Planet condition and strength
Yogakaraka in Vedic astrology
Updated
Yogakaraka: how the API computes it
The API looks at each of the twelve rising signs. For each one, it finds the planet that rules both a kendra house (4, 7 or 10) and a trikona house (5 or 9). House 1 is left out of the trikona side (CH-09).
Otherwise the ruler of the ascendant (rising sign) would qualify in every chart. Not every rising sign has a yogakaraka. Saturn is the yogakaraka for Taurus and Libra rising, and Mars for Cancer and Leo rising. It depends only on the rising sign. So every person with the same ascendant has the same yogakaraka.
POST /v1/yogas returns the name in its yogakaraka field. It sits next to lagnesh, the ruler of the ascendant. The API does not say how strong the planet is or whether it is badly placed.
A yogakaraka in a weak sign or a hard house helps less than the label suggests. Combine it with dignity (how well a planet is placed) and shadbala (the six-part strength score). Do that before you promise a user anything from it.
Get it from the API
POST /v1/yogas
# John Doe, born Aug 15, 1990, 10:30 AM, New York
curl -X POST "https://apiforastrology.com/api/astrology/v1/yogas" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $ASTROLOGY_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"year":1990,"month":8,"day":15,"hour":10,"minute":30,"second":0,"latitude":40.7128,"longitude":-74.006,"timezone":"America/New_York"}'{
"formed": [
{
"name": "Sarala",
"category": "vipareeta raja",
"rule": "lord of house 8 placed in a dusthana (6,8,12); free of conjunction or aspect from a natural benefic or a kendra/trikona lord (1,4,5,7,9,10), and the lagna lord stronger in shadbala",
"detail": "Mars in house 8, unafflicted; lagna lord Mercury stronger in shadbala (532.98 vs 526.26 virupas)"
},
{
"name": "Anapha",
"category": "lunar",
"rule": "a graha other than the Sun and the nodes in the 12th from the Moon",
"detail": "Mars"
},
{
"name": "Vesi",
"category": "solar",
"rule": "a graha other than the Moon and the nodes in the 2nd from the Sun",
"detail": "Mercury"
}
],
"not_formed": [
{
"name": "Ruchaka",
"rule": "Mars in its own or exaltation sign AND in a kendra (1,4,7,10)",
"reason": "Mars is dignified but house 8 is not a kendra"
},
{
"name": "Hamsa",
"rule": "Jupiter in its own or exaltation sign AND in a kendra (1,4,7,10)",
"reason": "Jupiter is dignified but house 11 is not a kendra"
},
{
"name": "Harsha",
"rule": "lord of house 6 placed in a dusthana (6,8,12); free of conjunction or aspect from a natural benefic or a kendra/trikona lord (1,4,5,7,9,10), and the lagna lord stronger in shadbala",
"reason": "Saturn is in house 4"
}
],
"neecha_bhanga": [],
"meta": {
"ayanamsa": "lahiri",
"ayanamsa_value": 23.7260727,
"julian_day": 2448119.10483,
"ephemeris": "JPL DE440s",
"node": "true",
"timezone": {
"source": "zone",
"offset_hours": -4,
"zone": "America/New_York",
"abbreviation": "EDT",
"dst": true,
"dst_hours": 1,
"ambiguous_resolved_by_fold": null,
"note": "read from the IANA tz database at this instant, so daylight saving and historical offset changes are included"
}
},
"lagnesh": "Mercury",
"yogakaraka": null,
"kartari": {
"by_house": {
"1": {
"sign": "Virgo",
"state": "none",
"in_twelfth": [
"Mercury"
],
"in_second": []
},
"2": {
"sign": "Libra",
"state": "none",
"in_twelfth": [],
"in_second": []
},
"3": {
"sign": "Scorpio",
"state": "none",
"in_twelfth": [],
"in_second": [
"Saturn"
]
},
"4": {
"sign": "Sagittarius",
"state": "none",
"in_twelfth": [],
"in_second": [
"Rahu"
]
},
"5": {
"sign": "Capricorn",
"state": "none",
"in_twelfth": [
"Saturn"
],
"in_second": []
},
"6": {
"sign": "Aquarius",
"state": "none",
"in_twelfth": [
"Rahu"
],
"in_second": []
},
"7": {
"sign": "Pisces",
"state": "none",
"in_twelfth": [],
"in_second": [
"Mars"
]
},
"8": {
"sign": "Aries",
"state": "none",
"in_twelfth": [],
"in_second": [
"Moon"
]
},
"9": {
"sign": "Taurus",
"state": "none",
"in_twelfth": [
"Mars"
],
"in_second": []
},
"10": {
"sign": "Gemini",
"state": "none",
"in_twelfth": [
"Moon"
],
"in_second": [
"Sun",
"Jupiter",
"Venus"
]
},
"11": {
"sign": "Cancer",
"state": "none",
"in_twelfth": [],
"in_second": [
"Mercury"
]
},
"12": {
"sign": "Leo",
"state": "none",
"in_twelfth": [
"Sun",
"Jupiter",
"Venus"
],
"in_second": []
}
},
"by_graha": {
"Sun": {
"state": "none",
"in_twelfth": [],
"in_second": [
"Mercury"
]
},
"Moon": {
"state": "none",
"in_twelfth": [
"Mars"
],
"in_second": []
},
"Mars": {
"state": "none",
"in_twelfth": [],
"in_second": [
"Moon"
]
},
"Mercury": {
"state": "none",
"in_twelfth": [
"Sun",
"Jupiter",
"Venus"
],
"in_second": []
},
"Jupiter": {
"state": "none",
"in_twelfth": [],
"in_second": [
"Mercury"
]
},
"Venus": {
"state": "none",
"in_twelfth": [],
"in_second": [
"Mercury"
]
},
"Saturn": {
"state": "none",
"in_twelfth": [],
"in_second": [
"Rahu"
]
},
"Rahu": {
"state": "none",
"in_twelfth": [
"Saturn"
],
"in_second": []
},
"Ketu": {
"state": "none",
"in_twelfth": [],
"in_second": [
"Mercury"
]
}
},
"rule": "Hemmed by occupation only: grahas in both the 12th and the 2nd sign from the house or graha. papa = malefics on both sides and no benefic; shubha = the reverse; none otherwise. The Moon by paksha, Mercury by its company. Aspects never form…"
}
}Where the API returns it
| POST | /v1/yogas | Yogas: planetary combinations found and not found |
| POST | /v1/reading/rules | Rules this chart triggers, ranked |
Feature page: Planetary strength. Who uses it: Astrologer consultation platforms. The classical rules the API follows are in the rulebook.
How we check the numbers
Every value here starts from planet positions worked out from NASA JPL planet data (DE440). We test them against NASA JPL Horizons, NASA's planet position service. On 25,571 positions from 1850 to 2149, the Sun and planets agree within 0.001 arc seconds. The Moon agrees within 0.011. On 2,000 random birth charts, the rising sign agrees with Swiss Ephemeris within 0.004 arc seconds. An arc second is 1/3,600 of a degree. A practicing astrologer reviews the rules behind these answers. See how we test.
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Astrology API
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Your first answer
John Doe, New York
- RisingVirgoHast
- SunCancerAshlesha
- MoonTaurusMrigashira
- MarsAriesKrittika
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