Astro Sutras

Name of the book	Astro Sutras
Author	J.N. Bhasin
Publisher	Sagar Publications, New Delhi, India
Amazon Link	Astro sutras,

In sixteen chapters, this short book covers basics of Indian astrology – basic traits of planets, their lordship of various signs, rules of friendship and enmity between planets, exaltation and debilitation signs and drishti of aspects of the nine planets along with Rahu and Ketu.

In the first few chapters, the author covers principles of planets, signs and houses as explained above. He also explains natural benefic and malefic qualities of planets and how these qualities could be further modified especially by occupation of their signs by other planets. e.g. a planet, irrespective of its nature will give effects of the planet occupying its sign.

The author explains twelve houses of the horoscope by detailing their characteristics and effects of position of their lords in various bhavas and nakshatras. A very comprehensive picture of planetary and bhava karakas is painted making full use of example charts. There is a good collection of interesting charts along with good discussion and explanation in the last chapter of the book as well.

There is a lot that can be learnt from this book and it normally takes more than one reading to do so. The book is a little disorganized but the author still manages to cover a lot of ground and puts the point across in an engaging manner. I like reading this book, but have never been able to use it as a reference book. In my opinion, you should read it a couple of times and then move on to reading Uttara Kalamrita which has commentary by the same author, albeit a different publisher.