Ashtakavarga Calculator
Ashtakavarga scores every sign in your chart out of a possible eight benefic points, once for each graha and then all seven together. It is the system Vedic astrologers actually reach for when reading transits — a planet crossing a sign with seven bindus behaves very differently from the same planet crossing a sign with two.
What this calculator works out
- Seven Bhinnashtakavarga charts
- A twelve-sign scorecard for each graha, showing how many benefic points that planet collects in every sign.
- The Sarvashtakavarga row
- All seven charts summed — one overall score per sign, out of a fixed total of 337.
- Strongest and weakest signs
- Which parts of your chart carry the most and least support, with the house each falls in from your ascendant.
How it works
For each of the seven grahas, a classical BPHS table lists which houses — counted from each of eight reference points, the seven grahas plus the Lagna — receive a benefic point. Summing those gives that planet's Bhinnashtakavarga: twelve numbers, one per sign. Adding all seven Bhinna charts gives the Sarvashtakavarga. The arithmetic is fixed, which is why every Sun chart totals 48, every Jupiter chart 56, and every Sarvashtakavarga exactly 337 regardless of whose chart it is.
Step by step
- The sign of each of the eight reference points is found: the seven grahas plus the ascendant.
- For each graha, a classical BPHS table lists which houses — counted from each reference point — receive a benefic point.
- Those houses are converted to signs and a bindu is added to each.
- Summing across all eight contributors gives that graha's Bhinnashtakavarga.
- Adding all seven Bhinna charts gives the Sarvashtakavarga.
A worked example
Input: Sun's contribution to its own Bhinnashtakavarga
- The table gives houses 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 from the Sun
- If the Sun sits in Cancer, house 1 from it is Cancer
- House 2 is Leo, house 4 is Libra, house 7 is Capricorn, and so on
- Each of those eight signs gets one bindu from the Sun
Result: Eight bindus placed. Repeating for the other seven contributors builds the Sun's full chart, which always totals 48.
How to read your result
- Read the spread, not the number
- Because the total is fixed at 337, an average near 28 per sign is arithmetic rather than a finding. What tells you something is which signs sit well above and well below that.
- The main use is transits
- When a planet transits a sign, check that planet's own row for how many bindus it holds there. A transit through a high-bindu sign is read as supported; through a low one, as strained. This is where Ashtakavarga earns its place in daily practice.
- The usual bands
- A sign with 30 or more Sarva bindus is commonly read as strong, 25 to 29 as average, under 25 as weak. These are conventions, and practitioners differ on the exact cutoffs.
What changes the answer
- The ascendant is one of the eight contributors, so a wrong birth time shifts about an eighth of every count.
- Rahu and Ketu are not contributors in the standard scheme and have no chart of their own here.
- The Trikona and Ekadhipatya reductions used to derive Shodhya Pinda are not applied — sources use them inconsistently.
- If a calculator gives you a Sarva total other than 337, its tables are wrong. That number is chart-independent.
Frequently asked questions
What is Ashtakavarga?
A points system that scores each of the twelve signs from the perspective of eight reference points — the seven grahas and the ascendant. Each sign can collect up to eight benefic points, called bindus, per planet. It turns a qualitative chart into something you can compare numerically.
What is the difference between Bhinnashtakavarga and Sarvashtakavarga?
Bhinnashtakavarga (BAV) is one planet's scorecard across the twelve signs — how well that specific graha does in each sign. Sarvashtakavarga (SAV) adds all seven BAV charts together, giving one overall score per sign. BAV answers "how does Jupiter do here"; SAV answers "how does this sign do at all".
Why does my Sarvashtakavarga always total 337?
Because the contribution tables are fixed. Sun always contributes 48 bindus, Moon 49, Mars 39, Mercury 54, Jupiter 56, Venus 52 and Saturn 39, and those sum to 337 no matter whose chart it is. Only the distribution across signs changes. If a calculator gives you a different total, its tables are wrong.
What counts as a good score?
The common convention reads a sign with 30 or more SAV bindus as strong, 25 to 29 as average and under 25 as weak. Since the total is fixed at 337, an average of about 28 per sign is arithmetically guaranteed — so what matters is the spread, not any single number.
What is Ashtakavarga actually used for?
Mostly transits. When a planet transits a sign, astrologers check how many bindus that planet has there in its own BAV — a transit through a high-bindu sign is read as supported, a low-bindu one as strained. It is also used to compare houses and to judge which parts of a chart carry weight.
Are Rahu and Ketu included?
Not in the standard scheme. Ashtakavarga uses the seven classical grahas plus the ascendant as reference points, and the nodes get no chart of their own. A few schools add a Rahu ashtakavarga; this calculator implements the mainstream seven-planet version.
Does this include the Trikona and Ekadhipatya reductions?
No. Those two reductions — used to derive Shodhya Pinda — are a further step that sources apply inconsistently, so this tool stops at the raw BAV and SAV tables rather than picking one school's version and presenting it as the answer.
Does Ashtakavarga depend on my birth time?
It does, because the Lagna is one of the eight contributors and it moves about one sign every two hours. Get the ascendant wrong and roughly an eighth of every bindu count shifts with it. The planetary contributors are far more stable.
Related astrology concepts
- Planetary positions — the placements the bindus are counted from
- Planet guides — what a supported or strained transit actually touches
- Divisional charts — the other way of testing a planet's strength
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