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In short
In a birth chart, a yoga is a named combination: a rule about which grahas sit in which signs or houses, given a name and a reading by the classical texts. BPHS gives yogas a run of chapters from Ch. 34 to Ch. 42. This app tests a fixed list of 57 such rules and names the grahas that formed each one.
What the term means
Yoga is Sanskrit for "joining". In a birth chart it names a combination: a stated condition about where grahas sit, by sign, by house or relative to one another, that a classical text names and reads. A yoga is a rule about positions, not a separate object in the sky, so two charts either meet the condition or they do not. The same word is used in the panchang for something different, the nitya yoga of the day, which is not a chart combination at all.
Where the term comes from
BPHS gives yogas a long run of chapters: Ch. 34 on yoga karakas, Ch. 35 on the Nabhash (chart-shape) yogas, Ch. 36 "Many Other Yogas", Ch. 37 and 38 on yogas formed from the Moon and the Sun, Ch. 39 on Raj Yog, Ch. 40 on royal association, Ch. 41 on wealth and Ch. 42 on penury, with the Panchmahapurusha yogas in Ch. 75 and the ascetic yogas in Ch. 79. Saravali covers much of the same ground in its own order: lunar yogas in Ch. 13, solar yogas in Ch. 14, Nabhasa yogas in Ch. 21, Raja yogas in Ch. 35 and the Pancha MahaPurusha yogas in Ch. 37. The two books do not always state a yoga the same way, and where they differ the engine's notes say which reading it follows.
How this app uses it
- detectYogas() in kundaliEngine.js tests a fixed list of 57 named yogas. It runs only when the Ascendant is known, because most rules count houses from the Lagna.
- The families are: yogas from the Moon and the Sun (Saravali Ch. 13 and 14), Adhi, Amala and Mudrika, the 32 Nabhasa yogas, the five Panchamahapurusha yogas, Gaj Kesari, four Raj Yoga rules, the three Vipareeta yogas, two Dhan Yoga families and Parivarthana (sign exchange).
- Every result lists the grahas that triggered it, so a yoga on this site can always be traced back to the placements behind it.
- Some classical material is left out on purpose: the general Raj Yog rules of BPHS Ch. 39, which the engine's notes describe as many competing rules, are not attempted.
- Kemadruma, which the lunar-yoga code also tests, is treated on this site as a dosha.
A small illustration
For the chart of 19 January 1985, 11:14 IST, New Delhi, detectYogas() returns eight entries: Durudhura, Ubhayachari, Kedara, Amala, Argala Raj Yoga, Sarala, a Kendra-Kona Raj Yoga (Mercury and the Moon together) and a Parivarthana between Mars and Saturn. Eight named yogas in one chart is not unusual, which is why the essay on yogas asks how many other charts share each one before reading anything into it.
Pages that use this term
- What a yoga in your chart means - the essay on reading a yoga together with how often it occurs.
- Yogas calculator - runs detectYogas() on your birth details.
- Gaj Kesari Yoga - one yoga, its four conditions and how the engine tests them.
- The 9th house (Dharma Bhava) - a trine house whose lord appears in several Raj Yoga rules.
- Jupiter in Vedic astrology - the graha behind Hamsa and Gaj Kesari.
- Kundali - where detected yogas appear beside the chart.
Related terms
Raja yoga, Dhana yoga, Nabhasa yoga, Panchamahapurusha yoga, Vipareeta Raja yoga and Yogakaraka.
Yogas in Your Chart
The named classical combinations your own placements actually form - and only those.
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