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In short
Maraka is BPHS's name for the 2nd and 7th houses, and for their lords and the malefics tied to them, in its method for judging the length of life. This app does not compute lifespan or predict death. It keeps the classical list of these grahas in its data, does not display it, and reads the 2nd and 7th lords' periods as houses needing extra care.
What the term means
BPHS Ch. 44 opens by asking about "Marakas, or killers", and in Jyotish the word is a technical label inside the longevity chapters. The Maraka houses are the 2nd and 7th from the Lagna. A Maraka graha is the lord of one of those houses, a malefic placed in one, or a malefic joined to one of their lords. The label belongs to a whole-life method of estimating span; it was never meant to be read off a single placement.
Where the term comes from
BPHS Ch. 44 Sl. 2-5 reasons from the 3rd and 8th, which it calls the two houses of longevity. The 12th from each, the 2nd and the 7th, become the Marak Bhavas, and of the two "Dhan Bhava is a powerful Marak Bhava". The same slokas tie any outcome to whether the person is judged short, medium or long lived, so a Maraka period is where the text expects an end to fall only once the span is otherwise complete. Ch. 34 Sl. 19-44 adds a list for each rising sign; for Cancer rising, Sl. 27-28 names Saturn and the Sun, the lords of the 7th and 2nd.
How this app uses it
- The engine stores the Ch. 34 list for all twelve rising signs beside the Yoga Karaka list, and returns it with the Yoga Karaka analysis. For a 1990-05-15, 10:30 IST Mumbai chart (Cancer rising) it returns Saturn and the Sun.
- The Kundali screen shows only the Yoga Karakas from that analysis. The Maraka list is not displayed, and no reading is built on it.
- The engine computes no lifespan and no death timing. Where BPHS gives the Mahadasha of the 2nd, 7th or 8th lord a death line, the engine's note records that it was deliberately left out. The 2nd and 7th lords' periods are read for money and family matters, and for partnership, each "historically a house needing extra care in this Dasha".
Every chart has them
Every chart has a 2nd and a 7th lord, and in the Vimshottari scheme their sub-periods come round inside every Mahadasha. A Maraka label tells you which house a graha rules, nothing more.
Pages that use this term
- The 2nd house (Dhana Bhava) - why the 2nd is the stronger Marak Bhava, and why this app does not apply it.
- The 7th house (Yuvati Bhava) - the 7th as a Maraka house, kept in proportion.
- Cancer (Karka) rashi - the rising sign used in the illustration above.
- What a Mahadasha is - how a period lord's houses are read.
- Vimshottari Dasha calculator - shows which houses each period lord rules.
Related terms
- Badhaka - another house singled out by rising sign.
- Yogakaraka - the list the Maraka list is stored beside.
- House lord - how the 2nd and 7th lords are found.
- Mahadasha - the periods the classical rule is timed by.