Pancha Pakshi is a technique used to ascertain a good time period for performing an activity. It is an ancient Tamil technique and said to be very powerful when used efficiently. The shastra of Pancha Pakshi deals with a number of things such as lucky directions, colours, name syllables etc but largely used for understanding favorable times for an individual to perform important tasks.
Pancha Pakshi makes use of 3 elements of the Panchang viz Vara, Nakshatra and Tithi. These three hold high prominence in the methodology of Pancha Pakshi Shastra. The concept on an overall framework works based on a bird assigned to each individual depending on the birth star one is born and this associated bird is supposed to give good and bad results on specific days (Vara) and Tithi based on whether the moon is operating in a waxing cycle or waning cycle.
There are 5 birds utilized in the Pancha Pakshi Shastra viz Vulture, Owl, Crow, Cock and Peacock. All these birds engage in different activities such as Rule, Walk, Eat, Sleep and Die. The birds are said to be most active in ruling state and most weakest in their dying state. Each day and night of 12 hours each (30 Nazhika) are divided into five equal portions called Yaama of 2 hours and 24 minutes each (6 Nazhika) and allotted to different activities of the birds. Please remember day time begins from sunrise to sunset and night time begins from sunset to next day sunrise. If the distance between sunrise to sunset or sunset to next day sunrise happens to be a little over or less than 12 hours, that needs to be factored as well to ensure that both day and night portion are equally split into 5 portions and allotted to all the 5 birds.
Method to know Pancha Pakshi:
First you need to know the bird which you are ruled by and for this one of the methods is by simply knowing your Birth Nakshatra. Each bird is mapped to a set of Nakshatras and based on that you can figure out which bird you belong to. The order of birds synced with Nakshatras is as inscribed below:
Vulture : Ashwini, Bharani, Kritika, Rohini, Mrigashira (1 to 5 Nakshatras)
Owl : Arudra, Punarvasu, Pushya, Aaslesha, Magha, Purva Phalguni (6 to 11 Nakshatras)
Crow : Uttara Phalguni, Hasta, Chitra, Swati, Vishakha (12 to 16 Nakshatras)
Cock : Anuradha, Jyeshtha, Moola, Poorvaashadha, Uttaraashadha, Shravana (17 to 22 Nakshatras)
Peacock : Dhanishta, Shatabhisha, Purva Bhadra, Uttara Bhadra, Revathi (23 to 27 Nakshatras)
There is another opinion that the order of the birds are reversed based on whether you were born in waxing phase or waning phase. For instance let's say someone were to be born in Magha Nakshatra in Shukla Paksha. In this case Owl will be the Pakshi or bird assigned. However if the native was born in same Magha Nakshatra but in the waning half or Krishna Paksha, then Cock is said to be assigned as the Bird order is said to be reversed. There is never really a consensus on this and hence this note is documented here as a piece of information
However the more correct approach of determining one's bird would be based on one's actual Date, Place and Time of Birth. This will be explained below by means of an illustration along with the concept.
Ruling Days and Death Days:
As per the shastra of Pancha Pakshi, each of the birds rule a particular day and night depending on waxing and waning cycles of the moon and also happen to be in a dying state based on an entire day from sunrise to next day sunrise also with respect to the waxing and waning cycles of the moon. For instance Vulture rules Day time during waxing phase on a Tuesday whereas it rules night time on a Friday in the waxing phase. Likewise you can figure out that Owl is in a death state during the whole of Monday both during day time and night time in the waning phase. The table below lists the days of the week along with the ruling period as well as dying period for each of the birds both in waxing as well as waning state.
Bird Sequence and Order of Activities:
As indicated earlier, each bird performs an activity for 2 hours and 24 minutes (1 Yama or 6 Nazhikas) and has 5 activities to perform which totals 12 hours during day time and 12 hours during night time. Let us say, the day is a Sunday day time and moon is in the waxing state. The ruling bird for the day time on Sunday during the waxing phase happens to be Vulture. Now within this day time of 12 hours, each bird will perform different activities for 144 minutes or 2 hours and 24 minutes. For eg if the sunrise starts at 6AM on Sunday, Vulture will be in eating state from 6.00 AM to 8:24 AM, walking state from 8.24 AM to 10.48 AM, ruling state from 10.48 AM to 13:12 PM, sleeping state from 13:12 PM to 15:36 PM and in dying state from 15:36 PM to 18:00 PM. Every other bird will also be engaged in different activities for 144 minutes within the same time frame. Also within this time frame of 144 minutes or 2 hrs 24 minutes there are sub periods of activities taking place of sub birds within the main bird. To explain, we know that the Vulture is in eating state from 6.00 AM to 8:24 AM in a day time on Sunday during the waxing phase. Within this 144 minutes there are sub activities of all the 5 birds split up starting from the main bird such as to say Vulture eats from 6.00 AM to 6:30 AM, Owl walks from 6:30 AM to 7:06 AM, Crow rules from 7:06 AM to 7:54 AM, Cock sleeps from 7:54 AM to 8:12 AM and Peacock dies from 8:12 AM to 8:24 AM. These sub periods are made to ascertain the relationship of the main bird with other birds and to divide time at a deeper intricate level. The information below explains the sequence of birds along with the split of the sub bird activities which are broken into different time periods (minutes) or Nazhikas.
SEQUENCE BEGINNING FROM RULING BIRD
DAY TIME WAXING : VULTURE->OWL->CROW->COCK->PEACOCK
NIGHT TIME WAXING : VULTURE->PEACOCK->COCK->CROW->OWL
DAY TIME WANING : VULTURE->CROW->PEACOCK->OWL->COCK
NIGHT TIME WANING : VULTURE->COCK->OWL->PEACOCK>CROW
ORDER OF ACTIVITY IN EACH YAMA
DAY TIME WAXING : EAT 30-WALK 36-RULE 48-SLEEP 18-DEATH 12
NIGHT TIME WAXING : EAT 30-RULE 48-DEATH 12-WALK 36-SLEEP 18
DAY TIME WANING : EAT 30-DEATH 12-SLEEP 18-RULE 48-WALK 36
NIGHT TIME WANING : EAT 30-SLEEP 18-WALK 36-DEATH 12-RULE 48
Illustration:
Let's say an individual is born on Thursday at day time 7:30 AM in the Nakshatra constellation of Jyeshta during the Waning Phase. Let's presume that the sun rise time is at 6:00 AM and sunset is at 6:00 PM. First we need to find out the bird for this gentleman based on the sequence of birds and activities mentioned. The Day is Thursday Day Time and Moon is in the Waning Phase. Hence we first need to have this information handy.
BIRD - DAY TIME WANING : VULTURE->CROW->PEACOCK->OWL->COCK
ACTIVITY - DAY TIME WANING : EAT 30-DEATH 12-SLEEP 18-RULE 48-WALK 36
We know that on a Thursday during day time in Krishna Paksha, the Owl happens to be the ruling bird from the table above. Since one Yama runs for 2 hours and 24 minutes and this person was born at 7.30 AM which is just 1 and half hours after Sunrise, it can be understood that he was born during the first Yama. The order of birds always start from the ruling bird and hence within this 2 hours 24 minutes comprising of first Yama, Owl will eat for 30 minutes from 6.00 AM to 6.30 AM, Cock will die from 6.30 AM to 6.42 AM, Vulture will sleep from 6.42 AM to 7.00 AM, Crow will rule from 7.00 AM to 7.48 AM and Peacock will walk from 7.48 AM to 8.24 AM. Since the person was born at 7:30 AM, it was during the time Crow was performing it's activity and hence Crow will be his actual bird. As per the Nakshatra constellation of Jyeshta he would be assigned Cock bird or even owl bird if bird order gets reversed for Shukla Paksha and Krishna Paksha. This doesn't seem so appropriate and hence the bird based on actual time of taking birth seems more relevant.
Utilizing Time of Pancha Pakshi:
Since the person comes under Crow bird, we will be concerned about the activities and sub activities only of the Crow. Hence the ideal time which should be sought for performing important activities should be on those days when Crow is in a powerful ruling state. We find that during Shukla Paksha in day time it rules on a Thursday and in night time it rules both on Sunday and Tuesday. Similarly in Krishna Paksha, in day time it rules on a Wednesday and in night time it rules Thursday. Hence these periods of approximately 12 hours depending on whether day time or night time is powerful for crow bird native to perform important tasks. Within this time, the sub-periods also can be factored in to find those fragments of time when it's most powerful. Also since the three elements of Vara, Tithi and Nakshatra are used in Pancha Pakshi, it tends to be even more robust when the respective Tithi and Nakshatra are operating on the particular ruling day of the week be it for Shukla Paksha or Krishna Paksha irrespective of day time or night time. The Tithis are 15 in number in both waxing and waning half with 1/6/11 Tithi classified as Nandha, 2/7/12 known as Bhadra, 3/8/13 grouped as Jaya, 4/9/14 called Rikhta and 5/10/15 termed as Purna. The Nakshatras are 27 in number with the cycle beginning from 1st Nakshatra known as Ashwini and ending with 27th Nakshatra titled Revathi.
There are also relationships provided of each bird with another and these periods can also be utilized based on the friendship it possesses with one another.
WAXING MOON:
Vulture: Friends - Peacock & Owl, Enemies - Crow & Cock
Owl: Friends - Vulture & Crow, Enemies - Cock & Peacock
Crow: Friends - Owl & Cock, Enemies - Peacock & Vulture
Cock: Friends - Crow & Peacock, Enemies - Vulture & Owl
Peacock: Friends - Cock & Vulture, Enemies - Owl & Crow
WANING MOON:
Vulture: Friends - Crow & Peacock, Enemies - Owl & Cock
Owl: Friends - Crow & Cock, Enemies - Vulture & Peacock
Crow: Friends - Vulture & Owl, Enemies - Cock & Peacock
Cock: Friends - Crow & Peacock, Enemies - Vulture & Owl
Peacock: Friends - Cock & Vulture, Enemies - Owl & Crow
Conclusion:
As you can see the whole computation appears a bit complicated. It gets very dicey especially when breaking the puzzle into minute fragments of time intervals and establishing the relation of the sub bird with the main bird. It is definitely a difficult procedure to lay down times for each and every sub atomic level of time. It's surely not helpful for repetitive mundane tasks as getting a hands on of the computation itself will end up taking a long period of time but on an overall framework it can be pretty useful especially when you know the day and night time ruled by your bird and also the deathly state it gets into on specific days. This can help you take well calculated decisions on days favorable to you.
Note: On researching about this topic, I did find some discrepancies in the explanation of some of the definitions. For instance one school of thought does not believe in considering waxing and waning phase when ascertaining the pakshi whereas the other school believes that the bird changes based on whether one is born in Waxing or waning phase. There were also some confusions on whether Shravana star should belong to Cock or Peacock as per Nakshatra scheme of finding bird. I went with the former but still the issue remains unsorted due to various diversions. Also with regard to sub time periods as well as order of birds ruling night time especially there appears to be some issues because it appears misleading that a bird can be both in ruling state at night time and also deathly state during the whole day. These prevailing issues cause some unnecessary distortions for which nobody really knows what the truth is. It is good to know about this technique but the employment of it in practice may involve lots of trials and errors coupled with experience and research especially due to the prevailing confusions associated with respect to this topic.
