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What is Bhrighu Samhita ?

The Bhrigu Samhita is an astrological classic (a form of predictive astrology) written by Maharishi Bhrigu during the fifth Veda of the Treta Yug or the beginning of the Hindu culture and ancient age. (Vedas are the creation of Lord Brahma which became the assets of the entire world.)

The story of how the Bhrigu Samhita came about is interesting. Despite being well versed in the four Vedas and Puranas, the Brahmin community was not economically prosperous. Some academics believe that the Brahmin’s sole devotion to the goddess of learning, Saraswati , was the reason behind their pecuniary existence.

As a remedy, an elderly sage advised Maharishi Bhrigu to start worshipping Goddess Lakshmi (the goddess of wealth) to bless the Brahmin community and rid it of daridrya or poverty.

After a long tapa sadhna , the goddess Lakshmi is supposed to have appeared before Maharishi Bhrigu and suggested he formulate a mystical science, a method to predict the past, present and the future. According to her, if this science — or astrology — was to be adopted by the Brahmins or any learned community, the whole world would be drawn to them and would come their way automatically.

While later the Bhrigu Samhita became popular as Astrology or jyotish and was accepted as a scientific method of predicting the past, present and the future, the Bhrigu Samhita as such was used and practised by the Brahmins for a long time. Famous poet Kalidas too quoted the Samhita in his book Uttar Kalamrit . Maharishi Parashar and Varahmihir were also well versed in this ancient ‘science’.

The existence of the Bhrigu Samhita however was not without its fair share of upheavals.

Particularly during the Mughal and other foreign invasions, the Brahmin community was dislocated and dispersed all over India. The invaders also captured these prime assets of Brahmins. For them the Samhita was mystical and miraculous way of fortune telling and some parts of it were taken away by them to Europe and the Arab countries etc.

The most unfortunate event yet however was the destruction of the Nalanda University library by the Mughals. Later on, only a lakh or so of the original horoscopes of the Samhita remained with the Brahmins, now dispersed all over the country. Another unfortunate development was the use of the fake horoscopes by quacks and conmen who tried passing them off as originals.

Bhrigu Samhita is equally popular today as it was in the past.

If an original Samhita leaf containing the horoscope of an individual is available, it not only predicts the past, present and future, but also reveals the consultation day, time and date of the individual along with the remedial measures he needs to take, which also give a boost to the person in rectifying his or her bad stars.

After a long research in the mathematical aspects of astrology, Bhrigu along with the help of Lord Ganesha, compiled about five lakh horoscopes or janam kundlis .

These horscopes were based upon the planetary position of the sun, moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Rahu and Ketu while the predictions were made on the past, present and future of any native born on earth.