Kamala Yoga: all seven grahas spread over the four angles, the lotus of BPHS and Saravali

Kamala is the lotus - the BPHS translation glosses "Kamal" that way in its chapter on the great persons - and Saravali calls the same yoga Padma, another word for the flower. The picture is of a chart opened out in four directions: all seven classical grahas in the four kendras, every one of them occupied, and nothing anywhere else. It is one of the twenty Akriti, or shape, yogas of the Nabhasa family, and the texts praise it more than almost any other. This page gives the rule as the engine tests it, the classical reading, why the engine met it only far outside its sample, and the chart where it first did. For what any yoga is worth on its own, see what a yoga in your chart means.

The rule: how Kamala Yoga forms

BPHS Ch. 35 Sl. 12: "If all the Grahas are in the 4 Kendras, Kamal Yog is produced." Saravali Ch. 21 Sl. 14: "If all the planets are disposed in four kendras, Padma (Kamala) Yoga is formed." The kendras are the 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th houses. The engine checks four things.

1. 1.The seven classical grahas only: the Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn. Rahu and Ketu are not counted.
2. 2.Houses are whole signs from the Lagna, so the four kendras are the ascendant's sign and the signs three, six and nine places on.
3. 3.All seven grahas stand in a kendra.
4. 4.All four kendras hold at least one graha.

Dignity, combustion, retrogression and lordship are not tested. The fourth condition is the engine's reading of "in the 4 Kendras": the shape is the four occupied houses. Without it, all seven in the 1st alone would count as Kamala and as four other shapes besides, which is the engine comment's reason for reading every Akriti rule this way.

Kamala among the angle shapes

Kamala completes a small family. All seven grahas in two neighbouring kendras is Gada Yoga; in the 1st and 7th, Shakata; in the 4th and 10th, Vihaga. Three kendras occupied has no whole-chart shape name. All four occupied is Kamala. The texts treat the full set very differently from the opposite pairs: Kamala is praised, Shakata and Vihaga are read harshly, and neither book says why.

What the classical texts say: BPHS Ch. 35 Sl. 30 and Saravali Ch. 21 Sl. 28

The two readings are among the most generous in the chapter. BPHS Ch. 35 Sl. 30 describes one born in Kamala Yoga as rich and virtuous, long-lived, very famous and pure, performing "hundreds of auspicious acts", and a king. Saravali Ch. 21 Sl. 28 says highly famous, very virtuous, "assuredly long living", very rich, bright in appearance, and lord of the earth. Saravali Sl. 8-10 adds the general Akriti reading - contentment with one's own fortune, earnings through a king, fame - which for once agrees with the specific sloka.

The engine keeps the substance and drops the kingship: "Classically read as virtue, wide reputation, long life and many good works - classically one of the finest Akriti Yogas." Long life here is the texts' claim, reported as such; nothing on this page is a health or longevity prediction. BPHS Ch. 35 Sl. 50 says Nabhasa results are felt through all dasha periods, and Saravali Ch. 21 Sl. 20-21 that they act at all times.

Jyotisha Siddhanta Sara's yoga chapter (pp. 145-154, read from page images) sorts yogas into five groups - lagna, Raja, Chandra, Sun and Parivartana - with no Nabhasa section; the Bhrigu Sutras and Advanced Predictive Astrology do not state Kamala or Padma either.

Kamala, Vajra and Yava

Saravali Ch. 21 Sl. 14, the same sloka that defines Padma, words Vajra as benefics in the 1st and 7th "while" malefics hold the 4th and 10th, and Yava as the reverse. Read that way, each puts all seven grahas in the four kendras with every kendra occupied - so every Saravali Vajra or Yava would be a Kamala chart, a special case of it with the benefics and malefics sorted onto the two axes. BPHS joins the halves with "or", and the engine follows BPHS, so in this app Vajra and Yava are far commoner than Kamala and usually appear without it.

Kamala and Maala

Both look at the kendras, but they can never form together. Maala Yoga needs benefics in at least three kendras and no malefic in any; Sarpa needs the reverse. A Kamala chart puts all seven grahas - the Sun, Mars and Saturn included - in the kendras, so the kendras always hold both kinds and neither Dala yoga can form. Saravali Ch. 21 Sl. 18 asks for all four angles for Maala, which sounds like Kamala, but its "exclusively by benefics" rules the two apart just as firmly.

How rare it is

Kamala fired in 0 of 3,000 sampled birth moments 1985-2060. The engine-facts walk - New Delhi, from 1 January 1985, in steps of 9 days, 2 hours and 37 minutes - first met it at its 10,632nd moment, in February 2250. That is a finding about the arrangement, not about anyone born in either period.

The kendras are three signs apart. Mercury never gets more than about one sign from the Sun and Venus never more than about two, so neither can reach the next kendra from the Sun: the Sun, Mercury and Venus fill one kendra between them. That leaves the Moon, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn - four planets - to fill the other three kendras, with every one of the four landing in an angle and no angle left empty. At most one of them can spare itself to join the Sun's group or double up. The birth time must also put those four signs on the angles. Each condition is plausible; their conjunction is not.

Two companion yogas follow from the geometry. The four kendras of a chart share one modality - all movable, all fixed or all dual - so every Kamala chart is also an Asraya chart: Rajju, Musala or Nala, matching the ascendant. And seven grahas in four houses are seven grahas in four signs, so every Kamala chart is also Kedara, the Sankhya yoga for four signs.

The two closest charts in the sample

Searching the 3,000 moments for charts with all seven grahas in kendras found exactly two, and each left one angle empty. On 24 February 1986 at 06:22 IST the grahas fill the 1st, 7th and 10th from an Aquarius ascendant, with the 4th empty; that chart forms Vajra and Musala instead, and is the worked example on the Vajra page. On 2 November 2041 at 17:23 IST they fill the 4th, 7th and 10th from an Aries ascendant, with the 1st empty; that chart forms Rajju Yoga, since every angle from Aries is a movable sign. In both, every graha is angular and still no Kamala forms, because the rule asks for the full set of four.

Those two charts also show the Asraya link at work: put all seven grahas in the angles, even three of them, and the engine reports the Asraya yoga that matches the ascendant's modality. Kamala is the special case of that in which no angle is left out.

Worked example: the engine's first Kamala chart, February 2250

Since the 1985-2060 sample has no Kamala chart, the example is the first moment of the walk that does: 19 February 2250 at 07:47 IST, New Delhi. It is the engine's computation for that moment, used to show the rule, not a statement about anyone born then. You can re-enter it in the birth chart calculator. The ascendant is Aquarius at 18.84 degrees.

1. 1.Count from Aquarius: Taurus is the 4th sign, Leo the 7th and Scorpio the 10th. Those, with Aquarius, are the four kendras.
2. 2.Four grahas share Aquarius, the 1st: the Sun, Mercury and Venus as the astronomy requires, joined by Mars. Jupiter alone holds the 4th, the Moon alone the 7th, Saturn alone the 10th.
3. 3.Every graha is in a kendra and every kendra is occupied. Move any one of the three lone planets and the shape fails.
4. 4.Rahu in the 12th and Ketu in the 6th lie outside, but the rule ignores them.

The engine reports Kamala Yoga with the meaning "All 7 classical grahas (Sun through Saturn) sit in houses 1, 4, 7, 10 of your chart, and each of those houses holds at least one", and the reading quoted above.

What else this chart forms, and what it cannot

• Musala Yoga: Aquarius, Taurus, Leo and Scorpio are all fixed signs, so the engine also returns Musala. Saravali Ch. 21 Sl. 7 would let Kamala prevail over it.
• Kedara Yoga: seven grahas in four signs. BPHS Ch. 35 Sl. 16-17 would set the Kedara aside.
• Not Vajra or Yava: the benefics are in the 1st (Mercury, Venus), 4th (Jupiter) and 7th (Moon), so they are confined to neither axis; the malefics are in the 1st (Sun, Mars) and 10th (Saturn), likewise.
• Not Gada, Shakata or Vihaga: four kendras are occupied, not two. Not Maala or Sarpa: the kendras hold both kinds of planet.

The full detector also returns Mudrika, Dharma-Karmadhipati, Raja, Kendra-Kona Raj and Parivartana yogas for this moment - separate rules about particular planets and lords, covered on their own pages. A Kamala chart puts every graha in an angle, so rules that reward angular planets are likely to fire alongside it.

What a yoga does not tell you

Kamala is the most praised shape in the chapter, and that praise is the texts' claim about a geometric pattern. It is not a promise, it has no strength grade, and the texts give it no timing beyond "all times". In the signed-in Kundali, which attaches Mahadasha windows to yogas with named planets, a shape yoga like Kamala is marked as a whole-chart pattern with no Mahadasha window of its own. Given that the engine did not meet it once in its 1985-2060 sample, a chart without Kamala is the ordinary case, not a lack.

To see whether your chart forms Kamala or any other Nabhasa shape, run the yoga calculator.

Questions about Kamala Yoga

Is Kamala Yoga the same as Padma Yoga?

Yes. BPHS Ch. 35 Sl. 12 calls it Kamal; Saravali Ch. 21 Sl. 14 calls it Padma (Kamala). Both words name the lotus, and the rule is the same: all the planets in the four kendras.

What exactly does the engine test?

That all seven grahas from the Sun to Saturn are in the 1st, 4th, 7th or 10th house (whole signs from the ascendant), and that each of those four houses holds at least one of them. Rahu and Ketu are not counted.

How often does Kamala Yoga occur?

It fired in 0 of 3,000 sampled birth moments 1985-2060. The engine's deterministic walk first met it in February 2250, its 10,632nd moment.

Is having planets in all four kendras enough?

Only if all seven grahas are in kendras. A chart with planets in all four angles and one graha elsewhere is not Kamala.

Why does a Kamala chart also show Musala, Rajju or Nala?

The four kendras always share the ascendant's modality, so seven grahas in them are seven grahas in movable, fixed or dual signs only. That is an Asraya yoga every time. Saravali Ch. 21 Sl. 7 says the Asraya gives way to the other Nabhasa yoga.

Can Kamala and Maala Yoga form together?

No. Maala needs the kendras to hold no malefic, and a Kamala chart puts the Sun, Mars and Saturn in kendras too.

Does Kamala Yoga mean a long life?

BPHS and Saravali include long life in their reading, and the engine repeats it as the classical reading. It is the texts' claim about a pattern, not a health or longevity prediction.