Ashtakavarga

Where the points come from

For each of the seven planets Parashara gives a fixed table: for every one of the eight sources — the seven planets and the lagna — it lists the houses, counted from that source's own position, in which the source gives the planet a bindu. Add the eight sources up for each sign and the result is the planet's own score for that sign, its Bhinnashtakavarga: twelve numbers, each from 0 to 8. A bindu is a benefic point, a rekha (zero) is none.

The totals never change

Because the tables are fixed, the sum of each planet's twelve numbers is the same in every chart in the world:

The seven add up to 337, and the lagna's own score adds 49 on top of that (it is not part of the 337). This is a handy check on any program: if your Saturn does not total 39, or the signs do not add to 337, something is wrong. Only the way the points are spread over the signs differs from chart to chart.

Sarvashtakavarga: the whole picture

Add the seven planets' scores sign by sign and you get the Sarvashtakavarga, SAV: twelve numbers that add up to 337, so the average is about 28 per sign. A common rule of thumb: a sign above 28 is well supported, a sign below about 25 is thin. Authors use slightly different thresholds, and the numbers are read by house too: counting the signs from the lagna, a house with more points is one where the chart gives more support, and with fewer points one where things are harder to build. SAV is a map of support, not a promise.

How transits use it

The main use is the fruit of transits. When a planet moves into a sign, look at its own BAV for that sign: with 4 or more points the passage is read as supported, with fewer as harder, and the more points, the clearer the effect. It is a way to tell apart two passages of the same planet through different houses. For the Saturn of Sade Sati it shows which of the seven and a half years are lighter and which heavier. A finer step splits each sign into eight stretches of 3°45′, one per source, and asks whether the stretch the planet is in is a bindu of that source.

A worked example

The same sample chart as in the Shadbala article: 1 January 1990, 12:00, Delhi, lagna Pisces. The Sarvashtakavarga by house from the lagna:

The twelve numbers add up to 337. The best-supported house is the 10th (32), the thinnest the 12th (21): a transit of any planet through the 12th, Aquarius, would be read with caution, and through the 10th, Sagittarius, as well supported. Some textbooks expect the 11th house to carry the most points; here it has only 25 — a tendency, not a rule.

Questions

See also

• Shadbala
• Sade Sati
• Vimshottari dasha
• Lagna (ascendant)
• 11th house

Positions and tables: sidereal zodiac, Lahiri ayanamsha — the same as professional Jyotish astrologers use, and the same calculation as the charts in JyotiSoft. Updated 2026-10-14.