Yuddha Bala: Planetary-War Rules, Pairwise Ledgers and Boundary Cases

How is Yuddha Bala calculated in this report?

In Astrogyana's parashari-motion-shadbala-2026.2 profile, a qualifying close pair among Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn receives a signed redistribution of temporal strength. The planet with the larger normalized sidereal longitude is selected as the winner. The absolute difference between the pair's original Kala Bala bases, excluding Ayana, is added to the winner and subtracted from the loser.

The pair must have a shortest longitude separation below 1° and at least 10⁻⁹ degrees. Exact coincidence and extremely small separations below that numerical threshold are skipped. The threshold is an implementation convention, not an observable physical boundary.

Yuddha means war in this traditional terminology. The calculation is an astrological scoring rule, not a collision model, a measurement of gravitational force or evidence that a personal conflict will occur. Keeping the report's rule explicit is more useful than treating the label as a prediction.

Which planets can form a qualifying pair?

The eligible set contains five planets: Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn. The program considers each unordered pair once, so at most ten candidate pairs are examined. A candidate becomes a recorded war only after the angular checks pass.

Sun, Moon, Rahu and Ketu do not enter this routine. A planet close to the Sun belongs to the separate discussion of combustion and solar separation. Neither a close Moon conjunction nor a nodal conjunction should be inserted into this ledger simply because two longitudes look similar.

A shared sign or house is also insufficient. Two planets can occupy the same sign while remaining many degrees apart. Conversely, two planets on opposite sides of a sign boundary can be separated by less than one degree. Use the actual longitudes, not only the chart's sign boxes.

Use the shortest circular longitude separation

Normalize each input to 0° ≤ λ < 360°. Let d = normalize(λ₁−λ₂), then calculate δ = min(d, 360−d). This gives a non-negative separation no larger than 180°.

For 359.8° and 0.2°, subtraction alone suggests 359.6°. The circular result is 0.4°, because the two positions straddle the zodiac's zero point. For 29.8° and 30.2°, the result is also 0.4°, although the planets occupy adjacent signs.

This is a different use of angle from the directed source-to-target angle in Drik Bala. The distance test here is symmetric. Swapping the names of the two inputs does not change δ. It also does not change which physical member has the larger longitude.

Use one sidereal convention and one observation time for both positions. Comparing a tropical value with a sidereal value can manufacture a false proximity. Comparing positions from different times is a different experiment, not the instantaneous pair check documented here.

Check exact boundaries before rounding

The exact 1° endpoint is excluded; 0.999999° is included. A report that prints both as 1.00° can therefore show different classifications without its underlying comparison being inconsistent. The classification is based on the unrounded input.

The two very small non-zero examples distinguish the numerical coincidence guard from the one-degree limit. An input separation of 0.5×10⁻⁹ degrees is skipped, while 2×10⁻⁹ degrees clears the guard. These tiny numbers are software test cases, not claims about achievable observational precision.

If your printed report appears contradictory, inspect the full precision, coordinate convention and profile before inferring a special rule. A rounded display is a summary of a number, not a replacement for the number used by the calculation.

Construct the correct pre-war Kala Bala base

Call the original base B. It is the sum of Natonnata, Paksha, Tribhaga, Varsha, Masa, Dina and Hora contributions. Ayana is retained separately as A. Before redistribution, the temporal total is B+A; after all pair adjustments it is B+A+Δ.

Do not use the complete six-component Shadbala total to calculate the pair's difference. Do not include Ayana just because it is displayed inside Kala Bala. Do not include an earlier pair's war adjustment in the base of a later pair.

The current implementation follows the temporal-strength redistribution described in Maitreya's Kala Bala documentation. That reference identifies the greater-longitude winner and redistribution of the temporal points acquired before the later Ayana discussion. The exact numerical coincidence guard and frozen multi-pair bookkeeping described here are properties of the inspected application.

Work through a two-planet transfer

Take invented ledger inputs: Mercury at 100° with B = 180, and Venus at 100.4° with B = 135 Virupas. Their separation is 0.4°, so the pair qualifies. Venus has the larger longitude and is selected as the winner, even though its original B is smaller.

The transfer magnitude is D = |180−135| = 45. Mercury receives −45 and Venus +45. Their adjusted bases are 135 and 180. If their Ayana values are 20 and 40, their final Kala Bala values are 155 and 220.

The original temporal sum was 180+20+135+40 = 375. The final sum is 155+220 = 375. The adjustment changes the distribution, not the sum across the pair. The 45-Virupa transfer is 0.75 Rupa, using 60 Virupas per Rupa.

The first two rows deliberately reverse the base strengths while retaining the longitudes. The winner does not change: this profile selects it by longitude, not by the larger B. In the second row, the already stronger winner gains again, so the operation is not generally a simple exchange of the two original values.

These are independent arithmetic ledgers. They are not presented as a physically computed chart on a real date, and their selected bases are not derived from the displayed longitudes alone.

A recorded pair can have a zero adjustment

If two qualifying planets both have B = 150, then D = 0. The code can still record their winner and loser while assigning a zero transfer. Pair eligibility and transfer size are separate stages.

This matters when inspecting a report that lists a war but shows no numerical change. The absence of a change does not necessarily mean the pair failed the separation test. Check the two original bases before assuming that a row is missing or that a non-zero amount must be inserted.

The arithmetic also contains no rule that clips a losing subtotal at zero. A sufficiently large negative adjustment can make a constructed adjusted base negative. Replacing it with zero would break the documented conservation and would constitute a different scoring method.

Three close planets: freeze the bases first

Consider another invented ledger: Mars at 100° with B = 180, Mercury at 100.3° with B = 140, and Jupiter at 100.8° with B = 220. All three pairs qualify. Keep those three original B values unchanged while calculating every transfer.

Mars loses 40 to Mercury and 40 to Jupiter, for Δ = −80. Mercury gains 40 from Mars and loses 80 to Jupiter, for Δ = −40. Jupiter gains 40 and 80, for Δ = +120. The net adjustments sum to zero.

With the illustrative Ayana values included, the final temporal totals are 110, 120 and 370. Their sum is 600, exactly the original 190+160+250. The adjusted bases alone are 100, 100 and 340.

A sequential recalculation would produce a different answer. After the Mars–Mercury transfer, their temporary bases would both be 140. Reusing that updated Mars value against Jupiter's 220 would incorrectly create an 80-point second transfer instead of the intended 40. Freezing the originals prevents pair order from altering the result.

The zero-degree boundary exposes a convention

The distance calculation wraps around 360°, but the winner comparison uses the ordinary larger numerical longitude. In the first example Mercury wins at 359.8°. After adding 1° to both positions and normalizing, Venus wins at 1.2° against Mercury at 0.8°, although the separation remains 0.4°.

This shows a specific limitation of the greater-longitude convention: winner selection is not invariant under an arbitrary rotation of the longitude origin across the wrap. It is not a physical change in the pair. The chart must retain the stated sidereal coordinate convention; do not silently rotate the inputs to make a preferred outcome appear.

Different planetary-war traditions may use different selection criteria. This guide explains the current application's convention and its consequences. It does not claim that a raw longitude comparison settles every traditional interpretation.

Audit the ledger before interpreting the score

1. Record the calculation profile, time and longitude convention.
2. Filter to the five eligible planets and list each unordered pair once.
3. Calculate the unrounded shortest separation and apply both thresholds.
4. Identify the greater-longitude member under the chosen coordinate convention.
5. Save every original B before applying any adjustment.
6. Calculate the absolute pair differences and add equal, opposite contributions.
7. Sum each planet's adjustments, then add its unchanged Ayana value.
8. Check that all war adjustments together sum to zero.

For a complete chart, also confirm that the report has the sunrise and next-sunrise context required by the broader Shadbala calculation. A missing temporal context is not evidence of zero strength. The app can mark the complete strength calculation unavailable when those inputs are absent.

The calculation methodology and Shadbala units guide help distinguish a component, a total and a ratio to a required strength. Keep these levels separate when comparing programs. A matching label with a different underlying convention can legitimately produce a different number.

Finally, check the degree-based conjunction guide when the chart picture alone is misleading. The useful result of this exercise is a reproducible ledger, with its assumptions visible, rather than a prediction extracted from the word “war.”

Frequently asked questions