Lahiri Ayanamsa

In Vedic astrology the right choise of Ayanamsa is of the outmost importance, and it is my experience that Lahiri's Chaitra-paksha-ayanamsa or Spica-based Ayanamsa is very precise.

I use it all the time, but earlier I used the KP-Ayanamsa. The different between Lahiri and the KP-Ayanamsa is only 6 minutes of arch. But I never really found out which one of these two Ayanamsas were the best because the KP-Ayanamsa seemed more precise for Vimsottary Dasa, while Lahiri seems to be precise to the very minute when I judge the Navamsa-chart. This is why I prefer Lahiri.

The small difference of only 6 minutes of arch makes a big difference in such cases when a planet is found very close to the verge between two signs or two navamsas. It will then go to another house thereby giving a completely different prediction affecting it karakatwa, rulerships, strength etc. etc.

By carefull investigation I have found that very often one or more planets are close to the border-line between two navamsas. I don't remember how many cases I have researched, but I continued this research until I was convinced, but this was by no means a scientific investigation. It was only to clear my own doubts and to become more confident in my predictive methods.

Back in 1980 I asked my teacher the late Hindu astrologer Manik Chand Jain about the subject of Ayanamsa. I wanted to know if there was any kind of ancient authority supporting the Chaitra‑paksha or Ranjan-Lahihi‑ayanamsa, which he was using.

Manik then told me to read very carefully the chapters on Precession in the books written by dr. Bh. Satyanarayana Rao, which can be found at page 76 in his "Scientific Astrology" from 1936 and at page 60 in his book "The Nadi Rectification" from 1959. Obviously some of the Nadis are based on an Ayanamsa-value close to Lahiri and KP. Please see the following quotation from one of dr. Bh. Satyanarayana Rao’s books:

"The Poona Conference of 1925 adopted the Ayanamsa of 22* 40' 35" calculated by Prof. Apte by taking the amount of Makara (Capricorn) Sankranti according to Surya Siddhanta. In some issues of the Astrological Magazine, Bangalore, it was stated that the precessional difference in Kaka Bhusandar Nadi for 22nd March, 1926 was given as 22* degrees 44' minutes. Accordingly, the year 297 AD happens to be the one approximately for the coincidence of the two zodiacs; according to the Nadi it was 341 AD if the motion of 50.12 seconds only was used instead of the present observed 50.26 seconds a year."