What is Ashtakavarga?

A points system. Each of the seven planets awards a bindu - a point - to certain signs, counted from every other planet and from the ascendant. Add up what one planet receives and you get its Bhinnashtakavarga row; add all seven together and you get the Sarvashtakavarga, the single number most people mean when they say 'my Ashtakavarga'.

What is a good Sarvashtakavarga score?

The 337 bindus spread across twelve signs, so 28 is the average and that is what to read each sign against. In common practice 30 and above is treated as strong and under 25 as weak - but those cut-offs are a practitioner convention, not a figure from Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, which gives the tables and not the thresholds.

What does a low-bindu sign mean?

That the planets contribute fewer points there, which practitioners read as an area needing more deliberate effort. It is not a bad sign and it is not a prediction. Every chart has high and low signs - the 337 total is fixed, so a peak somewhere requires a trough elsewhere.

How is Ashtakavarga used for transits?

This is what it is actually for. When a planet transits a sign, practitioners check that sign in the planet's own row: four or more of its own bindus is read as a productive passage, three or fewer as a thin one. The Sarvashtakavarga is used the same way for the general weight of a period.

Do I need my exact birth time?

It helps but matters less here than for most tools. The bindu tables are counted from planetary positions, which the date and place largely settle, and only the Lagna row depends on your ascendant. Without a time we read the chart for noon; the Moon's position and the ascendant contribution are the parts that then carry uncertainty.

Free tool

Ashtakavarga Calculator

Your Sarvashtakavarga across the twelve signs, and each planet's own bindu row underneath it. Computed from the classical BPHS tables - free, no signup.

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How to read your result

The calculator returns two things. The Sarvashtakavarga (SAV) row is one number per sign, and it is the sum of what all seven planets contribute there. The per-planet rows underneath are the Bhinnashtakavarga (BAV) - the same arithmetic for one planet at a time.

Read the SAV against 28, not against 100. The 337 total bindus spread across twelve signs, so 28 is the arithmetic average and the only meaningful benchmark. In common practice 30 and above is treated as strong and under 25 as thin - but those cut-offs are a practitioner convention, not a figure from Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, which supplies the tables and no thresholds at all.

A high sign is not a good sign and a low one is not a bad one. The 337 is fixed, so a peak somewhere REQUIRES a trough elsewhere - every chart has both, and a reading that finds only strengths has stopped looking.

A worked example

Take a chart with an Aries ascendant, born 15 April 1990 in Mumbai. Its Sarvashtakavarga comes out highest in Virgo at 35, with Aries and Capricorn at 33, and lowest in Libra at 22, Cancer at 23 and Pisces at 24. The twelve add to 337, as they must.

The reading that follows is about timing, not character. When a slow planet transits Virgo, that passage has more support behind it than the same planet crossing Libra - nine bindus of difference is a wide gap. Libra at 22 is the sign to plan around rather than launch into.

Now the per-planet row. Saturn's own BAV in this chart totals 39 and gives 5 bindus to Aries, 4 to Cancer and 2 to Libra. The convention is that four or more of a planet's own bindus makes its transit through that sign productive, three or fewer thin. So Saturn crossing Aries here reads as workable, and Saturn crossing Libra - 2 bindus, in the sign that is already the SAV low - is the passage this chart would feel most.

This example is a fixed illustrative chart, not a real person's, and every number above was produced by the same calculator on this page.

Where these numbers come from

The contribution tables are BPHS chapters 76.6 to 76.40. Each of the seven planets awards a bindu to specific houses counted from every other planet and from the ascendant, giving an 8-row by 12-column grid per planet; the column sums are what you see.

There is no tradition variance here to disclose - the tables are exhaustively published and deterministic. What there IS to disclose is whether an implementation reproduces them, and the check is simple: BPHS 76.46 gives the per-planet totals as Sun 48, Moon 49, Mars 39, Mercury 54, Jupiter 56, Venus 52 and Saturn 39, summing to 337. This engine matches all seven, and a test asserts it on every build. Several calculators do not, and the way to catch one is to add its per-planet rows and see whether they close.

What Ashtakavarga does not tell you

It is not a personality reading. Bindus describe how much support a sign has for a transit passing through it; they say nothing about temperament, and a chart with a low Cancer is not a person with a difficult home life.

It is also not a timeline on its own. Ashtakavarga tells you the QUALITY of a passage; the Vimshottari dasha tells you which period you are in. Practitioners read them together, and either one alone will mislead you.

Finally, it is only lightly birth-time dependent. The bindus are counted from planetary positions, which the date and place largely settle - only the Lagna row moves with the ascendant. That makes this one of the few tools worth running even when you are unsure of your birth time.

See which dasha period you are in →

Frequently asked

What is Ashtakavarga?: A points system. Each of the seven planets awards a bindu - a point - to certain signs, counted from every other planet and from the ascendant. Add up what one planet receives and you get its Bhinnashtakavarga row; add all seven together and you get the Sarvashtakavarga, the single number most people mean when they say 'my Ashtakavarga'.
What is a good Sarvashtakavarga score?: The 337 bindus spread across twelve signs, so 28 is the average and that is what to read each sign against. In common practice 30 and above is treated as strong and under 25 as weak - but those cut-offs are a practitioner convention, not a figure from Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, which gives the tables and not the thresholds.
What does a low-bindu sign mean?: That the planets contribute fewer points there, which practitioners read as an area needing more deliberate effort. It is not a bad sign and it is not a prediction. Every chart has high and low signs - the 337 total is fixed, so a peak somewhere requires a trough elsewhere.
How is Ashtakavarga used for transits?: This is what it is actually for. When a planet transits a sign, practitioners check that sign in the planet's own row: four or more of its own bindus is read as a productive passage, three or fewer as a thin one. The Sarvashtakavarga is used the same way for the general weight of a period.
Do I need my exact birth time?: It helps but matters less here than for most tools. The bindu tables are counted from planetary positions, which the date and place largely settle, and only the Lagna row depends on your ascendant. Without a time we read the chart for noon; the Moon's position and the ascendant contribution are the parts that then carry uncertainty.

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