Indian astrology is unanimous, showing the fourth house as the mother's house, but with respect to the father, it appears to be divided into two parts. Some scholars consider the ninth house and some scholars the tenth house as the house of the father. This dispute between the ninth and tenth houses has been going on for centuries till now.
According to Dr. B.V. Raman, the greatest Vedic astrologer of the modern world, only the ninth house of the birth chart should be considered as the house of the father. According to him, the Vedic sage Parashara has directed so.
There was a time when South Indian astrologers considered the ninth house and North Indian astrologers considered the tenth house as the house of father, but now as a result of the increasing influence of South Indian astrologers, almost everywhere, the ninth house of the birth chart is being considered as the house of father.
Generally, the age of the native is more than thirty years, when he presents his birth chart to a qualified astrologer to know about the father. By that time his father generally gets retired. Then the question of that person is only about his father's health.
Imagine that a malefic planet is present in the third house in the birth chart of that person and the antardasha of the same malefic planet is also going on. The astrologer asks the native whether his father's disease has started after the beginning of the antardasha of that malefic planet and That distressed native confirms.
If that astrologer is North Indian then his assessment would be as follows:
The third house is the sixth house when counted from the tenth house, which shows the disease of the father of that person and the presence of the malefic planet there in its antardasha afflicts his father’s health.
If the astrologer is South Indian then his assessment should be something like this:
The third house of the native's birth chart is seventh house when counted from the ninth house and the seventh house is maraka for the father of that person so the malefic planet present in this house gives disease to the father of that native.
So you see almost the same analysis about the wellbeing of one’s father will be done if you consider ninth house or tenth house as a house of father in a native’s horoscope.
Nowadays, astrologers are often seen giving foolish arguments in favor of the ninth house, but till now no one has made a factual discussion to resolve the dispute of the ninth or tenth house.
If you look at the society, you will know that most of the people seem to be following their fathers, so all the actions performed by them will be affected by the ideologies of their fathers because the tenth house is the house of karma.
Ninth house indicates dharma and guru and the Sanskrit word guru has wider scope to say. Parmatma Shiva is the ultimate guru of anant koti brhnandas so starting from Parmatma to an Acharya all are termed as guru in Vedic literature. The parents are also treated as gurus so on that grounds father also seems to be indicated by ninth house but the mother is supposed to be the first guru for her child so it will be injustice not to consider her as represented by the ninth house so I think all the learned astrologer will think over this.
In Vedic era the academy was considered as an integral part of life and to get that everyone was supposed to get the academy in an institute known as gurukula. In gurukula the acharya or teacher acted as a father figure and the diksha or the secret mantra given by acharya was treated as the mother figure for every shishya or student. So both diksha as well as acharya were accepted as mother and father in the entire academic session in every Vedic gurukula. If you know Vedic jyotish then you will easily understand that both deeksha as well acharya are indicated by the ninth house. Deeksha is an abstract with no human identity so its human form is taken as the form of acharya and that is why the acharya was considered as mother & father for every student in a Vedic gurukula. This Vedic thought does not appear recommending the ninth as the house of the biological father.
A valuable comparison of prides of upadhyaya, acharya, father and mother has been given in Vedic literature and the summary of that has been given below:
The one who teaches Veidic vidya for livelihood is an upadhyaya and he is honorable. But the pride of an acharya is ten times more than that of upadhyaya. The pride of father is thousand times more than that of Upadhyaya and hundred times more than that of acharya and the pride of mother is ten lakhs more than upadhyaya, one lakh times that of acharya and thousand times more than that of father.
Source: Bhavishya Purana
So from above it is evident that the status of father is one thousand times more than that of acharya and the status of mother is one lakh times more than that of an acharya. There is no dispute or controversy that the fourth house signifies mother and the ninth house signifies acharya. The fourth house is one of the kendra houses and Moon the significator of mother gets directional strength in this fourth house and the ninth house signifying an acharya is one of the apoklima houses. In Vedic jyotish a kendra house is always stronger than an apoklima house so the valuation of the father doesn’t seem satisfying the ninth house. Which clearly means that the status of the father is also satisfied in a kendra house like that of the mother.
Vedic jyotish is based on common sense and Vedic knowledge. In this modern world too the parents always tolerate the unfair behavior of their child up to any extent whereas a teacher tolerates the unfair behavior of a student up to a limit and exceeding of which his recommendations would be to expel that student from the teaching institute and this expelling of a student on his misconduct comes under dharma indicated by the ninth house. These types of episodes are always seen occurring globally and in terms of jyotish they disfavor the ninth house to be the house of father.
Vedic muni Parashara taught his promising student Maitriya a Sanskrit shloka concerning the ninth house which is given below:
Navamepi piturgyanam Suryach navamethava
Yatkinchiddashme labhe tatsuryaddashme Shive.
Source: Shloka: 141, chapter: Bhavasangya of Brihit Parashara Hora Shastram
The sentence ‘Navamepi piturgyanam’ existing in aforesaid Sanskrit shloka means that the wellbeing of the father should also be judged from the ninth house. The existence of the word ‘also’ in the sentence clearly indicates that there must be a different specific shloka dealing with the allotment of the house of the father in the birth chart.
The aforesaid Sanskrit shloka is a part of the chapter titling Bhavasangya so this shloka is not a part of the chapter Dwadashbhavnirikshnam or the inspection of twelve houses. The Sanskrit word Bhavsangya means nomenclature of houses. If a Sanskrit shloka concerning father appears in the chapter titling Dwadashbhavnirikshnam then that should be given importance.
The following Sanskrit shloka appears in the chapter Dwadashbhavnirikshnam:
Rajyam chakashvriti ch manam chaiv pitustatha
Pravasasya rinasyapi Vyomsthananirikshnam
Source: Shloka: 10, chapter: Dwadashbhavnirikshnam of Brihit Parashara Hora Shastram
The Sanskrit word ‘Vyomsthananirikshnam’ existing aforesaid shloka means Vyom’s house or sky’s house or the tenth house and the Sanskrit word ‘pitu’ existing in ‘pitustatha’means the father. So according to this Sanskrit shloka all about the father should be judged from the Vyomsthana or the tenth house. This Sanskrit shloka gives a strong validity to allot the tenth as the house of father.
Jyotish is ancient but the Vedic jyotish is a modern concept in which an astrologer traces the roots of jyotish in Vedas and all its literature. Any rule of jyotish if found in agreement with Vedic knowledge gets its validation.
The following is the Rigvedic mantra concerning the mother, father, Prithvi or earth and Vyoma or sky:
Madhuno Dyava Prithvi Mimikshitam Madhushruchuta Madhu Dudhe
Madhuvrate. Dyoscha Prithvi ch pinvatam Pita Mata.
Source: Mantra: 6.70.5 - 6, Rigveda.
The Sanskrit word Prithvi existing in aforesaid Vedic mantra means the earth and Dyo stands for Vyoma or sky. The line ‘Dyoscha Prithvi ch pinvatam Pita Mata’ clearly indicates that the sky is the father and the earth is the mother for all human beings.
In the first shloka Vedic muni called the house of father as Navam or the ninth house but while allotting the tenth house to father the great muni Parashara called the tenth house as Vyomsthana in the second shloka which means that he also directed us to follow the Rigvedic view about father.
In Vedic jyotish bhumi or land etc is judged from the fourth house and this fourth house also stands for the mother and the tenth house or Vyomsthana stands for the father only.
Written on Thursday, December 2, 2021 at 19:09 (IST) by
Vishal Aksh
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Copyright©2021 Vishal Aksh
