Mastering Ashtakavarga Part 2: Building Bhinnashtakavarga Charts - The Core System

Welcome to Part 2 of our comprehensive journey through the Ashtakavarga system. In Part 1, we learned what Ashtakavarga is and why it matters. Now comes the practical foundation: how to actually build the charts.

This article covers the Bhinnashtakavarga (individual planet charts) — the seven separate Ashtakavarga charts for Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn. We will learn the benefic places for each planet, see a complete step-by-step worked example using B.V. Raman's Standard Horoscope, and understand how to combine these into the master Sarvashtakavarga chart.

"The total individual contribution of benefic points by any planet in any horoscope will be the same respective figures as given. The sum total of benefic points of all planets will be 337 for any horoscope. This is constant."

B.V. Raman classifies Ashtakavarga charts into four broad categories:

1. Bhinnashtakavarga — Individual Ashtakavarga charts (one for each of the seven planets)
2. Bhinnashtakavarga after reduction — Individual charts after applying Trikona and Ekadhipatya reductions (covered in Part 3)
3. Sarvashtakavarga — Total Ashtakavarga chart (sum of all seven planets)
4. Prasthara Ashtakavarga — Spread-out Ashtakavarga chart (detailed planetary contributions)

This article focuses on Type 1 and Type 3: building the individual planet charts and combining them into the master chart.

Before we dive into chart construction, you must understand two fundamental terms:

Each planet has a fixed set of benefic places counted from eight reference points: the planet itself, the other six planets, and the Ascendant (Lagna). These benefic places are constant for all horoscopes — what changes is where they fall based on planetary positions in each individual chart.

Here are the complete benefic places for all seven planets. Memorize these — they are the foundation of Ashtakavarga chart construction.

Now let's build an actual Bhinnashtakavarga chart step-by-step using B.V. Raman's Standard Horoscope. This is a real birth chart for someone born on October 16, 1918 at 2:00 PM LMT in Bangalore, India. Here's the planetary placement:

We will construct the Sun's Bhinnashtakavarga by building eight separate mini-charts (one from each reference point), then combining them into a composite chart.

Now we combine all eight charts by counting how many bindus fall in each sign:

Total bindus: 5+3+5+4+4+4+3+5+5+0+5+5 = 48 ✓ (matches the constant)

Following the same method, we construct Bhinnashtakavargas for all seven planets. Here are the composite charts for the Standard Horoscope (Charts 9-15 from B.V. Raman's book):

The Sarvashtakavarga is the total Ashtakavarga chart — the sum of all seven Bhinnashtakavargas. To construct it, simply add together the bindus in each sign from all seven planetary charts.

For example, in Aries:

• Sun's Ashtakavarga: 5
• Moon's: 5
• Mars': 4
• Mercury's: 4
• Jupiter's: 3
• Venus': 7
• Saturn's: 5
• Total: 5+5+4+4+3+7+5 = 33

Repeat this for all twelve signs to get the complete Sarvashtakavarga:

"If the calculations are correctly done, the total bindus of all the twelve signs in the Sarvashtakavarga will be found to be 337."

Now that you know how to build the charts, what do the numbers mean? Here's a quick preview (full interpretation techniques come in later parts):

In the Standard Horoscope, notice that Aries and Gemini both have 33 bindus in Sarvashtakavarga (highest), while Virgo has only 23 (lowest) and Capricorn is second lowest at 24. This suggests the native would experience greatest success during transits through Aries/Gemini, while Virgo and Capricorn periods might present challenges.

Key Takeaways