Mysteries of Twin-Birth Life Patterns

Astrological Sensemaking
By Dr. Andrew Dutta

In this research study, we will look at the astrological mechanism to make sense of twin
births, whose life-patterns are different, through the means of KP technique and Vedic
astrology. These days, it has become a common misunderstanding that Krishnamurthy
Paddhati (KP) technique alone can solve such mysteries. The fact is that, not only KP
technique, but also the eon-old Vedic astrology is capable of offering precise
prediction. However, in Vedic astrology, we will require to look into higher order
Divisional charts to decipher the life-meaning of twins and not the Rasi chart alone.
Twin births have always attracted the fancy of astrologers and common people, because it
has been empirically observed that even though the children are born with a few minutes of
difference, the life-patterns have been radically quite different. Examples galore, where
one of the children has become a doctor and another a high school drop-out or one has
become a businessman and another could not manage a job for him. Traditional Rasi chart
will never reflect any difference in the planetary patterns including the Lagna, which will
also remain same, excepting a few minutes of arc difference. As a result, it is next to
impossible for anyone to decipher the charts of twins, triplets, or even quadruplets with
high degree of accuracy, until one goes into deeper realms of astrological analysis.
KP in brief
Contrary to popular belief, both the KP technique and Vedic astrology have quite well
established methods, to analyze birth charts of twins. For KP technique, the method is selfsustaining, wherein the technique is so fine-tuned that even a few minutes of birth time
difference can pinpoint different results. Whereas for Vedic astrology, the Rasi chart also
known as the D-1 chart, is just a primary representation of planetary configuration. In D-1,
a Lagna remains in a Rasi for roughly 120 minutes, which means for twins, the two
horoscopes are just the same.
Since the Indian Independence, very few path-breaking researches have happened in the
realm of Indian astrology. Even though there are only very little original researches coming
from different regions of India, it is only three individuals who have made an impact pan
India, when it comes to original path-breaking research in astrology. The first among them
is late R. Gopalakrishna Row, popularly known as 'Meena I', who wrote three volumes of
'Nadi Jyotisha' published from erstwhile Madras in 1954. Almost after another decade, the
world received another path-breaking set of two books by late K.S. Krishnamurthy on an
inventive method called as Krishnamurthy Paddhati (KP). The last-path breaking books
appeared in 1969 from Madras by late H.R. Sheshadri Iyer, having the title of his book as
'New Techniques of Prediction. Row's and Iyer's original books are now available, only
with very senior astrologers and collectors of books. It is in Iyer's book where entirely
novel approaches to judge Divisional charts were provided with respect to Vedic astrology.
In Krishnamurthy's books, the very system was radically a new one.

For those readers, who are not much acquainted with the KP technique, let me explain here
briefly. In KP, the only system of house-division followed is the Placidus (also called as
the Semi-Arc) System of house-division. In this system of house-division, the birth or the
horary chart is casted according to the precise latitude and longitude of the native or the
place where the astrologer is sitting for analysis (if it is a horary chart). In the Placidus
system of house division, all the 12 houses may not be of equal length (longitude). It may
so happen that some houses may be more than 30 in length, whereas some houses are less
than 30 in length. Moreover, it may also happen that there are two houses or bhavas in
one zodiac sign and a sign which does not hold any house cusp. KP astrology interprets
'bhava' or house results primarily on the basis of the house cuspal sublords and the
sublord's stellar or constellational significations. And the planetary effects are determined
by the planets' occupancy in a particular star and a sub division within that star. K. S.
Krishnamurthy divided each Nakshatra or star of 13 degree 20 minutes into further 9 subdivisions based on unequal proportion of the Vimshottari Dasa system. This sub-division of
a star is popularly called as 'SUB' in KP system. So, Sri K.S. Krishnamurti's sub-division
of a star into 9 smaller parts was made on the basis of the above unequal proportions of the
Vimshottari Mahadasa. Thus, a star of 800 minutes (alternatively 13 deg 20 mins) was subdivided into 9 unequal parts in the following manner:
Ketu sub:

(800 X 7)/120

= 46 mins 40 secs

Venus sub:

(800 X 20)/120

= 2 deg 13 mins 20 secs

Sun sub:

(800 X 6)/120

= 40 mins

Moon sub:

(800 X 10)/120

= 1 deg 6 mins 40 secs

Mars sub:

(800 X 7)/120

= 46 mins 40 secs

Rahu sub:

(800 X 18)/120

= 2 deg

Jupiter sub:

(800 X 16)/120

= 1 deg 46 mins 40 secs

Saturn sub:

(800 X 19)/120

= 2 deg 6 mins 40 secs

Mercury sub:

(800 X 17)/120

= 1 deg 43 mins 40 secs

One can easily note that Sun has the smallest arc sub-division. As we all know that the
Lagna is the fastest moving parameter in the horoscope covering 30 degrees in 120
minutes. Therefore, to cross the smallest sub 40 minutes of arc of Sun, the Lagna will take
approximately 2 minutes 36 seconds. This means, KP technique is capable of
highlighting different birth life patterns of twins born in a time interval of 2 minutes
36 seconds. So, accuracy of birth time holds immense importance in KP.
On the other hand, contrary to popular belief, Vedic astrology is also equally capable of
handling twin birth life-patterns with same ease and elan as that of KP. Many advocates of
KP point out the supremacy of KP, by wrongly citing Vedic astrology's incapability of
handling twin births. Such misguided opinions are formed by them, because large

majorities of such people have no formal training in Vedic astrology. So, they think that
Vedic astrology is just the 'Rasi and Navamsa charts'. The fact is that Vedic astrology is
as equally capable of handling twin birth life-patterns as do KP. KP is a different
method of prediction just as Parasara or Jaimini are different systems of prediction. KP as
well as these Vedic systems use the same 9 planets, 12 Rasis and bhavas, and the 27 stars
in the Nirayana zodiac.

The age old Magnum Opus

'Brihat Parasara Hora Shastra' (BPHS) of Maharshi Parasara is undoubtedly the magnum
opus of Vedic astrology, along with Jaimini Maharshi's 'Upadesha Sutram'. Now it is beyond
anyone's doubt that these two were not ordinary mortals, but highly evolved Sages. Can
these two sages ignore twin-births? Definitely they cannot, because the phenomenon of
twin-birth is as old as human existence. Therefore, it is but natural that they might have
devised some scheme, through which twin-births can be analyzed.
The scheme advocated by the Sages and commentators of Vedic astrology to look into finer
details of horoscopy is known as the 'Varga'. Maharshi Parasara advocated the 16-Divisional
horoscope scheme, derived from the Rasi chart called as the 'Shodasa Vargas', which is
most commonly used for predictive astrology. Similarly, there are other Varga schemes
known as 'Shad Vargas' (6 divisional chart scheme), 'Sapta Varga' (7 divisional chart
scheme) and the 'Dasa Varga' (10 divisional chart scheme), which have been advocated by
many others such as Kalyana Varma of Saravali, Mantreshwar of Phaladeepika, among
others. These Divisional charts are 60 in number, categorized in 5 levels of consciousness or
human existence. There are also Divisional charts that deal with higher realms of spiritual
and esoteric factors of human life which run from the 72nd divisional chart to the 300th.
However, not all numbers of these Divisional charts are used.
For those readers, who do not understand the concept of Divisional charts, let me enumerate
it briefly here. A Rasi chart (D-1 or Divisional Chart 1) maps out the 9 planets in 30 degree
span of each Rasi. But the exact degree occupied by a planet in a particular type of Rasi in
D-1 gives rise to its mapping in other Divisional charts. So, D-2 or Hora chart is based on
15 degree mapping scheme, Navamsa (D-9) is based on 3 degree 20 minutes (30 degree of a
Rasi divided by 9) mapping scheme, Siddhamsa (D-24) is based on dividing the Rasi of 30
degrees by 24. Thus, on a practical predictive level, the most granular divisional chart
in the Varga scheme is the Shashtyamsa (D-60), where the Divisional chart is mapped
according to 30 minutes of Rasi chart. This means that the Rasi chart of 30 degrees is
made into 60 parts of 30 minutes each. The method to calculate Shashtyamsa is to multiply
the degree of the planet in the Rasi chart with 2 and divide it by 12 and add 1 with the
remainder. (Readers who use astrology software will find this D-60 coming as a standard
output). This D-60 is thus capable of capturing life-patterns of twins, who are born at a
time interval of 2 minutes. This is because the lagna takes 2 minutes to travel an arc of 30
minutes in the Zodiac. Therefore, ACCURACY OF BIRTH TIME IS AS EQUALLY
IMPORTANT IN VEDIC ASTROLOGY, AS IT IS IN KP.
Understanding the astrological clues
In KP, the rules of analysis of a horoscope are uniform and standard. They apply to
individual horoscope in the same manner as they apply to twins, triplets or quadruplets. KP
technique starts its analysis of a birth horoscope, by looking at the concerned house cuspal
sublord. For example, if the first marriage of a person is analyzed, then in KP, one looks at
the cuspal sublord of the 7th house cusp and the starlord and sublord occupied by this
cuspal sub lord. These 3 planets will show their significations, which is then synthesized
along with the Dasa-Bhukti-Antara to give the final prediction. It is therefore, very much
likely that twins will have different cuspal sublords in majority of their house cuspal