Samudāya Aṣṭakavarga

Ashtakavarga is a popular method in India for making predictions. Maharishi Parasara said that the intellectual pygmies of Kali Yuga cannot make intelligent compromises and mix various principles. He said that they need a simple system for making good predictions. He presented Ashtakavarga as that simple system.

The list of benefic and malefic houses for each planet with respect to the eight references – Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn and Lagna – can be found in classics. Based on these, we prepare bhinna Ashtakavarga (BAV) of each planet. Each Rasi in the BAD of a planet contains the number of references with respect to which the planet is benefic in that Rasi. We prepare “Samudaaya Ashtakavarga” (SAV) by adding the BAVs of the seven planets. To get the score in Vi in SAV, for example, we add the scores in Vi in the BAVs of the seven planets.

Parasara taught that houses falling in Rasi’s with a score of 30 or more are fortified and houses falling in Rasi’s with a score of 25 or less are weakened. Moreover, planets transiting in Rasi’s with a score of 30 or more tend to produce good results and planets transiting in Rasi’s with a score of 25 or less tend to give bad results.

Let us take the Rasi chart of Indian Prime Minister Sri A.B. Vajpayee (see Chart 1). Readers may find SAV of Rasi and D-10 and verify the following:

In Rasi chart, the 11th house has the maximum number of rekhas (38) showing excellent gains. The 3rd house of communication has 34 rekhas. This fortifies the 3rd house. That can mean that he is an excellent communicator, orator or poet. Sri Vajpayee is indeed a good poet and an excellent orator. So it makes sense.

Though Sri Vajpayee’s career wasn’t a bed of roses – he struggled in the opposition parties for most of his career – he finally became India’s Prime Minister and one must agree that he had a very successful career. And he is known as a man of great character. With Lagna and the 10th house in the SAV of Rasi chart containing only 26 and 28 rekhas – which is just average – why did he have such a successful career?

The answer lies in the SAV of D-10. Contrary to popular belief, Ashtakavarga is equally applicable in divisional charts. When we analyze divisional charts with respect to Lagna, we may as well analyze them with respect to the eight references. Parasara defined all the divisional charts and the areas of life seen in them, at the very beginning of “Brihat Parasara Hora Sastram” and most of the concepts discussed by him in later chapters apply to all the divisional charts.

Lagna in D-10 is Sc and it contains 35 rekhas – maximum in D-10’s SAV. Arudha Lagna also contains more than 30 rekhas. These factors explain his success and good name. The 3rd house in D-10 also has more than 30 rekhas – like in the Rasi chart – and that increases the chance of being an excellent communicator in public life. Moreover, the significator of communication Mercury and the artistic Moon are in the 3rd house (in addition to more than 30 rekhas).

Though D-10 is powerful with Lagna and Arudha Lagna containing more than 30 rekhas, one may notice that the 8th house in D-10 (Ge) has 33 rekhas. This explains the struggle in Vajpayee’s career.

Thus we can get insights into the strength or weakness of various matters pertaining to an area of life by looking at the SAV of the related divisional chart.