---
type: Concept
bundle: jyotisha-kala
bundle_version: 0.12.0
id: hora
title: Horā
iast: Horā
devanagari: होरा
description: 'The horoscopic skandha of Jyotiṣa (glossed from ahorātra): the interpretive discipline of the chart, distinct from gaṇita computation and saṃhitā omen-reading; also the planetary hour and the half-sign; NOT the whole of Jyotiṣa, NOT a straight-from-the-Veda system, NOT an endorsed predictive science.'
darshana:
- Jyotiṣa
text_source: Bṛhat Jātaka 1
reception_note: '“Vedic astrology” is the commercial banner for horā. This file documents the branch, its scope, and its historical layering; it does not endorse predictive claims made under the banner.'
tags:
- hora
- horoscopy
- skandha
- hellenistic
- jyotisha
not:
- term: 'the whole of Jyotisha'
  why: 'Horā is one skandha of three. The Vedāṅga stratum and the siddhānta literature are calendrics and computation; collapsing all of Jyotiṣa into horoscopy hands the oldest layer’s prestige to the youngest layer’s claims.'
  instead: 'Render horā as the horoscopic branch of Jyotiṣa and keep the Sanskrit term.'
- term: 'a straight-from-the-Veda system'
  why: 'The horoscopic apparatus, rāśis, twelve houses, aspects, arrives in India with Hellenistic contact in the early centuries CE; Varāhamihira acknowledges the Yavanas as authorities in the field, and the classical etymology of horā from ahorātra sits beside the Greek hōra. The Vedāṅga contains none of this apparatus. “Vedic astrology” as a historical claim conflates the strata; the tradition itself kept better records.'
- term: 'an endorsed predictive science'
  why: 'This corpus documents what horā’s terms mean and how the discipline is structured. Whether its predictions hold is an empirical question the corpus does not adjudicate, here or in any file.'
related:
- /concepts/jataka.md
- /concepts/lagna.md
- /concepts/bhava-jyotisha.md
- /concepts/vara.md
- /concepts/dasha.md
timestamp: '2026-07-09'
okf_version: '0.2'
license: CC BY-SA 4.0
---

# Horā -- होरा

**Not:** the whole of Jyotisha, a straight-from-the-Veda system, an endorsed predictive science

## What It Actually Means

Horā names the horoscopic branch of Jyotiṣa: the discipline that casts and reads charts, whose classical Indian monument is Varāhamihira’s Bṛhat Jātaka. The tradition glosses the word from ahorātra (day-night, trimmed at both ends); it also names the planetary hour that generates the weekday order, and the half-sign division. Horā is one of three skandhas, beside gaṇita (computation) and saṃhitā (omens and the world), and it is the historically youngest major layer: its sign-house-aspect apparatus enters with Hellenistic contact, a debt Varāhamihira records. This bundle intercepts horā’s high-traffic terms and documents them; endorsement of predictive claims is explicitly out of scope.

## Audience Metaphor

One branch of a three-branch tree wearing the whole tree’s name-tag. Horā is the birth-chart branch; gaṇita computes, saṃhitā reads the world. Marketing that calls the branch “Vedic astrology” staples the Vedāṅga’s prestige onto the one branch the Vedāṅga does not contain.

## Citations

1. Bṛhat Jātaka 1 on horā, its scope, and its etymology -- see [references/brihat-jataka.md](../references/brihat-jataka.md)
2. Pañcasiddhāntikā situating computation apart from horā -- see [references/panchasiddhantika.md](../references/panchasiddhantika.md)
