What are those planets discussed in Surya Siddhanta?

A chart calculated in Surya Siddhanta mode (SSS) is done using other methods of calculation than regular astronomical charts done with all software these days. It is estimated that in India, up till 1400 AD more or less, the date is not clear, most charts were calculated using Siddhantic methods.   After that several texts began to modify the formulas and people started to lose the original ways in favor of observable planets. Planets are Grahas in Surya Siddhanta, and the Grahas are understood as Deities, not astronomical physical bodies.  This creates a distinct methodology and the end results is different by a matter of degrees on the zodiac, though sometimes the degrees will be near identical. The planets most different are the moon, mercury and venus. Usually the Sun, the north and south node of the moon, jupiter and saturn are often a bit closer to the astronomical calculation. But because the moon can be a few degrees apart from the astronomical moon, the periods, the dashas that show timings of life's changes, can be offset by many months, up to a year of two, as compared with the regular chart. Each chart will be different though, for instance in my chart, between a Lahiri chart and a SS chart, the dashas are almost identical. But it is rare, most SSS charts do have degree differences with the regular chart..

So, because planets usually have different degrees on a SSS chart, if the regular natal chart called rasi is somewhat similar between the SSS and astronomical charts, the divisions called vargas, are much more different and sometime unrecognizable between the 2 modes.

Steps in calculating a Surya Siddhantha chart

First Surya Siddhanta calculates the count of days since creation. In Siddhantic and Puranic literature such count of days are readily available and calculated thanks to great cycles named Yugas and Kalpas.

Yugas are a set of 4 ages named Satya,Treta, Dwapara and Kali yuga totalling 4,320,000 years. The count of days is called ahargana, and is usually computed from the offset of Kali Yuga in the sofware, because this is the beginning of the Age we are in and is less cumbersome than the ahargana since creation. It occured between feb, 17th and 18th at midnight of the year 3102 BC. At that moment, according to the Surya Siddhanta, all mean planets were at the 1st degree of aries (0 aries).

Because yugas and kalpas which are many yugas, are enormous number of years, they can give a very accurate mean sidereal year for each planet.

The first step once the ahargana for a chart is obtained, is to calculate mean planets, because we know the position at Kali yuga and Surya Siddhanta has provided the number of revolutions (Bhaganas) in a yuga for each planets, its a simple proportion to get the mean position of planets.

If you are born 10000 days after Kali yuga, you make a rule of 3 using the amount of revolutions that have occurred in that period. You obtain a number of complete revolutions in 10000 days, and a fractional part of the last unfinished revolution. Then you drop the revolutions and the fractional part is multiplied by 360 to arrive at the degree position in the 360 degree zodiac wheel. That is the mean position of planets.

After that we adjust the chart for the location on earth where the person is born. SSS gives all positions at a place called Lanka, which is equated to Ujjain in SSS, an old astronomical center in ancient India. So we adjust the position with a simple process called desantara, similar to what is done with a regular chart.

A simple correction for the exact time of birth is then applied.

After that the main work begins. Mean planets are converted to true planets in 4 steps using trigonometry. This is the most mysterious part of the work, because as per modern astronomical usage, these corrections do not give physical planets exactly. (See Vinay Jha, referenced below for his research of what the equations imply). Astronomical charts use a large numbers of perturbations and offsets from the regular circle and ellipses where planets move, but SSS is involved with deities, not bodies, and doesnt require the same corrections. However, the equations begin as identical to the regular astronomical equations.

4 Steps to a true planet

For the Sun and Moon, one equation is used only, called the equation of center, mandaphala. This equation is well known by astronomers. It is applied to the mean planets. Mandaphala corrects the mean position for the elliptic orbit of planets, by means of epicycles. After that, for the 5 other tara-planets, meaning star planets, the 4 steps as done thus :

* the equation for conjunction, seeghraphala, is done first, divided by 2 and applied to the mean planet.

* Then the equation of center, mandaphala is applied, and divided by 2

* then the same equation is redone and applied fully

* then the equation seeghraphala is again redone and applied fully

These steps are done in a specific manner, and give the true planets.

These true planet are ready which correspond to the position of the grahas where the karmas are distributed to each person according to a set of astrological rules given in Brihat Parasara Hora Sastra and other classics.

These true planets are used for religious purposes, donations to deities, astrology etc. Vinay Jha has shown how repeatedly the injunction to use only these planets for astrology is written in many Puranas. The physical planets of astronomy are then deduced with the help of ayanamsa, as defined in SSS, for certain computations like declinations, ascensional difference, the Lagna (ascendant) etc

The true positions are known and used by several old astrologers in India. They belong to a tradition of viewing the chart as a a mandala circle where deities are involved in all processes. For instance it is deities which move the planets from their apogees in SSS. It is deities which move the planets on their epicycles, these epicycles which define the elliptical part of the orbit circle. It is deities which pull the planets to slow down in speed and begin to go retrograde, and go direct again after retrogradation is finished.  Grahas in Surya Siddhanta cause the heavens to move,  Each movement is caused by a divine being.   It is not a mechanical machine like scientists are telling us.  How could karma, which is the memory bank we each possess, be determined by a robotic machine where planets of rock and gaz determine your fate ??

This is why SSS is not understood and accepted anymore in our materialistic age, when matter is seen as the be all and end all of nature life.  Now science studies the phenomenas of nature  and is telling us that from the phenomena all can be known.   The ancient Shankya philosophy had a different view.   See my article on Shankya.  As a result, astrologers have adopted the material planets and forgotten what the Grahas were in old times.

Reference

Surya Siddhanta, translation by E.Burgess, 1859, Boston.

Vinay Jha, dating the Surya Siddhanta

Surya Siddhanta and Siddhanta Shiromani, trans. by Bimala P.S.Saraswati, and english by Danavir Goswami

Surya Siddhanta translated by Bapu Deva Sastri, 1860