BPHS Ch.92 — Three Types of Gandanta, Opening Shloka & Tithi Gandanta Definition

The Eclipse Chapter Was Not Recorded

• The previous class did the eclipse chapter — Grahana Janma Shanti, remedies for birth during an eclipse. It was not recorded.
• PVNR did not repeat it for the people present. The audio series skips that chapter.

"Sorry to those who are listening to the audio. We will just leave that chapter, we will continue."

• The chapter taken up now is Chapter 92 in Santhanam's version: Gandanta Jata Shanti Adhyaya — remedies for birth in Gandanta. It is also class number 92. PVNR remarks on the coincidence.

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BPHS Chapter 92 — The Opening Verse and the Three Gandantas

Opening shloka (Parashara): "Tithi-nakshatra-lagnanam gandantam trividham smritam. Janma-yatra-vivahadau bhavet tan nidhana-pradam."

Word by word:

• Tithi nakshatra lagnanam — for the tithi, for the nakshatra and for the lagna.
• Gandantam trividham — three kinds of Gandanta are mentioned: one for tithi, one for nakshatra, one for lagna.
• Janma — at the time of birth. Yatra — at the time of a journey. Vivaha — at the time of marriage. Adau — et cetera: any other important time.
• Bhavet tan nidhana-pradam — it becomes a giver of death.

"So basically, in other words, it is not auspicious. It is very inauspicious to have either tithi or nakshatra or lagna in Gandanta."

Natal chart and Muhurta both

• Janma means the natal chart.
• Yatra and vivaha are travel and marriage — that is Muhurta.
• So the rule covers the birth chart and the electional chart alike.

"So this is applicable to Muhurta as well as Janma Chakra."

• Parashara does not say whose nakshatra. By default it is the Moon's nakshatra.

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Tithi Gandanta

Shloka: "Purna-nandakhyayos tithyoh sandhau nadi-chatushtayam; adha urdhvam cha Maitreya tithi-gandantam uchyate."

• Purna and Nanda are two of the five kinds of tithis. PVNR points to the list in his book Vedic Astrology: An Integrated Approach.
• Purna tithis are the multiples of five: 5, 10, 15.
• Nanda tithis are 1, 6, 11.
• Sandhau — at the joint of a Purna tithi and the Nanda tithi that follows it.
• Nadi-chatushtayam — four nadis, i.e. four ghatikas.
• Adha urdhvam cha — before it and after it.

The three borders

• End of Panchami → start of Shashthi (5 → 6).
• End of Dashami → start of Ekadashi (10 → 11).
• End of Purnima or Amavasya → start of Pratipada (15 → 1).
• Either fortnight. Shukla or Krishna paksha makes no difference.

Width

• One ghatika = 24 minutes. Four ghatikas = 96 minutes.
• 48 minutes on one side of the border, 48 minutes on the other. Roughly an hour and a half in all.
• So: the last 2 ghatikas of the Purna tithi and the first 2 ghatikas of the Nanda tithi.

PVNR's example: Dashami has ended and Ekadashi has begun.

• If that happened 5 ghatikas ago — no problem.
• If it happened 1.5 ghatikas ago — it is a problem.

"So you should not do things on those borders."

A student asks: does a planet fall in the tithi?

• No. Planets do not fall in tithis.
• Tithi is one of the panchanga elements. It comes from the Sun–Moon angle.
• The question is only which tithi is running at the moment of birth, or of the event, or of the Muhurta — and how close that moment is to the border.

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Why These Borders — Rashi Sandhi versus Gandanta

A student asks whether these borders fall on rashi boundaries. PVNR answers by comparison with the lagna.

• The end of any tithi that is not one of these three is "not that bad". It is like Rashi Sandhi.
• Lagna at the end of Taurus or the beginning of Gemini: Rashi Sandhi. Not so auspicious, but not Gandanta.
• Lagna at the border of Cancer and Leo: the border between water and fire. That is Gandanta. "That is how we did it earlier."
• Parashara applies the same idea to tithis.

The pancha-bhuta link is a hint, not a stated rule

• There are five kinds of tithis. PVNR infers that they must map to the five elements — fire, air, ether, earth, water — so that the Purna → Nanda border is an elemental border like water → fire.
• He does not give the mapping and says plainly that it is not known.

"There must be some classification of the tithis also. We do not know that. Maybe we can do some research and find that out later, but obviously that is the hint here."

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