Ashtakavarga: reading bindus for transit strength

Ashtakavarga is the chart's own scoring system for transits. It turns the question 'is Saturn's transit through my fourth house good or bad?' into a number you can defend.

Eight contributors, 337 bindus

For each of the seven planets, the classical tables say which signs, counted from each of eight points (the seven planets and the lagna), receive a benefic dot, a bindu. The result for one planet is its Bhinna Ashtakavarga: a score from 0 to 8 in each of the twelve signs. The seven Bhinna tables add up to the Sarva Ashtakavarga, and the grand total is always 337: 48 for the Sun, 49 for the Moon, 39 for Mars, 54 for Mercury, 56 for Jupiter, 52 for Venus and 39 for Saturn.

Bodhlok computes both from the natal positions in your ayanamsa and shows the twelve-sign grid for each planet and for the total, with the house numbers beside the signs so the reading is by house as well as by sign.

What the numbers mean

• A sign with 28 or more Sarva bindus is strong: planets transiting it tend to give results, and natal planets there have a foundation.
• A sign with fewer than 25 is weak; transits through it disappoint, and promises made by planets there need support from elsewhere.
• In a planet's own Bhinna table, a transit through a sign with 4 or more bindus is favourable for that planet's matters; 3 or fewer is unfavourable.

Weighing a transit

Saturn's transit through a house is the standard case. The desk shows Saturn's Bhinna score in the transited sign and the Sarva score of the sign, so a Sade Sati that runs through signs scoring 5, 6 and 4 in Saturn's table reads very differently from one that runs through 2, 1 and 3. The transit page carries these scores next to each transiting planet, and the consult uses them when it answers a question about a period.

Kakshya and reductions

Bodhlok also shows each bindu by the kakshya (the one-eighth division of a sign) that contributes it, so the transit of a planet within a sign can be timed to the kakshya whose contributor gave the dot. The trikona and ekadhipatya reductions used for longevity and timing calculations are available on the same desk for those who use them.