Chara Karaka

Definition

In Jaimini astrology, the chara karakas (chara meaning movable) are significators — planets that stand for an area of life — handed out by exact degree rather than by fixed nature. The planet at the highest degree becomes the Atmakaraka, the next becomes the Amatyakaraka, and so on down the line. Because the ranking turns on each chart's precise degrees, the chara karakas shift from chart to chart, unlike the fixed naisargika significators that never move. Sources differ on whether there are seven or eight, and on how the middle ones are ordered.

In Tradition

Beyond the bare ranking by degree, several authors read the chara karakas as significators of the soul and of the people who shape one's life. Larsen says they show how the soul meets the different parts of life; Cole ties them to the inner soul-nature and to Vishnu (the quality of sattva, harmony); and Narasimha Rao likewise places them under Vishnu, finding them useful in raja yogas and in spiritual analysis.

In Practice

A jyotishi ranks the planets by degree and reads each karaka as significator of a life-area, though the authors lay them out differently. In Rao's seven-karaka scheme the Atmakaraka points to rajayoga and to mishaps, the Amatyakaraka to education, the Bhratrikaraka to siblings and father, the Matrikaraka to the mother's sickness, the Putrakaraka and Darakaraka to marriage, and the Gnatikaraka to accidents. Rao also derives the Karakamsha — the Navamsa sign the Atmakaraka falls in — and, for spiritual work, marks every karaka and watches for the Atmakaraka-Putrakaraka conjunction across the birth, navamsa and dashamsha charts. Larsen instead works an eight-karaka scheme that adds a Pitrikaraka (father) and drops the Putrakaraka for entities that do not reproduce; Cole reports Parashara teaching both an eight-scheme (for living beings, Rahu included) and a seven-scheme.

Historical Origin

The chara karakas belong to the Jaimini stream of classical Jyotish. Cole traces them to the Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (the Karaka-adhyaya), and Narasimha Rao to the same Parashari tradition. The system reaches us here through modern authors: K.N. Rao (Predicting through Jaimini's Chara Dasha; Yogis, Destiny and the Wheel of Time), Larsen (Jyotisha Fundamentals), Cole (Science of Light), and Narasimha Rao (Vedic Astrology: An Integrated Approach) — who part ways over the seven-versus-eight count.

Further Reading

• Rao, Predicting through Jaimini's Chara Dasha
• Rao, Yogis, Destiny and the Wheel of Time
• Larsen, Jyotisha Fundamentals
• Cole, Science of Light Vol. I
• Narasimha Rao, Vedic Astrology: An Integrated Approach