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Jaimini astrology assigns each planet a role based on nothing but its degree. The seven planets are ranked by how far each has travelled into whatever sign it occupies, and the ranking hands out seven titles from Atmakaraka, the soul planet, down to Darakaraka, the spouse significator. Because it depends on exact degrees, it is different for every birth.
This is what makes the chara karakas unusual. A planet's sign, house and dignity do not enter into it. Only the degree it holds inside its sign matters, and the highest degree wins. A planet at twenty-nine degrees of a sign it dislikes still becomes the Atmakaraka. The word chara means movable, in contrast to the fixed significators where the Sun always signifies the father and Jupiter always children.
It is read as the significator of the self — what this life is fundamentally about, and often where its hardest lessons sit. Jaimini practice treats it as the single most important planet in the chart, and reads its placement in the Navamsa, called the Karakamsa, for the direction of a person's inner life. A demanding Atmakaraka is not a bad chart; it is usually a description of the work.
The lowest of the seven is the Darakaraka, and it is read for the partner: their nature, and what you are drawn towards. It is used alongside the seventh house rather than instead of it, and it is one of the more testable pieces of Jaimini, which is part of why it stayed popular. It describes a quality, never a name or a date.
Schools disagree. The eight-karaka scheme includes Rahu, with its degree counted backwards because it always moves in reverse, and shifts one title. The seven-karaka scheme, used here, leaves the nodes out. Neither is a mistake, and a reading that switches between them without saying so is where confusion starts, so this page states which it uses.
This is what makes the chara karakas unusual. A planet's sign, house and dignity do not enter into it. Only the degree it holds inside its sign matters, and the highest degree wins. A planet at twenty-nine degrees of a sign it dislikes still becomes the Atmakaraka. The word chara means movable, in contrast to the fixed significators where the Sun always signifies the father and Jupiter always children.
It is read as the significator of the self — what this life is fundamentally about, and often where its hardest lessons sit. Jaimini practice treats it as the single most important planet in the chart, and reads its placement in the Navamsa, called the Karakamsa, for the direction of a person's inner life. A demanding Atmakaraka is not a bad chart; it is usually a description of the work.
The lowest of the seven is the Darakaraka, and it is read for the partner: their nature, and what you are drawn towards. It is used alongside the seventh house rather than instead of it, and it is one of the more testable pieces of Jaimini, which is part of why it stayed popular. It describes a quality, never a name or a date.
Schools disagree. The eight-karaka scheme includes Rahu, with its degree counted backwards because it always moves in reverse, and shifts one title. The seven-karaka scheme, used here, leaves the nodes out. Neither is a mistake, and a reading that switches between them without saying so is where confusion starts, so this page states which it uses.
The planet holding the highest degree within its sign, whatever that sign is. In Jaimini astrology it is read as the significator of the soul and the central theme of the life.
It is the lowest of the seven ranked planets — the one that has travelled the least into its sign. It is read for the spouse alongside the seventh house.
It depends on the school. The eight-karaka scheme includes Rahu with its degree reversed; the seven-karaka scheme, used on this page, excludes both nodes. Ketu is left out in both.
Only if they hold identical degrees, which is vanishingly rare at full precision. When two are extremely close, the ranking becomes sensitive to birth time, which is worth knowing before reading much into a near tie.
ShukrAI computes from your real birth chart with the Swiss Ephemeris and Lahiri ayanamsa. It is for reflection and self-understanding, is never a prediction of doom, and is not a substitute for professional advice.
