Phaladeepika
book by Mantreswara

Phaladeepika is a treatise on Hindu astrology written by Mantreswara. The text is written in lyrical Sanskrit verse comprises 865 slokas and 28 chapters. It is one of the more significant works on Hindu astrology, along with Bṛhat Parāśara Horāśāstra of Parashara, Brihat Jataka of Varahamihira, and Jataka Parijata of Vaidyanatha Dikshita. It deals in a most comprehensive and authoritative manner with almost all astrological aspects of human life. Mantreswara has equated a retrograde planet with an exalted planet in strength and effects even though it be in an inimical or its debilitation sign differing with Saravali which states that benefics are powerful when retrograde and cause Raja yoga (Hindu astrology) but malefic when retrograde do not confer favourable results.
Author
Very little is known about its author, Mantreswara, who is believed to have lived in the 13th century CE. He was born Markandeya Bhattathiri in a family of Namboodari Brahmins in Panchgiri village of Tirunelveli in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The exact date of his birth and date of death are not known, some believe that he lived in the 13th century and some believe that he lived in the 16th century.
He was a devotee of Sukuntlambika Devi. He had traveled to far-off places in India in search of knowledge. He had renounced the world and had finally died in Tirunelveli; his date of birth and his date of death are not known.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 3, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q7180226. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Phaladeepika” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.