Navagraha — The 9 Planets of Vedic Astrology

The navagraha are the Sun (Surya), Moon (Chandra), Mars (Mangala), Mercury (Budha), Jupiter (Guru), Venus (Shukra), Saturn (Shani), and the two lunar nodes Rahu and Ketu. Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are not part of classical Jyotish, which works only with bodies visible to the naked eye plus the nodes.

Rahu and Ketu are the north and south nodes of the Moon — the points where its orbit crosses the ecliptic and where eclipses occur. Jyotish calls them chhaya grahas, "shadow planets": they have no physical body, yet classical texts assign them full planetary force, sign placements and dashas of 18 and 7 years.

Jupiter and Venus are natural benefics; Saturn, Mars, Rahu and Ketu are natural malefics; the Sun is a mild malefic; the Moon is benefic when waxing, and Mercury is benefic unless joined with malefics. Functional nature matters just as much: by lagna, a natural malefic like Saturn becomes a yogakaraka for Taurus and Libra ascendants.

Each graha is a karaka (significator): the Sun for soul and father, the Moon for mind and mother, Mars for courage and siblings, Mercury for speech and intellect, Jupiter for wisdom, wealth and children, Venus for marriage and pleasures, Saturn for longevity, discipline and grief, Rahu for worldly obsession, and Ketu for detachment and moksha.

An exalted planet sits in the sign of its maximum strength — the Sun in Aries, Moon in Taurus, Mars in Capricorn, Mercury in Virgo, Jupiter in Cancer, Venus in Pisces, Saturn in Libra. The opposite sign is its debilitation, where it is weakest, though a debilitated planet can be rescued by neecha bhanga (cancellation) conditions.

Strength is measured, not guessed: Jyotish uses Shadbala — six sources of strength including positional, directional, temporal and aspectual — plus dignity, vargottama status and avasthas. AstroCodex computes full Shadbala for every chart, so you can see exactly which graha leads and which needs support.