Anupachaya sign, and reads sex, number of children, month-by-month growth of the embryo, the lords of the ten months, and miscarriage risk. Jataka Parijata's Nishekadhyaya reads sex, legitimacy, the number and fate of offspring, and the month, nakshatra and time of birth from the Adhana Lagna and its seventh house. Saravali reads sex, embryo growth, the mother's safety and day of delivery. Uttara Kalamrita gives nakshatras and lagna conditions for an auspicious moment.

Historical Origin

Nisheka appears across the major classical texts: the Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (Ch.4, trans. R. Santhanam), Varahamihira's Brihat Jataka (Ch.IV, trans. Usha & Shashi), Vaidyanatha Dikshita's Jataka Parijata (Adhyaya III, the Nishekadhyaya, trans. V. Subramanya Sastri), Kalyana Varma's Saravali (Ch.8, the Adhanadhyaya, trans. R. Santhanam), and Kalidasa's Uttara Kalamrita (Ch.VIII, trans. Prof. P. S. Sastri). Each gives the conception horoscope a chapter of its own.

Definition

In Tradition

In Practice

Historical Origin

Further Reading