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{{Short description|Period of time in Indian astronomy}}
[[File:Nityayoga.webm|thumb|Orbital simulation illustrating the calculation of nityayoga]]In Indian astronomy, '''''yoga''''' (also called '''''nityayoga''''') is a period of time, of varying lengths, during which the sum of the [[nirayana system|''nirayana'']] longitudes of the Sun and the Moon increases by an amount of 13 degrees 20 minutes (or, equivalently, 800 minutes).<ref>{{cite book |last1=S. Balachandra Rao |title=Indian Astronomy: An Introduction |date=2000 |publisher=Universities Press |location=Hyderabad |isbn=81 7371 205 0 |page=68 |url=https://archive.org/details/indianastronomyanintroductionbalachandraraos._425_y/page/67/mode/2up?view=theater |access-date=1 January 2024}}</ref> While considering the sum, when the sum is 360 degrees or more, then 360 degrees is subtracted from the sum to make the sum an angle between 0 degree and 360 minutes. Consider a moment T1 when the sum of the longitudes of the Sun and the Moon is 0 degree and let T2 be the next immediate moment when the sum of the longitudes of the Sun and the Moon is 13 degree 20 minutes. The duration of time between the moments T1 and T2 is the first ''yoga''. Similarly, let the next immediate moment when the sum of the longitudes of the Sun and Moon is 26 degrees 40 minutes. The duration of time between the moments T2 and T3 is the second ''yoga''. The third, fourth and higher ''yoga''-s are defined in a similar way. Since 27 X 13 degrees 20 minutes = 360 degrees, at the end-moment of the 27th ''yoga'', the sum of the ''nirayana'' longitudes of the Sun and Moon would be 0 degree. The numbering of the ''yoga''-s then starts afresh from that point. It appears that the astronomical ''yoga''-s are in no way related to any astronomical phenomena.<ref>{{cite web |title=The astronomical definition of Yoga |url=https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-skanda-purana/d/doc365983.html |website=www.wisdomlib.org |access-date=1 January 2024}}</ref> S. B. Dikshit in his ''Bhāratīya Jyotiṣ Śāstra'' observes: "It is not known what planetary position in the sky is indicated by ''yoga'', and it is useful only in astrology."<ref name="Dikshit">{{cite book |last1=Sankar Balakrishna Dikshit |title=English translation of "Bharatiya Jyotish Shastra" (History of Indian Astronomy) Part II |date=1981 |publisher=India Metereological Department, Govt of India |location=Kolkota |page=277 - 279 |url=https://archive.org/details/BharatiyaJyotishSastra2/page/276/mode/2up?view=theater |access-date=3 January 2024}} (Translated by R. V. Vaidya from Marathi originally published in 1896.)</ref>

{{confuse|yoga (Hindu astrology)}}
In Indian astrology, the term ''yoga'' has been used to indicate luni-solar distances and planetary situations, associations, and combinations. When one planet or house is related to another by placement, aspect or conjunction in a particular way then it is said that the planets and houses are in a particular ''yoga''.

In the traditional Indian calendars or almanacs, that is in ''Pañcāṅg''-s, ''Yoga'' or ''Nityayoga'' is one of the five elements or organs or limbs that constitute the ''Pañcāṅg''-s, the "five organs" in the literary meaning of the term ''Pañcāṅg''. The other four elements are ''[[Nakshatra|Nakṣatra]]'', ''[[Tithi]]'', ''[[Names of the days of the week|Vāra]]'' and ''Karaṇa''.

==Names==

The names of the 27 ''nitayoga'' are:

{{columns-list|colwidth=20em|
# ''Viṣkaṃbha'' (Support or obstacle)
# ''Prīti'' (Kindness, fondness)
# ''Āyuṣmān'' (Long lived)
# ''Saubhāgya'' (Good fortune)
# ''Śobhana'' (Prosperity, splendor)
# ''Atigaṇḑa'' (Having large cheeks or temples)
# ''Sukarmā'' (Virtuous)
# ''Dhṛti'' (Courage, determination)
# ''Śūla'' (Spear, pike)
# ''Gaṇḑa'' (Spot, mark, pimple)
# ''Vṛddhi'' (Growth)
# ''Dhruva'' (Unchangeable, constant)
# ''Vyāghāta'' (Hindrance, defeat)
# ''Harṣaṇa'' (Thrilling)
# ''Vajra'' (Diamond, thunderbolt)
# ''Siddhi'' (Success)
# ''Vyātīpāta'' (Calamity)
# ''Varīyān'' (Very welcome)
# ''Parigha'' (Obstacle)
# ''Śiva'' (Benign, gracious)
# ''Siddha'' (Accomplished)
# ''Sādhya'' (Amenable)
# ''Śubha'' (Auspicious)
# ''Śukla'' (White substance)
# ''Brahma'' (Supreme spirit, priest)
# ''Indra'' (Chief)
# ''Vaidhṛta'' (Great calamity)
}}

==History of the ''yoga'' concept==

''Nityayoga'' or ''yoga'' has a prominent place in traditional Indian almanac known as ''Pañcāṅg''. It is one of the five elements that constitutes the ''pañcāṅg''-s, that is, the five elements that define a ''Pañcāṅg''. However, the ''yoga''-s entered the ''Pañcāṅg'' calculations only several centuries after the other four elements became parts of the Indian alamanac. ''[[Pancha-siddhantika]]'', a text on astronomy composed around 505 CE by [[Varāhamihira]] gives the methods of calculating ''nakṣatra''-s and ''tithi''-s but does not give any method for calculating ''yoga''-s. Similarly, ''[[Bṛhat Saṃhitā]]'', a work on astrology also by Varāhamihira has long discussions on the effects of ''nakṣatra''-s but is silent on the effects of ''yoga''-s. These facts indicate that the concept of ''yoga''-s did not exist at the time of Varāhamihira. The currently available ''[[Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta]]'' composed by [[Brahmagupta]] in c.628 CE has just one verse containing a reference to ''yoga'', but all internal evidences point to the possibility of the verse being a much later interpolation. ''[[Khaṇḍakhādyaka]]'', another treatise composed by Brahmagupta in c.665 CE has a couplet of verses referring to ''yoga''. These verses have also been determined as later interpolations. All these point to the fact that the concept of ''yoga'' in astronomy arose post Brahmagupta. [[Lalla]] (c. 720–790 CE) in his ''Śiṣyadhīvṛddhidatantra'' mentions the ''yoga''-s in detail. ''[[Surya Siddhanta]]'', the founding text of the ''Saura-pakṣa'' in Indian astronomy, of undetermined authorship believed to have been composed in the 4th-5th century CE but again believed to have undergone a substantial revision in around 800 CE presents the list of all the 27 ''yoga''-s as they are used in modern ''Pañcāṅg''-s and also methods of calculating the ''yoga''-s. All these evidences suggest that the concept of ''yoga'' arose sometime around 700 CE and became an integral part of the ''Pañcāṅg''-s only after around 700 CE.<ref name="Dikshit"/>

==On the origin of the concept of ''yoga''==

The word ''vyātīpāta'' occurs in two verses in ''Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta'', but from the context of the occurrence of the word, it is clear that it is not referring to the ''vyātīpāta'' that occurs as the 17th ''yoga'' in the list of 27 ''yoga''-s. It is referring to one of two ''mahāpāta''-s which occur when the Sun and the Moon are in parallel declination and this happens when the sum of the longitudes of the Sun and Moon is 180°. There are two moments in every lunar month when this happens. One of them is called the ''vyātīpāta'' and other ''vaidhṛti''. In order to find these ''mahāpāta''-s one has find the sum of the longitudes of the Sun and the Moon. This must have led to the idea of finding ''yoga''-s by finding the sum of longitudes just as ''tithi'' is determined by the difference of longitudes.<ref name="Dikshit"/>

There is another theory regarding the origin of the ''yoga'' concept in Indian astronomy. According this view, the astronomical ''yoga'' came into being in attempts to predict the phenomena of eclipses.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Shakti Dhara Sharma |title=Development of Pancanga from vedic times upto the present |journal=Bulletin of the Astronomical Society of India |date=1998 |volume=26 |pages=75–90 |url=https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/1998BASI...26...75S/0000075.000.html |access-date=1 January 2024}}</ref>

==Determination of ''Yoga''==

Robert Sewell's ''The Indian Calendar'' contains a section which explains in meticulous detail how the ''Yoga'' at sunrise on a day specified by a date in the Common Era can be determined. The procedure also explains how to find how much time has elapsed at the moment of sunrise since the beginning of the ''Yoga''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Robert Sewell and Sankara Balakrishna Dikshit |title=The Indian Calendar |date=1896 |publisher=Swan Sonnenschein & Co. |location=London |page=3 |url=https://archive.org/details/indiancalendarwithtablesofconversionrobertsewellsankarabalkrishnadikshit_587_x/page/n17/mode/2up?view=theater |access-date=1 January 2024}}</ref>

==Lengths of ''Yoga''-s==

The lengths of the various ''yoga''-s varies from ''yoga'' to ''yoga''. The following table gives the mean length, the greatest length and the least length of the ''yoga''-s.<ref name="Sewell">{{cite book |last1=Robert Sewell and Sankara Balakrishna Dikshit |title=The Indian Calendar |date=1896 |publisher=Swan Sonnenschein & Co. |location=London |page=97 |url=https://archive.org/details/indiancalendarwithtablesofconversionrobertsewellsankarabalkrishnadikshit_587_x/page/n111/mode/2up?view=theater |access-date=1 January 2024}}</ref> It follows that the total length of a ''yoga''-cycle consisting of 27 ''yoga''-s is 26 days 10 hours 12 minutes 47 seconds.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Lengths of ''Yoga''-s
|-
! !! Hours !! Minutes !! Seconds
|-
| '''Mean''' || 22 || 35 || 44.7
|-
| '''Greatest''' || 24 || 36 || 24
|-
| '''Least''' || 20 || 52 || 58
|}

==A different system of ''yoga''-s==

There is a different system of ''yoga''-s in use in India. This system consists of 28 ''yoga''-s, in contrast to 27 ''yoga''-s in the system already explained, and the names and the rules for the determination of these ''yoga''-s are different from the ones given earlier. In this system, the succession of the ''yoga''-s depends the day of the week. Hence it has absolutely no connection whatsoever with any astronomical phenomena as the week has no definable relation to the motion of the moon or the sun. This system of ''yoga''-s do not find any mention in ''[[Surya Siddhanta|Sūrya-sddhānta]]''. In some Hindu calendars ''yoga''-s of this system are also given for each day of the month. But these yogas are only of astrological interest.

The names as well as the rules for the determination of the 28 ''yoga''-s as given in [[Shripati|Śrīpati]]'s ''Jyotiṡa Ratnamāla'' are given below.<ref name="Burgess">{{cite journal |last1=Ebenezer Burgess |title=Translation of the Sûrya-Siddhânta |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |date=1858 |volume=6 |pages=141-498 |url=https://archive.org/details/suryasiddhantaebenzerburgess1858_349_t/page/431/mode/2up?view=theater |access-date=25 January 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=H. T. Colebrooke |title=Miscellaneous Essays Vol. II |date=1872 |publisher=Higginbotham & Co. |page=363 |url=https://archive.org/details/ColebrookeMiscEssays1872V2_201809/page/n373/mode/2up?view=theater |access-date=25 January 2024}}</ref>

=== Names of the 28 ''yoga''-s in the different system===

{{columns-list|colwidth=15em|
# ''Ānanda''
# ''Kāladaṇḍa''
# ''Dhūmra''
# ''Prajāpati''
# ''Saumya''
# ''Dhvānkṣa''
# ''Dhvaja''
# ''Śrīvatsa''
# ''Vajra''
# ''Mudgara''
# ''Chattra''
# ''Maitra''
# ''Mānasa''
# ''Padma''
# ''Lambaka''
# ''Utpāta''
# ''Mrtyu''
# ''Kāṇa''
# ''Siddhi''
# ''Śubha''
# ''Amṛta''
# ''Musala''
# ''Gada''
# ''Mātaṅga''
# ''Rākṣasa''
# ''Cara''
# ''Sthira''
# ''Pravardha''
}}

=== Rule for assigning the ''yoga''-s in the different system===

The rule assumes a cycle of 28 ''[[List of Nakshatras|nakṣatra]]''-s which includes the 28th ''nakṣatra'', namely, ''Abhijit''. The 28 ''yoga''-s are assigned as follows:<ref name="Burgess"/>

* If on a day, if the week day is Sunday and the ''nakṣatra'' is ''Aśvinī'', the ''yoga'' is ''Ānanda'', if the ''nakṣatra'' is ''Bharaṇī'' the ''yoga'' is ''Kāladaṇḍa'', and so on.
* If on a day, if the week day is Monday and the ''nakṣatra'' is ''Mṛgaśīrṣa'', the ''yoga'' is ''Ānanda'', if the ''nakṣatra'' is ''Ārdrā'' the ''yoga'' is ''Kāladaṇḍa'', and so on.
* If on a day, if the week day is Tuesday and the ''nakṣatra'' is ''Āśleṣa'', the ''yoga'' is ''Ānanda'', if the ''nakṣatra'' is ''Magha'' the ''yoga'' is ''Kāladaṇḍa'', and so on.
* If on a day, if the week day is Wednesday and the ''nakṣatra'' is ''Hasta'', the ''yoga'' is ''Ānanda'', if the ''nakṣatra'' is ''Citra'' the ''yoga'' is ''Kāladaṇḍa'', and so on.
* If on a day, if the week day is Thursday and the ''nakṣatra'' is ''Anurādha'', the ''yoga'' is ''Ānanda'', if the ''nakṣatra'' is ''Jyeṣtha'' the ''yoga'' is ''Kāladaṇḍa'', and so on.
* If on a day, if the week day is Friday and the ''nakṣatra'' is ''Uttara-āṣādha'', the ''yoga'' is ''Ānanda'', if the ''nakṣatra'' is ''Śrāvaṇa'' the ''yoga'' is ''Kāladaṇḍa'', and so on.
* If on a day, if the week day is Saturday and the ''nakṣatra'' is ''Śatabhiṣaj'', the ''yoga'' is ''Ānanda'', if the ''nakṣatra'' is ''Pūrva-bhādrapada'' the ''yoga'' is ''Kāladaṇḍa'', and so on.

== See also ==

* [[Nakshatra]]
* [[Karaṇa (pañcāṅga)|Karaṇa]]
* [[Tithi]]
* [[Vāra (astronomy)|Vāra]]
* [[Vyatipāta]]

==References==

{{reflist}}

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Nityayoga - Revision history

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