The Four Maharajahs

1
One of my personal research topics is astrological geography.

I am studying this topic throughout the astrological tradition from the Mesopotamian tradition right up to the modern era.

I was recently, reading about the Babylonian notion of the four winds tied into the planetary rulers for the four directions. Each of the four winds was linked to a particular planet and triplicity. These single planetary rulers of the four winds seem to be the origin of the dignity of triplicity rulership in hellenistic astrology.

I have read one author describing the so called Four Maharajas in Indian astrology which appear to rule the cardinal points. It was suggested this concept mirrored the Mesopotamian notion of the planetary rulers of the four winds. However, I have been unable to find out anything further on this topic so far.

Can anyone assist me on this?

Thanks

Mark
As thou conversest with the heavens, so instruct and inform thy minde according to the image of Divinity William Lilly

3
Kenneth Johnson wrote:
Did the source state which planets ruled which of the Four Maharajahs?
No. But if its like the Babylonian system it would exclude the luminaries. The planets would be Jupiter, Venus, Mars and Saturn. Mercury sometimes is mentioned too with Saturn.

Mark
As thou conversest with the heavens, so instruct and inform thy minde according to the image of Divinity William Lilly

5
There are several systems coalescing here. Dikpala (which is a Prakrit language, with digbala being the classical Sanskrit equivalent) means "directional power." There are eight directions in classical Hindu cosmology, the cardinals and inter-cardinals. The guardian deities are as given in the article that Pankajdubey has linked. These 8 directions correspond to the seven astrological planets plus Rahu, the north node of the Moon. They appear as early as the Mahabharata and also constitute the foundation of Vastu Shastra (Hindu feng-shui). The cosmology was adopted by the Buddhists as well.

There is also an astrological doctrine called digbala, which makes use of only the four cardinal directions as exemplified in the four angular houses. Mercury and Jupiter have digbala or directional power in the Asc, Moon and Venus in the IC, Sun and Mars at the MC, and Saturn at the Dsc.

6
If dikpaala is prakrit then sanskrit should be dikpati or lokapaala:

??????/ ???--??? m. a world-protector , guardian of the -wworld , regent of a quarter of the -wworld (the ???-???s are sometimes regarded as the guardian deities of different orders of beings , but more commonly of the four cardinal and four intermediate points of the -wworld , viz. accord. to Mn. v , 96 , 1. ??????, of the East ; 2. ?????, of South-east ; 3. ??, of South ; 4. ?????, of South-west ; 5. ????, of West ; 6. ???or ????, of North-west ; 7. ?????, of North ; 8. ???or ??????of North-east ; others substitute ????-???for 4 and ?????or ??????for 8 ; according to Dharmas. the Buddhists enumerate 4 or 8 or 10 or 14 ???-???s) S3Br.

7
I confess I'd never heard of the four mah?r?jas, so I can't help in that regard. But dikp?la and digbala are both perfectly good Sanskrit, the former meaning 'guardian of direction' and the latter, 'strength of direction'. The dikp?las are typically eight (ruling the cardinal and intermediate directions), and are so well-established that the most common names for many of the directions are the ones derived from the dikp?las (e.g., ?gney? for the south-east, from Agni).
https://astrology.martingansten.com/

9
Thanks to everyone for contributing here.

I found the links provided by Pankajdubey especially useful as they opened up new areas of research for me. I am also grateful to Kenneth for mentioning the Hindu tradition of directionology known as Vastu Shastras as this was new information for me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vastu_shastra

It seems the origin of this idea this relates to the Buddhist notion of the four great kings or guardians (caturmaharajika) who abide on the four sides of Mount Meru and serve as protectors of the world against the Asuras.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Heavenly_Kings

It is interesting whether this idea is actually.pre-Buddhist. The cosmology associated with Mount Meru appears to be common to Vedic, Jain and Buddhist sources.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Meru

Moreover, in the Persian Avestan texts like the Bundahishn we still find references to the four Chieftans or Leaders often associated with stars and constellations connected to the four directions.

In Ancient China we find the sky divided into four so called great super constellations each associated with a particular direction. This idea seems to date back to the neolithic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Symbo ... tellation)

It seems very likely that the Hindu Guardians of the eight cardinal directions called the Lokap?las or Ashta Dikpalakas are derived from a more basic four fold directionology.

We see the same trend in Greek thought where the four wind gods called the Anemoi are linked to the cardinal directions and generated further sub divisions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anemoi

In his Tetrabiblos 1:10 Claudius Ptolemy links the four cardinal directions to these four winds. In book II:3 Ptolemy divides the world into four quarters and links countries under the planetary rulership of the triplicities in a tradition directly stemming back to the four winds of Babylonian astrology.
As thou conversest with the heavens, so instruct and inform thy minde according to the image of Divinity William Lilly