Article text is currently English only. The calculation below and the rest of the interface follow your chosen language.
In short
Degree in sign is how far a graha or the Ascendant has travelled into its current sign, from 0 to just under 30 degrees. It is the longitude with whole signs removed. This app shows it beside every position and uses it for the divisional charts, for dignities defined by degree, and to rank the Jaimini chara karakas.
What the term means
A position in a chart is written as a sign and a degree: "Aquarius 25.40" means 25.40 degrees into Aquarius. That second number is the degree in sign. It is the sidereal longitude with the whole signs taken off, so it always runs from 0 up to, but not reaching, 30. It says where in its rashi a point stands, which the sign name alone does not.
Where the term comes from
Several BPHS rules turn on the degree rather than the sign. Ch. 3 Sl. 49-50 give each graha a degree of deepest exaltation, from 3 degrees for the Moon to 28 for Mars, and the same degree of deepest fall in the opposite sign. Sl. 51-54 make Moolatrikona a stretch of degrees, such as the first 20 of Simha for the Sun. Ch. 6 cuts every sign into fixed arcs for the divisional charts. Ch. 32 Sl. 3-8 names as Atma Karaka the graha that has "traversed maximum number of degrees" in its rashi, settling a tie by minutes and then seconds.
How this app uses it
- The engine stores it to two decimal places for every graha and for the Ascendant: the sidereal longitude, remainder after dividing by 30.
- Every divisional chart reads it. A Navamsa part is the degree in sign divided by 3°20', and each other varga uses its own arc.
- Dignities defined by degree, such as Moolatrikona ranges, are tested against it.
- The chara karakas are a straight sort on it. In the 19 January 1985, 11:14 IST, New Delhi chart Mars, at Aquarius 25.40, has gone furthest through its sign and is the Atma Karaka; Venus at 22.47 follows as Amatya Karaka, and Jupiter at 2.09 comes last.
- A degree near 0 or 30 means the point is close to a sign boundary, where a small difference in ayanamsa or birth time can change the sign.
Pages that use this term
- Ishta Devata and the Karakamsa - the Atma Karaka chosen by degree in sign.
- Navamsa: the second chart - the D9 read off the degree in sign.
- Why apps disagree on your nakshatra - what a degree near a boundary means.
- Chara karakas calculator - the seven grahas ranked by it.
- Birth chart calculator - every position given as sign and degree.
- Sources - the tables that print it beside each point.
Related terms
- Atmakaraka - the graha with the highest degree in sign.
- Moolatrikona - a dignity defined by a degree range.
- Uchcha - exaltation, with its deepest degree.
- Varga - the divisional charts built from it.
Birth Chart (Kundli)
All nine grahas by sign, degree and nakshatra, with houses when the birth time is known and the place resolves to coordinates.
This one has its own page
This one runs on its own page, built for it, where the full result is laid out properly. No account is needed there either.