Hora – roots of Jyotish

Have you ever wondered why the order of the weekdays is ‘Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wedneday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday? The clue lies in Hora. It is the basis for determining the order of the weekdays.

List the planets on the basis of their average speeds or in the order of their dwipa (ellipsoidal orbits around the earth in the Bhu-Mandala). If we consider a heliocentric system then the speed of the Moon would be the highest followed by the order of the planets in their distance from the Sun i.e. Moon, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Here the Moon is the only satellite that is included as we are concerned with bodies influencing the earth by proximity or light.

Start LMT	Hora	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
6 AM	1	Sun	Mon	Mar	Mer	Jup	Ven	Sat
7	2	Ven	Sat	Sun	Mon	Mar	Mer	Jup
8	3	Mer	Jup	Ven	Sat	Sun	Mon	Mar
9	4	Mon	Mar	Mer	Jup	Ven	Sat	Sun
10	5	Sat	Sun	Mon	Mar	Mer	Jup	Ven
11	6	Jup	Ven	Sat	Sun	Mon	Mar	Mer
Noon	7	Mar	Mer	Jup	Ven	Sat	Sun	Mon
1 PM	8	Sun	Mon	Mar	Mer	Jup	Ven	Sat
2	9	Ven	Sat	Sun	Mon	Mar	Mer	Jup
3	10	Mer	Jup	Ven	Sat	Sun	Mon	Mar
4	11	Mon	Mar	Mer	Jup	Ven	Sat	Sun
5	12	Sat	Sun	Mon	Mar	Mer	Jup	Ven
6	13	Jup	Ven	Sat	Sun	Mon	Mar	Mer
7	14	Mar	Mer	Jup	Ven	Sat	Sun	Mon
8	15	Sun	Mon	Mar	Mer	Jup	Ven	Sat
9	16	Ven	Sat	Sun	Mon	Mar	Mer	Jup
10	17	Mer	Jup	Ven	Sat	Sun	Mon	Mar
11	18	Mon	Mar	Mer	Jup	Ven	Sat	Sun
M.N	19	Sat	Sun	Mon	Mar	Mer	Jup	Ven
1 AM	20	Jup	Ven	Sat	Sun	Mon	Mar	Mer
2	21	Mar	Mer	Jup	Ven	Sat	Sun	Mon
3	22	Sun	Mon	Mar	Mer	Jup	Ven	Sat
4	23	Ven	Sat	Sun	Mon	Mar	Mer	Jup
5	24	Mer	Jup	Ven	Sat	Sun	Mon	Mar

Write down the Hora/hour lordships starting with the Sun for Sunday in the order of slowest to fastest as at (2) above, for every hour and we find that after completing the lordship of 24 hours of Sunday, the lord of the 25^th hour which is the first hour of the next day is the Moon. Now, the lord of the first hour shall be the lord of the day, so the day following Sunday shall be Monday as the Moon lords the first hour of the second day.

Similarly, we do the exercise of writing the lordships of the 24 hours of Monday and lord of the 25^th hour of Monday is also the lord of the first hour of the next day which is Mars. Hence the day following Monday shall be Tuesday (Mars-day) as it lord the first hour of the third day.

In this manner we derive the list of the weekdays as Sunday (Suns-day), Monday (Moon-day), Tuesday (Tyers-day or Mars-day), Wednesday (Wodens-day or Mercury-day), Thursday (Thor or Jupiter-day), Friday (Frei or Venus-day) and Saturday (Saturn-day).

Note the following:

1. the lord of the fourth Hora starts the first hour of the next day
2. the lord of the sixth Hora starts the first hour of the night.

The order of the days in the week is obtained based on the lordship of the first hour of the day. This is an important concept in Jyotish. Remember the following:

• Rule # H01 The lord of the first hour of the day is the lord of the day called Dinesa or Varesha. We get two (perhaps more) corollaries from this rule which is the foundation of Hora shastra.
• Cor#01: the lord of the first day (or first Hora) of a month becomes the Lord of the Month and is called Masadhipati (Lord of Month)
• Cor#02: the Lord of the first day (or first Hora) in a Year becomes the lord of the year and is called and Varsheshwara (Lord of the Year).

Illustration: Determine the Lord of birth Hora for a person born at 9:15’ PM IST at Sambalpur, India (21N28’, 84E01’).  Standard time zone for India (82E30’)
Answer: The day of birth was Wednesday (Ruler: Mercury)

Longitude of Standard Time Zone (IST)	82E30 = 82+ (30/60) = 82.5000 Deg
Longitude of Local time (LMT)	84E01 = 84+ (1/60) = 84.0166 Deg
Longitude difference (IST Minus LMT)	82.5000 – 84.0166 = -1.5166 Deg
Convert difference into time (@4 min per degree)	-1.5166 x 4 = – 6.0664 Min[1] = – 6’04”
LMT Correction	Reduce (-) 6 Min 4 Sec
Starting time for Hora at Sambalpur	6 AM – 6’04” = 5:53’:56” IST[2]
Birth time	9:15’ PM IST = 21:15’ IST
Time Difference = Birth time – Starting time	21:15’ – 5:53’56” = 15:21’:04”
Hora (Round off the time difference into the next higher integer)	16
Lord of Hora	Lord of 16th Hora on Wednesday = Moon

It maybe noted that for longitudes east of the time zone, the starting time shall be before 6 AM whereas for longitudes west of the time zone, the starting time shall be after 6 AM.
Use of Hora
1. The Hora has a direct influence on the houses and this knowledge is extensively used by the intelligent astrologer in planning his activities.
2. All activities started during the Hora ruled by the Lord of the related Bhava (House) in the birth chart shall surely fructify.
3. Similarly, activities started during the Hora of the Badhakesh from the concerned Bhava shall suffer obstruction and activities started during the Hora of the Rogesh (8th Lord) from the concerned Bhava shall suffer annihilation
Assignment & Tasks
1. Determine the Hora at the time of birth in your horoscope. Do the houses ruled by the Lord of the Hora have any special significance in your life?
2. Write a project or report concerning your work starting during the Hora of the Lord of the tenth house in your chart. Make a chart for the moment of starting this work. Evaluate the results after 6 months of completion of the project/ report.
3. Draw the chart for the swearing-in time for the President/ Prime-Minister of your Nation and determine the Hora Lord, Masadhipati and Varsheswara i.e. lords of the hour, month and year. Does this have any link to the main activity or focus of the Government during its tenure? Highlight the results and failures related to the houses ruled by the Lord of the Hora. Can you relate the success and failures to the relationship between the Lord of the tenth and the Lord of the Hora? You can use Argala, Drishti etc, to stress your points.
4. Will you ever write a book or teach Jyotish? If so, during which Hora should you give the Guru Mantra to your students? Does this have a link to the Bhava or the Arudha Pada of the Bhava?
5. You would like to buy a new house. Which Hora would be most suitable to negotiate for the house? On which day should you step into the new house?
6. On which day/Hora should you look up a doctor?
7. Which is the best day for you to see his Jyotish? If the Jyotish only gives appointment to people on weekends (Saturday/ Sunday), then which time is most suitable?
8. You had asked for an interview and the date given is very inauspicious, say it is ruled by the Lord of the 8th house. The time also seems to be most inauspicious. What would you do?
9. Your spouse has asked for a divorce and has walked out of the house. You don’t want to break the marriage. What would you do?

 

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[1] Thus if a person wants his watch to show the Local time at Sambalpur, India then he has to move the minute hand ahead by about 6 Minutes.
[2] In other words when the watch (adjusted to Indian Standard Time) shows 5:53’:56”, the Local time at Sambalpur, India would be 6:00’:00” AM.
If instead we consider a geocentric system, then the same order will prevail except that the Sun will replace the earth as the relative speed of the earth will be the same as that of the Sun. Then the order of the planets based on speed in a geocentric system is

• Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn…fastest to slowest, or
• Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury and Moon … slowest to fastest. This is the order of the horä or the planetary lordship of the hours of the day.

The Sun is the king of the solar system and hence shall rule the first day and the first hour of the first day. Accordingly, the table of hora or lordship of the planets over the 24 hours of the day on the basis of slowest to fastest is given in the following table.

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