Planetary positions
Planetary positions underpin divisional charts, daśās and strength calculations. Mạghā's ledger lists sign, degree, house, nakṣatra, pāda, strength and dignity, with motion badges. Its thirteen default rows cover the Ascendant, nine grahas and three outer planets.
Each row starts from one longitude, counted from 0° Aries
A planet's position is one number, its longitude, measured from 0° of sidereal Aries. Each sign takes 30°. Each nakṣatra takes 13°20′, the 800 minutes of arc the Sūrya Siddhānta gives it, and splits into four padas of 3°20′, so nine padas fill a sign, as Varāhamihira counts them.
Nila's Moon stands at 294°15′. Nine whole signs use 270°, which leaves 24°15′ of Capricorn, and the Rāśi column prints "Ca 24°15′". Every sign is cut to its first two letters, so Cancer is "Ca" too: Mars, in the next row, reads "Ca 11°24′", and the Nakṣatra · Pāda column tells the two apart. The Moon is 0°55′ into Dhaniṣṭhā, the 23rd nakṣatra, inside its first pada: "Dhanishta · 1". Seconds are dropped, not rounded.
The right-hand columns judge how well each planet stands
Dignity applies Parāśara's sign rules from chapter 3 of Bṛhat Parāśara Horā Śāstra. A planet is Exalted or Debilitated in one sign each and Own in the signs it rules; elsewhere it is Friendly, Neutral or Enemy by its natural relationship with the sign's lord. Nila's Mars, in Cancer, is Debilitated, her Venus and Saturn are Own, and Jupiter, in a sign of Venus, is Enemy. Rāhu, Ketu and the outer planets get no dignity.
Strength divides each planet's Ṣaḍbala-style total, its six-part strength, by the minimum B. V. Raman requires for it, so 1.00 means the planet just meets it. Nila's planets run from 1.02 for the Sun to 1.63 for Venus. In the birth chart, a Kāraka column adds the Jaimini roles: AK marks the planet furthest through its sign.
Choose the ledger’s chart
Planetary details divisional selects D1–D150 presets or a custom division. Choose planetary ledger rows adds avasthās, special points and birth-chart Western points, and toggles outer planets. Display & input settings switch English and Vedic planet names.
Note: the Bhāva column uses 30° houses centred on the Ascendant. Nila’s Moon is in house 5 there but sign-based house 4 in Rāśi. Added special and Western points use sign-based houses.
Nila's Venus shows Stationary and Retro in the ledger
Parāśara lists eight kinds of planetary motion, among them vakra, retrograde, and vikala, "devoid of motion" (Bṛhat Parāśara Horā Śāstra 27.21–23). Mạghā marks a retrograde planet Retro. When the magnitude of its daily motion drops to a set limit or below, Mạghā shows Stationary, followed by Retro or Direct for the way the planet is moving. Mạghā's mean Rāhu and Ketu move backwards and carry no badge.
Nila's Venus was slipping back less than 2′ a day, inside its 3′ limit: it had turned retrograde at 24°13′ Libra about 19 hours before her birth, so its row reads Stationary and Retro. Saturn, at 2′35″ a day against a limit of 1′, and Mercury, at 38′, show Retro alone. Mạghā calculates these speeds but shows only the badges.
What people ask about planetary positions
What does a planet's degree mean in a birth chart?
It is how far the planet has travelled through its sign, from 0° to just under 30°. The sign and degree fix its nakṣatra and pada, divisional-chart positions and Bālādi age state; the degree ranks the planets for the Jaimini kārakas. Mạghā prints degrees and minutes, cutting the seconds rather than rounding them.
Which planet has the highest degree in my chart?
Compare the degrees within each sign and ignore the signs themselves. In the Jaimini tradition the planet furthest through its sign, from the Sun to Saturn, is the Ātmakāraka, and Mạghā marks it AK in the Kāraka column. In Nila's chart it is the Sun at 26°40′ Virgo; Mercury, at 11°12′ Libra, is lowest and becomes the Dārakāraka, DK.
How do I see which planets are combust?
The Planetary ledger has no separate combustion badge. Add the Diptadi column from the ⋯ menu: its combustion state is Kopita. Mạghā tests a planet's separation from the Sun using its own selected thresholds. Astronomical visibility tables are a separate comparison: Varāhamihira's Pañcasiddhāntikā XVII.12 gives 17° for Mercury's heliacal visibility. That figure alone does not establish Nila's combustion state.
Why do two programs show slightly different positions?
Settings explain most differences. The ayanāṁśa shifts every sidereal position by the same amount, and Mạghā uses Lahiri unless you choose another in Calculation defaults. Programs also differ on the lunar nodes, mean or true; Mạghā uses the mean node. And Mạghā cuts each position at the minute, so a program that rounds can show a minute more.
Open the Planetary ledger for your own chart
See every planet's sign, degree, nakṣatra and pada in your own chart, free for life like every astrology feature in Mạghā. The preview scrolls through the ledger of Nila Raman.
Read your planetary positions