Bala Bhadra's

Hora Ratnam

(With Original Deva Nagari Slokas)

English Translation
& Notes by
R. Santhanam

- Part One

Part 2 was never translated

since he died.
Saptarishis Astrology is
trying to get Part 2
translated and have
been working on it

Beware!

This Work Needs Great

Patience and

Perseverence

to Attain Mastery to

Probe into

Divine Secrets.

Not Meant for a

Quick Reading!

Preface

It gives me great pleasure to be amidst my learned readers

with the present volume of Hora Ratnam, a giant ancient text-
book of Hindu astrology. Such a venture would not have been at
all possible without the mercy of goddess Sarasvathi and the
Nava Grahas.

Our ancients who sacrificed their lives and spent their

entireenergy onpropagation of such subjects as astrology belonged
to mainly two categories. The first category consisted of divine
exponents like sages Kasyapa, Garga, Vasishta, Suka and
Parasara. They excelled in their efforts purely because of their
staunch penance and intimate contacts with divine beings.

The later category comprises of compilers of astrological

texts based on the vast literature that were available to them
during their times and or based on what their preceptors taught
them. To such section belonged great men like Sphujidhwaja,
Mina Raja, 'Varaha Mihira, Prithu Yasas, Kalyana Varma,
Venkatesa, Achyuta, Vaidyanatha, Bala Bhadra, Punja Raja
and others. The contribution of these men is of no less importance,
for they have been actually our guides in these days of darkness
marked by deficiency of genuine knowledge.

There is no denying the fact that with Varaha Mihira' s

works, viz. Brihat Jataka, Brihat Samhita, Yoga Yatra, Pancha
Siddhantika, Laghu Jataka etc. a great revival began in the
country in the fields of astronomy and particularly astrology.
Prior to him existed Sphujidhwaja, said to be a Yavana ruler.

There is a meaningless controversy that ' Yavanas" (in the

context of astrology too) meant Greeks (as if 'Yavana" means
nothing else). Such belief will only be belied if we know the

correct implication of the term of 'Yavana or Yavanas" in the

context of astrology.

The term "Yavana" has several meanings like: one

legitimately born between a Kshatriya and Vaisya couple; a
certain people to whom Lord Krishna was inimical (hence known
as 'Yavanaari " - H^'l lk ); a foreigner, a Mohammedan; sometimes
applied to Ionia, Arabia, Greece, Bactria.

There is, in reality, more than this. Yavana was one of the
18 sages, exponents of divine disciplines for that matter. Sage
Yavana was by name referred to by Bala Bhadra as could be
found in the original text of the. present volume itself. Reference
to Yavana kings belonging to Godavari region could be found in
reliable astrological literature like Deva Keralam (my English
translation of which, in 3 volumes, is already with the reader)
Possibly there were also some particular sect of Yavanas in the
western part of India also. Just because a couple of so-called
Greek terms like "Jaamitra" frequent our astrological literature,
we should not say that astrology in the present form is imported
into India from Greece. In fact, I have my own doubts whether
in today's Greek literature, the term "Jaamitra" means son-in-
law.

The original Sanskrit term for "Jaamitra" is "Yaamatru".

The terms like Panaphara and Apoklima too have their original
Sanskrit terms like Anukendra and Upakendra.

The kind of effects found in all our works, the references to

various deities like Lord Vishnu, and the kind of culture noted in
various astrological texts hardly reflect any Greek tradition,
relevant for us, even to the minutest level of imagination.

In the course of my professional work, I had occasions to

meet some learned Greek citizens too. Nobody among them ever
knew, at the least, the basic areas Hindu astrology covers in our
lives. Neither in olden days, nor today, there is any evidence even
in Greece ample enough to prove that Hindu astrology has even
an iota of Greek raw material.

At one stage, in the present work we find a Yavana

quotation involving sage Kasyapa which sage certainly did not
belong to Greece!

I made casual references to this kind ofillegitimate thoughts

prevailing in some jealous alien minds attributing foreignness to

astrology of the Hindus, but in fact we are not concerned with
such mischievous propaganda. The reader is himself wise
enough to conceive what the truth is.

After Varaha Mihira's time, his son Prithu Yasas produced

two important works on astrology in about the 6th century A. D.
Out of these, one wasHora Sara, my English translation of which
-the reader already has. Following this time period, the most
popular work was Kalyana Varma's Saravali (translated in
English by me in two volumes).

Following Kalyana Varma (around 10th century),

astrological activities took a more active turn with the
commentaries of Bhattotpala. Then came, after a gap of some
centuries, equally excellent works like Sarvartha Chintamani
and Jataka Parijata in the 13th and 14th centuries A. D.

Hora Ratnam seems to have had been written during such

a time where there was a great opportunity of revival. Sambhu
Hora Prakasa of Punja Raja (translated by me in English),
according to my estimates may be just a product of a decade this
side or that side of the present work. '

By God's grace I have been enjoying the good fortunes of

intense and fruitful association with my translations and
commentaries, in English, of a vast number of such rare and
superior classical text-books. I don't wish to say anything more
than this. It is neither required. I continue to; believe that
classical text-books are our source-books.

Bala Bhadra, the progenitor of this mega-magnum opus

belonged to the town of Kanya Kubja (now known as Kannoj, in-
Uttara Pradesh in India) and was born in a learned. Brahmin
family with Bharadwaja Gotra. From the initial chapters we
gather that Srilal had five sons, the last of whom was Bala
Bhadra's father, Damodara Pandita. Damodara was a great
scholar in astrology as Bala Bhadra too later turned out to be. .

Bala Bhadra was an ardent devotee of Lord Kama and

studied astrology under the guidance of his father. (It is a time-
tested truth that a son tutored by his father will never go in vain.)
When one progresses through the following, pages, he will be
surprised at the number of ancient texts and authorities he
consulted in compiling the present work (as listed by me in detail