The nine grahas and their dignities

Graha literally means “one that seizes”. Jyotish counts nine: Surya (Sun), Chandra (Moon), Mangala (Mars), Budha (Mercury), Guru or Brihaspati (Jupiter), Shukra (Venus), Shani (Saturn), Rahu and Ketu. This lesson covers what they are, how the tradition classifies their nature, and how a sign is held to strengthen or weaken a graha — its dignity.

Seven bodies and two points

Seven grahas are visible bodies: the two luminaries, Sun and Moon, and the five planets seen with the naked eye. Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are not part of classical Jyotish. Rahu and Ketu are not bodies at all but mathematical points, the two places where the Moon’s orbit crosses the ecliptic, the Sun’s apparent path. Rahu is the north (ascending) node and Ketu the south (descending) node. They are always exactly 180° apart, and eclipses happen only when the Sun and Moon are near them.

The nodes can be computed as a mean position (smooth motion) or a true position (with small oscillations); the two usually differ by less than 2°. Both are used in practice, so a node near a sign boundary may be placed in different signs by different software.

Natural benefics and malefics

The classical texts sort grahas by their natural temperament (naisargika). Jupiter and Venus are the natural benefics (shubha). Saturn, Mars, Rahu and Ketu are natural malefics (papa), and the Sun is usually counted as a milder malefic (krura). Two are conditional. The Moon is treated as benefic when waxing and bright and as malefic when waning towards the new Moon; texts differ on exactly where the line falls. Mercury is benefic alone or with benefics, but takes on a malefic quality when joined with malefics.

These labels describe a traditional classification, not good or bad luck. A “malefic” such as Saturn is also the classical significator of patience and sustained effort, and the texts weigh every graha by its sign, house and lordship before drawing any conclusion. Module 3 shows how a graha’s role also changes with the lagna.

Exaltation, debilitation and own signs

A graha’s dignity is the strength the tradition assigns it in a particular sign. Each of the seven visible grahas has one sign of exaltation (uccha), where it is held to be strongest, with a degree of deepest exaltation. The sign directly opposite, 180° away, is its sign of debilitation (neecha), with the deepest point at the same degree.

• Sun: exalted 10° Aries, debilitated 10° Libra.
• Moon: exalted 3° Taurus, debilitated 3° Scorpio.
• Mars: exalted 28° Capricorn, debilitated 28° Cancer.
• Mercury: exalted 15° Virgo, debilitated 15° Pisces.
• Jupiter: exalted 5° Cancer, debilitated 5° Capricorn.
• Venus: exalted 27° Pisces, debilitated 27° Virgo.
• Saturn: exalted 20° Libra, debilitated 20° Aries.

Own signs (swakshetra) are the signs a graha rules, from the previous lesson: Mars in Aries or Scorpio is in its own sign. BPHS also names a moolatrikona, a favoured stretch within one sign: Sun 0°–20° Leo, Moon 3°–30° Taurus, Mars 0°–12° Aries, Mercury 15°–20° Virgo, Jupiter 0°–10° Sagittarius, Venus 0°–15° Libra and Saturn 0°–20° Aquarius. The usual order of strength runs exaltation, moolatrikona, own sign, then a friend’s sign, a neutral sign, an enemy’s sign and finally debilitation.

Dignities for Rahu and Ketu differ between traditions: some texts make Rahu exalted in Taurus and others in Gemini, with Ketu in the opposite sign. Because there is no single classical answer, read any dignity given for the nodes as one tradition’s view.

Natural friendship

BPHS also lists which grahas are natural friends (mitra), neutrals (sama) and enemies (shatru) of each other. The relationship is not always mutual: the Moon counts Mercury as a friend, but Mercury counts the Moon as an enemy.

• Sun: friends Moon, Mars, Jupiter; neutral Mercury; enemies Venus, Saturn.
• Moon: friends Sun, Mercury; neutral Mars, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn; no enemies.
• Mars: friends Sun, Moon, Jupiter; neutral Venus, Saturn; enemy Mercury.
• Mercury: friends Sun, Venus; neutral Mars, Jupiter, Saturn; enemy Moon.
• Jupiter: friends Sun, Moon, Mars; neutral Saturn; enemies Mercury, Venus.
• Venus: friends Mercury, Saturn; neutral Mars, Jupiter; enemies Sun, Moon.
• Saturn: friends Mercury, Venus; neutral Jupiter; enemies Sun, Moon, Mars.

A graha in a friend’s sign is described as comfortable, in an enemy’s sign as uneasy. The texts add a temporary friendship (tatkalika) worked out from the positions in a particular chart and combine the two into a compound relationship; that refinement is beyond this lesson.

Retrograde and combust

Vakri (retrograde) describes the apparent backward motion of a planet as seen from the Earth: an outer planet looks retrograde while the Earth overtakes it, and an inner planet while it passes between the Earth and the Sun. The planet does not really reverse; the effect comes from our moving viewpoint. Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn can be vakri. The Sun and Moon never are, and Rahu and Ketu move backward through the signs all the time, so they are not called retrograde in the usual sense.

Asta (combustion) means a planet is so close to the Sun in longitude that it is lost in the Sun’s glare, and the tradition treats it as weakened. The orbs the site uses, in degrees from the Sun, are: Moon 12°, Mars 17°, Mercury 14° (12° when retrograde), Jupiter 11°, Venus 10° (8° when retrograde) and Saturn 15°. Example: with the Sun at 20° Leo (140°) and Jupiter at 2° Virgo (152°), they are 12° apart — just outside Jupiter’s 11° orb, so Jupiter is not combust.

The example lists each graha’s sign, degree, nakshatra and dignity. Sign, degree and distance from the Sun are measurements; calling a dignity “strong” or “weak” is the tradition’s reading, and classical authors always weigh it together with the rest of the chart.

Combustion orbs and the strength scale vary a little between texts and commentators. The values above are the ones this site’s engine uses; other software may use slightly different orbs.