Storks, Symmetry and the Concept of Argala in Jaimini Astrology

The Jaimini Sutras, aka Upadesa Sutras, is an ancient Sanskrit text of Hindu astrology, attributed to the sage Jaimini. According to astrologer Gary Gomes, whose lectures I have been fortunate to attend over the years, “I believe that Jaimini astrology is one of the truly great Vedic astrology traditions, capable of giving great depth of information for astrologers. In essence, Jaimini produces clusters of information which can give extraordinarily accurate traditions, through a different organization of basic astrological information.”

Early in the first chapter of his text, Rishi Jaimini explains how the zodiac signs (aka Rasi) are able to look at each other. There are the so-called “Rasi aspects.” The cardinal (movable) signs can see all the fixed signs, except the one adjacent. The fixed signs can see all the cardinal signs, except the one adjacent. The mutable (dual) signs can see all the other mutable signs. Planets within a sign that looks at (aspects) another sign are able to influence the sign being viewed and any planets therein.

Immediately after explaining the Rasi (sign to sign) aspects, Jaimini discusses the topic of argala, which pertains to whole-sign “houses” or places (what the Greeks called topoi) and the planets within them. In this system, one whole-sign “place” can either support or hinder another whole-sign place, depending on their relative distances from each other along the zodiac circle and a certain type of symmetry.

Before discussing the astrological meaning of argala, it will be useful to consider its various meanings in Sanskrit. A common dictionary definition, and one often quoted by astrologers trying to explain what Jaimini meant, is that an argala is a wooden bolt or pin used to latch a door or to fasten the lid of a vessel. In this sense, it is a kind of bar, check, external bolt, obstacle, restriction or impediment which keeps the door, or the lid, shut and prevents free movement.

Digging a little deeper into the etymology of the word argala, we find that it comes into English from the Latin argala, from Bengali হাড়গিলা (haṛgila), also transcribed hurghila. In this sense, argala refers to a bird, namely, the greater adjutant, (Leptoptilos argala, aka Leptoptilos dubius), a stork native to Africa, India, and Southeast Asia. In places where snakes were a threat to the human population, the Greater Adjutant stork helped and supported the community by keeping the lid on the population of dangerous reptiles.

1855 illustration of a Greater Adjutant stork (Leptoptilos argala) hunting a snake from Wikipedia

How did the argala stork get its name, “the greater adjutant”? This stork was called “greater” because of its huge size, its average length being about 4 1/2 feet. Why “adjutant,” which is the name of a military officer who acts as an administrative assistant to a senior officer? Because of the bird’s resemblance to a human figure in stiff dress (like the uniform of an adjutant military officer) pacing slowly on a parade-ground. By analogy, a planet in an adjutant or “argala” position or place in the chart acts like an assistant, helper or supporter to a senior officer. Unfortunately, different Jaimini scholars offer differing understandings of what the sage meant by argala. For example, B.S. Rao, in the 1955 edition of his translation of the Sutras, states the following:

In the first line (Su. 5), Jaimini’s Sanskrit literally reads: 4th (dara), 2nd (bhagya), 11th (sula), places (sth), argala, nidhyatuh (ought to be be considered). In the previous section, Jaimini has just discussed the aspects of the zodiac signs. Here he is saying that from any of the zodiac signs, the signs (or the planets) which are in the 4th, 2nd or 11th from it [presumably in zodiacal order] ought be be considered argalas, which could be understood as a kind of bolt or fastener, or by analogy with the Leptoptilos argala stork, as a kind of adjutant bird, assistant or helper. Jaimini scholars agree that this type of argala, from the 4th, 2nd or 11th places relative to a zodiac sign, is a helpful influence to any planets in that sign. It is important to note that Jaimini specifies the order of places as 4th, 2nd and 11th.

In the next sutra, B.V. Rao explains that a predominance of malefic planets in the 3rd place gives rise to an inauspicious argala.

Finally, certain places and obstruct the beneficial argalas of the 4th, 2nd and 11th place. Note again Jaimini’s order when he writes that planets in the 10th, 12th and 3rd places can obstruct or impede the argalas. Most scholars understand this to refer to a certain symmetry: planets in the 10th obstruct the argala of those in the 4th, planets in the 12th obstruct those in the 2nd, and planets in the 3rd obstruct those in the 11th. The following diagram illustrates this symmetry and raises a question about planets in the 5th and the 9th.

Symmetry of planets forming argala to the sign and planet P at the top of the zodiac wheel, and planets obstructing those argalas. To maintain the symmetry, does the 5th sign from P obstruct the argala from the 9th sign, or vice versa?