Bhinnashtakavarga

Definition

Bhinnashtakavarga is the individual or 'separate' Ashtakavarga of a single planet — a chart that tallies, sign by sign, the benefic dots (bindus, the favourable points) one planet earns from eight reference points: its own position, the Lagna (rising sign), and the six other planets from the Sun to Saturn. You prepare seven such charts, one for each planet, and every sign carries somewhere between zero and eight dots. Add the seven charts together sign by sign and you get the Sarvashtakavarga.

In Tradition

Across the classical and modern Jyotish literature, each planet's Bhinnashtakavarga is the unit from which astrologers compute that planet's share of longevity (Ayurdaya, the life-span reckoning). You gather the individual figures planet by planet first, then add them together into the Sarvashtakavarga.

In Practice

When you judge a transit (Gochara, a planet's passage through the signs), you look at how many benefic dots stand in the sign (Rasi) the planet is entering: more than four reads as benefic, exactly four as mixed, fewer than four as malefic. Each planet's Bhinnashtakavarga also feeds its Ayurdaya (life-period) figure — first the seven separate charts pass through the Trikona and Ekadhipatya reductions, then the longevity is reckoned. For electing a moment (muhurta), Joshi reads the Bhinnashtakavarga of the lagna-lord (ruler of the rising sign), the relevant house-lord and the Moon, asking each to be benefic from a majority of its points. A positive cross-contribution — the lagna-lord supplying a dot in the house-lord's chart and the house-lord doing the same in the lagna-lord's — confirms a favourable relationship between them.

Historical Origin

Bhinnashtakavarga is attested in the classical Jyotish texts: the Brihat Jataka (Ch.IX) of Varahamihira and the Jataka Parijata (Ch.10) of Vaidyanatha Dikshita, the latter quoted here in V. Subramanya Sastri's translation. Modern handbooks by Raman, Charak and Joshi carry the technique forward and work it out in detail.

Further Reading

• Varahamihira, Brihat Jataka
• Vaidyanatha Dikshita, Jataka Parijata
• Charak, Elements of Vedic Astrology
• B.V. Raman, Hindu Predictive Astrology
• K. Joshi, Muhurta: Traditional & Modern