Putrakaraka
sanskrit: पुत्र कारक (Putra Karaka)
Definition
Putrakaraka is the karaka — the significator, the planet that stands for — children. The name carries two senses across the sources. As a naisargika (natural) significator it is always Jupiter, the karaka of children and of the fifth house, and how Jupiter sits with the lords of the Ascendant and the fifth house is read as the promise of progeny. In Jaimini's chara (movable) scheme it means something different: the fifth of the seven chara karakas, the planet that holds the fifth-highest degree.
In Tradition
The BPHS (Parasara, via Kapoor) and Raman both take the Putrakaraka to be Jupiter, the natural significator of children, and both judge progeny by reading that significator together with the fifth house and its lord. When the Putrakaraka and the fifth lord are weak or afflicted, the prospects for children are read as spoiled.
In Practice
When weighing progeny, a jyotishi reads Jupiter as Putrakaraka alongside the fifth house and its lord. Parasara teaches that someone will be without a son when Jupiter as Putra-karaka and the fifth lord are bereft of strength while malefics (harmful planets) sit strong in the fifth, and that curses of a previous birth destroying male issue are read chiefly through afflictions to this significator and the fifth house. Raman likewise reads the prospects of children as spoiled when the Putrakaraka is afflicted — for instance hemmed between malefics, or placed in the fifth counted from the Moon. In Jaimini's chara-karaka method, the Putrakaraka is instead found as the planet holding the fifth-highest degree among the seven movable karakas, per Rao.
Historical Origin
The naisargika sense is attested in the Brihat Parasara Hora Sastra, Ch.83 (Maharshi Parasara, translated by Kapoor), and elaborated by the modern author B.V. Raman in How to Judge a Horoscope and Notable Horoscopes. The chara-karaka sense follows Jaimini's system, as presented by Rao in Predicting through Jaimini's Chara Dasha.
Further Reading
- Parasara, Brihat Parasara Hora Sastra (BPHS) Ch.83 Sl.7-8
- Raman, How to Judge a Horoscope (Volume One), The Fifth House
- Rao, Predicting through Jaimini's Chara Dasha, Ch.2 Karakas
- Raman, Notable Horoscopes, Index of Technical Terms