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In short
Chhaya graha means "shadow graha", the name for Rahu and Ketu, the two lunar nodes that have a computable position but no body. This app computes both as points, gives them houses, nakshatras and dasha periods, but no sign lordship and no dignity.
What the term means
Chhaya is "shadow", and a chhaya graha is a shadow graha: Rahu and Ketu. They are the two lunar nodes - crossing points of the Moon's and the Sun's paths - so they can be calculated exactly but never seen. This site's own Hinglish text renders the English "shadow planet" as "chhaya grah".
Where the term comes from
In this site's library the idea comes from the Bhrigu Sutras, which call the nodes "shadowy planets" - points with no observable body or mass whose motion can still be calculated (Part I, pp. 12-13). The same book says that, being shadow planets, they own no signs and act through the sign they occupy, its lord, or the grahas that join or aspect them (p. 4), and reports a school that makes them agents of the graha they join (p. 115). BPHS does not use the word: it simply lists Rahu and Ketu among its nine grahas. Its own "non-luminous" group, in Ch. 3 Sl. 61-64, is a different set - the upagrahas such as Dhoom - which this app does not compute.
How this app uses it
- As points: computeChart() computes Rahu from the mean node and places Ketu 180 degrees away, with the comment that they are the Moon's nodes, not physical bodies. Each gets a sign, degree, nakshatra, pada and house.
- No lordship: SIGN_LORDS gives every sign to one of the seven other grahas, so the nodes rule nothing - in line with the Bhrigu Sutras view. The one exception is the Chara Dasha, which uses Rahu and Ketu as second lords of Aquarius and Scorpio.
- No dignity: the dignity and natural-friendship tables cover the seven grahas only, so the nodes are never exalted or debilitated here.
- Full timing role: both have Vimshottari periods (Rahu 18 years, Ketu 7) and appear in transits.
Pages that use this term
- Rahu in Vedic astrology - the nodes as shadowy planets, and the dispute over their signs.
- Ketu in Vedic astrology - the descending node as a graha.
- Ketu in the 3rd house - explains why the app's "shadow planet" sentence for this house is never shown.
- Ketu in the 11th house - the same unreachable sentence in the 11th.
- Kaal Sarp Dosha calculator - the test built entirely on the two shadow points.
Related terms
Graha, Mean node, Papa graha and Kaal Sarp.