Karaka (Helping Planet)

sanskrit: कारक (Kāraka)

Definition

In Brihat Jataka (Ch.XXII) and Saravali (Ch.VI), a karaka — here meaning a helping planet — is one that mutually assists another's results, either through dignity or through an angular placement. A planet in its own, exaltation, Moolatrikona, or a friendly sign becomes a karaka, as does a planet sitting in a Kendra (an angle) from the Ascendant. A planet in the 10th from another is that other's special karaka, and a karaka's great-friend is a karaka too. This helping-planet sense is separate from the naisargika and chara karaka (significator) systems.

In Tradition

Across Brihat Jataka and Saravali, a planet earns karaka (helping) status in two ways: through dignity — sitting in exaltation, its own sign, or a friendly sign — and through an angular placement, in the angles of Lagna, the 4th, or the 10th (the 7th is excluded). These helping planets are read as conferring prosperity, and the help carries timing: it is held to express during that planet's dasha (period).

In Practice

To judge which planets mutually support prosperity, the jyotishi (astrologer) picks out a chart's karaka (helping) planets by two rules. By the first, a planet in exaltation, its own sign, or a friendly sign qualifies. By the second, a planet in the Lagna, the 4th, or the 10th house qualifies, while the 7th is excluded. A planet in the 10th from another is that planet's special karaka, and the great-friend (Atimitra) of a karaka counts as a karaka too. Raman's No. 76 delineation applies both rules to his own chart: the exalted Moon and friendly-sign Jupiter qualify by dignity, and Saturn, the Moon, and Jupiter by angle — and he laments that such karaka yogas are often ignored for no reason. The bond carries timing: a dethroned prince is said to recover his kingdom in the Antardasa (sub-period) of a karaka planet.

Historical Origin

The helping-planet sense is defined in Varahamihira's Brihat Jataka, Chapter XXII, stanzas 1-3, as rendered by the translators Usha & Shashi, who cite Varahamihira's own Yoga Yatra. Two verses of Saravali (Chapter VI, verses 3-4) are quoted in transliteration and English in B.V. Raman's Notable Horoscopes, within the No. 76 delineation, to fix karaka status by dignity and by angle.

Further Reading

  • Varahamihira, Brihat Jataka
  • B.V. Raman, Notable Horoscopes