What is Darakaraka in Vedic astrology?

Hari Om Namo Narayana!

I try not to answer many answers relating to ‘Jaimini’ astrology because I try to write content that pertains to both the ‘tropical system’ and ‘sidereal system’ groups.

Also in ‘Jaimini’ there are some people who follow the 8 ‘karaka’ system and some the 7 ‘karaka’ system and well that just leads to a lot of variations so it’s tough to stick to just one ‘standard’ instruction.

Even so, I think we can have different approaches and even in that I have seen with both systems you just arrive at different ways to look at the same things.

And it is important to perfect our practice of the craft not calibration of our systems.. that can be left to us.

So now what is the ‘Dara Karaka’ (DK)?

The DK is the planet with the lowest degrees in your chart.

Now every planet in ‘Jaimini’ astrology has a different meaning and application and I won’t go into much detail wrt that but just touch upon it for a little background.

I want to stick to explaining how to look at the DK in your chart and understand it deeper.

So now, the 7 ‘karakas’ are as follows:

• Planet with highest degrees: (AK) ‘Atma Karaka’
  • This is the indicator of the soul. Shows you the primary nature of experiences you are here to undergo in this life time.
• Planet with second highest degrees: (AmK) ‘Amatya Karaka’
  • This is the indicator of the vehicle of the soul i.e. the traits and features of which planet shall help you achieve the primary set of experiences denoted by the AK.
• Planet with third highest degrees: (BK) ‘Bhratri Karaka’
  • This is the indicator of the kind of planetary traits that your peers and siblings will have. Basically these are the type of friends you will have to assist you in your journey.
• Planet with fourth highest degrees: (MK) ‘Matri Karaka’
  • This is the indicator of the your mother and all motherly figures in your life and the sources of nurturing that you shall be able to receive. This also stands for motherland and fourth house related matters.
• Planet with fifth highest degrees: (PK) ‘Putra Karaka’
  • This deals with as much your children as it deals with everything creative from books and videos to your doctoral thesis and self initiated projects, programs you may code or music you may create etc.
• Planet with 6th highest degrees: (GK) ‘Ghatni Karaka’
  • This deals with the things that take a toll on you and that you owe something to. For example your relatives, in laws, creditors and most significations of the 6th house.
• Planet with lowest degrees: (DK) ‘Dhara Karaka’
  • Deals primarily with your spouse but also partnerships in general. It shows you ‘service’ and also trade and interactions.

Now what you do is when you are analyzing any of the 7 indicators mentioned above:

• You cross reference them with house rulership, house placement and also star rulership and ‘taara’ placement.

What does that mean?

• Well just knowing that your DK is Moon is not enough information.
• Yes it shows that your spouse would be sensitive and nurturing however that’s not the complete picture.
• To know the complete picture you need to look at the star placement of this planet.

So let’s say your DK is the Moon and it is placed in the star of ‘Chitra’.

• Wow that changes everything.
  • And for various reasons.

Why?

• Because on the one hand this Moon shows a lot about you as a person because it is the Moon after all and therefore representative of the mind, since it is placed in a star ruled by Mars, you can say that your spouse will also be quite a feisty character.

Why?

• Because ‘Chitra’ is a feisty ‘nakshatra’.
• Its totem animal is the tiger and deity is the architect of gods.
  • These people aren’t the ones to be subdued and controlled.
    • Interesting thing is you too are like that.
    • Uff.. fireworks!

Now look at where this Moon is placed.

• Let’s say Moon is placed in the 9th house.
• So that tells us that this individual could probably travel a lot/ teach or have a lot of knowledge of philosophy, religion and possibly law.

Let’s say now Mars is placed in the 6th house.

• Wow now I’d say that there is probably an 80% chance that your spouse is some kind of healer.
• Healer could be a doctor, ‘yoga’ instructor, life coach, even a spiritual coach or physiotherapist.
• Even if they are a lawyer or civil servant, they’d probably still be the kind of person on the ‘good side’ prioritizing/ protecting/ preserving in some capacity.

So you get the idea?

1. You need to follow the energy of the DK and see the relationships to truly understand what kind of partner you might have.
2. Then you also look at the aspects.
3. You also look at start placement of the lord of the star in which your DK is placed.

• Now you probably aren’t going to get a spouse exactly like your DK such as in this example, Moon-like.
• But you will definitely be able to attract someone who has a lot of the dominant traits of your DK.

Another thing to look at is also from the perspectiv eof relationships.

• So if your Moon is your DK in ‘Chitra’ in the 9th then it also shows us that what you do in life will involve forming relationships with a lot of people who are 9th house like i.e. scholarly, well rounded, well travelled, knowledgeable kind of individuals.
• You will form a lot of alliances in the area of academia or spirituality/ travel.
• You will also be serving quite a lot of these people.

For example, let’s say Mars rules your 10th house is your DK and is placed in the 11th house.

• This tells us that you will rise in reputation by serving others and building relationships in the workplace.
• This will add to both your notoriety and power ( both Mars representations)

Hope this helps.

Hari Om Namo Narayana!