Kakshya

sanskrit: कक्ष्या (Kakṣyā)

Definition

Within Ashtakavarga, a kakshya is one of the eight equal slices a sign is cut into, each spanning three degrees and forty-five minutes. The Sanskrit word kakshya means an orbit, girdle or compartment. In every sign the eight kakshyas belong, in order, to Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, the Moon and the Lagna (the rising sign), and you use these slices to judge a planet's daily transits.

In Tradition

Across the modern Jyotish writing on Ashtakavarga, the kakshya is the unit that sharpens a transit's verdict. When a planet moves through a given kakshya, you ask whether that kakshya — through its ruling planet, its lord — carries a benefic point (a bindu or rekha, the mark scored in the Ashtakavarga grid). A kakshya that holds such a point makes the transit favourable; one that lacks it makes the transit unfavourable.

In Practice

A jyotishi (Vedic astrologer) uses kakshyas to read a transit more finely than the sign alone allows. Since each sign holds eight kakshyas of 3 degrees 45 minutes, you pin the transiting planet's exact position to a single kakshya, then identify that kakshya's lord, and weigh the transit against the Ashtakavarga points. Charak holds that landing in a kakshya carrying a benefic point gives benefic results. Raman reads a kakshya with no bindu as producing evil, and one that owns a contributed bindu as producing good. The Integrated Approach treats the transit as favourable only when the planet's Prastaara Ashtakavarga carries a rekha in the kakshya lord's kakshya for that sign. Rath, separately, uses the same Sanskrit term for a longevity judgement, sorting the life-span portion as short, middle or long.

Historical Origin

The four sources here are all modern works, and each paraphrases the technique rather than quoting a classical text word for word. They are Charak's Elements of Vedic Astrology, Raman's Prasna Marga Part II glossary, Narasimha Rao's Integrated Approach, and Rath's Crux of Vedic Astrology. The bundle gives no date for any classical text, and none of the four supplies a verbatim quotation.

Further Reading

  • Charak, Elements of Vedic Astrology
  • Raman, Prasna Marga Part II, An Index of Technical Terms
  • Narasimha Rao, Vedic Astrology: An Integrated Approach
  • Rath, Crux of Vedic Astrology