Samudra Yoga: the seven grahas in the six even houses, and the one time the engine found it

Samudra means ocean. Samudra Yoga is the second of the two alternate-house shapes among the Nabhasa yogas and the twin of Chakra Yoga: both spread the seven grahas over every other sign, and they differ only in where the count starts. Chakra starts at the rising sign; Samudra starts one sign later, at the 2nd house, which leaves the rising sign itself empty. The page below states the rule as the engine tests it, sets out the classical reading, explains the rarity, and works through the single moment in 20,000 where the engine found it. For how much any yoga can carry, see what a yoga in your chart means.

The rule: how Samudra Yoga forms

BPHS Ch. 35 Sl. 15: Samudra Yoga is produced if all the grahas occupy six alternative rasis commencing from Dhan Bhava, the 2nd house. Saravali Ch. 21 Sl. 16 gives the same rule. The engine checks:

1. 1.The seven grahas, Sun to Saturn. Rahu and Ketu are not counted.
2. 2.Houses are whole signs from the ascendant, so six alternate rasis from the 2nd are the 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th and 12th houses.
3. 3.Every graha is in one of those six houses. The odd-numbered houses, including the 1st, hold none of them.
4. 4.All six even-numbered houses are occupied. With seven grahas in six houses, exactly one house holds two.

The rule tests position only - no dignity, aspect or combustion - and the engine reports the shape without naming an owning planet.

The six houses Samudra fills

The even-numbered houses are a mixed set by the usual house classifications, which is part of what makes the shape interesting. Taking them in turn, with the BPHS names for the bhavas:

So the shape always occupies two angles, all three dusthanas (the 6th, 8th and 12th), and the 2nd house, the house BPHS names Dhan. That the count begins at Dhan Bhava is how the sloka itself states the rule; the texts do not say whether the name of the starting house has anything to do with the wealth reading, and this page does not guess.

Readings the engine settled

• All six filled. "Occupy six alternative Rasis" could be read loosely as "all in even-numbered houses". The engine requires every one of the six to be occupied, as it does for every Akriti shape. The loose pattern is not rare at all by comparison: all seven grahas were confined to even-numbered houses in 27 of the 3,000 sampled moments, against none that filled all six.
• Seven grahas. Saravali Ch. 21 means the seven planets; Rahu and Ketu, always six signs apart, would in any case both fall in even houses or both in odd ones.
• Every forming yoga reported. Six occupied signs is Damini Yoga, which BPHS Sl. 16-17 would set aside when another Nabhasa yoga forms; the engine shows both.

What the classical texts say about Samudra

BPHS Sl. 42 reads Samudra as many precious stones and abundant wealth, a life of pleasures, being dear to people, wealth that is firm, and a good disposition. Saravali Sl. 36 has the same wealth, stones, pleasures and popularity, and adds two things BPHS does not: the native "will be a king", and will have a steady mind and be truthful in disposition, which the translator glosses as Sattvavanta. The two readings point the same way; Saravali simply goes further.

The app's sentence keeps the shared core and leaves out Saravali's kingship: "Classically read as abundant, lasting wealth, comfort and popularity, with an even temperament." The "even temperament" corresponds to Saravali's steady mind and BPHS's good disposition.

Readers sometimes find it odd that a shape which puts planets in the 6th, 8th and 12th houses - the dusthanas - and leaves the ascendant empty is read as wealth. The texts do not explain it. They give the reading for the shape as a whole and attach no exception for which houses within it the planets fall in. Nabhasa yogas are classed apart from the house-by-house rules elsewhere in BPHS, and Sl. 50 says their results are felt throughout all the dasha periods; Saravali Sl. 20-21 says they act independently of the dashas. Saravali Sl. 8-10 reads any Akriti yoga as contentment with one's own fortune and earnings through a king.

Jyotisha Siddhanta Sara's yoga chapter (pages 145 to 154 of the scanned edition in the library) has no section on Nabhasa yogas, and Advanced Predictive Astrology and the Bhrigu Sutras do not mention Samudra Yoga.

How rare it is

Samudra Yoga never formed in the engine's 3,000 sampled birth moments 1985-2060. The full walk of 20,000 moments (1985 to 2483) met it exactly once, on 14 September 2293. Its twin, Chakra, did not appear in the walk at all.

The reason lies with the inner planets. In an alternate-sign pattern, two neighbouring signs can never both be occupied. Mercury never strays more than about one sign from the Sun - in all 20,000 moments the engine never had it more than one sign away - so it cannot sit in the sign next to the Sun and must share the Sun's sign. That pair uses up the one house allowed two grahas. Venus, which can stray up to about two signs, must then be exactly two signs from the Sun, alone. The Moon, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn must each sit alone in one of the four remaining alternate signs. Every one of those is a narrow condition, and together they almost never hold.

Even when they hold, the rising sign decides between the twins. On 14 September 2293 a scratch run of the engine every 20 minutes shows it: from late morning, once the Moon has entered Aquarius, the report is Samudra whenever Scorpio, Capricorn, Pisces or Taurus is rising - signs left empty by the planets - and Chakra whenever Sagittarius, Aquarius or Aries is rising. The full sequence is set out on the Chakra Yoga page. It is the engine's computation for a date centuries away, not a forecast for anyone.

Worked example: the engine's Samudra chart, 2293

With no Samudra in the 1985-2060 sample, the example is the walk's single case: 14 September 2293 at 19:06 IST, New Delhi. It is the engine's computation for that moment, offered to show the shape. You can enter it in the birth chart calculator. The ascendant is Pisces at 9.29 degrees, so Aries is the 2nd house, Gemini the 4th, Leo the 6th, Libra the 8th, Sagittarius the 10th and Aquarius the 12th.

1. 1.All seven in even-numbered houses: Saturn in the 2nd, Mars in the 4th, the Sun and Mercury in the 6th, Venus in the 8th, Jupiter in the 10th, the Moon in the 12th. Holds.
2. 2.All six even-numbered houses occupied, the 6th by two. Holds.
3. 3.The inner planets sit exactly as the rarity argument demands: Mercury in the Sun's sign, Leo, and Venus two signs on, in Libra.
4. 4.The odd-numbered houses hold none of the seven. Ketu sits in the rising sign and Rahu in the 7th, but the nodes are not counted.

The engine reports: "All 7 classical grahas (Sun through Saturn) sit in houses 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 of your chart, and each of those houses holds at least one - a Nabhasa "Akriti" (shape) Yoga." The interpretation line is the wealth sentence quoted above. The Sun in the 6th house fits the hour, in the evening after sunset.

The engine's full report for this moment lists six yogas: Damini, Samudra, Hamsa (Jupiter in its own sign, Sagittarius, in the 10th, a kendra), Harsha, Sarala and Kendra-Kona Raj Yoga. Saturn is debilitated and retrograde in the 2nd; the shape does not care. Note also how much of the chart's strength sits outside the shape: the Sun is in its own sign, Venus in its moolatrikona and Jupiter in its own sign, but those dignities feed Hamsa and the lordship yogas, not Samudra, which would form just the same if every one of the seven were debilitated.

Samudra beside its neighbours

Samudra occupies two kendras, the 4th and 10th, and leaves the 1st and 7th empty, so it can never coincide with Maala or Sarpa Yoga, which need three kendras occupied, nor with Kamala. It shares a classical flavour with Vapi Yoga, all seven in the four panapharas or the four apoklimas, which BPHS Sl. 31 also reads as lasting wealth; but Vapi needs the seven in four houses three apart, and the two shapes cannot form together. Its true partner is Chakra: the same pattern, one sign over.

What a yoga does not tell you

Samudra Yoga says the seven grahas were spaced every other sign round the chart, with the rising sign one of the empty ones. The texts read lasting wealth and popularity into that. The reading belongs to a pattern the engine met once in nearly five centuries of sampled moments; it is not a statement about anyone's income or character, and the texts tie it to no period. A yoga is a named rule about positions.

To test any chart for Samudra and the other Nabhasa shapes, use the yoga calculator. It lists each graha's house, so you can check the alternate-house pattern yourself.

Questions about Samudra Yoga

What is the rule for Samudra Yoga?

All seven grahas from the Sun to Saturn in the 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th and 12th houses, with all six of those houses occupied. BPHS Ch. 35 Sl. 15 and Saravali Ch. 21 Sl. 16.

How rare is Samudra Yoga?

It never formed in 3,000 sampled birth moments 1985-2060. The engine's 20,000-moment walk to 2483 met it once, on 14 September 2293.

How is Samudra different from Chakra Yoga?

Only in the rising sign. Both spread the seven grahas over six alternate signs with every one occupied. If the ascendant is an occupied sign it is Chakra; if it is an empty one, Samudra.

Does Samudra Yoga need the 1st house empty?

Yes. The six houses are the even-numbered ones, so none of the seven grahas may be in the 1st. Rahu or Ketu may be there, since they are not counted; in the 2293 example Ketu is.

What do the texts say Samudra gives?

BPHS Sl. 42: abundant and firm wealth, precious stones, pleasures, popularity, a good disposition. Saravali Sl. 36 adds kingship and a steady, truthful mind. This app reads it as abundant, lasting wealth, comfort and popularity with an even temperament, as a classical reading rather than a forecast.

Do debilitated or retrograde planets cancel Samudra Yoga?

No. The rule looks only at which houses the seven grahas occupy. In the 2293 example Saturn is debilitated and retrograde in the 2nd house and the yoga still forms.

Why do some sources show Samudra Yoga far more often?

Usually because they read the rule loosely, as "all planets in even-numbered houses" without requiring each of the six to be occupied. In the engine's sample that loose pattern appeared in 27 of 3,000 moments; the strict rule in none.

Why does Samudra Yoga always come with Damini Yoga?

Seven grahas in six houses occupy six signs, which is Damini. BPHS Sl. 16-17 says such a Sankhya yoga is not operable when another Nabhasa yoga forms; the engine reports both.