Burmese zodiac

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The Burmese zodiac (Burmese: ဇာတာ ရာသီခွင် [zàdà jàðì ɡwɪ̀ɰ̃]) is the traditional Burmese system of astronomy and astrology. While it is still an important component of the Burmese calendar, today, the zodiac is closely identified with Burmese astrology, called Baydin (‹See Tfd›ဗေဒင်). Largely derived from Hindu astronomy and Vedic astrology, the Burmese zodiac consists of not only the same 12 signs of the Western zodiac but also 27 lunar mansions of the month and eight weekday signs.

Structure

Seasons

The Burmese zodiac, like the Western zodiac, is divided into 12 signs called yathi (‹See Tfd›ရာသီ [jàðì]). The Burmese signs are identical to Indian and Western signs as they were derived from Indian and ultimately Western zodiac. Each yathi is divided into 30 degrees (‹See Tfd›အင်္သာ [ɪ̀ɰ̃ðà]); each degree into 60 minutes (‹See Tfd›လိတ္တာ [leiʔtà]); and each minute into 60 seconds (‹See Tfd›ဝိလိတ္တာ [wḭleiʔtà]).^[1]

Longitude ‹See Tfd›အင်္သာ	Sign ‹See Tfd›ရာသီ	Sanskrit	Latin	Ruling planet ‹See Tfd›ရာသီခွင်
0°	Meittha ‹See Tfd›မိဿ	Meṣa मेष	Aries	Mars
30°	Pyeittha ‹See Tfd›ပြိဿ	Vṛṣabha वृषभ	Taurus	Venus
60°	Mehton ‹See Tfd›မေထုန်	Mithuna मिथुन	Gemini	Mercury
90°	Karakat ‹See Tfd›ကရကဋ်	Karkaṭa कर्कट	Cancer	Moon
120°	Thein ‹See Tfd›သိဟ်	Siṃha सिंह	Leo	Sun
150°	Kan ‹See Tfd›ကန်	Kanyā कन्या	Virgo	Mercury
180°	Tu ‹See Tfd›တူ	Tulā तुला	Libra	Venus
210°	Byeissa ‹See Tfd›ဗြိစ္ဆာ	Vṛścika वृश्चिक	Scorpio	Mars
240°	Danu ‹See Tfd›ဓနု	Dhanuṣa धनुष	Sagittarius	Jupiter
270°	Makara ‹See Tfd›မကာရ	Makara मकर	Capricorn	Saturn
300°	Kon ‹See Tfd›ကုံ	Kumbha कुम्भ	Aquarius	Saturn
330°	Mein ‹See Tfd›မိန်	Mīna मीन	Pisces	Jupiter

Lunar mansions

The zodiac month consists of 27 days, approximating the mean sidereal month of 27.321661 days. Thus each zodiac day, called nekkhat (‹See Tfd›နက္ခတ် [nɛʔkʰaʔ]), represents a lunar mansion, or a segment of the ecliptic along which the Moon revolves around the Earth. Though the names are Burmese adaptations of Sanskrit names, the Burmese system is not the same as the modern Indian system. The Burmese system uses unequal spaces for each segment (from 5° to 26°), and the first segment, Athawani, begins at 350° longitude. The modern Indian system uses equal segments of 13° 20' (360° divided by 27), and the first segment, Asvini, begins at 0°.^[2] (The zodiac also recognizes a lost 28th constellation, called Abizi (‹See Tfd›အဘိဇိ; Sanskrit: Abhijit), which apparently made one revolution among these stars in 27 to 28 days.^[3])

The nekkhats are usually used to calculate the zata (horoscope) of a person or an event. Many historical dates were represented with the nekkhat position, not with the more common calendrical date.^{[note 1]}

Day	Burmese	Sanskrit	Extent	Range
1	Athawani ‹See Tfd›အဿဝဏီ	Aśvinī	18°	350°–8°
2	Barani ‹See Tfd›ဘရဏီ	Bharaṇī	10°	8°–18°
3	Kyattika ‹See Tfd›ကြတ္တိကာ	Kṛttikā	16°	18°–34°
4	Yawhani ‹See Tfd›ရောဟဏီ	Rohiṇī	12°	34°–46°
5	Migathi ‹See Tfd›မိဂသီ	Mṛgaśira	14°	46°–60°
6	Adra ‹See Tfd›အဒြ	Ārdrā	5°	60°–65°
7	Ponnahpukshu ‹See Tfd›ပုဏ္ဏဖုသျှု	Punarvasu	27°	65°–92°
8	Hpusha ‹See Tfd›ဖုသျှ	Puṣya	14°	92°–106°
9	Athaleiktha ‹See Tfd›အသလိဿ	Āśleṣā	12°	106°–118°
10	Maga ‹See Tfd›မာဃ	Māgha	11°	118°–129°
11	Pyobba Baragonni ‹See Tfd›ပြုဗ္ဗာ ဘရဂုဏ္ဏီ	Pūrva Phālgunī	16°	129°–145°
12	Ottara Baragonni ‹See Tfd›ဥတ္တရာ ဘရဂုဏ္ဏီ	Uttara Phālgunī	9°	145°–154°
13	Hathada ‹See Tfd›ဟဿဒ	Hasta	10°	154°–164°
14	Seiktra ‹See Tfd›စိတြ	Citra	15°	164°–179°
15	Thwati ‹See Tfd›သွာတိ	Svāti	13°	179°–192°
16	Withaka ‹See Tfd›ဝိသာခါ	Viśākhā	21°	192°–213°
17	Anuyada ‹See Tfd›အနုရာဓ	Anurādha	11°	213°–224°
18	Zehta ‹See Tfd›ဇေဋ္ဌ	Jyeṣṭha	5°	224°–229°
19	Mula ‹See Tfd›မူလ	Mula	13°	229°–242°
20	Pyobba Than ‹See Tfd›ပြုဗ္ဗာသဠ်	Pūrva Āṣādhā	15°	242°–257°
21	Ottara Than ‹See Tfd›ဥတ္တရာသဠ်	Uttara Āṣādhā	5°	257°–262°
22	Tharawun ‹See Tfd›သရဝဏ်	Śravaṇa	13°	262°–275°
23	Danatheikda ‹See Tfd›ဓနသိဒ္ဓ	Dhaniṣṭha	12°	275°–287°
24	Thattabeiksha ‹See Tfd›သတ္တဘိသျှ	Satabhiṣā	26°	287°–313°
25	Pyobba Parabaik ‹See Tfd›ပြုဗ္ဗာ ပုရပိုက်	Pūrva Bhādrapadā	10°	313°–323°
26	Ottara Parabaik ‹See Tfd›ဥတ္တရာ ပုရပိုက်	Uttara Bhādrapadā	16°	323°–339°
27	Yewati ‹See Tfd›ရေဝတီ	Revatī	11°	339°–350°

Weekdays

The Burmese zodiac employs eight signs in a seven-day week, with each sign representing its own day, cardinal direction, planet (celestial body) and animal;^{[note 2]} it is known as the "Mahabote zodiac".^[4] The zodiacs, with slight variations, are also found in Sri Lanka and Thailand.^[5]

Cardinal direction	Burmese	Sanskrit	English	Planet	Sign (Myanmar)	Sign (Sri Lanka)	Sign (Thailand)
Northeast	Taninganwe ‹See Tfd›တနင်္ဂနွေ	Āditya	Sunday	Sun	Garuda ‹See Tfd›ဂဠုန်	Horse අශ්වයා குதிரை	Monkey ลิง^{[clarification needed]}
East	Taninla ‹See Tfd›တနင်္လာ	Candra	Monday	Moon	Tiger ‹See Tfd›ကျား	Elephant අලියා யானை	Horse ม้า
Southeast	Inga ‹See Tfd›အင်္ဂါ	Angāraka	Tuesday	Mars	Lion ‹See Tfd›ခြင်္သေ့	Peacock මොනරා மயில்	Buffalo ควาย
South	Boddahu ‹See Tfd›ဗုဒ္ဓဟူး	Budha	Wednesday a.m.	Mercury	Tusked elephant ‹See Tfd›ဆင်	Buffalo මී හරකෙක් எருமை	Elephant ช้าง
Northwest	Rahu ‹See Tfd›ရာဟု	Rāhu	Wednesday p.m.	Ascending Lunar node	Tuskless elephant ‹See Tfd›ဟိုင်း	Donkey බූරුවා கழுதை	Garuda ครุฑ
West	Kyathabade ‹See Tfd›ကြာသပတေး	Bṛhaspati	Thursday	Jupiter	Rat ‹See Tfd›ကြွက်	Lion සිංහයා சிங்கம்	Deer กวาง
North	Thaukkya ‹See Tfd›သောကြာ	Śukra	Friday	Venus	Guinea pig^{[note 3]} ‹See Tfd›ပူး	Bull ගොනා காளை	Ox วัว
Southwest	Sanay ‹See Tfd›စနေ	Śani	Saturday	Saturn	Nāga ‹See Tfd›နဂါး	Crow/Raven කපුට காகம்	Tiger เสือ

While the eight signs are the most prevalent in modern Burmese zodiac, the zodiac officially also recognizes a ninth sign called Ketu (‹See Tfd›ကိတ် [keiʔ]), which rules over all of the signs^{[citation needed]}. The same sign also appears in Sri Lanka and Thailand under the same name. Ketu's sign is a mythical Animal of Five Beauties called pyinsarupa (‹See Tfd›ပဉ္စရူပ [pjɪ̀ɴsa̰ jùpa̰]) with the antlers of a deer, the tusks and the trunk of an elephant, the mane of a lion, the body of a naga serpent, and the tail of a fish. Moreover, Rahu and Ketu, while borrowed from Hindu astrology, are different from their original versions. Hindu astrology considers Rahu and Ketu to be the ascending and descending lunar nodes but Burmese astrology considers them distinct planets.^[6]

At any rate, the inclusion of Ketu is not due to astronomical necessity but rather cultural. (J.C. Eade points out that "there is no astronomical necessity" for Ketu, whose orbit can be derived from the value of Rahu, and suggests that Ketu was "superfluous to the system, and perhaps even as an entity that owes its origin to a mistake".^[7] Htin Aung says the use of Rahu and Ketu in Burmese zodiac and astrology is for cultural, not necessarily astronomical, value, noting that the nine signs neatly fit the Nine Gods of Burmese animist tradition and indeed are an essential part of the "Ceremony of the Nine Gods" usually held when there is sickness in the house.^[6])

The signs can be represented in a nine-square diagram. The exact arrangement is used to place the planetary figurines in the "Ceremony of the Nine Gods", with Ketu in the center, right behind a statue of the Buddha. All the planetary figures face the Buddha (as the animist practice has been absorbed into Burmese Buddhism).^[6]


Northwest Wednesday evening Rahu Tuskless elephant	North Friday Venus Guinea pig	Northeast Sunday Sun Garuda
West Thursday Jupiter Rat	Center Week Ketu Pyinsa Rupa	East Monday Moon Tiger
Southwest Saturday Saturn Naga	South Wednesday morning Mercury Tusked elephant	Southeast Tuesday Mars Lion

The Sunday, Tuesday, Saturday and Rahu planets are considered to be Malefics, or planets with an evil influence while the Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday planets are considered Benefics, or planets with benign influence. Ketu is considered to be the most powerful and a Benefic but as the chief planet, it cannot be grouped with any other planet.^[8] However, modern Burmese astrology rarely uses Ketu, and tends to use only the other eight planets.^[8]

Notes

^ See the Zatadawbon Yazawin chronicle (Zata 1960) to see how nekkhats are used to represent kings' birthdays and important events.
^ Certain letters of the Burmese alphabet are assigned to these 7 days, and names starting with the respective letter are given to children born on the respective day.
^ (Htin Aung 1959: 12): In Shan tradition, Friday's sign is the Ox.

References

^ Irwin 1909: 7–8
^ Irwin 1909: 10–11
^ Luce 1970: 333
^ What's your Myanmar Zodiac sign? This is your Myanmar Zodiac sign
^ The History and Doctrine of Budhism: Popularly Illustrated: with Notices of the Kappooism, Or Demon Worship, and of the Bali, Or Planetary Incantations, of Ceylon
^ ^a ^b ^c Htin Aung 1959: 11–13
^ Eade 1989: 18–19
^ ^a ^b Htin Aung 1959: 15

Bibliography

Eade, J.C. (1989). Southeast Asian Ephemeris: Solar and Planetary Positions, A.D. 638–2000. Ithaca: Cornell University. ISBN 0-87727-704-4.
Eade, J.C. (1995). The Calendrical Systems of Mainland South-East Asia (illustrated ed.). Brill. ISBN 9789004104372.
Htin Aung, Maung (1959). Folk Elements in Burmese Buddhism. Rangoon: Department of Religious Affairs.
Irwin, Sir Alfred Macdonald Bulteel (1909). The Burmese and Arakanese calendars. Rangoon: Hanthawaddy Printing Works.
Luce, G.H. (1970). Old Burma: Early Pagan. Vol. 2. Locust Valley, NY: Artibus Asiae and New York University.

[4] See the Zatadawbon Yazawin chronicle (Zata 1960) to see how nekkhats are used to represent kings' birthdays and important events.

[5] Certain letters of the Burmese alphabet are assigned to these 7 days, and names starting with the respective letter are given to children born on the respective day.

[8] (Htin Aung 1959: 12): In Shan tradition, Friday's sign is the Ox.

[ambi-7-8-1] Irwin 1909: 7–8

[ambi-10-11-2] Irwin 1909: 10–11

[ghl-2-333-3] Luce 1970: 333

[6] What's your Myanmar Zodiac sign? This is your Myanmar Zodiac sign

[7] The History and Doctrine of Budhism: Popularly Illustrated: with Notices of the Kappooism, Or Demon Worship, and of the Bali, Or Planetary Incantations, of Ceylon

[mha-1959-11-13-9] Htin Aung 1959: 11–13

[jce-1989-18-19-10] Eade 1989: 18–19

[mha-1959-15-11] Htin Aung 1959: 15

[1]

[2]

[3]

[note 1]

[note 2]

[4]

[5]

[note 3]

[6]

[7]

[8]

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