One force, four names, and a false friend.
Sūrya is Ravi is the Sun is सूर्य. Most confusion in this subject is not conceptual — it is that the same thing is called different things in different languages, and the English word usually means something other than the Sanskrit it stands in for.
The nine grahas
| Sanskrit | Hindi | English | Also called |
|---|---|---|---|
| Śukraशुक्र | Shukra | Venus | Bhārgava · Kavi · Uśanas |
| The seventh dhātu is also called śukra. BPHS assigns the tissue to the graha, but they are two different things with one name — and a shared etymology (both from a root meaning bright or white) is not a shared doctrine. | |||
| Sūryaसूर्य | Surya / Ravi | Sun | Ravi · Āditya · Bhāskara · Arka |
| Sunday is Ravivār, from Ravi — the weekday names in Hindi are the graha names, which is often the quickest way to remember them. | |||
| Candraचन्द्र | Chandra / Soma | Moon | Soma · Indu · Śaśin |
| Spelt Candra in IAST and pronounced Chandra — the IAST c is always the ch of church. This trips almost every English reader. | |||
| Maṅgalaमङ्गल | Mangal | Mars | Kuja · Bhauma · Aṅgāraka |
| Maṅgala also means auspicious in ordinary Hindi, which is the opposite of how the graha is usually read. Maṅgalvār is Tuesday. | |||
| Budhaबुध | Budh | Mercury | Saumya · Jña |
| Budha is not Buddha. One letter apart, entirely unrelated — Budha is the graha of intellect and commerce; Buddha is the awakened one. Budhvār is Wednesday. | |||
| Guruगुरु | Guru / Brihaspati | Jupiter | Bṛhaspati · Devaguru · Vācaspati |
| Guru means teacher in ordinary use and Jupiter in Jyotiṣa, and the tradition intends both at once. Guruvār / Brihaspativār is Thursday. | |||
| Śaniशनि | Shani | Saturn | Manda · Chāyāputra · Śanaiścara |
| Śanaiścara means slow-mover, which is the observation the entire doctrine is built on. Śanivār is Saturday — and so is Saturn's day in English, from the same sky. | |||
| Rāhuराहु | Rahu | North Node | Tamas · Svarbhānu |
| Not a planet and not a body. It is a computed point where the Moon's path crosses the Sun's — which is why eclipses happen there. It has no weekday. | |||
| Ketuकेतु | Ketu | South Node | Śikhin · Dhvaja |
| The opposite crossing point, always exactly 180° from Rāhu. Also not a body, also no weekday. | |||
The twelve rāśis
| Sanskrit | Hindi | English | Literally |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meṣaमेष | Mesh | Aries | the ram |
| Vṛṣabhaवृषभ | Vrishabh | Taurus | the bull |
| Mithunaमिथुन | Mithun | Gemini | the couple |
| Karkaकर्क | Kark | Cancer | the crab |
| Siṃhaसिंह | Simha | Leo | the lion |
| Kanyāकन्या | Kanya | Virgo | the maiden |
| Tulāतुला | Tula | Libra | the balance |
| Vṛścikaवृश्चिक | Vrishchik | Scorpio | the scorpion |
| Dhanuधनु | Dhanu | Sagittarius | the bow |
| Makaraमकर | Makar | Capricorn | the sea-creature |
| Kumbhaकुम्भ | Kumbh | Aquarius | the pot |
| Mīnaमीन | Meen | Pisces | the fish |
The twelve rāśi names translate the twelve Western signs exactly — ram, bull, couple, crab — because both descend from the same Babylonian scheme. They do not point at the same stretch of sky. The Western zodiac is tropical, anchored to the equinox; the Indian is sidereal, anchored to the stars, and precession has separated them by about 24°. So somebody who has always been told they are Gemini is, in this system, usually Vṛṣabha — one sign earlier. Neither is wrong. They are two different measurements, and the names being identical is what makes the difference so easy to miss.
42 terms that mislead
Each has a literal meaning, a technical meaning, and a reasonable-but-wrong assumption the English invites. The third is the useful one.
Grahaग्रह
literally — seizer, one who grasps
One of nine forces read in a chart — seven visible bodies plus two computed points.
Watch outNot 'planet'. The word is about what it does to you, not what it is made of, which is why two of the nine are not bodies at all and why Jyotiṣa declined to admit Uranus, Neptune and Pluto after they were discovered.
Rāśiराशि
literally — a heap, a quantity
One of twelve 30° divisions of the ecliptic, measured sidereally from a fixed star.
Watch outTranslated 'sign', which invites you to assume it is the Western sign of the same name. It is the same name and a different arc of sky — about 24° earlier.
Bhāvaभाव
literally — state of being, becoming
One of twelve houses — an area of life, counted from the ascendant.
Watch outA rāśi is a division of the sky; a bhāva is a division of a life. They coincide only under whole-sign houses, which is what this site computes.
Lagnaलग्न
literally — attached, joined
The ascendant — the rāśi rising on the eastern horizon at birth.
Watch outIt is a point in time, not a quality. Four minutes of clock error moves it roughly one degree; two hours usually changes the sign entirely and with it every house in the chart.
Ucchaउच्च
literally — high, elevated
Exaltation — the sign, and specific degree, where a graha is held to act most fully.
Watch out'Exalted' sounds like a moral compliment. It is a position, and BPHS states the degrees without explaining them; the reasoning is lost rather than hidden.
Nīcaनीच
literally — low, fallen
Debilitation — the sign opposite exaltation, where a graha is held to act least freely.
Watch outNot broken and not a verdict. Nīcabhaṅga can cancel it outright, and BPHS gives several conditions for that without settling how many must be met.
Nīcabhaṅgaनीचभङ्ग
literally — the breaking of the low
Cancellation of debilitation, under any of several stated conditions.
Watch outPractice diverges sharply on how many conditions are required and whether the result is neutrality or unusual strength. This engine checks one condition and says so.
Svakṣetraस्वक्षेत्र
literally — own field
A graha in a sign it rules.
Watch outDistinct from exaltation. Mercury in Virgo is both, which is the only such case, and the tradition never explains the overlap.
Mūlatrikoṇaमूलत्रिकोण
literally — root trine
A favoured arc within a graha's own sign, ranked between exaltation and own-sign.
Watch outA third grade of dignity that most simplified accounts omit, which makes the dignity scheme look tidier than it is.
Dṛṣṭiदृष्टि
literally — gaze, sight
Aspect — where a graha casts its influence.
Watch outThe single most misleading translation in the field. Western aspects are mutual and angular; graha dṛṣṭi is a **one-way gaze** at stated houses. Saturn aspects the third from itself; the third does not aspect Saturn back.
Yutiयुति
literally — joining
Conjunction — two or more grahas in the same rāśi.
Watch outIn whole-sign terms this means the same sign, not necessarily close degrees. Two grahas 28° apart in one sign are conjunct here and would not be in Western practice.
Yogaयोग
literally — union, yoking
A named combination of placements held to produce a specific result.
Watch outNothing to do with āsana or the practice. BPHS Ch. 34–42 catalogues hundreds; almost every chart contains several, including contradictory ones.
Kārakaकारक
literally — doer, maker, cause
A significator — the graha that stands for a matter.
Watch outTwo incompatible systems share this word. Parāśara's naisargika kārakas are fixed by nature; Jaimini's chara kārakas are awarded by degree and change per chart.
Ātmakārakaआत्मकारक
literally — soul-maker
Significator of the self.
Watch outThe clearest casualty of the above. In Parāśara it is always the Sun. In Jaimini it is whichever graha holds the highest degree — usually not the Sun. Same word, two referents, rarely flagged.
Kendraकेन्द्र
literally — centre
The angular houses — first, fourth, seventh, tenth.
Watch outCognate with the Greek kentron, and one of several visible marks of Hellenistic contact in the technical vocabulary.
Trikoṇaत्रिकोण
literally — triangle
The trines — first, fifth, ninth — the houses of dharma.
Watch outThe first house is both kendra and trikoṇa, the only house that is both, which is why its lord is held incapable of harm.
Duḥsthānaदुःस्थान
literally — bad place
The difficult houses — sixth, eighth, twelfth.
Watch outThe sixth is simultaneously a duḥsthāna and an upachaya. The system contains both classifications and never ranks them.
Upachayaउपचय
literally — accumulation, growth
The growing houses — third, sixth, tenth, eleventh — held to improve over a life.
Watch outMalefics here are read as strengthening, which directly contradicts the benefic-malefic scheme. Both rules are Parāśari and practitioners resolve the clash by temperament.
Mārakaमारक
literally — killer
The second and seventh houses, so classed by counting from the eighth.
Watch outA house-counting rule inside a longevity framework, not a prediction about anybody's death. Rendering it 'killer' has done real damage, and in India stating it as a prediction is also an actionable claim.
Bhāvāt bhāvamभावात् भावम्
literally — house from house
Reading a house by counting from another house rather than from the ascendant.
Watch outThe technique that generates the māraka rule, and it can be used to derive contradictory classifications for the same house.
Argalaअर्गला
literally — a bolt, a door-bar
Intervention — a placement that obstructs or supports a house's result.
Watch outBPHS Ch. 30. Largely absent from simplified practice, so its omission is rarely noticed.
Arudha padaआरूढ पद
literally — the mounted step
The image of a house — how a matter appears to others, rather than how it is.
Watch outJaimini material at BPHS Ch. 29. This engine does not compute it, so a whole layer asking about appearance versus reality is simply absent here.
Parivartanaपरिवर्तन
literally — exchange, turning about
Two grahas each occupying the sign the other rules.
Watch outRead as a strong link between the two houses involved, and classified into types that different authorities name differently.
Vakraवक्री
literally — crooked, bent
Retrograde — apparent backward motion against the stars.
Watch outAn appearance produced by relative orbital motion, not an actual reversal. Classical opinion on whether it strengthens or weakens a graha is genuinely divided.
Astaअस्त
literally — set, gone down
Combustion — a graha too near the Sun to be seen.
Watch outParāśara reads it as binary, consumed or not, at stated arcs; Varāhamihira grades it continuously. Same sky, two verdicts. Mercury is affected most, being never far from the Sun.
Vargottamaवर्गोत्तम
literally — best of the divisions
A graha in the same sign in both the rāśi chart and the navāṃśa.
Watch outHeld to be strengthening. Because navāṃśa spans 3°20′, this is one of the values most sensitive to birth-time error and to the ayanāṃśa chosen.
Vargaवर्ग
literally — a class, a division
A divisional chart, derived by subdividing each rāśi.
Watch outDivisional charts are computed, not observed — they are arithmetic on a longitude. Their sensitivity to birth time rises with the divisor.
Navāṃśaनवांश
literally — ninth part
The ninth divisional chart, each rāśi cut into nine of 3°20′.
Watch outConventionally read for marriage and for inner strength. A pāda of a nakṣatra is the same 3°20′ — the two schemes divide the sky identically and are read differently.
Aṣṭakavargaअष्टकवर्ग
literally — eightfold division
A point-scoring system rating each sign from the position of eight reference points.
Watch outBPHS Ch. 66–72. It produces numbers, which makes it feel more objective than the rest of the system. The rules generating the numbers are as interpretive as anything else.
Ṣaḍbalaषड्बल
literally — six strengths
A six-component strength calculation for each graha.
Watch outRoughly thirty sub-formulas, and authorities differ on several. Any single 'strength' figure shown anywhere — including on this site — is a simplification, and this site says which.
Digbalaदिग्बल
literally — directional strength
Strength from the house a graha occupies: Sun and Mars strongest in the tenth, Jupiter and Mercury in the first, and so on.
Watch outOne of the six components of ṣaḍbala, often quoted alone as though it were the whole.
Daśāदशा
literally — a state, a condition
A planetary period governing a stretch of life.
Watch outNot 'fate' and not a schedule of events. And it hangs entirely off the Moon's position, which is why the ayanāṃśa chosen can shift every date by up to three years.
Viṃśottarīविंशोत्तरी
literally — one hundred and twenty
The standard daśā system, 120 years distributed across nine grahas.
Watch outBPHS describes many daśā systems and this is one. Its dominance in modern practice is a convention, not a ruling.
Antardaśāअन्तर्दशा
literally — inner period
A sub-period within a daśā, subdivided in the same proportions.
Watch outSubdivision continues to five levels in some practice. Each level multiplies sensitivity to the birth time.
Gocharaगोचर
literally — the going of the cow, a range
Transit — where the grahas are now, read against the birth chart.
Watch outTransit and daśā are two different clocks, and the tradition gives no settled rule for which wins when they disagree.
Sāḍe sātīसाढ़े साती
literally — seven and a half
Saturn's transit through the sign before, of, and after the natal Moon — about seven and a half years.
Watch outThe most feared period in popular practice and among the most fatalistically reported. The classical material describes it far more soberly than the market does.
Muhūrtaमुहूर्त
literally — a moment
Electional astrology — choosing an auspicious time to begin something.
Watch outA distinct branch with its own literature, working forward from a chosen moment rather than backward from a birth.
Nakṣatraनक्षत्र
literally — that which does not decay
One of twenty-seven lunar mansions of 13°20′ each.
Watch outOlder in the Indian record than the twelve rāśis, and the layer with no Western counterpart. The daśā is built on it, not on the signs.
Pādaपाद
literally — a foot, a quarter
A quarter of a nakṣatra, 3°20′.
Watch outA two-degree ayanāṃśa difference crosses a pāda boundary about 60% of the time — which is why the same birth data can yield genuinely different readings.
Ayanāṃśaअयनांश
literally — the portion of the solstice-movement
The offset between the tropical and sidereal zodiacs, subtracted from every longitude.
Watch outAbout forty-two published values exist. It is one subtraction and the whole argument is which number goes in it.
Kālapuruṣaकालपुरुष
literally — the time-person
The zodiac imagined as a body, Aries at the head down to Pisces at the feet.
Watch outAttested in BPHS Ch. 4 and Bṛhat Jātaka Ch. 1, and near-identical to Ptolemy's arrangement — one of the clearest shared inheritances. The planet-to-organ table, by contrast, is not in the Indian sources.
Dhātuधातु
literally — that which supports
A bodily tissue. BPHS 3.31 assigns the seven grahas to seven of them.
Watch outBPHS's seven and Āyurveda's sapta-dhātu are not the same seven — they agree on five and differ on two. Presenting them as one list invents a unanimity neither text claims.