The word horā is derived from aho-rātra by removing the first (a) and last (tra) syllables. The word aho means day and rātra means night thereby referring to the division of the day into the two parts of day and night. The day is lorded by the Sun and the night is lorded by the Moon, being the most brilliant luminaries in the sky at these times. Consider the seven
planets having physical bodies (i.e. from the Sun to Saturn) that lord over the weekdays. If the luminaries (Sun & Moon) are represented by the word horā in aho-rātra, then what is left of the word (i.e. atra) shall be represented by the remaining five planets from Mars to Saturn. The word atra means food and the five planets from Mars to Saturn represent the pañca tattva that the body is made up of and the food that the body needs to sustain itself. In fact the akṣara ‘a’ is also called the Brahma akṣara that is the beginning as well as the source of all physical creation.
There are three important meanings of the word horā.
• First is horoscope or horoscopy itself which is based on the time divisions derived from aho-rātra.
• Second meaning is a half of the zodiac representing the two āyana (called Uttara āyana and dakṣiṇa āyana). These are the half year periods between the solstices.
• Third meaning is the half of a zodiacal sign or a span of 15°. This is an hour which is derived from the two fold division of a sign. A sign represents about two hours of time and the horā being a half of this represents an hour of time.
…read the detailed paper on Horā Lagna presented at an European Conference 8 Aug, 2004.
Thereafter do listen to the slides on Horā and Ghāṭikā Lagna
