Uttara Kalamrita

This book is written by Kalidasa and there is a lot of evidence to suggest that he is the same Kalidasa who was one of the navaratnas in the court of King Vikramaditya of Ujjaini and was the author of classics like Raghuvansham, Abhigyan-shakuntalam etc. This work presents a new facet of the talent of the literary genius.

I bought this book recently and will always regret not finding it and purchasing it earlier when I was just starting to learn astrology. As explained in the preface of the book, this book should really be treasured. The list of planetary and bhava karakas is very extensive and it alone makes it one of the most referred to books by authors in recent times.

Any student of astrology should get hold of this book and read it many times and internalize the concepts presented in this book. The book explains in a very simple language how planetary combinations (yogas) work, what are the rules of combination of the planets, how strength of planets and bhavas should be calculated based on position of the lord of the bhava and other planets related to the bhava and how aspects of planets affect bhavas.

The book is excellent and a lot of credit should go to the commentator Mr. Bhasin for his effort. To give an example, the editor gives a very good argument on how and why planets get exalted and debilitated in only certain signs and to illustrate this point, he tells us why Mars gets exalted in Capricorn, when the planet considers Saturn, the owner of Capricorn sign to be a neutral and when Saturn considers Mars to be an enemy.