Ashtakavarga

Ashtakavarga is a very sophisticated and unique transit system. There is nothing else like it anywhere in the world. In Vedic Astrology, there is such a plethora of techniques to choose from. According to Parasara, to make the process of prediction a lot simpler, Ashtakavarga can be used. To practice Ashtakavarga effectively, it is important to be very familiar with the qualities and actions of each planet as a karaka and the qualities and actions of each house. This is the key. In Ashtakavarga, Varga charts are not used.

A transit of a planet through a Sign has many layers of meanings. For example, when Jupiter is transiting a Sign, you judge the effect of Jupiter transiting to all the planets plus the Ascendant. You judge the transit of Jupiter to not only the natal Moon, as in Gochara, but also to the natal Sun, natal Mars, natal Mercury, natal Jupiter, natal Venus, natal Saturn and the Ascendant. The transit of Jupiter is judged from eight places, hence the name of Ashtaka (Eight) Varga (Divisions). A planet is favorable or unfavorable from where it is transiting from a particular planet.

Ashtakavarga is more important than Gochara. It is a more precise measurement because it measures a planet’s strength from every planet, not just the Moon. Gochara is just 1/8 of Ashtakavarga. If a planet is transiting a house with high points in Ashtakavarga, but a bad house from the Moon (Gochara), then the results of Ashtakavarga trump the results obtained from Gochara. For example, Saturn transiting the 12th, 1st and 2nd from the Moon is considered inauspicious, but Saturn may be very auspicious in other respects, as in the case of Saturn transiting a house with high Ashtakavaraga points. In this case, Saturn would be able to perform very well and give auspicious results. Ashtakavarga takes a more accurate and holistic look at the transiting planets than just those transits from the natal Moon.

A planet transits a sign. Based on this placement, it either receives a 1 or a 0 depending on whether it is auspicious or inauspicious from a certain planet. For example, Saturn transits Aries and in the birth chart, Saturn is in Cancer. Saturn in the 10th from itself is not auspicious, so Aries received 0 points.

Whenever a planet is transiting a sign with low points, low points being below 4, it is always going to give trouble to that sign and trouble to the planet’s significations.

0, 1, 2, or 3 points = Bad; 4 points =Average; 5, 6, 7, or 8 points = Good.

Jupiter will tend to have more than 4 pts in every sign. Saturn will rarely have more than 4. Jupiter and Venus are favorable in transit to most planets and Saturn is unfavorable in transit to most planets.

The following is a tabulation of where each planets give points from it’s natal placement, from all the other planets’ natal placements and from the Ascendant.

Sun
The Sun gives a point in the following houses from himself, Mars and Saturn; the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th. From the Moon: 3rd, 6th, 10th and 11th. From Mercury: 3rd, 5th, 6th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th. From Jupiter: 5th, 6th, 9th, and 11th. From Venus: 6th, 7th and 12th. From the Ascendant: 3rd, 4th, 6th, 10th, 11th and 12th.

Moon
The Moon gives a point to the following houses from himself: 1st, 3rd, 6th, 7th, 10th, and 11th. From the Sun: 3rd, 6th, 7th, 8th, 10th and 11th. From Mars: 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 9th, 10th and 11th. From Mercury: 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th, 10th, and 11th. From Jupiter: 1st, 4th, 7th, 8th, 10th, 11th and 12th. From Venus: 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 9th, 10th and 11th. From Saturn: 3rd, 5th, 6th and 11th. From Ascendant: 3rd, 6th, 10th and 11th.

Mars
Mars give a point to the following houses from himself: 1st, 2nd, 4th, 7th, 8th, 10th and 11th. From the Sun: 3rd, 5th, 6th, 10th and 11th. From the Moon: 3rd, 6th, and 11th. From Mercury: 3rd, 5th, 6th, and 11th. From Jupiter: 6th, 10th, 11th and 12th. From Venus: 6th, 8th, 11th, and 12th. From Saturn: 10th and 11th. From the Ascendant: 1st, 3rd, 6th, 10th and 11th.

Mercury
Mercury gives a point to the following houses from himself: 1st, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 9th,10th, 11th and 12th. From the Sun: 5th, 6th, 9th, 11th, and 12th. From the Moon: 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th and 11th. From Mars and Saturn: 1st, 2nd, 4th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th. From Jupiter: 6th, 8th, 11th and 12th. From Venus: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 8th, 9th, and 11th. From the Ascendant: 1st, 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th and 11th.

Jupiter
Jupiter gives a point to the following houses from himself: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 7th, 8th, 10th, and 11th. From the Sun: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th. From the Moon: 2nd, 5th, 7th, 9th and 11th. From Mars: 1st, 2nd, 4th, 7th, 8th, 10th and 11th. From Mercury: 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 9th, 10th and 11th. From Venus: 2nd, 5th, 6th, 9th, 10th, and 11th. From Saturn: 3rd, 5th, 6th and 12th. From the Ascendant: 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 9th, 10th and 11th.

Venus
Venus gives a point to the following houses from himself: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th. From the Sun: 8th, 11th and 12th. From the Moon: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 8th, 9th, 11th and 12th. From Mars: 3rd, 5th, 6th, 9th, 11th and 12th. From Mercury: 3rd, 5th, 6th, 9th and 11th. From Jupiter: 5th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th. From Saturn: 3rd, 4th, 5th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th. From the Ascendant: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th.

Saturn
Saturn gives a point to the following houses from himself: 3rd, 5th, 6th and 11th. From the Sun: 1st, 2nd, 4th, 7th, 8th, 10th and 11th. From the Moon: 3rd, 6th and 11th. From Mars: 3rd, 5th, 6th, 10th, 11th and 12th. From Mercury: 6th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th. From Jupiter: 5th, 6th, 11th and 12th. From Venus: 6th, 11th and 12th. From the Ascendant: 1st, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 10th and 11th.

For each planet, add up all of the points given and combine them into one chart. Each planet should have a chart with its corresponding Ashtakavarga points. In each house, the points will number between 0 and 8. 0 – 3 is inauspicious, 4 is average, and 5 – 8 is auspicious. When a planet transits a house where it gives more than 4 points, then it will affect that house and its inherent significations positively. The most important planets to watch for transits are Saturn, Jupiter, and the dasa lord. If you want to know about a specific area of life, like for example vehicles, you would also look at the transit of the house lord. For vehicles, watch the transit of the 4th lord and Venus. When these two planets transit houses that have 4 or more points, then you will have auspicious experiences with vehicles. When these two planets transit a house with 3 or less points, a person would have inauspicious experiences with vehicles.

Determining Important Ages
Important ages are best explained by using an example. Let us take for our example Jupiter. To find the important ages for Jupiter, add up all the points in each house beginning with the Ascendant to the house that contains Jupiter. The total of those points will give an important age in the person’s life for Jupiterian things, like wealth, children, knowledge, religion or philosophy, finding a spiritual teacher, meeting one’s husband if the person in question is a woman. The second step is to add up all points from Jupiter to the Ascendant and that will also be a very important age for Jupiterian things. Then we combine all of the points we just added up and that will also be an important year for Jupiter. The ancient texts say that the ages of Saturn are the most important ages. These are the times the person meets with many Saturnian experiences. The person will experience long term, life changing events in these years.

Auspicious Directions
Each planet’s Ashtakavarga has auspicious directions. For example if Venus has the most Ashtakavarga points, in Libra and Pisces, then a person will have more luck with Venusian type things like romance, the bedroom and comfort from the directions of West and SE, because Libra rules the West and Pisces rules SouthEast. The directions are tabulated based upon the South Indian Rasi Chart and the movement of the Sun in the Northern Hemisphere. When the Sun is at the farthest North, it is in Cancer and Leo, when it is farthest South, when it is coldest, it is in Capricorn and Aquarius. There is another system as well that is based upon the elements – fire signs rule the East, earth signs rule the South, water signs rule the North and air signs rule the West. The auspicious directions method can be effective when used in relationship with your home. Another example would be Jupiter having the most Ashtakavarga points in Capricorn. In this case, keeping your valuable in the South of your home would increase your wealth.

Important Transits
The house from the karaka is always a pertinent house. For example, Jupiter rules many things like wealth, income, children, well-being of the husband for a woman. The 2nd house is wealth, the 11th house is income, the 5th house is children and the 7th house is the husband. The 2nd house from Jupiter will be an important house for wealth. The 11th house from Jupiter will be an important house for income. The 5th house from Jupiter will be an important house for children. The 9th house from Jupiter will be an important house for knowledge. Let us say Jupiter is in Libra. So Scorpio will become an important house for wealth. However, in the Ashtakavarga system, it is a little more tricky than simply just looking at the house from the karaka. We must find the sensitive houses of transit for each planet. To do this, it is necessary to find something called the Yoga Pinda. It is a rather tedious process to do this by hand and most Vedic Astrological Software will calculate the yoga pinda. The method is also explained in BPHS in chapters 69 – 71.

Continuing with Jupiter in Libra as our example, multiply the yoga pinda by the Ashtakavarga points in the sign from Jupiter you want to know about. If you want to know about wealth, take the Ashtakavarga points for Scorpio, the 2nd from Libra. If you want to know about children, take the Asktakavarga points for Aquarius, the 5th from Libra. Take the total of the Ashtakavarga points multiplied by the yoga pinda and divide by 12. The remainder is the number of the sign as counted from Aries. So any planet transiting that sign is a sensitive point when it comes to the significations of that house from the karaka. For example Jupiter has a Yoga pinda of 98. If we want to look at the income, we take the 11th from Jupiter and Jupiter is in a sign of Libra so the 11th from it is Leo. The Ashtaka for Jupiter in Leo is 4, so multiply 4 x 98 = 392. Now divide 392 by 12 = 32 and remainder is 8. So the 8th sign of Scorpio is a very sensitive place in respect to the income for planets to transit.

A planet is going to have some effect transiting these sensitive houses based on the method shown above. What type of effect will they have? It depends upon the Ashtakavarga points that the planet has in that house. Using the example above, if a planet is transiting Scorpio and we want to know if that planet will harm or help the income, we look to see how many Ashtakavarga points that transiting planet is giving the sign of Scorpio. If it is over 4 points, then the planet will give beneficial results. If it is 3 or less, then there will be some stress experienced when dealing with income. The stress will be through its natural significations and through its lordship of house. For example, if it is Venus transiting Scorpio, then women, vehicles, students and/or the love life will cause stress to the income.

Saturn and Jupiter transits are the ones you want to look at first. Saturn and Jupiter are planets that orient us toward our destiny. When Jupiter is transiting, then it is making us look forward to that realm of life and expanding that realm of life. Saturn transiting will force us to face that area of life and we will have a lot of responsibilities in that area of life even if we do not want them. Saturn is our duty and responsibilities and Jupiter is our excitement and hope. In any sign Jupiter is in, it will open us up to any possibilities of that house. Jupiter makes us expand in that direction. Saturn closes us off and narrows the path. As stated above, to ascertain if Saturn or Jupiter will be good in transit, you must assess the number of points the planet is giving to the Sign.

Let’s take Venus for relationships. In this example, Venus occupies Aries, so we take the 7th from Venus which is Libra. The yoga pinda for Venus = 96. The Ashtakavarga points for Venus in Libra is 5. 5 x 96 = 480. Divide this by 12 = 40 and there is no remainder. If there is no remainder then we take 12 as the number of the sign. This is Pisces, therefore when planets are transiting Pisces, they influence the relationship life because Pisces is a sensitive house for relationships. The 2nd from Venus is healthy and nourishing food. The 4th from Venus is the swimming pool and interior decoration. 4th from Venus also has to do with automobiles. Home is 4th from Mars. Every planet is a karaka for a bhava but some are less important than others.

When the Sun transits a sensitive bhava (house), that indicates the month that the relative event will happen. The Sun is a timing system. You can also use the Moon to time the event within 2 and a half days. Jupiter indicates the year that an event could happen. Saturn is important in timing when something leaves our life or when we are forced into responsibilities regarding the house from the karaka Saturn is transiting. When Saturn transits sensitive points, usually destiny will force a change on our lives. Mars shows when we have to fight for something. Venus shows when we relax and get nourished. Mercury will show when we will improve upon that thing. The Lagna can be used for timing the 2 hour period. Not only is the sign in question a sensitive point but also the trines to that sign. For example, for income, the sensitive sign for that is Scorpio, so Scorpio’s trines, Pisces and Cancer are also sensitive places for income.

Also look at the Mahadasa lord and where he is transiting. He will have an important impact on life events. Treat it like Jupiter. He will stimulate and expand that house when the dasa lord passes through that house or its trines.

Everything that has just been written about Ashtakavarga for the signs can also be applied to the Nakshatras. In the yoga pinda method of finding the sensitive Nakshatras, instead of dividing by 12 we divide by 27.

Classical texts tell us to look at the 8th from Saturn. When a planets transits the sensitive signs for the 8th house from Saturn, it can be difficult time for the health and physical well-being of the native.