Secondary Upagrahas

Definition

The secondary upagrahas are non-luminous sub-planets — sensitive points you work out by calculation, not bodies you can see. In BPHS Ch.25 Parasara gives the house (bhava) effects of Dhuma (smoke), Vyatipata or Pata (calamity, a great fall) and Paridhi or Parivesha (the halo), each following the one before it in series. Phaladeepika finds Dhuma by adding 4 signs 13°20' to the Sun, the seed from which Vyatipata, Parivesha, Indrachapa and Upaketu follow. Santhanam's Note names Yamaghantaka among the ten upagrahas as the mightiest benefic, son of Jupiter.

In Tradition

Across BPHS (Santhanam's Note) and Phaladeepika, the Jupiter-natured benefic sub-planet is read as the kindly counterpart to Gulika, the harsh one. Santhanam calls Yamaghantaka, son of Jupiter, the mighty benefic, while Gulika is most powerful in adverse results; Mantreswara teaches the same balance the other way round — Yamakantaka is powerful in causing good, as Gulika is powerful in causing evil.

In Practice

An astrologer reads each sub-planet by the house (bhava) it sits in. BPHS gives the house results: Dhuma in the rising sign makes you valiant with beautiful eyes, but unkind and short-tempered; Vyatipata there brings miseries, cruelty and ill-will toward your relatives; Paridhi there gives someone learned, truthful, rich, charitable and blessed with sons. Per Santhanam's Note these effects ripen in the period (Dasa) of the planet that disposes the sub-planet. Phaladeepika warns that wherever Dhuma falls you meet trouble from heat, danger from fire and mental anguish, and looks for good wherever the benefic Yamakantaka is involved, its effects being enlivening. The Brihat Samhita instead treats a Parivesha — a halo round the Sun or Moon — as a worldly omen: a Sun ringed daily or at twilight, or red at rising and setting, points to a change in the sovereign, and a Parivesha after an eclipse brings trouble from diseases.

Historical Origin

Parasara sets out the natal sub-planets in the Brihat Parasara Hora Sastra Ch.25 (Santhanam translation), and Mantreswara does so in Phaladeepika Ch.25 (Sastri translation). Varahamihira's Brihat Samhita Ch.III and Ch.V (Sastri and Bhat translation) takes the Parivesha as a worldly halo-omen rather than a calculated point. Yamaghantaka is named in Santhanam's modern Note on Ch.25.

Further Reading

• Santhanam, Brihat Parasara Hora Sastra, Vol. I, Ch.25
• Varahamihira, Brihat Samhita, Ch.III & Ch.V
• Mantreswara, Phaladeepika, Ch.25