Samudrika Shastra
The old Indian study of lakshanas, the marks and features of the whole body. Varahamihira places it in the Samhita branch of Jyotish. It is a tradition of signs, not medicine and not a test of character or worth.
- Samudrika Shastra
- हिंदी: सामुद्रिक शास्त्र
What is the rule behind Samudrika Shastra?
Samudrika Shastra reads lakshanas, the marks and features of the whole body: build, proportion, lustre, face, voice, gait, limbs, feet and marks. Varahamihira places it in the Samhita branch of Jyotish.
Source: Brihat Samhita
The texts' judgements of complexion, caste, women's bodies and character are learned as history. A reader never judges worth, honesty or crime from the body, never ranks complexion, caste, gender or disability, makes no health, fertility or death claims, and reads only an adult who asks.
Source: Course policy
Where can you learn about Samudrika Shastra?
Related terms
- LakshanaA mark or feature the texts read: build, proportion, lustre, face, voice, gait, limbs, feet or a mole.
- Hasta SamudrikaThe hand as one part of Samudrika. The palmistry subject teaches the hand; a reader who reads both reads the body first, then the hand.
- Brihat SamhitaVarahamihira's 6th-century work, the main source of Samudrika, with chapters on the marks of men, the five great men and women. Editions number the chapters differently.
- KalapurushaThe person of time, on whose body Jyotish places the twelve signs, from Aries at the head to Pisces at the feet.
- AngulaThe breadth of a person's own finger, the unit for their height. Brihat Samhita gives 108 angulas as tall, 96 as medium and 84 as short.
- TalaThe length of the face, from hairline to chin, used by image-making texts such as Manasara to measure a figure. A living adult is about nine to ten talas tall.
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What does Samudrika Shastra mean in Samudrika Shastra?
The old Indian study of lakshanas, the marks and features of the whole body. Varahamihira places it in the Samhita branch of Jyotish. It is a tradition of signs, not medicine and not a test of character or worth. Samudrika Shastra reads lakshanas, the marks and features of the whole body: build, proportion, lustre, face, voice, gait, limbs, feet and marks. Varahamihira places it in the Samhita branch of Jyotish.
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