Vedic Astrology Planets: The Nine Grahas

What do the nine grahas represent?

Jyotish uses grahas as different factors within a chart, not as nine competing personality types. Rao’s introductory scheme associates the Sun with selfhood, the Moon with mind, Mars with strength, Mercury with speech, Jupiter with knowledge, Venus with potency and Saturn with difficulty. These are traditional correspondences; this Wiki uses them as questions to investigate, not measurements of a person.

Rahu and Ketu require a different starting point. They describe the two intersections of the Moon’s orbital plane with the ecliptic. Their interpretive roles and additional rulerships vary between authors. A picture of a mythological figure does not supply the node convention needed to calculate a chart.

Which signs do the planets rule?

In the seven-planet rulership scheme used here, the Sun rules Leo and the Moon rules Cancer. Mercury rules Gemini and Virgo; Venus rules Taurus and Libra; Mars rules Aries and Scorpio; Jupiter rules Sagittarius and Pisces; Saturn rules Capricorn and Aquarius.

A planet’s own sign is not the house it currently occupies. For a whole-sign Aries ascendant, Venus rules the second and seventh houses even if it sits in the eleventh. Distinguish the place occupied from the places ruled before connecting topics. Node rulerships are disputed and are not added to this base table.

How to read a graha in a kundli

Start with the position table: identify the body, sidereal longitude, ayanamsa and D1 sign. Next find its house from the ascendant under the named house convention. Then note sign rulership, dignity, conjunctions and the aspect method. Read a dasha or transit as an additional time layer, not a replacement for the natal position.

For a synthetic Aries-ascendant whole-sign chart with Jupiter in Cancer, Cancer is the fourth house. Jupiter occupies the fourth but rules Sagittarius and Pisces, the ninth and twelfth houses. In the full graha-drishti convention, its fifth, seventh and ninth aspects from Cancer reach Scorpio, Capricorn and Pisces. These calculations describe relationships in a diagram; they do not demonstrate that a particular family event will occur.

• Keep sign numbers and house numbers in separate columns.
• Count the occupied sign as one when counting these aspects.
• Save node settings when comparing two calculators.

Are Uranus, Neptune and Pluto missing?

They are not part of the classical nine-graha set. Some modern practitioners add outer planets, but that is an extension which should be named. Do not import their modern Western rulerships into a seven-planet Jyotish table without explaining the change of method.

Likewise, “benefic,” “malefic” and “strong” are technical judgments within a tradition, not moral labels. A high search volume for remedies does not establish that a gemstone changes outcomes. Use the individual graha pages for the precise sign and aspect rules; use the chart-calculation guide when the positions themselves disagree.