Damini Yoga: seven grahas in six signs, one shared pair, and the BPHS rule

Damini Yoga is the classical name for a chart in which the seven visible grahas are spread across six signs. Seven bodies in six signs leaves room for only one arrangement: one pair shares a sign and the other five each have a sign to themselves. It belongs to the Sankhya ("counting") group of the Nabhasa yogas, which look only at how many signs are in use. Every chart has exactly one Sankhya yoga, and six signs is the third most common count. This page gives the rule as coded, what BPHS and Saravali say, which pair usually does the sharing, and a real chart checked by hand. For the larger question of what a yoga is worth, see what a yoga in your chart means.

The rule: how Damini Yoga forms

BPHS Ch. 35 Sl. 16-17: "if in 6, Daam Yog occurs". Saravali Ch. 21 Sl. 19: "in 6 Rasis - Damini". The engine applies it as three steps.

1. 1.Take the seven classical grahas - Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn. Rahu and Ketu are not counted.
2. 2.Read each one's sidereal sign.
3. 3.Count the distinct signs. Six gives Damini Yoga, reported as "Your 7 classical grahas (Sun through Saturn) occupy exactly 6 distinct signs".

Which pair shares, which signs are used and which is empty - none of that enters the rule. Nor does the ascendant: the count is of signs, so the same positions are Damini from any rising sign. The engine names no graha against the yoga, because it belongs to the whole chart.

Chakra, Samudra and the precedence clause

The same BPHS sloka adds that none of the Sankhya yogas "will be operable, if another Nabhash Yog is derivable". The engine records that sentence and deliberately does not apply it: every Nabhasa yoga that forms is reported. Two shape yogas guarantee the clause is triggered on a Damini chart. BPHS Ch. 35 Sl. 15 defines Chakra Yoga as all grahas in six alternate signs from the ascendant - the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th and 11th - and Samudra Yoga as the same from the 2nd. The engine requires every one of those six houses to be occupied and nothing outside them, so with whole-sign houses both shapes mean exactly six signs. A Chakra or Samudra chart is always a Damini chart, and BPHS would put the shape first.

Apart from those two shapes, only the Dala yogas (Maala and Sarpa) and the group yogas Vajra and Yava can share a Damini chart; the Asraya yogas cannot, because each modality has only four signs. In the sample, 16 of the 669 Damini moments had another Nabhasa yoga: Maala 11 times, Sarpa 4, Vajra once. No Chakra or Samudra turned up - with six alternate signs to fill exactly, they are demanding shapes.

Maala is the commonest companion for a reason worth noticing. With six signs in use, the grahas are spread widely enough that three or four kendras are often occupied, and Maala needs only benefics in three kendras with no malefic in any. A two-sign or three-sign chart rarely reaches three kendras at all.

What the classical texts say about Damini Yoga

• BPHS Ch. 35 uses two forms of the name: "Daam" in the lists of Sl. 3-6 and Sl. 16-17, "Daamini" at the effect in Sl. 44. Saravali Ch. 21 uses "Damini" throughout, and so does the engine.
• BPHS Ch. 35 Sl. 44: one born in Daamini Yog will be helpful to others, have righteously earned wealth, be very affluent and famous, have many sons and gems, be courageous and "red-lettered" - marked out, distinguished.
• Saravali Ch. 21 Sl. 51: helpful, owning cattle, a lord of money, foolish, with many sons and jewels, bold and learned.
• Saravali Ch. 21 Sl. 8-10 also gives one reading for every Sankhya yoga - living by others' wealth and help, seldom at peace - which sits oddly beside this favourable verse.
• BPHS Ch. 35 Sl. 50: the results of Nabhasa yogas are felt throughout all the dasha periods.

The two verses agree on helpfulness, wealth, many children, jewels and courage. They part on intelligence: Saravali includes both "foolish" and "learned" in the same list, while BPHS has neither and offers "famous" and "red-lettered" instead. Damini is, with Veena and Kedara, one of the three Sankhya yogas the texts read favourably; the lower counts, Gola, Yuga and Sula, get harsh readings. Advanced Predictive Astrology and the Bhrigu Sutras do not mention Damini Yoga.

How common Damini Yoga is

Damini fired in 669 of 3,000 sampled birth moments 1985-2060 - 22.3 percent, a little over one chart in five. Over the engine's longer walk of 20,000 moments to 2483, 4,492 had six signs. Only Pasa (five signs, 1,300) and Kedara (four, 785) were more common in the sample; Veena, one step further out at seven signs, had just 85. These are sampled chart moments, not people.

Which pair shares a sign

Because a Damini chart always has exactly one shared sign, it is easy to ask which two grahas are sharing it. The sample answers clearly:

The top three rows - 392 of 669 - are all drawn from the Sun, Mercury and Venus, the three that travel together. Mercury in particular never gets far from the Sun, so the pair that keeps a chart from reaching seven signs is most often Mercury with the Sun. The Moon was alone in its sign in 592 of the 669 Damini moments.

Put the other way round: a Damini chart is, most of the time, a chart that came within one pair of being Veena. The outer grahas - Mars, Jupiter and Saturn - and the Moon have already spread into signs of their own, and what stops the count at six is usually the Sun and its two close companions failing to separate completely. Pairs made only of outer grahas, such as Jupiter and Saturn or Mars and Jupiter, are among the rarer rows (12 and 9 moments) hidden in the last line of the table. None of this is part of the rule, which treats every pair alike; it is a description of what six-sign charts looked like in the sample.

Worked example: 29 April 1985, New Delhi

The first Damini moment in the engine's walk is 29 April 1985 at 16:01 IST, New Delhi. Re-enter it in the birth chart calculator to check each row. The ascendant is Virgo at 8.37 degrees.

Scorpio, Capricorn, Pisces, Aries, Taurus and Leo: six signs. Mercury and Venus share Pisces - the second commonest pair in the table above - and every other graha is alone. The engine reports Damini Yoga with the six-sign sentence. The occupied houses are the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 12th.

Would BPHS let it stand? Chakra needs the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th and 11th exactly - here the 1st and 11th are empty and the 8th and 12th occupied, so no. Samudra needs the six even houses - no. Six signs cannot share one modality, so no Asraya yoga. Of the four kendras only the 7th is occupied, so neither Maala nor Sarpa. The benefics (Moon, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus) are not confined to the 1st and 7th or the 4th and 10th, nor are the malefics, so neither Vajra nor Yava. The engine's list has no other Nabhasa yoga: this is a Damini chart BPHS would accept.

It is also a chart rich in dignity extremes, none of which touches the count. Venus is exalted in Pisces in the 7th, a kendra, so the engine also reports Malavya Yoga. Mercury beside it is debilitated in the same sign. The Sun is exalted in Aries in the 8th, and as lord of Leo, the 12th sign from Virgo, it sits in a trika house, giving Vimala Yoga. The Moon at 1.19 degrees Leo has only just entered the sign; had it still been in Cancer, a sign no other graha used, the count would have stayed at six.

Damini on the Sankhya ladder

One fewer sign is Pasa; one more is Veena, where all seven grahas have signs of their own. In the worked chart, moving Mercury or Venus out of Pisces into an unused sign would make it Veena; moving any single graha into another's sign would make it Pasa. Below Pasa come Kedara, Sula, Yuga and Gola. Because the Moon changes sign every couple of days, births only days apart can land on different rungs.

What Damini Yoga does not tell you

Damini counts signs. It does not weigh the houses, the dignities or the Mahadasha sequence, and this app gives it no dasha window of its own, since no single graha forms it - consistent with BPHS Ch. 35 Sl. 50. The favourable reading belongs to the texts and is reported here as their claim; the worked chart itself shows how much else - an exalted Venus, a debilitated Mercury beside it - sits in a chart alongside the count.

To see your own Sankhya yoga and which pair, if any, is sharing a sign, run the yoga calculator.

Questions about Damini Yoga

What is Damini Yoga?

It is the Nabhasa Sankhya yoga for a chart whose seven classical grahas, Sun to Saturn, occupy exactly six signs - one pair together, five alone. BPHS calls it Daam or Daamini Yog (Ch. 35 Sl. 16-17, 44); Saravali calls it Damini (Ch. 21 Sl. 19, 51).

Is Damini Yoga good?

Both texts read it favourably: helpful, wealthy, many children and jewels, bold. Saravali also includes "foolish". This app paraphrases it as generosity, learning and a helpful nature with material comfort, and treats it as a named rule about positions, not a promise.

How common is Damini Yoga?

It fired in 669 of 3,000 sampled birth moments 1985-2060, or 22.3 percent - the third most common Sankhya count after five and four signs.

Which two planets usually share a sign in Damini Yoga?

In the sample, the Sun and Mercury most often (231 of 669), then Mercury and Venus (107) and the Sun and Venus (54). Those three travel close together, so they are the likeliest to share.

What is the difference between Damini Yoga and Chakra or Samudra Yoga?

Damini only counts six signs. Chakra and Samudra also need those six to be alternate houses from the 1st or the 2nd. Every Chakra or Samudra chart is therefore Damini too, and BPHS says the shape yoga then takes precedence.

Does BPHS cancel Damini Yoga when Maala Yoga is present?

BPHS Ch. 35 Sl. 16-17 says a Sankhya yoga is not operable when another Nabhasa yoga can be derived, and Maala is one. In the sample Maala sat beside Damini 11 times in 669. This app reports both and records the clause rather than applying it.

Does Damini Yoga have a dasha period?

No. BPHS Ch. 35 Sl. 50 says Nabhasa results run through all periods, and this app gives whole-chart patterns no Mahadasha window of their own.

Does the ascendant or Rahu affect Damini Yoga?

No. The ascendant only renumbers the houses, and Rahu and Ketu are not counted in any Nabhasa yoga.