Aṣṭakavarga — Eight-Source Strength
Per Bṛhat Parāśara Horā Śāstra Ch.66-71. Each of seven planets receives a 12-sign bindu-array based on classical contribution-tables; the sum across all seven planets is the Sarvāṣṭakavarga (max 337). Trikoṇa-śodhana and Ekādhipatya-śodhana reductions equalize redundant signal; the Piṇḍa per planet feeds the classical Pindāyu longevity estimate.
About This Reading
What This Reading Is, And How It Works
Aṣṭakavarga — literally “the group of eight” — is the classical strength-map of the zodiac. Each of the seven planets plus the lagna contributes “bindus” (auspicious points) to each of the twelve signs based on its position, producing an eight-source strength-grid that anchors transit reading and longevity calculation.
What This Reading Tells You
- Each planet’s Bhinnāṣṭakavarga — a 12-sign bindu count showing which signs each planet finds most support in.
- The Sarvāṣṭakavarga (sum across all seven planet BAVs) — a single 12-sign map showing overall auspicious-signal strength by sign and by house from lagna.
- Reduced bindu counts after Trikoṇa-śodhana (trine equalization) and Ekādhipatya-śodhana (dual-lordship reduction).
- Pindāyu — the classical longevity estimate computed from the Piṇḍa (compounded number) per planet.
Classical Tradition
Aṣṭakavarga is treated comprehensively in BPHS Ch.66–72 — the most extensively-developed technical system in BPHS after the daśā chapters. C.S. Patel & C.A.S. Aiyar’s Ashtakavarga (2nd ed. Sagar 1996) is the definitive modern English systematization; forty years of the authors’ research on the contribution-tables, the reductions, and the longevity computation.
How We Compute It
We compute each planet’s Bhinnāṣṭakavarga by checking, for each of the twelve signs, whether each of the eight reference-points (seven planets + lagna) gives a bindu from its position — using the classical contribution-tables per BPHS Ch.66. The Sarvāṣṭakavarga sums across the seven planet BAVs. Trikoṇa-śodhana and Ekādhipatya-śodhana follow BPHS Ch.67–68. Piṇḍa-sādhana per Ch.69. Pindāyu per Patel Ch.XV.
How To Read The Result
Higher bindu counts indicate stronger auspicious-signal in that sign — a transiting planet through a high-bindu sign produces more favorable effects than the same planet through a low-bindu sign. The Sarvāṣṭakavarga per-house map shows your chart’s structural strengths and weaknesses house-by-house. Pindāyu is one of several classical longevity methods — read as one indicator among multiple, not a definitive lifespan.
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