Jupiter (Guru) in Vedic astrology: what BPHS, Saravali and Bhrigu Sutras say, and how to read it in your chart

Jupiter is the graha the classical texts are kindest to. Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (BPHS) calls it the great benefic and the preceptor of the gods, gives it knowledge and happiness to govern, and makes it the significator of four of the twelve houses, more than any other planet. The same text then lists it as a malefic for six of the twelve rising signs. Most of what is useful to know about Jupiter sits between those two statements.

This page sets out what BPHS, Saravali and Bhrigu Sutras actually say about Jupiter, with chapter and sloka, where they disagree, and how this app's engine turns each rule into something you can see in your own chart. It is a map of rules, not a forecast about anyone. For Jupiter's sign, degree, house and dignity, use the Birth Chart calculator. Its house depends on the rising sign, so a birth time and place are needed; what a missing birth time costs explains what can still be read without one.

Guru at a glance

What Jupiter signifies

BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 12-13 gives each graha one governance: the Sun the soul, the Moon the mind, Jupiter knowledge and happiness. Saravali Ch. 4 Sloka 1-2 words it as intelligence and adds a working rule: when the graha that signifies something is strong at birth, that thing is strong, and when it is weak the result is meagre. BPHS Ch. 70 Sloka 1-6 lists what is judged from Jupiter in its Ashtakavarga chapter: nourishment of the body, learning, children, wealth and property.

Jupiter is also the house significator BPHS uses most. Ch. 32 Sloka 31-34 names one karaka for each house, and Jupiter holds four: the 2nd (family and finance), the 5th (progeny), the 9th and the 11th. Sloka 22-24 reads children from the 5th house counted from Jupiter, and Sloka 18-21 makes it the fixed significator of the paternal grandfather. Advanced Predictive Astrology (Vol. II, p. 49) calls it the natural Dhana Karaka, the significator of wealth, and p. 73 pairs it with the Sun as karaka of the 9th. This app uses that idea in one place: the Career and Money calculator reports Jupiter's strength as the chart's Dhana Karaka condition beside its timing windows.

Saravali Ch. 7 Sloka 7-13 gives a longer list of what Jupiter rules: auspiciousness, virtue, stoutness of body, prowess, preceptorship, deputation, city and province, gold, bed, conveyance, position, grains, residence and sons. Sloka 14-15 assigns it the region of the Indus. The modern introduction to Bhrigu Sutras adds money, higher education, law, judges, bankers and advisers, and calls Jupiter the Santan Karaka, the significator of children. It also records a school that reads Jupiter, not the Sun, as the husband in a woman's chart.

Body associations appear in each text. BPHS gives Jupiter fat among the seven constituents and describes it as big-bodied and phlegmatic; Saravali agrees; Bhrigu Sutras assigns it the liver, blood vessels and thighs. These are classifications the texts make, not medical advice, and this app makes no health prediction from them. One further role depends on the chart: BPHS Ch. 32 Sloka 3-8 makes the graha furthest through its sign the Atma Karaka, and Jupiter holds that role or one below it according to its degree. The Char Karakas calculator shows which.

A natural benefic, with stated limits

BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 11 counts Jupiter among the benefics, and Ch. 34 Sloka 8-10 names Jupiter and Venus as the two outright benefics, with the Moon middling and Mercury taking the nature of its company. The same sloka ranks benefic strength in ascending order: full Moon, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus. In BPHS's own grading, then, Venus stands a step above Jupiter. Ch. 47 Sloka 44 nevertheless introduces Jupiter as the great benefic, and the commentary in Bhrigu Sutras and Advanced Predictive Astrology (Vol. II, p. 21) both call it the greatest benefic of all.

The texts lean on this. BPHS Ch. 10 Sloka 2-3 says Mercury, Jupiter or Venus in an angle from the Lagna removes the evils listed in the chapter before it, and that a single strong Jupiter in the Lagna does so alone. BPHS Ch. 12 Sloka 5-7 gives long life, wealth and intelligence when the Lagna lord, Mercury, Jupiter or Venus is in an angle or a trine. Saravali Ch. 5 Sloka 18 says Jupiter in an angle makes the middle of life happy.

The limits are stated just as plainly. Saravali Ch. 30 Sloka 86-87 says benefics strengthen the houses they occupy but prove adverse in the 6th, 8th and 12th, and that results run from full to nil with strength, aspects and dignity. BPHS Ch. 34 Sloka 2-7 adds that a benefic which owns an angle does not give its benefic effects. Both rules matter below. This engine classes Jupiter, Venus, Mercury and the Moon as benefics; a benefic's aspect raises a planet's aspect score in its Shad Bala and a malefic's lowers it, so Jupiter's aspect counts in favour of whatever it falls on.

Dignity: Cancer, Sagittarius, Pisces and Capricorn

Exaltation and fall

BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 49-50 exalts Jupiter in Cancer, deepest at 5 degrees, and puts its fall in the seventh sign from there, Capricorn, deepest at the same 5 degrees. Bhrigu Sutras gives the same points and this engine stores them. The four signs that decide most of what follows each have a page: Cancer, Sagittarius, Pisces and Capricorn.

Sagittarius: how wide is the Moolatrikona?

BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 51-54 makes the first third of Sagittarius Jupiter's Moolatrikona and the rest its own sign. Saravali Ch. 5 Sloka 21-24 says the first 10 degrees, which is the same thing, and this engine uses 0 to 10 degrees. The introduction to Bhrigu Sutras gives only the first 5 degrees. A Jupiter between 5 and 10 degrees of Sagittarius is therefore Moolatrikona by BPHS, Saravali and this app, and own sign by Bhrigu Sutras. Pisces is own sign throughout in all four.

Friends, enemies and the sign-by-sign verdict

BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 55 derives natural friendship from the Moolatrikona sign: the lords of the 2nd, 4th, 5th, 8th, 9th and 12th from it are friends, with the lord of the exaltation sign; the rest are enemies; a planet that comes out both ways is neutral. Worked from Sagittarius, the friendly places are Capricorn (Saturn), Pisces (Jupiter itself), Aries and Scorpio (Mars), Cancer (the Moon, also the exaltation lord) and Leo (the Sun). Saturn also rules Aquarius, the 3rd, so it comes out both ways and is neutral. Mercury and Venus rule only the remaining signs and are enemies. That is the list Saravali Ch. 4 Sloka 28-29 and Bhrigu Sutras state outright, and the one this engine uses.

BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 56 then adds a temporary friendship read from each chart: a planet in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 10th, 11th or 12th sign from another is its friend for that chart, and its enemy anywhere else. Sloka 57-58 combines the two. A natural friend that is also a temporary friend becomes a great friend; friend on one count and enemy on the other comes out neutral; a neutral follows the temporary verdict. This engine applies that to Jupiter and the lord of the sign it occupies, so outside its own, exaltation and fall signs the label depends on where that lord sits in your chart.

Run daily across 1950 to 2049 on this engine's own positions, Jupiter's label came out Exalted on 8.6 per cent of days, Moolatrikona on 2.8, Own sign on 13.2, Friendly sign on 17.6, Neutral on 31.0, Enemy sign on 19.0 and Debilitated on 7.8. A weak label on the great benefic (26.8 per cent) is slightly more common than a strong one from its own or exaltation signs (24.7).

How much each dignity is worth

BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 59-60 grades the good a graha does: full in exaltation, three quarters in Moolatrikona, half in its own sign, a quarter in a friend's, an eighth in a neutral sign, nil in an enemy's sign or in fall. The engine's position score, from the dignity source its code cites (S. Kannan's Fundamentals of Hindu Astrology, not in this corpus), runs 10, 10, 7.5, 6.25, 5, 0 and 0, so it rates Moolatrikona equal to exaltation where BPHS puts it a quarter lower.

Saravali Ch. 45 describes Jupiter in each state. Exalted: famous, wealthy, learned and honourable. In Moolatrikona: helpful to others, with a knowledge of justice. In its own sign: versed in the Vedas and literature, and rich. In a friend's sign: respectable and known for good deeds. In fall: dishonour and want. In an enemy's sign: without justice or wealth.

Rays: a measure that ignores ownership

Saravali Ch. 36 counts a graha's rays, and Jupiter is the one planet on which its two schools agree: Sloka 2 gives it 7 rays at exaltation, and the rival school of Sloka 3-4 gives every graha 7. Sloka 6 measures the rays by distance from the deep fall point alone, which produces a result people do not expect. Jupiter at 5 degrees of Sagittarius, inside its Moolatrikona, has 1.17 rays of 7, because that point is only 30 degrees from its fall at 5 degrees of Capricorn. Jupiter at 5 degrees of Gemini, an enemy's sign, has 5.83. Rays and dignity measure different things, and the Deep Dive on your Kundali shows them side by side. These are base figures: the engine does not apply the corrections of Sloka 7-9.

When and where Jupiter is strong

Each line below is a rule the texts state, followed by what this engine does with it.

• Direction. BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 35-38 and Saravali Ch. 4 Sloka 35 give Jupiter and Mercury directional strength in the East, the 1st house. BPHS Ch. 27 Sloka 7 measures it from the 7th house, so it is full at the Lagna and nil at the 7th. The engine gives full credit in the 1st, none in the 7th and an even fall-off by house between. Advanced Predictive Astrology (Vol. II, p. 31) adds that Jupiter or Mercury with this strength and a benefic's aspect offsets many other defects in a chart.
• Time of day. Both texts make Jupiter strong by day (BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 35-38, Ch. 27 Sloka 8-9; Saravali Ch. 4 Sloka 36). For the strength of the thirds of the day, Jupiter is the exception that has it at all times (BPHS Ch. 27 Sloka 12; Saravali Ch. 4 Sloka 39). The engine credits Jupiter's time strength for a day birth, judged by the Sun's position at the birth place, and stays neutral when there is no place.
• Fortnight and half-year. Benefics gain in the bright half of the month and in the Sun's northern course (BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 35-38), and Saravali Ch. 4 Sloka 37 names Jupiter among the grahas strong in Uttarayana. The engine computes neither for Jupiter.
• Motion. Saravali Ch. 4 Sloka 36 counts a retrograde planet as strong, and Ch. 5 Sloka 39 says a retrograde benefic is strong enough to confer a kingdom. Ch. 5 Sloka 14 records a contrary view for one case, a planet retrograde in its exaltation sign, and its own example is Jupiter backing into Cancer from Leo. The engine gives Jupiter its full motion point when retrograde, and also in Gemini or Virgo by a rule of its own source.
• Nature. BPHS Ch. 27 Sloka 14 and Saravali Ch. 4 Sloka 40 put Jupiter fourth of seven in natural strength, above Saturn, Mars and Mercury and below Venus, the Moon and the Sun. Its natural share in the engine's 20-point Shad Bala is 0.5 of 1.
• Sign and decanate. Jupiter gains in odd signs (BPHS Ch. 27 Sloka 4½; Saravali Ch. 4 Sloka 35) and, as a male graha, in the first decanate (BPHS Ch. 27 Sloka 6; Saravali Ch. 4 Sloka 38). The engine computes neither.
• What it does for houses. BPHS Ch. 27 Sloka 30-31 adds one Rupa to the strength of a house Jupiter or Mercury occupies, and takes one from a house holding Saturn, Mars or the Sun. The engine does not compute Bhava Bala.

BPHS Ch. 27 Sloka 32-33 sets the full Shad Bala Jupiter needs to count as strong at 390 Virupas, the same as the Sun. That figure belongs to BPHS's full computation. The Shad Bala calculator runs a simplified 20-point version from the engine's own source, so its totals cannot be compared with 390. In it a combust planet loses its position score, and the engine marks Jupiter combust within 11 degrees of the Sun, which happened on 7.3 per cent of days in the run above. For BPHS's separate twenty-point divisional strength, use the Vimshopaka Bala calculator.

Aspects: the 5th, 7th and 9th

BPHS Ch. 26 Sloka 2-5 gives every graha a full aspect on the 7th place from itself and partial aspects elsewhere, and gives three grahas special full aspects: Saturn on the 3rd and 10th, Mars on the 4th and 8th, Jupiter on the 5th and 9th. Sloka 12 gives the arithmetic for Jupiter's special aspects by exact longitude. Saravali Ch. 4 Sloka 32-33 states the same three. This engine counts full aspects by whole sign, so Jupiter aspects three houses: the 5th, 7th and 9th from the one it occupies.

From the Lagna those are the houses of children, partnership and fortune, which is why the commentary in Bhrigu Sutras calls the 1st house Jupiter's ideal position: directional strength and all three aspects at once. BPHS also weights Jupiter's aspect more heavily than most. In Ch. 27 Sloka 19 a benefic's aspect adds a quarter of its value to a planet's aspect strength, but the aspects of Jupiter and Mercury are added in full, and Sloka 26-29 does the same for a house Jupiter aspects.

Saravali Ch. 27 Sloka 25-66 reads each graha's aspect on Jupiter, grouped by the lord of Jupiter's sign. The Moon's aspect reads well throughout, with one blemish in Leo: a learned writer in the signs of Mars, abundant wealth in those of Venus, good fortune in Mercury's, wealth and conveyances in Cancer, happiness and honour in Jupiter's own, learning and charity in Saturn's. A full aspect from the Moon needs the Moon in the 7th sign from Jupiter, which is one of the four positions of the Gaja Kesari rule below. Saturn's aspect is the least steady: favourable in Mercury's signs, in Cancer and in Saturn's own, unfavourable in Leo and in Jupiter's own signs, mixed elsewhere. One slip in this copy should be noted: the Cancer block is headed correctly but prints Gemini/Virgo in five of its six lines.

What Jupiter rules from your Lagna

Jupiter owns two signs, so every Lagna gives it two houses. BPHS Ch. 34 names its role for each rising sign, and the Yoga Karaka panel on this app's Kundali reproduces the auspicious, malefic and Yoga Karaka lists. Confirm your rising sign with the Lagna calculator.

The pattern is easy to state. Jupiter is auspicious for the Lagnas of its friends Mars, the Moon and the Sun (Aries, Scorpio, Cancer, Leo), where it always owns a trine, and malefic for every Lagna of Mercury, Venus and Saturn. The general rules of Ch. 34 Sloka 2-7 explain most of it. A trine lord is auspicious. The owners of the 3rd, 6th and 11th give evil effects, which covers Taurus, Libra, Capricorn and Aquarius. And a benefic owning an angle loses its benefic effect, which covers Gemini and Virgo, where Jupiter owns two angles and nothing else. Sloka 8-10 ranks that angular blemish, and Jupiter's is second only to that of Venus. This app lists it as Kendradhipathya Dosha for Gemini and Virgo Lagnas, graded mild, with the note that the benefic nature is muted there, not reversed.

Not every source accepts the malefic verdicts. The commentator in Bhrigu Sutras, citing Uttara Kalamrita, holds that Jupiter does good even as lord of the 3rd and 12th (Capricorn Lagna) and, citing Bhavartha Ratnakara, that it gives wealth for Libra Lagna despite ruling the 3rd and 6th. Advanced Predictive Astrology (Vol. II, p. 21) takes the stricter line, that Jupiter is bad when it owns the 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 8th or 12th, and softens it on p. 119, where a trine lordship offsets the other house, as for Aries, Cancer and Leo. The app shows BPHS's lists and names the chapter.

The yogas Jupiter forms

Hamsa

BPHS Ch. 75 Sloka 1-2 and Saravali Ch. 37 Sloka 2 give five grahas a Mahapurusha yoga each when in their own or exaltation sign and in an angle from the Lagna. Jupiter's is Hamsa. Both texts go on to describe the native's body, palm marks, kingdom and length of life (BPHS Ch. 75 Sloka 13-16; Saravali Ch. 37 Sloka 11-13). None of that is carried into this app, which keeps one temperament line: dignified and wise, drawn to meaning and comfort, generous in outlook. The engine looks for Jupiter in Cancer, Sagittarius or Pisces in the 1st, 4th, 7th or 10th house. Jupiter is in one of those signs on 24.7 per cent of days, and four of the twelve rising signs then put it in an angle, which works out to about one chart in twelve. The measured share in what a yoga in your chart means is 8.2 per cent of 40,000 sampled charts.

Gaja Kesari: three definitions

This is the yoga most often tied to Jupiter, and the sources do not define it the same way. BPHS Ch. 36 Sloka 3-4 asks for Jupiter in an angle from the Lagna or from the Moon, joined or aspected by a benefic, and not debilitated, combust or in an enemy's sign. Advanced Predictive Astrology (Vol. II, p. 26) asks only that the Moon and Jupiter be in mutual angles, and on p. 79 only that Jupiter be in an angle from the Moon. This engine applies the BPHS rule in full, by whole sign, counting Venus, Mercury and the Moon as the benefics.

The difference shows in the count. Jupiter stood in an angle from the Moon on 33.4 per cent of days from 1950 to 2049, which is how often the simplest form occurs, and how often this app reported the yoga until October 2026. Adding the exclusions (fall, combustion, an enemy-sign label) cut that to 22.7 per cent of days; with BPHS's demand for a benefic's conjunction or aspect and its Lagna branch as well, the app now finds the yoga in 17.0 per cent of 40,000 sampled birth charts. Advanced Predictive Astrology makes the point itself: the yoga exists for nine days of every lunar month, and ordinary charts that have it do not show the results the texts promise. The same book (p. 79) says the rapport is lost when Jupiter is in the 6th or 8th from the Moon. Saravali has no Gaja Kesari at all, but Ch. 33 Sloka 8-13 reads Jupiter in the 10th from the Moon, one of the four positions, as success, righteousness, affluence and fame.

Other rules in the engine that name Jupiter

• Mudrika: Venus, Jupiter and the Moon in mutual angles or in one house (Advanced Predictive Astrology, Vol. II, p. 28).
• Chandradhi (Adhi): Mercury, Venus or Jupiter in the 6th, 7th or 8th from the Moon, free of malefic conjunction and aspect, graded by how many qualify (Saravali Ch. 35 Sloka 20-21).
• Amala: an unafflicted benefic in the 10th from the Lagna or the Moon (BPHS Ch. 36 Sloka 5-6).
• Sunapha and Anapha, a graha in the 2nd or 12th from the Moon. Formed by Jupiter, Saravali Ch. 13 Sloka 12-19 reads high learning, fame and wealth for the first and majesty, strength and intelligence for the second. The engine prints one line per yoga whichever planet forms it.
• Vesi and Vasi, a graha in the 2nd or 12th from the Sun. Formed by Jupiter: wealth and learning for Vesi; courage, strength and wisdom for Vasi (Saravali Ch. 14 Sloka 3-9).
• Two Dhana Yogas: Jupiter in its own sign in the 5th with Mercury in the 11th (BPHS Ch. 41 Sloka 6), and Jupiter in its own sign in the Lagna, joined or aspected by Mercury and Mars (Sloka 13).
• Lordship yogas. The engine's Raja Yoga needs the 5th and 9th lords in one house, and Jupiter is the 9th lord for Aries and Cancer and the 5th for Leo and Scorpio. Its Dharma-Karmadhipati Yoga needs the 9th and 10th lords together in an angle or trine, and Jupiter is the 10th lord for Gemini and Pisces.

The Yogas calculator lists whichever of these your chart has. BPHS Ch. 36 names further Jupiter yogas the app does not compute: Kahala (Sloka 9-10), Chamara (Sloka 11-12) and Kalanidhi (Sloka 31-32).

Jupiter in the twelve signs

Saravali Ch. 27 gives a reading for Jupiter in each sign, without reference to house. The table keeps its temperament and occupation lines and leaves out its harsher character verdicts and its disease and sexual lines.

Set beside the dignity table, the readings follow it at the two ends and not in the middle. Cancer, Sagittarius and Pisces read as well as their dignity suggests, and Capricorn as badly. But Saravali is generous to Jupiter in Taurus, Gemini, Virgo and Libra, the signs of its two natural enemies, and hard on it in Aquarius, the sign of a neutral. Dignity measures how well placed Jupiter is; the sign readings describe what the sign's own nature does with it. The app's planet row follows dignity.

Jupiter with another graha

Saravali Ch. 15 gives the effect of two planets in one house. Its six Jupiter pairs, with the harsher lines left out:

• With the Sun (Sl. 5): virtuous, a king's minister, gains through friends, a preceptor. Within 11 degrees the engine also marks this Jupiter combust.
• With the Moon (Sl. 10): firm in friendship, modest, wealthy, virtuous, respectful to relatives. This is also the first of the four Gaja Kesari positions.
• With Mars (Sl. 14): intelligent, wise, expert in speech and in the Vedas, an artisan.
• With Mercury (Sl. 17): a scholar, wise and happy, skilled in music and dance.
• With Venus (Sl. 20): lives by learning and argument, follows a virtuous path, judges things accurately.
• With Saturn (Sl. 21): heroic, wealthy, famous, head of a town, an assembly or an association.

Sloka 23 adds that each result rises or falls with the vargas the two planets occupy. BPHS Ch. 34 qualifies two of the pairs by Lagna: the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction does not give its promise for Aries or Gemini rising (Sloka 19-26), nor the Jupiter-Venus conjunction for Leo (Sloka 29-30), though each joins an angle lord to a trine lord.

Jupiter in the twelve houses

Each house has its own page, built from the Jupiter chapter of Bhrigu Sutras, Saravali Ch. 30 and the BPHS chapter on that house. What follows is the shape of the whole. This app's planet row for Jupiter prints a favourable sentence when its dignity label is Exalted, Moolatrikona, Own sign or Friendly sign and it is not in the 6th, 8th or 12th; otherwise a testing sentence.

The sources split on four houses. In the 3rd, Saravali is harsh and the Bhrigu Sutras commentator rejects that reading unless Jupiter is afflicted. In the 8th, Bhrigu Sutras says short-lived and Saravali says long-lived; the sutras make an exception for Jupiter in its own sign or exaltation, and the commentator adds that a lord of the 6th, 8th or 12th placed in one of those houses forms a Vipareeta Raja Yoga, which this engine detects separately. In the 11th, Saravali's few sons is disputed by the same commentator, since Jupiter there aspects the 5th. And for the 2nd and 5th he notes the old maxim that a karaka harms the house it signifies, which some authorities apply to Jupiter and Bhrigu Sutras does not.

The house pages: Jupiter in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th. Saravali is kind to exactly the eight houses outside the 3rd, 6th, 8th and 12th.

Jupiter's Ashtakavarga: 56 points of 96

In Jupiter's own Ashtakavarga each of eight contributors (the seven grahas and the Lagna) marks the places, counted from itself, that are good for Jupiter. This engine's table gives 56 such points, the most any of the seven grahas has in its own chart. BPHS Ch. 66 Sloka 31-34 counts the other side, the contributors marking each place as bad, and the two are exact complements: eight per place, 56 good and 40 bad.

One wrinkle in this translation: its list of good marks (Ch. 66 Sloka 53-55) names four contributors for the 1st and 4th places and leaves out Jupiter itself, while its own list of bad marks leaves room for five. The engine has five, which is what the complement requires. The vocabulary also differs: BPHS Ch. 66 Sloka 13-15 calls the bad marks dots (bindus) and the good ones lines (rekhas), and this app, following its own source, calls the good points bindus. BPHS Ch. 70 Sloka 30-33 reads learning and progeny from the 5th place counted from Jupiter in this chart; its rules for counting children are not repeated here and the app does not compute them. The Ashtakavarga calculator returns Jupiter's table house by house.

Timing: the sixteen-year Mahadasha

In Vimshottari Jupiter rules sixteen of the 120 years (BPHS Ch. 46 Sloka 15), after Rahu's eighteen and before Saturn's nineteen. Sloka 12-14 starts the count of lords from Krittika, which gives Jupiter Punarvasu, Vishakha and Purva Bhadrapada, and a Moon in any of the three starts life in Jupiter's Mahadasha with at most sixteen years of it left. Each of the three runs from 20 degrees of an air sign (Gemini, Libra, Aquarius) to 3 degrees 20 minutes of the next sign. The arithmetic is in what a Mahadasha is; the period has its own page, the Jupiter Mahadasha; and the nakshatras are Punarvasu, Vishakha and Purva Bhadrapada.

The same proportion divides a nakshatra's arc: in the Nakshatra Sub-Lord calculator Jupiter's sub is 1 degree 46 minutes 40 seconds wide in every nakshatra. How the sub-periods divide covers the levels below.

What the texts expect of the period

BPHS Ch. 47 Sloka 5-6 gives the test for every Dasha: favourable if the lord is in the Lagna, exalted, in its own or a friendly sign; unfavourable in the 6th, 8th or 12th, in fall or in an enemy's sign. For Jupiter, Sloka 45-48 describes position, recognition, conveyances, devotion and happiness through spouse and children when it is exalted, in its own sign or Moolatrikona, in the 5th, 9th or 10th, or in its own or exalted Navamsa. Sloka 49-51 gives the reverse for a Jupiter that is debilitated, combust, joined by malefics or in the 6th or 8th: loss of home, anxiety, strain over children. It then adds a qualification: the trouble belongs to the start of the Dasha, and the later part brings gains and recognition.

Ch. 47 Sloka 3-4 times the results inside the period by decanate: a graha in the first ten degrees of its sign delivers at the start, in the second ten in the middle, in the last ten at the end, and in reverse order when retrograde. In this engine's positions Jupiter is retrograde on 30.2 per cent of days, so that reversal applies to about three charts in ten.

Saravali's Dasa chapters, written for its own Moola Dasa scheme, agree in outline. A favourable Jupiter Dasa brings gains through advisers, rulers and statesmanship, with honour, friends and a partner (Ch. 41 Sloka 41-43); an adverse one brings grief and trouble with authority (Sloka 44; its disease lines are not repeated). Its sub-period readings carry a pattern worth knowing. Jupiter's sub-period reads favourably inside every one of the other six Dasas (Ch. 42 Sloka 15, 21, 27, 33, 46, 52). Inside Jupiter's own Dasa the sub-periods of the Sun, Moon, Mars and Mercury read well and those of Venus and Saturn do not (Sloka 36-41).

BPHS Ch. 56 gives each Antardasha in Jupiter's Dasha the same kind of test: the sub-lord's own dignity, its house from the Lagna, and its house counted from Jupiter. An angle or a trine from Jupiter reads well, and for some sub-lords the 2nd or 11th; the 6th, 8th or 12th from Jupiter reads badly. The chapter's maraka lines and the remedy it attaches to each sub-period are not repeated here.

In the app, the dasha reading applies Ch. 47 Sloka 5-6 as written and grades the period good for an exalted, Moolatrikona or own-sign Jupiter, neutral for a friendly or neutral label, and challenging for an enemy-sign label, for fall, or for the 6th, 8th or 12th house. Its favourable theme for Jupiter is expansion, recognition, prosperity and progress in family, learning or spiritual life. Its testing theme follows Sloka 49-51: a slower start that usually improves as the period matures. The Vimshottari Dasha calculator finds when yours runs, and the Timing feature shows the dated windows.

Jupiter in other dasha systems

BPHS Ch. 46 gives Jupiter a different share in each of its other systems: 19 years of 108 in Ashtottari (Sloka 17-20), 13 of 116 in Shodshottari (24-26), 9 of 112 in Dwadashottari (27-28), 18 of 105 in Panchottari (29-30), 20 of 100 in Shatabdik (33-34), 12 of 84 in Chaturashiti-sama (35-36), 9 of 72 in Dwisaptati-sama (37-39), 10 as the first lord in Shastihayani (40-41) and 3 of 36 in Shat-trimshat-sama (42-43). The Alternate Dashas calculator computes all nine of these, plus Kala Chakra, each with its classical condition. Numerology runs a separate clock: in the Mahadasha system of Advanced Vedic Numerology Jupiter rules 3 years of a 45-year cycle, third after the Sun and the Moon, and the Numerology Dasha calculator follows it. When the two clocks disagree, the disagreement is itself the signal.

Transits: about a year in each sign

Jupiter takes a little under twelve years to circle the zodiac (Bhrigu Sutras, Part I), about a year in each sign, and BPHS's translator puts its daily motion at 5 to 15 minutes of arc. About once every thirteen months it turns retrograde; in this engine's positions each retrograde lasts 117 to 124 days. Because of that, Jupiter often enters a sign, backs out of it and enters again.

The current stretch is an example. In this engine's positions Jupiter crossed into sidereal Cancer, its exaltation sign, in the second half of October 2025, backed into Gemini around the start of December, re-entered Cancer in early June 2026 and leaves for Leo around the start of November 2026. It then retrogrades into Cancer once more from late January to late June 2027. These dates are kept approximate on purpose. This app's positions come from built-in formulas, not a full ephemeris (the Methodology page explains), and Jupiter moves so slowly near a station that a small difference in longitude shifts an ingress by days. Check a panchang for the exact day.

The reading from your Moon

For the transit reading, this app counts the transiting planet's sign from your natal Moon sign and applies the benefic rule of its source (Kannan's transit chapter, cited in the engine). For Jupiter:

Advanced Predictive Astrology (Vol. II, pp. 310-311) agrees on most of it: Jupiter does well in the 2nd, 5th, 7th, 9th and 11th from the Moon, is said to bring unease when it crosses the Moon sign itself, and appears in the 3rd in the same list of intensified positions. It leaves out the 10th, which the app's source includes. The same pages add rules the app does not compute: Jupiter returning to its natal sign, or to a trine from it, is read as a favourable time; its opposition to its natal place is not; and Jupiter's transit is the one to watch for auspicious events, as Saturn's is for hard ones. Each reading lasts as long as Jupiter stays in the sign. The Gochar calculator shows Jupiter's current house from your Moon, and your Kundali compares the Ashtakavarga points of the house it is transiting with your chart's own average.

Thursday, the hora and the divisions of a sign

Saravali Ch. 7 Sloka 1-3 gives the weekdays to the seven grahas in order from the Sun, which makes Thursday Jupiter's, and divides each day into 24 horas, the first ruled by the weekday's lord. So the first hora of every Thursday is Jupiter's. The Hora calculator builds the sequence for any date and place, and in the Choghadiya calculator the slot named Shubh is the one this app's table gives to Jupiter; it opens the day on Thursdays. Saravali Ch. 7 Sloka 5-6 gives the use: an enterprise about some house goes better in the year, month, weekday or hora of that house's lord, worth 25, 50, 75 and 100 per cent of the good effect. For the houses Sagittarius and Pisces occupy in your chart, Thursday and Jupiter's hora are the ones the text means.

Among the divisions of a sign, Jupiter has the widest share of the Trimshamsa: BPHS Ch. 6 Sloka 27-28 gives it 8 of the 30 degrees, from 10 to 18 in odd signs and from 12 to 20 in even ones, with Indra presiding, and the Trimshamsa (D30) calculator applies those bands. BPHS Ch. 7 Sloka 13-16 says Jupiter, the Sun and Mars show their effects most in the Sun's Hora, the first half of an odd sign and the second half of an even one. For the two things BPHS judges from Jupiter, Ch. 7 Sloka 1-8 names the divisional charts: children from the Saptamsa (D7) and learning from the Chaturvimshamsa (D24). BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 66-69 also derives a sub-planet, Yamaghantaka, from Jupiter's portion of the day; this app does not compute it.

Jupiter and the number 3

Advanced Vedic Numerology's table of numbers and planets gives 3 to Jupiter, and this app's numerology engine names Jupiter as the ruler of Mulank 3, which it calls the Communicator. The link is a mapping, not a calculation from the chart: a Mulank 3 person need not have a strong Jupiter, and a strong Jupiter says nothing about the birth date. Number 3 in numerology covers the numerology side and the Numerology feature what the app does with it.

Checking Jupiter in your own chart

1. 1.Cast the chart with the Birth Chart calculator and note Jupiter's sign, degree, nakshatra and house, and whether it is marked retrograde or combust.
2. 2.Read the dignity off the sign table. Outside Cancer, Capricorn, Sagittarius and Pisces, count from Jupiter to the lord of its sign: the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 10th, 11th or 12th gives the better label. In the first 10 degrees of Sagittarius, note whether it is under 5 degrees and read it against both Moolatrikona definitions.
3. 3.Find the two houses it rules from your Lagna in the BPHS Ch. 34 table. For Gemini or Virgo rising, expect the Kendradhipathya entry.
4. 4.Mark the three houses it aspects, the 5th, 7th and 9th from its own, and any planet in them.
5. 5.Count from the Moon's sign and from the Lagna to Jupiter's. The 1st, 4th, 7th or 10th from either is the first condition of the app's Gaj Kesari; then look for Venus, Mercury or the Moon with Jupiter or opposite it.
6. 6.Check its strength in the Shad Bala calculator: directional strength peaks in the 1st house, a day birth adds time strength and retrograde motion adds the motion point.
7. 7.Last, timing: when Jupiter's Mahadasha and Antardashas fall in the Vimshottari Dasha calculator, and where it transits now in the Gochar calculator.

Your full Kundali collects all of these in one place, and every book cited here is listed on the Sources page.

Common misreadings

• "Jupiter is the great benefic, so it is good in my chart." BPHS lists it as a malefic for six of the twelve Lagnas and among the marakas for two, and Saravali says benefics prove adverse in the 6th, 8th and 12th.
• "I have Gaja Kesari, so the rest does not matter." Even on BPHS's full rule, which this app codes, about one chart in six has it, and Advanced Predictive Astrology says the yoga alone does not deliver.
• "Jupiter in its own sign is as strong as it gets." Exaltation in Cancer ranks higher in BPHS, and by the ray count Jupiter in Sagittarius or Pisces has fewer rays than in any of the seven signs from Aries to Libra.
• "Jupiter in an enemy's sign is ruined." Saravali reads Jupiter in Taurus, Gemini, Virgo and Libra favourably, and in this app the label softens to neutral when the sign's lord sits in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 10th, 11th or 12th from Jupiter.
• "A retrograde Jupiter is weak." Saravali counts a retrograde benefic as strong, with one dissent for a planet retrograde in its exaltation sign. About three charts in ten have Jupiter retrograde.
• "Jupiter blesses every house near it." Its full aspects fall on the 5th, 7th and 9th signs from itself and nowhere else.
• "The Jupiter Mahadasha is sixteen good years." BPHS Ch. 47 makes it depend on dignity, house and company, and its sub-periods run from under ten months to thirty-two, each judged on its own lord.
• "Jupiter means children, so this predicts mine." The texts read children from several factors together, the 5th house, its lord, Jupiter and the 5th from Jupiter among them, and this app computes none of the counting rules BPHS attaches.

Related pages

The other grahas: the Sun, the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Rahu and Ketu. The four houses Jupiter signifies in BPHS: the 2nd, the 5th, the 9th and the 11th; and the 1st, where it gains directional strength.

Is Jupiter always a benefic in Vedic astrology?

By nature, yes: BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 11 and Saravali Ch. 4 Sloka 9 both class it as a benefic. By lordship it depends on the Lagna. BPHS Ch. 34 makes it auspicious for Aries, Cancer, Leo and Scorpio, a yoga-giver for Pisces, neutral for Sagittarius, and a malefic for Taurus, Gemini, Virgo, Libra, Capricorn and Aquarius.

Where is Jupiter exalted and debilitated?

Exalted in Cancer, deepest at 5 degrees; debilitated in Capricorn, deepest at 5 degrees (BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 49-50). Its own signs are Sagittarius and Pisces. The first 10 degrees of Sagittarius are its Moolatrikona in BPHS, Saravali and this app; Bhrigu Sutras gives the first 5.

Which planets are Jupiter's friends and enemies?

Friends: the Sun, the Moon and Mars. Enemies: Mercury and Venus. Neutral: Saturn. BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 55 derives this from Sagittarius, and Saravali Ch. 4 Sloka 28-29 and Bhrigu Sutras state it directly.

Which houses does Jupiter aspect?

The 5th, 7th and 9th counted from the house it occupies. Every graha has the 7th; the 5th and 9th are Jupiter's special full aspects in BPHS Ch. 26 Sloka 2-5 and Saravali Ch. 4 Sloka 32-33.

How long is the Jupiter Mahadasha, and how do I know when mine runs?

Sixteen years in Vimshottari (BPHS Ch. 46 Sloka 15). When it runs depends on your Moon's nakshatra at birth; the Vimshottari Dasha calculator finds it from your birth date.

What is Hamsa Yoga?

Jupiter in Cancer, Sagittarius or Pisces and in the 1st, 4th, 7th or 10th house from the Lagna (BPHS Ch. 75 Sloka 1-2; Saravali Ch. 37 Sloka 2). About one chart in twelve has it. It needs a rising sign, so it cannot be checked without a birth time and place.

Do I have Gaja Kesari Yoga?

In this app, yes if Jupiter is in the 1st, 4th, 7th or 10th sign counted from your Lagna or your Moon, Venus, Mercury or the Moon joins or aspects it, and it is not debilitated, combust or in an enemy's sign - the rule of BPHS Ch. 36 Sloka 3-4. That holds for about one chart in six. The Yogas calculator shows the app's result and names the benefic that completed it.

Why does the app call my Jupiter neutral in Taurus when a book says enemy sign?

Venus is Jupiter's natural enemy, so Taurus is an enemy's sign by the natural list. BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 56-58 then adds a temporary relation from the chart: if Venus sits in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 10th, 11th or 12th sign from Jupiter, the two verdicts cancel and the result is neutral. The app applies that combined rule.

How long does Jupiter stay in one sign?

About a year, with a retrograde of roughly four months that often carries it back into the previous sign for a while. The Gochar calculator shows where it is now and which house that is from your Moon.

Does the app suggest remedies or gemstones for a weak Jupiter?

No. Some source chapters prescribe recitations or charity and Bhrigu Sutras lists gems; this app carries no remedies, gemstones or rituals for any placement.