Virodha argala · The counter-intervention

Virodha argala is the counter to an argala, the obstruction set against the bolt. For each primary intervention there is a specific house that answers it: the twelfth counters the second, the tenth counters the fourth, the third counters the eleventh. A planet in the answering house argues against the intervention aimed at the point.

Which side holds is a question of weight. If the virodha argala is the stronger, carrying more planets or stronger ones, the argala is blocked and its intervention is read as not landing. If the argala keeps the weight, the counter fails and the bolt holds. The technique works like a ledger, intervention on one side and obstruction on the other, with the result read from whichever is heavier.

Read the bolt, then read the argument against it.

This is why an argala is not counted alone. A supportive benefic in the eleventh reads as strong argala, yet a heavier malefic in the third can answer it and keep the intervention from arriving. The tradition weighs both, the bolt and its counter, before it reads what the point delivers.