Enter your birth date, time and place and a date above, and this free calculator scores the transits of that day by your own Ashtakavarga. It first names the planets in signs that score well for them (5 or more of their 8 bindus) and those in signs that score low (3 or fewer). For each of the seven planets it then shows the sign it is passing through, how many bindus the planet has there in your birth chart, the total of all bindus in that sign, and the kakshya, the eighth part of the sign, that the planet is in. For today it uses this moment; for any other date, 12 noon on your device’s clock.
How it works
Ashtakavarga gives every sign a count of points, called bindus, from where the seven planets and the Lagna sat at your birth. Each planet has its own table, the Bhinnashtakavarga, built by the rules of Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, and the seven tables add up to the Sarvashtakavarga. These are the same tables as our Ashtakavarga calculator, and their totals never change from chart to chart: 48 for the Sun, 49 for the Moon, 39 for Mars, 54 for Mercury, 56 for Jupiter, 52 for Venus and 39 for Saturn, 337 in all.
The transit reading takes each planet where it is on the date and looks it up in your tables. P.V.R. Narasimha Rao sets it out in Vedic Astrology: An Integrated Approach (2000), ch. 25.5. A planet passing through a sign where its own table has 5 or more bindus gives good results, and one with 3 or fewer gives bad results; a sign with more than 30 bindus in the Sarvashtakavarga is favourable for the planets passing through it, and one with fewer than 25 unfavourable.
The same chapter divides each sign into eight kakshyas of 3 degrees 45 minutes, ruled in order by Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, the Moon and the Lagna (his Table 60). When a planet is in a kakshya, its relation to that kakshya’s ruler matters most: if the ruler gave the planet a bindu in that sign, the planet is in a kakshya “with a rekha”. The tool works out the kakshya of each planet and says whether its ruler gave a bindu, and lists which points of your chart gave the planet its bindus there.
Planet positions come from the NASA JPL DE440 tables used across this site, in the sidereal zodiac with the Lahiri ayanamsa and whole signs.
Reading the result
The first line names the planets in signs where your own tables give them 5 or more bindus, and those with 3 or fewer. The answer below it counts how many of the seven planets are in signs where your own tables give them 5 or more bindus, how many have 3 or fewer, and how many sit in a kakshya with a rekha. The table below gives each planet’s sign, its house from your Lagna and from your Moon, its own bindus with the reading, the sign’s total with the reading, and the kakshya.
Read the slow planets first. Saturn and Jupiter move slowly, so their scores colour months at a time; the Moon moves on in about two and a quarter days, so its row changes fastest. A planet that scores well both in its own table and in the sign’s total is the clearest case; where the two disagree, Rao notes that a very high or very low sign total tends to weigh more. Rao uses the kakshya count only to fine-tune a reading to a few days, and only with the dasha and other transit checks.
Where traditions differ
The lines vary from teacher to teacher. Our Ashtakavarga calculator marks houses at 28 bindus or more, because 337 divides to a little over 28 per sign, and that is the usual line for judging houses in the birth chart. For transits this tool follows Rao’s figures of more than 30 and fewer than 25, and it always shows the number, so you can apply another line if your teacher uses one. Rao also times events with the sodhya pindas, which are worked from the reduced (sodhita) tables (ch. 25.6); this tool uses the tables as they are, as his section on transit scores does. A few modern books print a different bindu in a handful of cells; the tables here are the ones that give the fixed totals above.
What it does not do
It does not forecast events. The same transit gives different results in different charts, depending on what the planet rules in your chart and on the dasha running, and the Ashtakavarga is one way of reading transits among several. It reads the birth (rashi) chart only, not the divisional charts, and it leaves out Rahu and Ketu, which have no Ashtakavarga. It needs the time of birth, because the Lagna is one of the eight points. Dates from 1900 to 2074 can be entered.
For the full tables of your chart, use the Ashtakavarga calculator and read the Ashtakavarga guide. For the houses the slow planets cross from your Moon over the coming year, see the personal transit report, and for the period running now, the Mahadasha calculator.
Frequently asked questions
↳ What does an Ashtakavarga transit score mean?
It tells you how well a planet's current sign suits that planet in your own chart. Each planet has a table of bindus from your birth chart; the more bindus it has in the sign it is passing through, the better the tradition reads that transit for you.
↳ How many bindus are good for a transit?
In Rao's reading, 5 or more of the planet's own bindus are good and 3 or fewer are bad, with 4 in between. For the total of a sign, more than 30 is favourable and fewer than 25 unfavourable.
↳ What is a kakshya?
One of eight equal parts of a sign, each 3 degrees 45 minutes, ruled in order by Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, the Moon and the Lagna. A planet in a kakshya whose ruler gave it a bindu in that sign is said to be in a kakshya with a rekha.
↳ Why do the planet's own bindus and the sign total disagree?
They measure different things: one planet's table, and all seven together. When they disagree, look at both. Rao notes that a sign with very many or very few bindus in all tends to outweigh one planet's own count.
↳ Do I need my birth time?
Yes. The Lagna is one of the eight points that give bindus, and it depends on the time of birth. Without the time, the tables cannot be built.
↳ Are Rahu and Ketu scored?
No. The classical Ashtakavarga has tables for the seven planets from the Sun to Saturn only, so Rahu and Ketu are left out, as on our Ashtakavarga calculator.