Siddhānta — the theory
E ach January, when the Sun crosses into Makara at the Saṅkrānti, the almanac does not merely mark the date — it draws a figure. The Sun is imagined putting on a form for the year: a mount to ride, a weapon in hand, a garment and its colour, a flower, a direction of travel, even the look on its face. This figure — the Saṅkrānti Puruṣa — is read, all at once, as the omen of the twelvemonth.
Every feature is read from the pañcāṅga of the crossing moment — its tithi, its weekday, its nakṣatra, its yoga, and above all its karaṇa. The karaṇa sets the mount: eleven karaṇas, eleven beasts — lion, tiger, boar, elephant, ox and the rest — which is why the printed figure rides a different animal every single year.
Two of the omens need nothing but the crossing's clock. The weekday: a Monday crossing promises plenty, a Saturday one famine, a Wednesday storms. The hour: cross before noon and the sign is harsh; cross in the afternoon or the deep of night and it is kind. The rest — the garment's colour, the flower, the weapon — each adds its own note, and together they compose the year's collective weather, a vivid figure the whole community can hold in mind. And to each ill omen the almanac ties a small remedy: a thing to give away.
Movement I · Siddhānta — {{ lensLabel }}
The Saṅkrānti Puruṣa gives that reading a face. From the crossing's pañcāṅga the almanac dresses a figure — mount, weapon, garment, gait, gesture — each an omen, so a farmer or a merchant can carry the year's whole forecast as a single remembered image, and a remedy for each ill.
To give the year a body is to make its temper meetable. The figure is a teaching image — hold it in mind, and you meet the season with the right attitude. Note that of all its features the most auspicious is the simplest: a smile. The counsel is quiet — meet even a hard year with grace, and give away what you can; the giving is half the remedy.
“The year wears a face so that we may answer it. Meet the fierce mount with a steady eye, and the smile with gratitude.”
Arka keeps the Saṅkrānti Puruṣa as folk-meteorology and omen — a vivid portrait of the year's collective weather, held lightly, never prophecy, and never overruling a person's own chart. The computed spine — the weekday, the hour, the mount — is what every almanac agrees on; the fuller attributes differ from book to book. Give the remedy, and keep the calm.
Kept here in Arka's own voice.
From the pañcāṅga of the Makara crossing the almanac dresses a figure — a mount set by the karaṇa, a weapon, garment, flower, direction and gait, each an omen. The weekday of the crossing and its hour carry plain fruits of their own — plenty or famine, a harsh hour or a kind one — and to each ill sign a remedy of giving is tied.
One eye of the pair, alone. Switch to Arka for the two joined — the blend, the spiritual lens and the super-theory.
The West personified the turning year — Janus at the January gate, "Old Father Time" — and in mundane astrology casts the chart of the Sun's ingress to read a nation's coming season. A single solar crossing, made to speak for the whole twelvemonth.
One eye of the pair, alone. Switch to Arka for the two joined — the blend, the spiritual lens and the super-theory.
Whatever weekday the Sun makes the Makara crossing on carries a fruit for the whole year — the plainest of the omens, and the one every almanac keeps.
The clock-hour of the crossing gives a second plain fruit; the karaṇa at that moment chooses the mount the figure rides.
One rides the figure each year, chosen by the karaṇa of the crossing — which is why the almanac's picture changes its beast every January.
Abhyāsa — dress the year's figure
Here is the reading as a living instrument. Choose a place and a year; it finds the real Makara crossing for that place and reads its mount, its weekday and its hour from the true Sun. Try this drill:
- Step to this year in your own city. Read the figure's mount, and whether its weekday and hour fall kind or harsh.
- Step the year forward and watch the mount change — a new karaṇa at the crossing seats a new beast.
- Find a year with a Monday crossing (all prosperity) and one with a Saturday crossing (famine) — the kindest year against the hardest.
Real sun, traditional reading — the crossing, its weekday, its hour and its mount are computed from the true sidereal Sun for your place; the fuller portrait below it is one documented worked reading, for the meanings differ between almanacs.
Prayoga — name the idea at work
The year's figure rests on six ideas. Each case shows one being used; name which. Nothing is scored — a wrong guess costs only the reasoning you build.
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Ask what the case truly rests on — the figure itself, its pañcāṅga source, the karaṇa-mount, the weekday omen, the hour omen, or the giving-away remedy.
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Siddhi — name the idea unaided.
A single clue, and the six ideas of the year's figure. Name which it describes — the fastest proof that you hold the whole reading in your head.
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Run another round ↻