What is Correct - Nirayan or Sayan? 
Indian or Western?

There has been a lot of confusion to the fact whether Sayan system is right or Nirayan. Though being a major difference, yet it has not been well understood. Here, in this article, we try to clarify that the planets in the sky are moving according to Nirayan system, and hence only the nirayan system should be followed in astrology. Sayan system is merely meant for knowing the earth's position with respect to Sun and thus determining the seasons but it is not meant for knowing which planet is passing through which sign.

Table -II
Transit of Moon During 1-15 May '98 at Delhi

1. Present Star Position
It is difficult to watch the stars while Sun is in the sky. During month of May no planet shall be visible in the sky at night. So we are giving the position of Moon every day when it is visible at night during the month of May 98.

As per Sayan & Nirayan system the longitudes of Moon during first half of May '98 given in table I.

Moon's transit into different signs from May 1-15th 1998 are given in table-II.

If we look into the figures of table I, we find that Moon attains, after 2 days appox. the same degree in Nirayan system as in Sayan system e.g. It is at Leo 160 on 3rd May as per Sayan system and on 5th May as per nirayan system.

The fig. A show the position of Moon during the first half of May 98, at 10 pm. in Delhi. If we look into the position of Moon & compare with its degrees as per Sayan and Nirayan system, it is very obvious that Moon’s actual movement is very close to the Nirayan system & it does not tally with Sayan system at all. For example on 5th May 98 it is at Leo-160 as per nirayan system. In the sky also, (fig A) moon is in mid of Leo sign, whereas Sayan system gives a value of Virgo-100. The moon is visible in Virgo not before 7th May 98. This situation can be studied daily between 1-15 May as per table I and sky map A to find the actual movement of moon in the sky. Hence we can say that we should follow only the Nirayan system for all astrological computations.

2. Past & Future Star Positions
To look into the past & future, we shall take help of sky maps as computed by scientific programmes which are known to be accurate by todays scientists of the world.

Let us look at the position of Sun as per Sayan & Nirayan system at a gap of 1000 years from 15 May 0001 to 15th May 5001 at 12 Noon at Delhi. The position of Sun are given in table III.

Fig. B shows clearly that Sun is in Pisces on 15th May in year 5001 whereas as per the Sayan system it should be in Taurus. This is far away from the truth.

Secondly we can clearly see the movement of Sun with respect to stars. It is moving behind by appox. 140 every 1000 years. This is exactly what the ayanamsa is.

Fig B shows clearly that Sun enters into Taurus on 15 May 1998. It is not towards end of Taurus as suggested by Sayan system.

The above explanation clearly & undoubtedly prove that Nirayan system as followed in vedic astrology is correct and is in accordance to the star position in the sky.

Does it mean that western system which is quite accurate as per the modern science is wrong ? The answer is No.

Table-III
Position of Sun on 15th May at 12 hrs. at Delhi during year 1-5001

Fig A : Sky Position 1st May '98 to 14th May '98 at 10 PM at Delhi 

                    Fig B : Sun Position on 15th May '98 12 Hrs. at Delhi during year 0001 to 50001

Fig. C. Milky Way Galaxy from the Side


Fig. D. Position of the Sun in the Milky Way Galaxy 
              

Then how both the systems can be correct at the same time & still be different? We know that western system is basically a solar system & not based on stars. Here zero degree refers to a position with respect to the Sun coordinates or the Vernal equinoctial point i.e. the ascending node of the ecliptic on the equator. It does not have to do any thing with the Aries star whereas in the Nirayan system, 0 degree means a position in the direction of Aries star. Actually zero degree of sayan system which never refers to Aries star has mistakenly been taken as zero degree of Aries. This small anomaly has led to the confusion between the Sayan & the Nirayan system. We should not confuse overselves & say that Sun enters into Aries on 22nd March every year. We should rather say that Sun attains a longitude of zero degree on 22nd March as per Sayan system or the Solar coordinate system.

With this clarification let us also clarify that astrological predictions given as per the sayan system does not have sound astrological basis. We can not & should not take the properties of various signs same for Sayan and Nirayan systems.

Let us understand what is ayanamsa which makes all this difference in the two systems. Ayanamsa is basically precession of the equinoxes. It can be understood better when we look at our galaxy. We know that our solar system is a part of galaxy called "Milky Way" which looks like fig. C & our solar system is moving around the centre of the milky way as shown in fig. D. Sun takes roughly 26,000 years appox. to complete one circle around the galaxy. The stars remain fixed and do not move around. Because of the motion of the sun, the position of stars changes by 50.3 arc seconds every year and it takes roughly 20 minutes 24 seconds more time for earth to complete the circle around Sun with respect to these stars. That is why the sidereal year is 365.256363 days compared to solar year of 365.2422 days only.

To sum up we Know that Indian astrology is based on stars and any planet passing through the particular star gives the results of that star or changes its behaviour acco-rding to the stars it passes through. Only Nirayan system gives us computations of planets with respect to stars; Sayan system refers to planet positions in solar coordinate system. Hence only Nirayan system should be followed for predictions in astrology.

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