Ashtakavarga: bindus, reductions and pindas

Ashtakavarga assigns points, called bindus, to signs under a traditional set of relative-position rules. An individual graha's table is Bhinna Ashtakavarga; the combined table is Sarva Ashtakavarga.

The eight contributors to an individual table are the seven grahas from Sun through Saturn and the lagna. An individual sign score ranges from zero to eight. This is a rule-based score, not a measured probability of a good event.

Read signs before houses

The columns are zodiac signs, not permanently numbered houses. In a Cancer-lagna chart, the Libra column concerns house 4; in a Capricorn-lagna chart it concerns house 10.

Each graha row gives its twelve original scores and row Total. The aggregate row adds the seven graha tables by sign. It is not out of eight and should not be compared directly with one graha's transit bindus.

Rahu, Ketu and the outer planets have no individual Bhinna table here. Nodes can still matter to the occupancy convention used in a later reduction; that does not create a node bindu row.

Reductions

Trikona shodhana reduces each trinal sign set by its lowest score. For a schematic set with 5, 3 and 4 bindus, the reduced values are 2, 0 and 1. This example describes the reduction, not a person's chart.

Ekadhipatya shodhana then compares pairs of signs sharing a ruler. It uses the already reduced values and whether the signs are occupied. Here occupancy includes the nine grahas and lagna. Both occupied signs, or a pair with a zero, are left unchanged. With both empty, equal values become zero and unequal values take the smaller value. With one occupied, the occupied sign keeps its value. The empty sign becomes zero if its value is equal or smaller; otherwise it takes the occupied sign's value.

The order matters: trikona first, ekadhipatya second. A reduced table should not be substituted for the original scores in the transit column.

Pindas

Rasi pinda weights the final reduced sign values by traditional sign multipliers. Graha pinda weights those values at the natal grahas' signs by graha multipliers. Shodhya pinda is their sum.

They are weighted quantities used by further traditional techniques, not percentages, years of life or money amounts. A zero after reduction has a different meaning from a missing table.

See transit bindus for the current-sign comparison and strength measures for other scores with different scales.

See the chart and its tables on the Kundli page.