Ashtakavarga – An Ancient Vedic Method to Reveal Your Life Path

Ashtakavarga is a scoring system given to the signs in your birth chart. ‘Ashtaka’ means eight and ‘Varga’ means division. Ashtakavarga is known as the eight-fold strength. There are eight bodies used in the scoring system of your birth chart. This scoring system is known as Sarvashtavarga and Bhinna Ashtakavarga. So your ascendant, Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter – these eight bodies will give a score to all the 12 houses in your chart. Through this numbering system, one can know what is in store for him in the particular area of his life.

If you are an Aries ascendant, Aries rules the first house, Taurus rules the second house, Gemini rules the third house and respective signs continue till the 12th house. Each sign in your chart which is controlling a certain house receives certain scores by these planets including your ascendant. On a basic level, it is like A+ to F grades but in numerical form. Ashtakavarga is like a final signature given by the universe and to ascertain how different aspects of your life will be, an Ashtakavarga table is prepared and analysed.

This score will range from 0 to 8. 0 point is considered bad, 8 is an excellent score and the average is 4. When you add up all the points given by these eight bodies, it is known as Samudaya Ashtakavarga. This will show the accumulated score. Rahu and Ketu are not included in Ashtakavarga calculations.

Suppose, you have 4 points in the 3rd house, then the relationship with your siblings will be okay. Suppose it is 2 points, then the relationship with siblings will go for a toss. It is very important which transits will affect you and what dashas will activate the relevant houses, apart from the houses that it signifies.

If you are checking your ashtakavarga scores online, then know that different software can show you different points. One of the popular methods is based on Vedic astrology, lahiri ayanamsa and varahmira calculation.