The nine grahas of Vedic astrology

Why graha, not just planet

The Sanskrit word graha means to grasp or hold. The classical authors used it for anything that visibly takes hold of a life: the Sun and the Moon (not planets in the astronomical sense), the five naked-eye planets and two mathematical points — the north and south nodes of the Moon, Rahu and Ketu. That is why there are exactly nine, and why Indian temples keep a shrine to the navagraha, the nine grahas.

Each graha is at once a meaning (its karakatva: the Sun signifies the father and authority, Venus the partner and pleasure), a strength (by sign, house, aspect and shadbala) and a time (in the Vimshottari system each graha rules a chapter of life, its dasha).

Benefics and malefics

The natural benefics (shubha) are Jupiter, Venus, a bright Moon and an unafflicted Mercury. The natural malefics (papa) are Saturn, Mars, the Sun, Rahu and Ketu. This is not a list of good and bad planets: a Saturn that rules the best houses of a chart gives more than a weak Jupiter. Natural character is only the first line of the analysis — what a graha does for your ascendant depends on the houses it rules.

Where a graha is strong

A graha's sign comes first: in its own sign or its sign of exaltation it acts fully, in its sign of debilitation it struggles. The house from the lagna (ascendant) comes second — grahas in the kendras (houses 1, 4, 7 and 10) are the most visible in a life. The nakshatra a graha occupies, and that nakshatra's ruler, refine the picture. JyotiSoft computes all of these for any chart.

Dashas: when a graha switches on

The Vimshottari dasha divides 120 years into nine periods: Ketu 7 years, Venus 20, Sun 6, Moon 10, Mars 7, Rahu 18, Jupiter 16, Saturn 19, Mercury 17. Which period a life begins with depends on the Moon's nakshatra at birth. So the same planet can stay quiet in a chart for decades and then take centre stage when its dasha begins — which is why Vedic astrologers ask about your current dasha before almost anything else.

Questions