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This writeup doesnt claim to ascertain a correct ayanamsa, but tries to shed light on the many
different facets of the ayanamsa, and some possibilities within the same.
i. What is ayanamsa
To explain ayanamsa it becomes necessary to describe two different zodiacs, the Niryana chakra
and the Sayana chakra. These are two different zodiacs in a sense.
The Niryana is based on the stars and the Sayana is based on the equinoctial points, i.e. the seasons.
The Niryana or star-based zodiac is moving in comparison to the Sayana chakra, which
is seen by the stars being in different positions during the same time every year. This
difference between Niryana and Sayana chakra is called Ayanamsa.
[2]
These days most makers of astrological software do not take into account the change in precession
rate, and calculate a fixed rate of precession from a given date. This is a completely wrong
approach.
Some intelligent programmers have instead based their ayanamsa calculations on actual ephemeris
data of star positions. Though this is the best approach, it is limited to empirical/observed data.
Therefore the goal of astronomers and astrologers today is to define and make a model which can
imitate the precession.
v. Ayanamsa choices
Today the most common choice among the vedic astrologers is the Lahiri ayanamsa. The reason
being that the ayanamsa was selected by a committee after intense scrutiny. The Lahiri ayanamsa is
based on the Chitra Paksha Ayanamsa. There are two main ayanamsas given in the vedic scripture
namely Revati-paksha and Chitra-paksha. The word paksha refers to 180 degrees or an exact
opposite position from a fixed star. Here Revati and Chitra do not refer to a large constellation of
nakshatras spanning ~13 degrees, but to the original stars which make up the base of the nakshatra
positions. The star Chitra corresponds to the star Spica, whilst Revati corresponds to the star Zeta
Piscium. 180 degrees opposite the star Chitra is said to be 0 degrees of Aries, whilst 180 degrees
opposite Revati is 0 degrees of Libra.
Today the tropical degree of Spica is 23 degrees 57 minutes 2.03 arc seconds. These degrees are the
actual ayanamsa at present. This corresponds to the sidereal degree of 0 degrees Libra and opposite
this is the sidereal 0 degrees of Aries according to the Chitra Paksha/Lahiri Ayanamsa. The reason
for choosing stars at the beginning of these two points is that they correspond to the Deva Ayana,
i.e. the day of the Deva begins in Aries, and ends in Libra, where the day of the Asuras begin.
Preferably any ayanamsa which depicts the movement of the stars should be based on these
starting/ending points as according to the Rg Veda, the stars are the abode of the Deva.
There also exists the Raman Ayanamsa and the Krishnamurty Paddhati Ayanamsa. Where the
former was not openly announced by its author, the latter is very close to Lahiri and could be an
approximation made to compensate for the inaccuracies in the Lahiri ayanamsa at the given time.
This is because astrologers had relied on a mean motion of the ayanamsa which caused inaccuracies
in the calculation with time. One more ayanamsa called Yuktesvaras ayanamsa exists but it wasnt
used to predict planetary positions but to justify yuga calculations, hence its unclear as to whether
the author of it actually meant to use it for any other purpose.
What is common for these three mentioned ayanamsas is that their authors havent linked them to
any fixed-star positions.
vi. How to choose?
Unfortunately, the astronomical backing is lacking in many of the new ayanamsas today, and
mainly because astrologers are too quick to ignore the star positions before ascribing to an
ayanamsa. And if it isnt the star position, then the precession rate itself doesnt correspond to the
actual precession of the stars. This leaves new ayanamsas as being imaginary or arbitrary positions
in space.
The fixed stars are the basis of the Niryana chakra, without which there is no basis for fixing the
zodiacs starting points. Therefore good advise to beginners on choosing ayanamsa is to analyze
these following points:
1. Stars initiating the ayanamsa.
2. Actual precession rate of the stars.
3. The signs which initiate the ayanamsa.
So far the only software today, to this authors knowledge, which depicts the Ayanamsa based on
actual star positions is Jagannath Hora, by PVR Narasimha Rao. The software uses an ephemeris
with the actual star positions to fix the ayanamsa. Yet, it is this authors hope that one day astrologers
will be able to calculate the ayanamsa for any given time using the knowledge given to us by the
seers.
[1] Hipparchos and Ptolemys observations.
[2] Source from Binary Research Institute (http://www.binaryresearchinstitute.org)
[3] Surya Siddhanta, Chapter XII, sloka 80.