Jaimini (Chara Daśā) (賈米尼占星（星座大運）)

The Soul Planet & the Sign-by-Sign Daśā

Overview

Jaimini astrology is a complete, self-standing school of Vedic astrology that runs parallel to the mainstream Parashari system — same sky, a different grammar. Instead of fixed karakas (Sun = father, Moon = mother, always), Jaimini uses VARIABLE significators: the seven planets are ranked by their degree within whatever sign they occupy, and the highest-degree planet becomes your Atmakāraka, the significator of the soul and the single most important point in the chart. Instead of a planetary daśā, it times life with the Chara Daśā — a sign-based period system where existence unfolds one rāśi at a time, each period's length derived by counting from the sign to its lord. It adds the Arudha Lagna (the 'image' of the self — how the world sees you, as opposed to who you are) and the Karakāṁśa (the Atmakāraka's Navāṁśa sign, read as a second lagna for the soul's journey). askTIAN computes all of these from a Lahiri-sidereal chart, gold-locking the Chara Daśā arithmetic against the K.N. Rao rules.

Origin & history

Jaimini is attributed to the ṛṣi Jaimini, a disciple of Vyāsa, and its root text is the terse aphoristic Jaimini Sūtras (Upadeśa Sūtras) — a work so compressed that it has spawned centuries of commentary and genuine disagreement about what several sūtras actually mean. It is not a later offshoot of Parashari astrology but a parallel classical stream; many traditional astrologers use both, reading the Parashari chart for detail and the Jaimini layer for the soul's arc and timing.

askTIAN implements the deterministic spine of Jaimini and is candid about where the tradition forks. The Chara Karaka ranking (by degree within sign, highest = Atmakāraka) is exact and gold-locked; the 7-karaka scheme (K.N. Rao's default, no nodes) is the default, with the 8-karaka scheme (adding Rahu at a 30−degree rank and a distinct Pitrikāraka for the father) available as an option, because the choice genuinely changes which planet becomes the Atmakāraka in some charts. The Chara Daśā follows the K.N. Rao method — direction set by whether the Lagna is an odd or even sign, each sign's length the count from the sign to its lord (in that sign's own direction) minus one, own-sign or zero normalised to twelve years — and the twelve durations are locked in the test suite against Rao's worked example. Everything keys off the Lahiri (Chitrapakṣa) ayanamsa, Rao's stated requirement, because a different ayanamsa can push a planet across a sign boundary and even swap the Atmakāraka with the Darakāraka.

How it works

From birth date, time and place the engine converts each planet's tropical longitude to Lahiri-sidereal, then ranks the seven grahas by their degree within their sign to assign the Chara Karakas — Atmakāraka (soul), Amatyākaraka (career/mind), Bhrātrākaraka (siblings), Mātrākaraka (mother), Putrakāraka (children), Gnātikāraka (rivals) and Darakāraka (spouse). The Lagna is computed from the birth latitude and longitude; the Chara Daśā then runs sign by sign from the Lagna in the direction set by its odd/even nature, with each sign's period length counted from the sign to its lord. The Atmakāraka's Navāṁśa (D9) sign gives the Karakāṁśa, the Lagna and its lord give the Arudha Lagna (with the classical rule that it can never fall in the 1st or 7th), and the Jaimini rāśi-dṛṣṭi sign aspects are returned for the Karakāṁśa and the Lagna. Without a birth time or place the karakas and Karakāṁśa still resolve; the Lagna-dependent layers (Chara Daśā, Arudha, Swāṁśa) need the full birth data.

Good for

• Finding your Atmakāraka — the soul planet that carries the chart's deepest theme
• Getting the full Chara Karaka cast (soul, career, mother, spouse, rivals, children) from birth data
• Timing life with the sign-based Chara Daśā rather than a planetary daśā
• Reading the Arudha Lagna — the public image, distinct from the real self
• Exploring the Karakāṁśa, the soul's Navāṁśa sign, for life direction and the guiding deity

Use cases

Atmakāraka & Karaka Cast

Send birth data and receive all seven (or eight) Chara Karakas ranked by degree, with the Atmakāraka — the soul significator — named and placed.

Chara Daśā Timeline

Get the sign-by-sign Chara Daśā with each period's length in years and its date range, plus the mahādaśā running on any given date.

Arudha Lagna (Public Image)

Surface the reflected ascendant — how the world perceives the native — with the classical 1st/7th-collision rule applied.

Karakāṁśa Soul Path

Read the Atmakāraka's Navāṁśa sign as a second lagna for the soul's journey and the Jaimini sign aspects upon it.

Key terms

Atmakāraka (ātmakāraka)

The soul significator — the planet at the highest degree within its sign. The single most important planet in Jaimini; it carries the chart's core purpose.

Chara Karaka

A 'variable significator': the planets ranked by degree-within-sign into seven (or eight) roles — soul, minister, siblings, mother, children, rivals, spouse — unique to each chart.

Chara Daśā

Jaimini's sign-based daśā: life unfolds one rāśi at a time from the Lagna, each period's length counted from the sign to its lord (own-sign → 12 years).

Arudha Lagna (pada)

The 'image' ascendant — as far beyond the Lagna's lord as the lord is from the Lagna. It shows how the world perceives you, versus the real self of the Lagna.

Karakāṁśa

The sign the Atmakāraka occupies in the Navāṁśa (D9), read as a reference lagna for the soul's path; the 12th from it is the Iṣṭa Devatā (guiding deity).

Rāśi Dṛṣṭi

Jaimini's SIGN aspects: movable signs aspect the fixed signs bar the adjacent, fixed aspect movable bar the adjacent, dual signs aspect one another.

Lahiri ayanamsa

The sidereal–tropical offset Jaimini is pinned to (K.N. Rao's requirement); a different ayanamsa can move a planet across a sign and flip the Atmakāraka.

API

The askTIAN Jaimini endpoint computes the school's core layers from birth data: the Chara Karakas (the seven or eight planets ranked by degree within their sign, naming the Atmakāraka/soul planet down to the Darakāraka/spouse), the sign-based Chara Daśā (each rāśi period's length and date range, plus the running mahādaśā), the Arudha Lagna (the public image, with the 1st/7th-collision rule), the Karakāṁśa (the Atmakāraka's Navāṁśa sign) and the Jaimini rāśi-dṛṣṭi sign aspects. Everything is Lahiri-sidereal; the Chara Daśā arithmetic follows the K.N. Rao rules and is gold-locked against his worked example (all twelve durations). The 7-karaka scheme is the default with the 8-karaka scheme selectable, and the reading is candid that the two schemes can name different soul planets and that Sanjay Rath / PVR's Chara Daśā differs. A best-effort LLM reading is returned in parsable sections; set interpretation:false for structured data only. Symbolic Vedic-heritage analysis for reflection — not a validated predictor, and not medical, legal or financial advice.

Endpoint: POST /trpc/jaimini.chart — 7 TIAN Points. See the API documentation and Playground.