Kartari Yogas

Definition

Kartari Yogas are "scissors" patterns — kartari means scissors — where a planet or house sits hemmed in, flanked by planets in the houses on either immediate side. When the two flanking planets are benefics (subha), you have Subha (Shubha) Kartari, and what is hemmed is protected and strengthened. When they are malefics (papa), you have Papa Kartari, and what is hemmed is squeezed and obstructed, no matter how dignified that planet is on its own. The flanking can happen within one sign or across two adjacent signs.

In Tradition

Across the classical and modern Jyotish literature, kartari turns on which planets do the flanking: a point boxed in by benefics is fortified, one boxed in by malefics is diminished. Levacy, Raman, Rath, Rao, Cole, Joshi, and Jataka Parijata all read this hemming the same way. The particular form measured from the 2nd and 12th houses from the Lagna (the ascendant), and the note that the Sun and Moon are not counted as flankers, come from Jataka Parijata.

In Practice

Raman reads Papakartari as an affliction wherever it lands — on houses, on their lords, on the karakas (the planets that signify a matter). A hemmed Moon can point to the early death of the mother; a hemmed 9th house or Sun to the loss of the father; a hemmed 8th house or Moon to a shortened life, with disease, deafness, loss of a spouse, and imprisonment also read this way. Subhakartari does the opposite — it shelters what it surrounds, as when it guards the 10th house or Sun for a distinguished career, or supports the father's long life. Joshi counts Papakartari against a muhurta (an elected moment), and Mehta and Rao trace it in mundane assassination charts. Cole reads the flanking planets as if they sat in the hemmed house itself, and offers good company as the remedy for Papa Kartari.

Historical Origin

The malefic and benefic forms are set out in the classical Jataka Parijata of Vaidyanatha (Ch.7), which names them Papakarthari and Soumyakarthari. B.V. Raman develops them at length in How to Judge a Horoscope and Three Hundred Important Combinations, and modern authors carry them forward — Levacy, Rath, Rao, Joshi, Cole, and Mehta with Rao.

Further Reading

• Vaidyanatha Dikshita, Jataka Parijata
• Raman, How to Judge a Horoscope (Volumes One & Two)
• Raman, Three Hundred Important Combinations
• Raman, Notable Horoscopes
• Levacy, Beneath a Vedic Sky
• Rath, Crux of Vedic Astrology
• Rao, Bhrigu Samhita
• Cole, Science of Light, Vol. I
• Joshi, Muhurta: Traditional & Modern
• Mehta & Rao, Time Tested Techniques of Mundane Astrology