Shashtyamsha Deities

List of Saumya and Kroora Shashtyamshas

No rishi-based book gives list of Kroora and Saumya Shashtyamshas. Here is my conclusion about Kroora Shashtyamshas (the remaining being Saumya) :

1,2,5-12,15-16,30-36,40-44,48,51-52,55,59-60 (numbers indicate shashtyamshas according to BPHS (Brihat Parāshara Horā Shāstra) for odd sign of D-1, for even signs the order is reversed).

There should be 30 Kroora and 30 Saumya Shashtyamshas to maintain symmetry (because mankind is half paapa and half punya yoni/specie).

I included following three Shashtyamshas among Kroora to preserve symmetry :

5 =Yaksha
6 =Kinnara
60=Indurekhaa / Chandra-rekhaa

Marks on Moon (Indurekhaa) are blemishes. Kinnara is not a positive trait. Yaksha is not associated to singing (Gandharva does that) as wrongly translated by R Santhanam in his translation of BPHS. Epics and Puranas associate Yakshas as dangerous creatures, but not as lowly as Rakshasas.

Kroora or Inauspicious Shashtyamshas

Kroora Shashyamshas can be classed into two categories : 20 fully Kroora and 10 semi-Kroora shashtyamshas.

Fully Kroora shashtyamshas (Twenty)

Fully Kroora Shashtyamshas are as follows :

Rākshasa - 2
Bhrashta - 7
Kulaghna - 8
Garala - 9
Pureesha - 12
Kāla(a) - 15
Ahibhāga - 16
Gulika - 30
Mrityu - 31
Kāla(b) - 32
Kantaka - 36
Vishadagdha - 40
Kulanāsha - 41
Vamshakshaya - 42
Utpāta - 43
Kālaroopa - 44
Danshtrākarāla - 48
Kālāgni - 51
Dandāyudha - 52
Kroora - 55

Semi Kroora Shashtyamshas (Ten)

Ghora(a) - 1
Yaksha - 5
Kinnar - 6
Agni - 10
Māyā - 11
Dāvāgni - 33
Ghora(b) - 34
Yama - 34
Bhramana - 59
Indurekhā - 60

Saumya or Auspicious Shashtyamshas

Saumya Shashyamshas can also be classed into two categories : 20 fully Saumya and 10 semi-Saumya Shashtyamshas.

Fully Saumya Shashtyamshas (Twenty)

Ten Shashtyamshas are undoubetdly fully Saumya :-

Amrita(a) - 17
Mridu - 19
Sudhā(a) - 37
Amrita(b) - 38
Poornachandra - 39
Indumukha - 49
Praveena - 50
Atisheetala - 56
Sudhā(b) - 57
Payodheesha - 58

There are twenty remaining Saumya Shashtyamshas, half of which are fully Saumya and the other half is semi-Saumya. I put the ten gods in the category of Fully Saumya :-

Deva(a) - 3
Apāmpati - 13
Heramba - 21
Brahma - 22
Vishnu - 23
Maheshwara - 24
Deva(b) - 25
Kshiteeshwara - 28
Kamlākara - 29
Marutvān - 14

Semi Saumya Shashtyamshas (Ten)

The remaining ten Shashtyamshas are Semi-Saumya :-

Kubera - 4
Chandra - 18
Komala(a) - 20
Ardrā - 26
Kalināsha - 27
Saumya(a) - 45
Komala(b) - 46
Sheetala - 47
Nirmala - 53
Saumya(b) - 54

Why Re-classification into Fully and Semi Categories ?

Ten Semi-Saumya and ten Semi-Kroora Shashtyamshas can be grouped into a set of Twenty Shashtyamshas, so that there will be 20 fully Saumya, 20 neutral, and 20 semi-Kroora Shashtyamshas, like Deva-Nara-Rākshasa (or Sat-Raja-Tama guna) deities of Navāmsha. This re-classification of deities of Shashtyamshas is merely for comparison with deities of Navāmsha, actually the deities of Shashtyamshas cannot be classed into a set of 20 Neutral Shashtyamshas because the Semi-Saumya Shashtyamshas are quite different and far more auspicious in nature than the Semi-Kroora Shashtyamshas, and it is better to stick to 30 Saumya and 30 Kroora Shashtyamshas. But it is clear that fully Kroora Shashtyamshas are worse than semi-Kroora Shashtyamshas , and similarly fully Saumya Shashtyamshas are more auspicious than Semi-Auspicious Shashtyamshas. It is thus possible to re-classify all Shashtyamshas into four categories : Fully Saumya, Semi-Saumya, Semi-Kroora, and Fully Kroora Shashtyamshas.

How To Use Shashtyamshas in Chart Reading ?

Shashtyamsha Varga (divisional) has highest vimshopaka strength, higher than even D-1 or Lagna Kundali. The easiest method of using Shashtyamshas is to find out the deity of Shashtyamshas of the ruling planet of D-1's Vimshottari dashā of any level. In well over 90% cases, you will find very clear correspondence between actual events and nature of Shashtyamshas, and the remaining few percents will be explained when you try to understand the inner meaning of Shashtyamshas and its relation with secret life of the native.

Meaning of Deities of D-60 should be consulted from Sanskrit dictionary, and astrological effects of them should be judged from the meanings. R Santhanam's English translation of BPHS contains some good illustrations of how to use the peculiar meanings of D60 deities. But it is safer to divide them into Kroora and Saumya deities and judge the fruits accordingly as bad or good, which is a simplified but reliable method.

A more complicated method of using Shashtyamshas is to cast Shashtyamsha Chart or D-60 at birth time and find the effects of its deities with respect to respective planets in D-60 chart lorded by those deities.

The most complicated use of Shashtyamsha is DAC (Dashā Arambha Chakra), but it is most difficult task in astrology because it needs accuracy of birth time in milli-seconds.

Phaladeepikā's list of Shashtyamshas

Hindi commentary of Phaladeepikā provides a wrong list of Kroora Shashtyamshas according to the Hindi commentary by Gopesha Kumar Ojha (published by Motilal Banarasidas), which is easily discernible if this list is compared with the names of Shashtyamshas. The Hindi commentary puts Kroora Shashtyamshas like Bhrashta, Kantaka, Kroora in Saumya list, among other errors. Moreover, only 23 Shashtyamshas are regarded as Kroora and 37 as Saumya according to the Hindi commentary. But this is based on a wrong interpretation of the Sanskrit verse of Phaladeepikā, in which we find "navam prasvanam" which means 'nine varieties of prasvana", which the Hindi commentator misinterpreted as two different Shashtyamshas Nava and Prasvana , instead of as nine different Shashtyamshas collectively called Nava-Prasvana. Thus, there are seven extra Shashtyamshas according to the Sanskrit verse, raising the numbers of Kroora and Saumya Shashtyamshas to thirty each. But the linguistic code used by Phaladeepikā to name the numbers of Kroora Shashtyamshas is intriguing and hard to decipher. Here is the list of coded numbers of Kroora Shashtyamshas according to Phaladeepikā's Sanskrit verse :

Yagya (Yajna)
Ratna
Jana
Dhana
Naya
Pata
Roopa
Shuka
Nāga
Yoga
Khaga
Bala
Bhaga
Shilā
Dhooli
Nava-Prasvanas (nine)
Lābha
Vishva
Diva
Kusha
Rama
Dhama

Nine Prasvanas are nine basic vowels of Devanāgari : a, i , u, R, LR, e, o, aN, aH (omitting seven long vowels A, I, U, RR, LRR, EI, OU). It is not clear which numbers they indicate in this verse of Phaladeepikā (chapter-3, verse-5).

Here is the list of Phaladeepikā juxtaposed with my findings of Kroora Shashtyamshas described above (the numbers below indicate the numerical index of Shashtyamshas according to BPHS) :

Yagya (Yajna) - 1
Ratna - 2
Jana - 5
Dhana - 6
Naya - 7
Pata - 8
Roopa - 9
Shuka - 10
Nāga - 11
Yoga - 12
Khaga - 15
Bala - 16
Bhaga - 30
Shilā - 31
Dhooli - 32
1-Prasvana - 33
2-Prasvana - 34
3-Prasvana - 35
4-Prasvana - 36
5-Prasvana - 40
6-Prasvana - 41
7-Prasvana - 42
8-Prasvana - 43
9-Prasvana - 44
Lābha - 48
Vishva - 51
Diva - 52
Kusha - 55
Rama - 59
Dhama - 60

List of Shashtyamshas In Jātaka Pārijāta

**The list of sixty Shashtyamshas given in Jātaka Pārijāta differs from the list given in BPHS, and further research is needed to examine such issues.

The list of sixty deities of sixty Shashtyamshas given in BPHS is compared with the list given in Jātaka Pārijāta in the following table (when Jātaka Pārijāta gives same name as in BPHS, there is a dash in the column of Jātaka Pārijāta, and when Jātaka Pārijāta gives a synonymn of BPHS name, bracketed italics is used in the column of Jātaka Pārijāta).

List of Shashtyamshas
Number BPHS Jātaka Pārijāta
1 Ghora -
2 Raakhasa -
3 Deva -
4 Kubera -
5 Yaksha (Yakshogana)
6 Kinnara -
7 Bhrashta -
8 Kulaghna -
9 Garala -
10 Agni -
11 Maayaa -
12 Pureesha Yama
13 Apaampati (Varuna)
14 Marutvaan Indra
15 Kaala Kalaa
16 Ahibhaaga (Sarpa)
17 Amrita -
18 Chandra -
19 Mridu -
20 Komala -
21 Heramba Padma
22 Brahma Vishnu
23 Vishnu Guru
24 Maheshwar (Shiva)
25 Deva -
26 Aardra -
27 Kalinaasha -
28 Kshitishwara -
29 Kamalaakara -
30 Gulika (Mandaatmaja)
31 Mrityu (Mrityukara)
32 Kaala -
33 Daavaagni -
34 Ghora -
35 Yama Adhama
36 Kantaka -
37 Sudhaa -
38 Amrit -
39 Poorna Chandra -
40 VishaDagdha -
41 KulaNaasha -
42 VamshaKshaya Mukhya
43 Utpaata VamshaKshaya
44 Kaalaroopa Utpaataka
45 Saumya Kaala
46 Komala Saumya
47 Sheetala Mridu
48 DanshtraaKaraala Komala
49 ChandraMukha DanshtraaKaraala
50 Praveena Indumukha
51 Kaalaagni Praveena
52 DandaAyudha Kaalaagni
53 Nirmala DandaAyudha
54 Saumya Nirmala
55 Kroora Shubhaakara
56 AtiSheetala Ashobhana
57 Sudhaa Sheetala
58 Payodheesha Sudhaasindhu
59 Bhramana -
60 ChandraRekhaa -

30 Shashtyamshas are exactly same in both lists, 6 more are synonymns. One seems to be spelling mistake by some mediaeval scribe : Kaala versus Kalaa. Seventeen are due to change in numerical order of the Shashtyamsha, eg, VamshaKshaya is 42nd in BPHS but 43rd in Jātaka Pārijāta. Therefore, 36 are identical while 18 are due to errors in copying the manuscripts by some mediaeval scribe, and only six Shashtyamshas are actually different in both lists. If Kalaa is supposed to be a Kroora deity like Kaala, then Jātaka Pārijāta also contains exactly 30 Kroora and 30 Saumya deities. But Kalaa does not seem to be a Kroora deity, or a deity at all, and appears to be a copying error of the scribe. Yet, the list of Jātaka Pārijāta needs close examination.

This entire article is based on logical interpretation of classics, as well as practical studies of charts. More detailed astrological effects of Shashtyamshas can be searched in classics, although classics do not provide details in this field. No final conclusion has been drawn about Shashtyamshas because classics differ in the listings, but I prefer BPHS when there is room for doubt, and call for further research to ascertain the list in other texts. So far, practical test of Shashtyamshas according to the list of BPHS has proved to be correct in all the cases I have examined. Kundalee Software used the list of BPHS for D-60 deities, but now the Jātaka Pārijāta list is also being added as an option.

-VJ

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