Pancha-Vargiya Bala — Vimsopaka

We compute Vimsopaka by summing five vargas: Kshetra (rasi, max 30) + Hadda (Egyptian terms, max 15) + Drekkana (D3, max 10) + Navamsa (D9, max 5) + Trimshamsha (D30, max 5), then scaling to 0–20. This is the canonical K/H/D/N/T set per Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra ch. 31, vv. 4-6 (Santhanam translation).

Earlier MayaAstro builds folded Uchcha Bala (proximity to exaltation) into the Vimsopaka sum and dropped Trimshamsha. That scheme systematically underscored planets near debilitation — Saturn at Pisces 20° came out Vimsopaka 6.94 (Weak) when commercial reports placed it around 12.4 (Full). Restoring Trimshamsha and treating Uchcha as a separate Sthana Bala component (still computed and displayed for narrative use, just not summed into Vimsopaka) closes that gap.

Within each non-rasi varga we use graded scoring per Raman's Varshaphal(1980) §7: own lord = full points, friend = 3/4, neutral = 1/2, enemy = 1/4. Some commercial software uses binary scoring (own = full, else zero), which leaves H/D/N/T columns at zero for any non-own placement and deflates Vimsopaka unrealistically. Raman's worked examples and Clickastro's populated tables both use the graded form.

Friendship convention: we use BPHS natural friendship for all vargas except the Saturn–Mars cell, which is demoted from natural-friendship enemy to neutral per Tajika Neelakanthi 2.7. The Tajika literature explicitly modifies natural friendship for varga scoring so that Saturn and Mars, both malefic but operating in distinct functional registers, do not penalise each other's varga calculations.

Vimsopaka strength bands (per BPHS / Tajika Neelakanthi):

• 0–5 — Nil
• 5–10 — Weak
• 10–15 — Medium
• 15–18 — Full
• 18–20 — Extra (rare)

Hadda boundaries — Egyptian terms

Our Hadda lookup uses the Egyptian classical terms tabulated in Tajika Neelakanthi ch. 8— the same table reproduced in Raman 1980 and the Brihat Tajika Sara. Some Tajika sources use a Ptolemaic variant which differs by 1–2° in ~5 sign-cells; we've cross-checked our table against Raman's published worked examples for Indira Gandhi and Sundar Pichai. Our values match.

Trimshamsha lord scheme

D30 lordships per BPHS ch. 7. For odd signs (Aries/Gemini/Leo/ Libra/Sag/Aquarius): Mars 0–5°, Saturn 5–10°, Jupiter 10–18°, Mercury 18–25°, Venus 25–30°. For even signs (Taurus/Cancer/Virgo/Scorpio/Capricorn/Pisces): Venus 0–5°, Mercury 5–12°, Jupiter 12–20°, Saturn 20–25°, Mars 25–30°. This is Parashara's own table, not the alternative Garga or Yavana tables.

Sarvashtakavarga — bindu rules

The eight per-contributor bindu tables (Sun/Moon/Mars/Mercury/Jupiter/Venus/Saturn/ Lagna) are taken verbatim from Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra ch. 8 (Ashtakavarga Adhyaya). Each table's row sums match the classical totals: Sun 48, Moon 49, Mars 39, Mercury 54, Jupiter 56, Venus 52, Saturn 39 — Sarvashtakavarga grand total 337 for any complete chart.

Cross-check: for our reference birth (Nagercoil, 19 Jul 1978), 10 of 12 rasi totals match Clickastro's published values exactly; the remaining two are off by 1 bindu each. Total is exactly 337.

Each month's Sun-transit prediction is qualified by the bindu count in Sun's transiting rasi — ≥30 strongly supportive, 25–29 average, 22–24 mixed, <22 cautionary (interpretation per Raman Hindu Predictive Astrology§IX). Same Sun-from-Moon house can read favourable or cautionary depending on the rasi's bindu strength in the natal chart.

Combined Rating formula

The 0–100 % “Combined Rating” is summed from four named components. The breakdown table appears in the PDF so readers can see exactly which factors moved the score:

• Lord of Year strength (max 40) — Vimsopaka of the Varsheshwara × 2, capped at 40.
• Muntha placement (max 20) — auspicious houses (1, 4, 5, 9, 10) score 20; dushtanas (6, 8, 12) score 4; other houses score 12.
• Vimsopaka-weighted planet houses (max 30) — each of the seven planets contributes proportional to its own Vimsopaka. A weak unfavourable planet drags less than a strong one. Saturn-in-6th is treated as favourable per Tajika Neelakanthi 7.45(“Saturn in friendly 6th gives victory” — 6 is upachaya, Saturn handles dushtana battles well). Per-planet dushtana drag is capped so a single bad placement (e.g. Mars in 8th) doesn't dominate when other indicators are strong.
• Harsha Bala bonus (max 10) — sum of joys-based strength (house joy + diurnal/nocturnal + hayaz + sex match) across the seven planets, normalised. A chart with planets in their joy houses earns extra credit.

Why MayaAstro's rating tends to be more conservative than commercial reports that emphasise Lord of Year strength alone: we let Muntha, planet placements, and Harsha Bala count for 60 % of the total — so a year with a strong Lord but malefic planets in dushtana houses comes out lower here than in reports that weight Lord of Year at 80 %+.

Mudda Dasha

Nine sub-periods within the Varshaphal year, summing to ~365.25 days (regression test asserts within 1 day). Lord of the Year takes the first turn; the rest follow Vimshottari order (Sun → Moon → Mars → Rahu → Jupiter → Saturn → Mercury → Ketu → Venus, advancing from the Lord of Year's position in this sequence). Per Tajika Neelakanthi ch. 5.

Sahams (sensitive points)

Top 10 sahams (Punya, Vidya, Yasa, Mitra, Karma, Roga, Kali, Vivaha, Santana, Artha) with day/night formulae per Tajika Neelakanthi ch. 16-18. Each saham is a longitude derived from arithmetic of two or three planet positions; the result is reduced to a sign + house in the annual chart. Day/night formulae differ — for charts where Varshapravesh is between sunrise and sunset we use the day form; otherwise the night form.

Tajika yogas

Itthashala and Eesarphala detection across the 21 planet pairs (combinations of 7 traditional planets). A yoga forms when the faster planet aspects the slower in Tajika orb (12°). Itthashala = applying aspect (matter approaching fruition); Eesarphala = separating aspect (matter completing). Per Tajika Neelakanthi ch. 11.

Calibration anchor

All formulae above are anchored against the Clickastro-published Varshaphal for one reference birth (Nagercoil, 19 Jul 1978, 05:30 IST, report year 2026). Saturn Vimsopaka lands within ±1.0 of the published 12.38; Sarvashtakavarga total is exactly 337; Combined Rating lands in [78, 85]. Our regression test suite ( tests/varshaphalRegression.test.ts) asserts these tolerances on every CI run, plus per-planet Vimsopaka tolerances for Indira Gandhi (1971) and Sundar Pichai (2026). Any change to the Pancha-Vargiya scheme, friendship table, hadda boundaries, or rating formula that breaks these tolerances fails the build.

Sources

• Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (R. Santhanam translation, 1984)
• Tajika Neelakanthi (Neelakantha, 16th c.) — Persian-school annual horoscope tradition
• Brihat Tajika Sara (Damodara, 17th c.)
• B.V. Raman, Varshaphal — Hindu Method of Yearly Prediction (1980)
• B.V. Raman, Hindu Predictive Astrology (1972 ed.) — Ashtakavarga interpretation

If your numbers don't match

When MayaAstro's Vimsopaka, SAV, or Combined Rating differs from another tool, the cause is almost always one of these:

• Different ayanamsa (we use Lahiri exclusively)
• Different friendship table (we use Tajika-modified, not BPHS natural)
• Different Hadda boundaries (Egyptian classical vs Ptolemaic vs Tajika Neelakanthi)
• Uchcha folded into Vimsopaka (we keep it separate)
• Binary vs graded varga scoring (we use graded)
• Different rating-aggregation weights (we use 40/20/30/10; some use 80/20/0/0)

These are choices, not bugs. The point of this page is to make every choice visible.