Enter your birth date, time and place above and this free calculator names your Atmakaraka and ranks all eight chara karakas from your chart in the classical order, from Atmakaraka down to Darakaraka, with the degrees each planet has used. It also says what changes in the seven-karaka scheme, which leaves Rahu out, and warns you when two planets are close enough to swap places. 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.
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, read from tables calculated from NASA JPL DE440, which agree with it to within a few seconds of arc for births from 1899 to 2075 (outside those years a compact series is used, and the result says so). 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. The working is done in your browser. Once your email is confirmed, the birth details you enter and the headline of the result are kept with it, so that our emails can fit your chart (see the privacy policy).
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: Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (ch. 32 in Santhanam’s edition, verses 1 to 2) counts the seven planets from the Sun to Saturn and records that some add Rahu as an eighth, measured from the end of its sign, and it never names Ketu among the karakas. The ranks follow the order of that chapter (verses 13 to 17): Atmakaraka, Amatyakaraka, Bhratrukaraka, Matrukaraka, Pitrukaraka, Putrakaraka, Gnatikaraka and the last, which the text calls Streekaraka and later teachers call 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: work, 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?
Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (ch. 32 in Santhanam's edition) counts the seven planets from the Sun to Saturn as chara karakas and records that some add Rahu as an eighth, counted from the end of its sign. This calculator follows the eight-karaka form. Some teachers keep to seven and leave Rahu out; either way, Ketu 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.
↳ How do I find my Atmakaraka planet in my kundli?
Look at how many degrees each planet has travelled within its own sign, for the Sun to Saturn and Rahu, with Rahu counted back from the end of its sign. The planet with the most degrees is your Atmakaraka. This calculator does the ranking for you from your birth date, time and place and shows all eight karakas.
↳ Can my Atmakaraka change if my birth time is wrong?
Yes, sometimes. The Moon moves about 13 degrees a day, so a few hours can move it past another planet in the ranking, and if two planets are within a fraction of a degree even a small error can swap them. The calculator warns you when two planets are close enough for this to matter.
↳ What is the difference between the Atmakaraka and the Amatyakaraka?
The Atmakaraka is the planet with the most degrees within its sign and stands for the self. The Amatyakaraka is the second in the ranking and is read for work and counsel. The Amatyakaraka and Darakaraka calculator uses the same method and focuses on those two.
↳ What should I look at after finding my Atmakaraka?
Jaimini astrologers look at its sign, its house and the planets with it, and at the sign it occupies in the Navamsa, called the Karakamsha. This calculator stops at the ranking. You can see the Navamsa with the Navamsa calculator and the full chart in the free kundali.
For the full chart these degrees are drawn from, see the free kundali tool.