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In short
The Badhaka, or obstructing, house depends on the rising sign: the 11th for a movable sign, the 9th for a fixed sign and the 7th for a dual sign. BPHS states only the movable rule. This app flags any planet sitting in that house as "badhaka house (sensitive to affliction)" and leaves its strength score unchanged.
What the term means
Badhaka means "obstructer". The Badhaka house, and its lord, are singled out according to the modality of the rising sign. For a movable (chara) sign it is the 11th, for a fixed (sthira) sign the 9th, and for a dual sign the 7th. So Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn rising share one rule, the four fixed signs another, and the four dual signs a third.
Where the term comes from
BPHS gives only part of the rule. In its Char Dasha chapter, Ch. 50 Sl. 20-21, it names Aquarius, Taurus, Leo and Scorpio as the Badhak Bhavas of Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn, "the 11th Rāśi to a Movable Rāśi". The passage is about a sign's dasha: a malefic in that sign's Badhak Bhava is read as bringing hardship in its period. Both corpus copies of BPHS are silent on fixed and dual signs. The other two rows come from Advanced Predictive Astrology, Vol. 1, which calls the 9th of a fixed ascendant a "Badhakasthana" (p. 115) and treats a Gemini chart's 7th lord as the badhaka (pp. 112-113).
How this app uses it
- The engine reads the rising sign's modality and takes the 11th, 9th or 7th house accordingly, counted in whole signs.
- Any of the seven grahas in that house gets the extra phrase "badhaka house (sensitive to affliction)" in the strength table. For a 1990-05-15, 10:30 IST Mumbai chart, Cancer rising puts the Badhaka house at the 11th, and the Sun there reads "a neutral sign in Taurus, panapara house (11th), badhaka house (sensitive to affliction)".
- The flag is a note, not a penalty: it does not change the planet's Shad Bala total or its Strong, Medium or Weak band.
- The engine does not compute the Badhaka lord or apply the Char Dasha rule of BPHS Ch. 50.
Pages that use this term
- Aries (Mesha) rashi - a movable sign, Badhaka at the 11th.
- Taurus (Vrishabha) rashi - a fixed sign, Badhaka at the 9th.
- Gemini (Mithuna) rashi - a dual sign, Badhaka at the 7th.
- Jupiter in the 7th house - where the dual-sign rule comes up.
- Saturn in the 9th house - where the fixed-sign rule comes up.
- Shad Bala calculator - shows the badhaka flag beside a planet.
- Chara Dasha calculator - the sign-based dasha BPHS states the rule in.
Related terms
- Maraka - another house group fixed by the Lagna.
- Chara Dasha - the dasha chapter the BPHS rule sits in.
- House lord - how a house's lord is found.
- Upachaya - the movable-sign Badhaka, the 11th, is also an Upachaya.
Shad Bala calculator
Six components, one simplified score out of 20 for each of the seven grahas.
What it needs
Date, time and place
That is more than this article asks for - it only ever takes a date, and sometimes a time, and never a name or a birth place. So this one runs on its own page, which asks for exactly what it needs and stores none of it.
Run it on its own page