The Atmakaraka is the planet in your chart with the highest degrees within its own sign, treated in Jaimini astrology as the significator of the self. Enter your birth details above and this calculator ranks all eight chara karakas from your chart in the classical order, from Atmakaraka down to Darakaraka.
How this calculator works
Positions are computed in your own browser by our ephemeris, using the Lahiri ayanamsa and the mean lunar node for Rahu, checked against the Swiss Ephemeris to within about a minute of arc for the Sun and Moon and about ten minutes of arc for Jupiter and Saturn. An accurate birth time matters here more than for most calculators on this site, because the Moon moves quickly enough that its degree within its sign, and so its place in the ranking, can shift meaningfully within a few hours, which is often enough to change the Atmakaraka itself. The time zone in force at your birth place on your birth date, including daylight saving, is applied automatically, and nothing you enter is sent to our server.
The calculator takes the Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn and Rahu, and ranks them by how many degrees each has travelled within its own sign, from most to least. Rahu is counted backwards from the end of its sign rather than the beginning, since it moves in reverse through the zodiac. Ketu is not included, in keeping with the classical eight-karaka scheme. The eight ranks are named in the order given in Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra: Atmakaraka, Amatyakaraka, Bhratrukaraka, Matrukaraka, Pitrukaraka, Putrakaraka, Gnatikaraka and Darakaraka, the highest degree taking the first name and the lowest taking the last.
Reading your result
Your Atmakaraka, the planet with the highest degrees, is traditionally read as the significator of the self and the soul’s own agenda in this life, and its sign, house and the planets with it are usually given close attention in a Jaimini reading. Your Darakaraka, the lowest, is the significator most often used for the spouse in Jaimini marriage analysis. The six karakas in between fill out the rest of the scheme, each attached to a specific area of life, siblings, mother, father, children and close relations, in that order.
Where traditions differ
Some Jaimini lineages use seven karakas rather than eight, leaving Rahu out entirely rather than counting it backwards. This changes the lower part of the ranking, since removing one planet shifts every karaka below it up one place, and it occasionally changes the Atmakaraka itself, when Rahu happens to hold the highest degrees in the eight-karaka count. Where this would change your result, the calculator says so directly, rather than silently picking one convention over the other.
What it cannot tell you
This calculator ranks the eight karakas. It does not read the Atmakaraka’s sign, house or aspects for you, which is where the actual interpretation in Jaimini astrology happens, and it does not compute the Jaimini Chara dasha, a separate system that uses these same principles but is not part of this calculator. For the full chart these rankings are drawn from, see the free kundali tool, which also runs the Vimshottari and other dasha systems alongside it.
Frequently asked questions
↳ What is an Atmakaraka?
The Atmakaraka is the planet in your chart that has travelled the furthest through its own sign, measured in degrees. In Jaimini astrology it is treated as the significator of the self, and it is usually the first placement examined in a Jaimini-style reading.
↳ How is the Atmakaraka calculated?
By comparing how many degrees each of the Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn and Rahu has moved within its current sign, and ranking them from highest to lowest. Rahu is measured backwards from the end of its sign, since it always moves in reverse. The highest becomes the Atmakaraka; the lowest becomes the Darakaraka.
↳ Why is Ketu not included as a karaka?
The classical eight-karaka scheme in Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra uses the Sun, Moon and five visible planets plus Rahu, and leaves Ketu out. Some later approaches use only seven karakas and leave Rahu out instead; either way, Ketu itself is not part of the chara karaka scheme this calculator follows.
↳ What is a Darakaraka?
The Darakaraka is the karaka with the lowest degrees within its sign, the last in the eight-fold ranking. In Jaimini astrology it is the significator most commonly used for the spouse, which makes it one of the more closely read karakas alongside the Atmakaraka itself.
↳ Does using seven karakas instead of eight change my result?
Sometimes. Removing Rahu from the count shifts every karaka below its former rank up by one place, and if Rahu held the highest degrees in your chart, your Atmakaraka itself would change under the seven-karaka method. This calculator uses eight karakas by default and tells you directly when the seven-karaka method would give a different answer.
For the full chart these degrees are drawn from, see the free kundali tool.