Chara karakas

Chara karakas are the eight movable significators of the Jaimini system: the planets of a chart share out the roles of the soul, the advisor, siblings, mother, father, children, rivals and spouse according to how many degrees each has travelled in its sign. That is why everyone has their own set of karakas.

Fixed and movable significators

In Jyotish every planet has permanent meanings — these are called naisargika, or natural, karakas. The Sun is always connected with the father and authority, the Moon with the mother and the mind, Mars with brothers and land, Jupiter with children and the teacher, Venus with the spouse. This is a common vocabulary, the same for every chart.

Chara karakas are a second, individual layer. The word “chara” means “movable”: the roles are not fixed to the planets but are handed out afresh in each chart. In one horoscope Saturn will turn out to be the significator of the mother, in another Mercury. The scheme is worked out in detail in the Jaimini tradition, Parashara describes it as well, and in reading a chart it supplements the natural karakas rather than replacing them.

How chara karakas are calculated

Only the planet’s degree within its sign is used — from 0 to 30; the sign itself does not matter. The planet with the highest degree becomes the atmakaraka, the next the amatyakaraka, and so on in descending order; the planet with the lowest degree becomes the darakaraka. If the degrees are equal, the minutes and seconds are compared.

In the eight-karaka scheme seven planets from the Sun to Saturn take part, plus Rahu. Rahu moves retrograde, so its position is counted backwards from the end of the sign: Rahu’s degree is subtracted from 30°. Rahu at 8°20′ of a sign is taken as 21°40′ for the calculation. Ketu receives no karaka. The literature also has a seven-karaka variant without Rahu; the site’s report uses the eight-karaka scheme.

An example. Saturn stands at 27°12′, the Moon at 24°05′, Rahu at 8°20′ (that is, 21°40′ for the calculation), Venus at 18°, the Sun at 15°, Mercury at 9°, Mars at 6°30′, Jupiter at 2°. The order comes out as follows: Saturn is the atmakaraka, the Moon the amatyakaraka, Rahu the bhratrikaraka, Venus the matrikaraka, the Sun the pitrikaraka, Mercury the putrakaraka, Mars the gnatikaraka, Jupiter the darakaraka.

The Moon travels about half a degree per hour, so when values are close an inaccurate birth time can swap two karakas. If the difference between planets is less than a degree, conclusions should be drawn with caution.

The eight roles

• Atmakaraka (AK) — the person themselves, their soul and main life lesson.
• Amatyakaraka (AmK) — the soul’s advisor: profession, way of acting in the world, helpers.
• Bhratrikaraka (BK) — brothers and sisters, courage, one’s own efforts, and in some schools also the mentor.
• Matrikaraka (MK) — the mother, home, emotional support, education.
• Pitrikaraka (PiK) — the father, elders, patrons and authorities.
• Putrakaraka (PK) — children, students, creativity and whatever the person creates.
• Gnatikaraka (GK) — rivals, obstacles, disputes, relatives with whom there is friction.
• Darakaraka (DK) — the spouse or business partner.

Karakamsha

The navamsha (D9) sign in which the atmakaraka stands is called the karakamsha. It is marked in the birth chart and read as a special point of reference: planets in this sign, aspects to it and houses counted from it clarify the form in which the soul’s aspiration shows itself. The tradition links the twelfth house from the karakamsha with spiritual inclinations and the chosen deity, the ishta devata.

How to read the karakas together

Each karaka is examined by sign, house from the lagna, navamsha position, conjunctions and aspects. The links between karakas matter too: the atmakaraka next to the putrakaraka or the pitrikaraka forms a raja yoga of AK and PK or of AK and PiK. It helps to compare the movable karaka with the natural one: if the Moon itself has become the matrikaraka, the theme of the mother sounds twice as loud in the chart. The Vimshottari dasha of a karaka planet usually brings its theme to the foreground.

Where the karakas are in the site’s report

In the planet table of the calculation there is a “Karaka” column: it shows the abbreviations AK, AmK, BK, MK, PiK, PK, GK and DK, with a dash for Ketu. They show at a glance which planet plays which role in your particular chart, and each abbreviation leads to a page on that combination of karaka and planet.

To see your own set of karakas and the degrees of the planets, calculate your birth chart — the calculation is free and takes a minute.