Which Ayanamsa did Sri Varahamihira use?

Ayanamsa is one of the vexed topic in Jyotish and it is one of those things which makes you doubt whether or not the analysis of the horoscope is accurate, as the Ayanamsa could affect the position of the grahas in the Rasi charts or one or more of the Divisional charts.

While researching on the various Epochs, I noticed one unique thing with Varahamihira’s Epoch. Varahamihira in Panchasiddhantika said,

Varahamihira: Deduct the Saka Year 427, at the beginning of the light half of Chaitra, when the Sun has half set in Yavanapura, at the Beginning of Monday…

For further details on this topic, you may refer here.

This indicates that Varahamihira wanted us to compute the calendar from Saka Year 427 on the day that coincided with the start of Lunar month of Chaitra, which fell on a Monday.

This is actually a very important verse in the Varahamihira’s rendition of the Siddhantic texts, from the standpoint of Ayanamsa. Why? Because in that Year, there were two months of Chaitra, the 1st month as usual is known as Malamasa or the Adhika Masa, while the 2nd month is known as the Nija Masa. The real beauty of that year was that the Nija Masa which should start the year, with the conjunction of Sun and Moon in Pisces, could only happen only with “ONE AYANAMSA”. With the change in the ayanamsa, there is no more Nija Masa and Adhika Masa.

When we take any other Ayanamsa than the “Correct One”, there is just one conjunction of Sun-Moon in Pisces, and that is on February 22nd, 505 AD (coinciding with Saka 427). There is nothing wrong about starting the year on 22nd February. The only problem was that, the day was Saturday and not Monday.

When we take the correct Ayanamsa, we note that the 1st conjunction of the Luminaries happened on 22nd February in the first degree of Pisces (0deg 20min). However, there is another conjunction of the Luminaries in the 30th degree (29deg 30min) on 23rd March, 505. Now 23rd March, 505 was a Monday, exactly coinciding with what Varahamihira referred. Thus, it is clear that Varahamihira referred to 23rd March as the start of the year of 505 AD, marking start of his epoch. The conjunction happened at 19:45 local Ujjain time. Ujjain’s longitude is 75.7772 E. Equating 4 min time difference with each longitude change, Ujjain is 5.05181 hrs ahead of GMT. Assuming that with Yavanapura, Varahamihira meant Athens (capital of Greece, the land of the Yavanas) situated at 23.7167E. Then the time at that time in Athens was 16:15. Assuming that the mean setting time of the Sun is 18:00 hrs, it makes sense to note that the it was before 1hr 45min before the Sunset. So Varahamihira’s statement of Sun has half set in Yavanapura makes logical sense. Meaning Sun was going to set after few hours in Yavanapura.

When we take other Ayanamsas which are away from the Chitra Paksha Ayanamsa, we note that the conjunction of 23rd March falls in Aries, instead of Pisces. Since the conjunction of the Luminaries in Aries can’t start the year, no way, Varahamihira could have used other Ayanamsas, besides the Chitra Paksha Ayanamsa. If say, Varahamihira used any other Ayanamsa, he should have said that the Saka year 427 started on a Saturday, which coincides with 22nd February at 5:52 local time in Ujjain or few hours after midnight in Yavanapura.

The Ayanamsa used by Varahamihira

Which one is that Ayanamsa? It is the Chitra Nakshatra based Ayanamsa which NC Lahiri found to be most appropriate one. However, that does not mean that Lahiri’s ayanamsa is accurate. Lahiri’s ayanamsa is based on mean Ayanamsa based on a long period, which is just an approximation. The true Ayanamsa is the point that is diagonally opposite to the Chitra Nakshatra.

The Horoscope of the moment of the Varahamihira Epoch start with some Ayanamsas

Note here the Degree at which the Sun-Moon conjoined. The Ayanamsas close to True Chitra Paksha also give the location of the conjunction in Pisces.

Ayanamsas closer to Chitra Paksha

Ayanamsas far from Chitra Paksha

Conclusion

With this finding, I am almost 100% conclusive that the “CORRECT AYANAMSA” is the Chitra Paksha Ayanamsa. No other explanation on the correctness of Ayanamsa convinced me more than this.