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Graha Yuddha In Astrology – War Of Planets


Graha Yuddha is a novel concept of Hindu astrology. Two planets are said to be in yuddha of conflict, when they are in conjunction and the distance separating them is less than one degree. All the planets except sun (surya) and moon (Chandra) may enter into a war. The vicious planet is the one whose longitude is less than its magnitude.

It is essential to evaluate the various balas (strengths) of the planets to arrive at the results of such a yuddha. In order to decide the victor and the vanquished, the aggregate of the various strengths is considered. The smaller value is subtracted from the larger. The difference thus worked out is divided by the difference between the diameters of the discs of the two fighting planets. The resulting quotient (yuddhabala) must be added to the kalabala (strength of time) of the victorious planet and subtracted from the total kalabala of the vanquished planet. The result in either case indicates the kalabala after the graham yuddha.

The diameters of the discs of planets are called the bimba parimanas (they are 9.4 of the arc for Mars (Chowa or Angarak), 6.6 for Mercury (Budha), 190.5 for Jupiter (Guru or Brihaspati), 16.6 for Venus (Shukra ) and 158.0 for Saturn (Shani).)

According to Varahamihira, the planet with a northern displacement would be the winner in a Graha Yuddha. Also, the sun and the moon are more powerful in Uttarayan; Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn become powerful when in retrograde.

The planetary war is of four types – bheda, ullekha, amsumardhana and apasavya. Occultation is called bheda. The halos of planets, if they intersect, yield ullekha. When two planets are close together, the light rays emitted by one would be intersected by those of the other, and this is called amsumardhana. The planet in the north is referred to as being in apasavya. All these details are described in Brihat Samhita.


Source - notes taken from Encyclopedia of Hinduism Volume IV - IHRF