Jaimini Astrology: Atmakaraka and the Chara Karakas

In Jaimini astrology, the atmakaraka is whichever planet sits deepest inside the sign it is in. Jaimini is the second classical school of Vedic astrology. Its karakas are planets that each stand for one part of life. The chara karakas get their roles by degree, so the roles change from chart to chart.

The method is short. Take the seven planets from the Sun to Saturn. Read each one's degree inside its sign, from 0 to 30, and ignore the sign itself. Sort them from high to low. The top planet is the atmakaraka, the planet for the self. The next six take the other roles in a fixed order.

John Doe was born on Aug 15, 1990, at 10:30 AM in New York. His Sun sat at 28°46′ of Cancer, the highest degree of the seven. So the Sun is his atmakaraka. Mars, at 27°43′ of Aries, comes second. Jupiter, at 5°41′ of Cancer, comes last.

Two things can change the answer. Some schools add Rahu as an eighth planet. And the ranking rests on exact degrees, so the birth time matters. We ran 300 random births through our API to measure both. A one-hour birth-time error changed the atmakaraka in 7.3% of charts. Adding Rahu changed it in 10.7%.

How the ranking works for John

Here are John's seven chara karakas from POST /v1/jaimini, with each planet's degree from POST /v1/planets.

The sign plays no part. Venus and Jupiter share Cancer with the Sun, yet they rank last, because they sit early in the sign. Saturn was retrograde, which means it seemed to move backward that day. It still ranks by its plain degree. Rule JM-01 of our rulebook states the method.

One detail matters when you build the screen. The chara_karakas object in the answer lists roles and planets only. It does not repeat the degrees. Get those from POST /v1/planets with the same birth details, in the degree_in_sign field. In all 300 test births, the API's atmakaraka matched the highest degree_in_sign from /v1/planets.

John's lead is thin. The Sun is only 1.06° ahead of Mars. The glossary entry for atmakaraka covers what the role means. The rest of this post is about how stable it is.

Seven karakas or eight: where Rahu fits

Our API uses the seven-karaka scheme and leaves Rahu out. Some astrologers use eight karakas, with Rahu added. Rahu is not a physical planet. It is one of the two points where the Moon's path crosses the Sun's path, and it moves backward through the zodiac. So the eight-karaka scheme counts its degree backward, as 30 minus its degree.

John's Rahu sat at 13°30′49″ of Capricorn. As an eighth karaka it scores 30 − 13.51 = 16.49. That puts it 6th of 8. The Sun stays the atmakaraka, and the top five planets keep their ranks. Venus and Jupiter each drop one place. The eight-karaka list also has one more role. So the role names below Rahu do not line up between the two schemes.

We ranked our 300 test births both ways, using the same degrees from /v1/planets.

The node is the second hidden choice. Rahu's position can be the true node (its actual position) or the mean node (an averaged one). Our API takes a node field, and the true node is the default. Under seven karakas the node never matters, because Rahu is not ranked. John's seven karakas came back the same with "node": "mean".

So a chart read under seven karakas and a chart read under eight will disagree on the atmakaraka about 1 time in 10. Neither is a bug. If your users compare your app with other software, say which scheme you use.

How often a birth-time error swaps the atmakaraka

Next, we measured what a small error in birth time does. We picked 300 random births in New York, from 1950 to 2009, at random times between 4 AM and 11 PM. For each one, we asked /v1/jaimini for the atmakaraka at the birth time. Then we asked again at set minutes earlier and later.

The Moon causes most of the swaps. It was one of the two planets in 18 of the 22 swaps within an hour. On John's birthday, the Moon moved 14.26° a day. The next fastest of the seven, Venus, moved 1.22° a day.

A small gap alone is a weak warning sign. In 58 of the 300 charts, the top two planets were less than 1° apart. Only 12 of those 58 swapped within an hour. A close gap between two slow planets barely moves in an hour. A gap the Moon is closing can be gone within the hour.

John's birth day, change by change

To see this in one chart, we asked /v1/jaimini every 10 minutes across John's birth date. Then we narrowed each change to the minute.

John's atmakaraka holds from midnight to 6:04 PM. His birth would have to be about 7.5 hours later than recorded to change it. His lower roles are closer calls. The matrikaraka and putrakaraka swap just 2 hours and 6 minutes after his recorded time.

The Moon's path explains most of the table. It climbs the list as it crosses a sign. Then it drops to last place the moment it enters the next sign.

What else POST /v1/jaimini returns

Here is what one call to /v1/jaimini returned for John.

Add ?lang=hi to get the reading text in Hindi. The planet and sign names come back translated too.

Arudha lagna and chara dasha, worked for John

The arudha lagna is the image of the self, the way others see a person. Rule JM-02 finds it in two counts. John's rising sign is Virgo. Its ruler, Mercury, sits in Leo, the 12th sign counted from Virgo. Count 12 signs again from Leo, and you land on Cancer. The rule has two exceptions: the count may not land on the rising sign or on the 7th sign from it. Cancer is neither, so A1 is Cancer. The arudha lagna entry explains why those exceptions trip up software.

Chara dasha is the main Jaimini period system, and its periods belong to signs. For John, it starts from his rising sign, Virgo. The sign in his 9th house is Taurus, so the periods run forward through the zodiac. Each period lasts 1 to 12 years. Virgo gets 1 year, Libra 9 and Scorpio 8. Aries gets 12, because its ruler, Mars, sits in Aries itself.

Each period in periods gives its length and when it starts, counted in years after birth (starts_after_years). Each one also carries a why line, such as Mars occupies its own sign, which gives twelve. The dated part gives calendar dates, under rule JM-09. It adds a second round of periods, for 144 years in all, and splits each period into 12 sub-periods. For John, the 12-year Aries period starts on Aug 15, 2026. Chara dasha has several versions. The API uses the common Parashari form, set out in rule JM-06, and shows its working so a reader can check it.

Some Jaimini parts are not computed yet. Rule JM-08 lists them, including the third level of chara dasha periods. The karakamsa, the atmakaraka's sign in the navamsa (D9) chart, comes from POST /v1/karma.

What to build into a Jaimini screen

Show the degree next to each role. A user who sees "Sun 28°46′, Mars 27°43′" can see how close the race is. A bare list of names hides it.

Flag close calls by asking twice more. If your user's birth time may be off, ask /v1/jaimini at the margin on both sides, such as 30 minutes earlier and later. If the atmakaraka differs, tell the user it depends on the exact birth time. Our test says this flag fires for about 3% of charts at 30 minutes.

Name the scheme on the screen. A short line, "Seven karakas, Rahu not included", tells a user who compares apps what you computed.

See everything the API returns on our Jaimini astrology API page. Each role is defined in the chara karaka glossary entry.

Get John's karakas from the API

Send the birth details to POST /v1/jaimini. Here is the request for John Doe, born Aug 15, 1990, at 10:30 AM in New York:

{
  "year": 1990,
  "month": 8,
  "day": 15,
  "hour": 10,
  "minute": 30,
  "latitude": 40.7128,
  "longitude": -74.006,
  "timezone": "America/New_York"
}

And here is part of the answer, with the long lists and reading text left out:

{
  "meta": { "ayanamsa": "lahiri", "node": "true" },
  "chara_karakas": {
    "Atmakaraka": "Sun",
    "Amatyakaraka": "Mars",
    "Bhratrikaraka": "Saturn",
    "Matrikaraka": "Mercury",
    "Putrakaraka": "Moon",
    "Gnatikaraka": "Venus",
    "Darakaraka": "Jupiter"
  },
  "padas": {
    "A1": { "sign": "Cancer", "name": "Arudha Lagna" },
    "A12": { "sign": "Gemini", "name": "Upapada Lagna" }
  },
  "chara_dasha": {
    "direction": "direct",
    "direction_rule": "the 9th house holds Taurus, so the dasha runs zodiacally",
    "cycle_years": 55
  }
}

For every field and its type, see the Jaimini section of the API reference.

The ranking itself is one sort by degree. For John, it holds for 7.5 hours, while his matrikaraka holds for about 2. A screen that shows the degrees and names the scheme lets a user see which kind of answer they have.