Brihat Jataka

Varahamihira

Translated by N. Chidambaram Iyer

28 chapters · about 2 h

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The opening

CHAPTER I. Definitions and Elementary Principled (Zodiacal.)

Definitions and Elementary Principled (Zodiacal.)

1. May the Sun give us speech, who hy his light illumines the Moon, who is the path of those who have no rebirth, who is the Atma of those who know the Atma, who is the Deva worshipped in sacrificial rites, who is the Lord of the Devas and of the Lights of the sky, Who is the Author of the origin, growth and annihilation of the worlds, who is sung in the Vedas in various ways, who is possessed of many rays and who forms the Lamp of the three worlds*

2. Thongh various well written works on Astrology the productions of able men—exist for the enlightenment of intelligent Btndents (of horoBoopy), I begin to construct (this) small boat (consisting) of stanzas (written) in various metres and of several meanings for (the benefit of) persons of broken attempts to cross the vast ocean of horoscopy.

3. According to some, the word hora is a corruption of the word Ahoratri, the first and last letters (syllables) being dropped. The soience (of horoscopy) treats of the effects of the good and bad deeds (karma) of men in their previous births.

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About this edition

The words
N. Chidambaram Iyer's English translation, copied word for word.
Left out
  • The series title on the cover page (“RYAN / ISCELLANY.”, Aryan Miscellany) and a speck (3 blocks)
  • The title page and opening pages before chapter 1
  • The source website's menus, layout and notices
  • Page numbers and running heads from the printed pages, in 4 places
  • The title line above Chapter I (“THE / BRIH T J TAKA / Of / Varaha Mihira.”) (4 blocks)
  • Google's scanning notices (“Digitized by Google”) at the page feet (312 blocks)
  • Notes and pages added by translators, editors or publishers, in 2 places
  • A stray mark of the scan: a lone apostrophe the OCR read in the table's header row
  • Other works printed in the same volume, in 2 places
  • A stray mark of the scan: a line of scan specks (“- .1.1 . . . ill J lAr. .1 .!”) under stanza 23 of chapter XXVII
  • The closing line “BND.” (END)
  • A preface, foreword or afterword
  • The binder's notice (“This preservation photocopy was made and hand bound at BookLab, Inc. … Austin 1994”) (2 blocks)
  • Google's mark and Harvard's loan notice (“Harvard College Widener Library”) on the last pages (6 blocks)
  • Other material that isn't the author's