[INDOLOGY] Symbolic Forms of the Navagrahas

[jacob at fabularasa.dk]

Dear Martin,

Many thanks for your comments and suggestions. I am surprised that the 
symbols are not referenced in the astrological literature as I often see 
them in contemporary navagraha yantras (also thanks to Jean-Luc 
Chevillard for sharing an image of them in a Tamil pañcāṅga). Perhaps 
they belong to a comparatively late tradition or perhaps, as you 
suggest, they appear in a different genre of texts. The context I am 
seeing them in now is gameboards, playing pieces, knight's tours, and 
ganjifa cards from early to mid-19th-century Mysore.

Your suggestion that the symbolic shape of Venus might refer to the 
pattern of its orbit was echoed by a colleague in Berlin who shared the 
following illustration of Kepler's ideas on the subject:

I was initally just looking for a reference for a footnote, but there 
seems to be deeper mysteries to ponder here!

Best regards,
Jacob

Martin Gansten via INDOLOGY skrev den 2026-03-19 07:34:

> Dear Jacob,
> 
> I have no immediate textual references for you, but I would suggest
> (you may have thought of this already) looking for such in ritual
> manuals of navagraha worship, for the construction of temporary
> maṇḍalas and the like, rather than in astrological texts as such.
> I can't recall ever seeing the planets represented in this way in a
> horoscope, for instance (where they are usually represented by
> abbreviated forms of their names, such as सू or चं.) Perhaps
> there may be something on the topic in S.K. Ramachandra Rao's
> two-volume _Navagraha-Kosha_, but I'm not sure.
> 
> Some of the symbols are more readily intelligible than others,
> especially the sun disc and crescent moon. Ketu does mean flag or
> banner and originally referred to comets (usually in the plural),
> which again is understandable in visual terms. (I don't know when the
> word came to designate the south lunar node, but it seems to be rather
> a late development.) Venus could conceivably have derived its shape
> from the pattern it forms during its eight-year cycle with the sun (a
> web search will tell you more about this, with useful images), but I'm
> less sure about that. The rest are less clear to me, unless Rāhu's
> basket is a stylized version of a severed head (Rāhu being the head
> of the demon Svarbhānu, cut in two by the Sudarśana disc of
> Viṣṇu in the myth about the churning of the ocean).
> 
> Best wishes,
> Martin
> 
> Den 2026-03-18 kl. 23:27, skrev jacob--- via INDOLOGY:
> 
>> Dear friends and colleagues,
>> 
>> I am trying to understand the origin of the symbolic forms (ākāra)
>> associated with the navagrahas, but have not had any luck so far.
>> The standard forms, as far as I have been able to determine them,
>> are as follows:
>> 
>> Sun = circle (vṛtta)
>> Moon = crescent (ardhacandra)
>> Mars = triangle (trikoṇa)
>> Mercury = arrowhead (bāṇa)
>> Jupiter = rectangle (dīrghacaturaśra)
>> Venus = pentagon (pañcakoṇa)
>> Saturn = bow (dhanus)
>> Rāhu = winnowing basket (śūrpa)
>> Ketu = flag (dhvaja)
>> 
>> I would be grateful for any pointers to primary sources or articles
>> discussing these forms.
>> 
>> Best regards,
>> Jacob
>> 
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