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

The Sun is the first graha every classical text names and the one they rank highest: the soul of all, a king, the strongest of the seven by natural strength. The same texts list it among the natural malefics. Most of what is useful to know about the Sun sits between those two statements: which signs strengthen or weaken it, which houses it does well in, which planets it helps or burns, and what happens in the six years its Mahadasha runs.

This page sets out what Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (BPHS), Saravali and Bhrigu Sutras actually say about the Sun, 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 your Sun's sidereal sign from a birth date alone, use the Sun Sign calculator; for its house, dignity and the rest, the Birth Chart calculator.

Surya at a glance

BPHS Ch. 3 and Saravali Ch. 4 each give the grahas a list of attributes, and the modern introduction to Bhrigu Sutras adds its own. Most rows agree. Where they do not, both readings are shown.

What the Sun signifies

BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 12-13 gives each graha one governance, and the Sun's is the soul of all; the Moon is the mind, Mars strength, Mercury speech. Saravali Ch. 4 Sloka 1-2 repeats the scheme for the Kalapurusha and adds a working rule: when the graha that signifies something is strong at birth, that thing is strong; when it is weak, the result is meagre. Saturn, it notes, works the other way. Saravali Ch. 4 Sloka 7 adds that a native takes on the qualities of the strongest planet in the chart, which is where the Sun's kingly vocabulary comes from.

BPHS Ch. 70 Sloka 1-6 lists what is judged from the Sun in its Ashtakavarga chapter: the soul, one's nature, physical strength, joys and sorrows, and the father. The modern introduction to Bhrigu Sutras widens the list to government and the administrative head in service, health and the vital principle, high office, rank and title, publicity and new undertakings. In a woman's chart it reads the Sun as the husband, and notes a second school that uses Jupiter instead. BPHS Ch. 76 Sloka 5 says a strong Sun gives a fiery temperament.

Body associations are part of every one of these texts. BPHS gives the Sun the bones; Saravali describes it as bilious with sturdy bones; Bhrigu Sutras assigns it the sides, the upper back, the heart, and the right eye in a man and the left in a woman. Advanced Predictive Astrology (Vol. II, p. 77) quotes the aphorism that health is to be sought from the Sun. These are what the texts say, reported as classification, not medical advice, and this app makes no health prediction from them.

A natural malefic, and the mildest of them

BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 11 lists the Sun with Saturn, Mars, the waning Moon, Rahu and Ketu as malefics. Ch. 34 Sloka 8-10 repeats it and then grades them: the weak Moon, the Sun, Saturn and Mars are stronger in malefic disposition in that ascending order. So in BPHS's own ranking the Sun is the second-mildest malefic, well short of Saturn and Mars. Ch. 34 Sloka 2-7 adds a concession found for no other malefic: lordship of the 8th house is not evil for the Sun and the Moon.

Not every voice in the corpus accepts the label. The commentator in Bhrigu Sutras, writing on the Sun in the 1st house, argues that the source of light and life should not be called a malefic, while granting that it is hot and cruel, and credits it with Sattva guna, which BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 22 also gives the luminaries.

What the malefic label does in practice is set where the Sun is welcome. Saravali Ch. 30 Sloka 86-87 states the general rule: malefics harm the houses they occupy except the 6th, 8th and 12th, where they are auspicious, and results vary from maximum to nil with strength, aspects and dignity. Its own Sun-in-house slokas are kindest to the 3rd (valorous, learned, conquers enemies), the 6th (strong, affluent, famous), the 10th (extremely intelligent, rich, successful) and the 11th (gathers money, successful in undertakings): Sloka 4, 7, 11 and 12.

This engine follows the same classification. It counts the Sun among its malefics (with Mars, Saturn, Rahu and Ketu), treats Jupiter, Venus, Mercury and the Moon as benefics, and reads the Sun's transits by the malefic rule. A benefic aspect raises a planet's Shad Bala in this engine and a malefic one lowers it, so the Sun's own aspect counts against the planets it falls on.

Dignity: Aries, Leo and Libra

Exaltation and fall

BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 49-50 exalts the Sun in Aries, deepest at 10 degrees, and puts its fall in the seventh sign from there, Libra, deepest at the same 10 degrees. Bhrigu Sutras gives the same points. This engine stores the same signs and the same 10-degree fall point. The three signs that decide most of what follows each have their own page: Aries, Leo and Libra.

Leo: a disagreement about the Moolatrikona

Three texts in the corpus agree on Leo. BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 51-54: the first 20 degrees of Simha are the Sun's Moolatrikona and the rest is its own sign. Saravali Ch. 5 Sloka 21-24: in Leo up to 20 degrees it is the Sun's Moolatrikona, the rest its own house. Bhrigu Sutras: the initial 20 degrees are Mulatrikona, the remaining 10 Swakshetra.

This app's engine follows the three texts: Moolatrikona from 0 to 20 degrees of Leo, own sign from 20 to 30, scored 10 and 7.5 for position strength. Until October 2026 its table had the two parts the other way round, from a dignity source its code cited (S. Kannan's Fundamentals of Hindu Astrology, which is not in this corpus). Both labels count as strong dignity in the app's planet and dasha readings, so those verdicts were not affected.

Friends, enemies and the sign-by-sign verdict

BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 55 derives natural friendship from the Moolatrikona: the lords of the 2nd, 4th, 5th, 8th, 9th and 12th signs from it are friends, along with the lord of the exaltation sign; the rest are enemies; a planet that comes out both ways is neutral. Worked from Leo: Virgo (Mercury), Scorpio (Mars), Sagittarius and Pisces (Jupiter), Aries (Mars, also the exaltation lord) and Cancer (the Moon) give friends. Mercury also rules Gemini, the 11th, so it comes out both ways and is neutral. Venus and Saturn never appear and are enemies.

That derivation gives exactly the list Saravali Ch. 4 Sloka 28-29 and Bhrigu Sutras state outright: friends the Moon, Mars and Jupiter; Mercury neutral; Venus and Saturn enemies. This engine uses the same list.

The second component belongs to the chart, not to the planet. BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 56 and Saravali Ch. 4 Sloka 30 make any planet in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 10th, 11th or 12th from another its temporary friend, and a planet anywhere else its temporary enemy. BPHS Sloka 57-58 combines the two counts: a friend twice over is a great friend, friendship on one count and enmity on the other come out equal, an enemy twice over is a great enemy, and a natural neutral takes the temporary verdict.

This engine's dignity function is built the same way. Given the chart, it combines the natural relation between the Sun and its sign lord with the temporary one read from where the two sit; given only the sign, it uses the natural relation alone, which is the label in the table. With the chart counted, a friend's sign stays a Friendly sign (position strength 6.25) when its lord is a temporary friend and drops to Neutral (5) when it is not; an enemy's sign rises from Enemy sign (0) to Neutral when its lord is a temporary friend; and Mercury's two signs turn Friendly or Enemy, never Neutral.

Two of those adjustments are narrower than they look, because Mercury is never a full sign from the Sun and Venus never two (the figures are under Combustion below). Mercury is always in the Sun's sign or the one beside it, so a Sun in Gemini or Virgo reads Friendly when Mercury is next door and Enemy when Mercury shares its sign. Venus is always in the Sun's sign or within two signs of it, all of them temporary-friend positions, so a Sun in Taurus reads Enemy sign only when Venus is in Taurus as well.

How much each dignity is worth

BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 59-60 gives a ratio of good effects for each state. The engine's position-strength score, which feeds its Shad Bala, uses a different ladder from its own source, and the two disagree on how far Moolatrikona and own sign fall short of exaltation.

Saravali Ch. 45 describes the Sun in each state. Exalted: fierce, very wealthy, pre-eminent. In Moolatrikona: wealthy, intelligent, skilful. In its own sign: very fierce, doing great acts. In a friend's sign: firm in friendship and charitable. Debilitated: servitude and humiliation at the hands of one's own people. In an enemy's sign: poverty and distress. Saravali Ch. 5 Sloka 2-4 names the matching states: Dipta (radiant) in exaltation, Svastha in its own house, Mudita in a friend's, Bhita in fall.

Rays: a measure that ignores ownership

Saravali Ch. 36 counts a graha's rays. Sloka 2 gives the Sun 10 at exaltation, the most of any graha; Sloka 3-4 records a second school that gives every graha 7 and says the majority leans that way; Sloka 6 computes the figure from the distance to the deep debilitation point alone. This engine uses the 7-ray view, which is why an own-sign Sun at 10 degrees of Leo collects 2.33 rays and a Sun at 10 degrees of Pisces 5.83: Leo is only 60 degrees from the fall point. The Deep Dive on your Kundali shows rays beside dignity, not instead of it.

When and where the Sun is strong

Strength in these texts has several sources, and the Sun's are unusually specific. 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 make the Sun strong in the South, the 10th house. BPHS Ch. 27 Sloka 7 measures it from the 4th, so it peaks in the 10th and vanishes in the 4th, and Advanced Predictive Astrology (Vol. II, p. 24) credits the Sun and Mars in the 10th with power and energy for this reason. The engine gives full directional strength in the 10th and none in the 4th, falling off evenly by house in between.
• Time of day. Both texts make the Sun strong by day (BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 35-38; Saravali Ch. 4 Sloka 36) and give it the middle third of the day (BPHS Ch. 27 Sloka 12; Saravali Ch. 4 Sloka 39). The engine gives the Sun full time strength when it was above the horizon at the birth place, and half otherwise, whether the birth was at night or the place is unknown.
• Season. Saravali Ch. 4 Sloka 36-37 makes the Sun strong in its northern course (Uttarayana). BPHS Ch. 27 Sloka 15-17 agrees in its formula, whose note doubles the Sun's result, and Sloka 18 makes that the Sun's motional strength too. BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 35-38, by contrast, says malefics are strong in the southern course. The engine follows Saravali: the Sun gets its motional credit in sidereal Capricorn through Gemini.
• Nature. BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 38, Ch. 27 Sloka 14 and Saravali Ch. 4 Sloka 40 all put the Sun first in natural strength. In the engine's 20-point Shad Bala its natural share is 0.875 of 1, the highest of the seven grahas scored.
• Not computed here. Male grahas are strong in the first decanate of a sign (BPHS Ch. 27 Sloka 6; Saravali Ch. 4 Sloka 38), and BPHS Ch. 27 Sloka 30-31 takes one Rupa off the strength of a house occupied by the Sun, Saturn or Mars. The engine computes neither decanate strength nor Bhava Bala.

BPHS Ch. 27 Sloka 32-33 sets the full Shad Bala the Sun needs to count as strong at 390 Virupas, and Sloka 34-36 gives component thresholds it shares with Jupiter and Mercury. Those figures belong to BPHS's full Virupa computation. The Shad Bala calculator runs a simplified 20-point version from the engine's own source, in which a combust planet loses its position strength, so its numbers cannot be compared with 390. For BPHS's separate twenty-point divisional strength, full in exaltation or own sign and nil in the 7th from exaltation (Ch. 7 Sloka 9-12), use the Vimshopaka Bala calculator.

Combustion: what the Sun does to its neighbours

The Sun is the one graha that changes the others by nearness. Saravali Ch. 4 Sloka 38 reports the Yavanas' view that planets are strong only when away from the Sun. Ch. 5 Sloka 2-4 names the combust state Vikala, mutilated, and Sloka 27 says a planet combust by the Sun loses its power for good and can give malefic results in full. Ch. 36 Sloka 7-9 strips a combust planet of all its rays, Venus and Saturn excepted, and Ch. 41 Sloka 7 lists a combust lord among those whose Dasa is inauspicious. BPHS Ch. 45 Sloka 8-10 has its own word: a graha eclipsed by the Sun is in Kopa. Ch. 45 Sloka 11-18 makes conjunction with the Sun one condition of the Kshobhita state.

The orb is where the sources part. Bhrigu Sutras gives one figure: the Sun absorbs the nature of any planet within 8.5 degrees, and Mercury within 8.5 degrees is combust. This engine uses a separate orb for each graha, and the birth-chart output flags each planet combust or not. Run across a century of this engine's own positions, the choice of orb is not a detail:

Mercury is combust on more than two days in five by this app's orb and on one in four by Bhrigu Sutras'. A combust Mercury is ordinary, not a rare affliction. In the same run Mercury was never more than 27.79 degrees from the Sun and Venus never more than 47.21, which settles a question the next section raises.

Aspects: what the Sun sees, and who can see it

BPHS Ch. 26 Sloka 2-5 gives every graha a full aspect on the 7th place from itself and graded partial aspects on others: a quarter on the 3rd and 10th, a half on the 5th and 9th, three quarters on the 4th and 8th. Only Saturn, Jupiter and Mars get special full aspects, so the Sun's one full aspect is the 7th. Saravali Ch. 4 Sloka 32-33 gives the same scheme with one difference that is legible in this copy: a half aspect on the 4th and 8th where BPHS has three quarters. Its fractions for the 3rd and 10th and the 5th and 9th are illegible. This engine counts full aspects only, so the Sun aspects exactly one house in your chart, the 7th from it.

Saravali Ch. 22 reads the aspects of each graha on the Sun, grouped by the lord of the Sun's sign. Two patterns run through it. Jupiter's aspect is favourable in every group: plenty of money, a judge or a king's minister in the signs of Mars (Sloka 4-9), knowledge of many shastras in Mercury's (Sloka 20-25), temples, gardens and tanks built in Leo (Sloka 36-41), royal palaces in Jupiter's own signs (Sloka 50-55). Saturn's aspect is unfavourable in most groups, with exceptions in Mercury's signs and above all in Saturn's own (Sloka 58-63), where the native destroys his enemies and prospers through royal honours.

The same chapter also gives readings for Mercury and Venus aspecting the Sun. As full aspects these cannot occur: a 7th-house aspect needs the planet six signs from the Sun, and neither ever gets far enough. Mercury's and Venus's influence on the Sun in a real chart is conjunction or neighbouring signs, which the Saravali chapters on conjunctions and on the Sun's own yogas cover.

What the Sun rules from your Lagna

The Sun owns one sign, Leo, so the Lagna fixes exactly one house it rules. BPHS Ch. 34 then names its functional role for each rising sign, and this app's Yoga Karaka panel on the Kundali reproduces those lists. Confirm your rising sign with the Lagna calculator.

The pattern follows the general rules in Ch. 34 Sloka 2-7. A trine lord is auspicious, which covers Aries (5th) and Sagittarius (9th), and the Lagna lord is specially so (Leo). Owners of the 3rd, 6th and 11th give evil effects, which covers Gemini, Pisces and Libra. A malefic owning an angle stops being inauspicious, though Sloka 14 adds that this holds fully only when it also owns a trine. And the 8th lordship that would count against other grahas is not evil for the Sun, which is why Capricorn Lagna leaves it neutral.

Three of the engine's yogas can involve the Sun through lordship alone. Its Raja Yoga needs the 5th and 9th lords in one house, and the Sun is the 5th lord for Aries Lagna and the 9th lord for Sagittarius. Its Dharma-Karmadhipati Yoga needs the 9th and 10th lords together in an angle or trine, and the Sun is the 9th lord for Sagittarius and the 10th for Scorpio. The Yogas calculator lists them when your chart has them, and what a yoga in your chart means explains how to weigh the entries. The Sun forms no Panchamahapurusha yoga: BPHS Ch. 75 Sloka 1-2 and Saravali Ch. 37 Sloka 2 give those to Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn only.

The Sun in the twelve signs

Saravali Ch. 22 gives a reading for the Sun in each sign, without reference to house. The table keeps its temperament and occupation lines and leaves out its harsher character verdicts, its sexual lines and most of its disease lines. The last column is the one-line temperament this app prints for your Sun's sign in the Kundali's temperament fold, written in the app's own words from a different source (Kannan's chapter on the Sun in each sign, cited in the engine).

Set against the dignity table, the readings track it only loosely. Saravali is generous to the Sun in Gemini, an enemy sign in this engine, and hard on it in Scorpio, a friendly one. The two lenses answer different questions: dignity measures how comfortable the Sun is in a sign, and the sign readings describe what the sign's nature does to the Sun's.

The Sun with another graha

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

• With the Moon (Sl. 2): quite wealthy, a metallurgist or trader. Since the two meet only around the new Moon, this pair is also the Moon at its weakest phase.
• With Mars (Sl. 3): splendid, valorous and strong, but fierce.
• With Mercury (Sl. 4): in service, sweet in speech, with fame and money, dear to the king and to good people, strong, handsome and learned, though wealth is unsteady.
• With Jupiter (Sl. 5): virtuous, a king's minister, gains through friends, a preceptor.
• With Venus (Sl. 6): skilled with weapons, mighty, able to amuse the public, with money earned through women.
• With Saturn (Sl. 7): a metallurgist, virtuous and mindful of his duties; the sloka's family predictions are not repeated here.

Sloka 23 adds that each result rises or falls with the vargas the two planets occupy. Any of these pairs inside the orbs above also makes the other planet combust, so a conjunction with the Sun is two readings at once.

Vesi, Vasi and Ubhayachari: the Sun's own yogas

BPHS Ch. 38 Sloka 1 and Saravali Ch. 14 Sloka 1 agree on the rule. Leaving out the Moon (and, in Saravali, the nodes), a planet in the 2nd from the Sun forms Vesi, one in the 12th forms Vasi (BPHS spells it Vosi), and planets on both sides form Ubhayachari. They disagree about Vesi's effects: BPHS Ch. 38 Sloka 2-3 gives even sight, truthfulness, a long body, indolence, happiness and little wealth; Saravali Ch. 14 Sloka 2, citing the Yavanas, gives weak sight, firmness of word, hard work and a bent body. On Vasi they are closer (skilful, charitable, famous and learned in BPHS; a fine voice, good memory and the equal of a king in Saravali Sloka 6), and both call the Ubhayachari native the equal of a king.

BPHS Ch. 38 Sloka 4 says benefics forming these yogas give the stated effects and malefics the contrary. Saravali goes planet by planet (Sloka 3-9): Jupiter forming Vesi brings wealth and learning, Jupiter forming Vasi courage and wisdom, Mars forming Vasi victory. Sloka 10 asks for the strength of the Sun and of the causing planet to be weighed before anything is declared.

This engine detects all three from Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn by whole sign. Run daily across 1950-2049, at least one of them formed on 89.5 per cent of days: Vesi alone 26.8, Vasi alone 28.1, Ubhayachari 34.6. On 38.1 per cent of days the only planets forming it were Mercury, Venus or both, which stay close to the Sun anyway. A Vesi or Vasi entry in the Yogas calculator is therefore the normal case, and Saravali's planet-by-planet reading and Sloka 10's strength test are what distinguish one chart's from another's. BPHS Ch. 37 Sloka 1 also reads the Moon's house counted from the Sun (an angle little, the next houses medium, the cadent houses excellent for wealth and skill); this app does not compute that rule.

The Sun in the twelve houses

Each house has its own page, built from Bhrigu Sutras' Sun chapter, Saravali Ch. 30 and the BPHS chapters on each house. What follows is the shape of the whole. This app's planet row for the Sun reads a favourable sentence when the Sun is exalted, Moolatrikona, in its own sign or a friendly sign, and is not in the 6th, 8th or 12th; otherwise a testing sentence. The favourable sentences, paraphrased from Bhrigu Sutras:

The house pages: Sun in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th. Saravali Ch. 6 Sloka 3 records Chanakya's opinion that the Sun in the 10th is a specially significant Karaka, and Ch. 33 Sloka 8-13 reads the Sun in the 10th counted from the Moon as success, wealth and strength, so the 10th gets the strongest support across these texts.

Because the Sun's house depends on the time of day, it is also a check on your birth time. With whole-sign houses the Sun moves backward through the houses as the day turns: the 1st around sunrise, the 10th around midday, the 7th around sunset, the 4th around midnight. Run minute by minute for New Delhi on 21 June 2026, the engine puts the Sun in the 1st house from 05:05 to 07:20 IST (sunrise at 05:23), in the 10th from 11:58 to 14:14, in the 7th from 18:52 to 20:56 and in the 4th from 00:10 to 01:34. The windows shift with date and place; the order does not.

An afternoon birth with the Sun in the 1st, or a midnight birth with it in the 10th, means the time or the place needs checking before anything else on this page is read. What a missing birth time does explains what can still be read without one.

Karakas: father, self and the Atma Karaka

BPHS uses the Sun as a significator in three separate ways. As a fixed (constant) karaka, Ch. 32 Sloka 18-21 makes the stronger of the Sun and Venus the father, and Sloka 22-24 reads the father from the 9th counted from the Sun. As a house karaka, Sloka 31-34 gives each house one, and in this translation the Sun is the karaka of the 1st house only. Advanced Predictive Astrology (Vol. II, p. 71) makes the Sun the karaka of the 1st and 9th. The two lists disagree on the 9th, which BPHS gives to Jupiter.

The third way depends on the chart. BPHS Ch. 32 Sloka 3-8 ranks the seven grahas from the Sun to Saturn by how far each has travelled through its sign, and the one furthest in is the Atma Karaka, the planet Sloka 9-12 compares to the king whom the ministers cannot overrule. Any of the seven can hold the role; the Sun holds it when it has the highest degree in its sign. This engine ranks the same seven, leaving out Rahu as the text allows. The Char Karakas calculator shows which role your Sun holds, and the Karakamsa calculator follows the Atma Karaka into the Navamsa, as the Karakamsa article explains.

The Sun's Ashtakavarga: 48 points out of 96

In the Sun's own Ashtakavarga each of eight contributors, the seven grahas and the Lagna, marks the places counted from itself that are good for the Sun. This engine's table gives 48 such points of a possible 96: most at the 11th place, marked by every contributor except Venus, and fewest at the 5th, marked only by Mercury and Jupiter. BPHS Ch. 66 Sloka 16 counts the other side, the contributors marking each place as bad, and checked place by place the two lists are exact complements. One trap when reading other books: BPHS Ch. 66 Sloka 13-15 calls the bad marks dots (bindus) and the good ones lines (rekhas), while this app, following its own source, calls the good points bindus. BPHS Ch. 70 Sloka 19-20 puts the table to one practical use: auspicious functions belong in the month the Sun transits a sign with more good marks in its own Ashtakavarga. The Ashtakavarga calculator returns the Sun's table house by house, so that rule can be applied by hand; the app's own transit reading uses a different measure, the combined Sarvashtakavarga against your chart's average.

Timing: the Sun's dashas

In Vimshottari the Sun rules six of the 120 years (BPHS Ch. 46 Sloka 15), after Venus's twenty and before the Moon's ten. Ch. 46 Sloka 12-14 starts the count of lords from Krittika, so the Sun owns Krittika, Uttara Phalguni and Uttara Ashadha, and a Moon in any of the three starts life in the Sun's Mahadasha with at most six years of it left. The arithmetic is in what a Mahadasha is, and the period itself has its own page, the Sun Mahadasha. The three nakshatras are Krittika, Uttara Phalguni and Uttara Ashadha.

Across one full 120-year cycle, the Sun's Antardashas inside all nine Mahadashas add up to six years, the same as its own Mahadasha. The same proportion governs the arc of a nakshatra: in the Nakshatra Sub-Lord calculator the Sun's sub is 40 minutes of arc wide in every nakshatra, 13 degrees 20 minutes times 6/120. 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 at its start the lord is in the Lagna, exalted, in its own or a friendly sign; unfavourable in the 6th, 8th or 12th, in debilitation or in an enemy's sign. Sloka 7-11 describes a strong Sun's Dasha (own sign, exaltation, an angle, the 11th, joined by the 9th or 10th lord) as bringing wealth and honours from the government, with children if it is joined by the 5th lord, wealth if by the 2nd, conveyances if by the 4th. Sloka 12-15 describes the reverse for a debilitated Sun, a weak one in the 6th, 8th or 12th, or one joined with malefics or the lords of those houses: anxiety, loss, trouble with authority and kin, strain around the father. A benefic aspect brings some relief.

Two further rules time the period from inside. Ch. 47 Sloka 3-4 says a graha in the first decanate of its sign shows its results at the start of its Dasha, the second in the middle, the third at the end, reversed for a retrograde graha. The Sun is never retrograde, so its degree reads straight off: 0 to 10 early, 10 to 20 in the middle, 20 to 30 late. And Saravali Ch. 41 Sloka 9 calls the Sun the ripener of a Dasa's effects and the Moon its sustainer.

Saravali's own Dasa chapter, written for its Moola Dasa scheme, agrees in outline. A favourable Sun Dasa (Ch. 41 Sloka 25-26) increases courage, diligence, intelligence, fame and valour, and Sloka 53-59 separates five kinds of Sun Dasa by placement, the best being a Sun in the Lagna, exalted or in Moolatrikona. Its sub-periods inside the Sun's Dasa (Ch. 42 Sloka 12-17) follow the Sun's friendships: those of the Moon, Mars and Jupiter read well, those of Mercury, Venus and Saturn do not. BPHS Ch. 52 Sloka 1-3 reads the Sun's own sub-period as good if the Sun is exalted, in its own sign, the 11th, an angle or a trine, and adverse if debilitated; its maraka line and prescribed remedy are not repeated here.

The app's dasha reading applies the BPHS Ch. 47 Sloka 5-6 test to your chart and grades the period good for an exalted, Moolatrikona or own-sign Sun, neutral for a friendly or neutral sign, and challenging for an enemy sign, debilitation or the 6th, 8th or 12th. Its favourable theme for the Sun is authority, recognition and steady gains tied to government, leadership or public standing; its testing theme is friction with authority, strain with father figures, and setbacks that call for a lower profile. The Vimshottari Dasha calculator finds when yours runs, and the Timing feature shows the dated windows.

The Sun in other dasha systems

BPHS Ch. 46 describes several other systems, and the Sun's share differs in each: 6 of 108 years in Ashtottari (Sloka 17-20), and, as the first lord of each, 11 of 116 in Shodshottari, 7 of 112 in Dwadashottari, 12 of 105 in Panchottari, 5 of 100 in Shatabdik, 12 of 84 in Chaturashiti-sama and 9 of 72 in Dwisaptati-sama (Sloka 23-39). One system is tied to the Sun directly: Sloka 40-41 recommends Shastihayani Dasha when the Sun is in the Lagna. The Alternate Dashas calculator computes the seven systems from Shodshottari to Shat-trimshat-sama, each with its classical eligibility condition; it also computes Ashtottari in full, with dated periods, and Shastihayani with a balance and dated periods by the rule "as in Vimshottari", which BPHS does not state and the app takes from Sanjay Rath. Numerology runs a separate clock: in the Mahadasha system of Advanced Vedic Numerology the Sun rules 1 year of a 45-year cycle and leads it, and the Numerology Dasha calculator starts a Mulank 1 person there. When the two clocks disagree, the disagreement is itself the signal.

Transits: a month in each sign

The Sun is the steadiest clock in the sky: about a month per sign, never retrograde. Its sidereal ingresses are the sankrantis that mark the solar months, and this app's own validation anchors put Mesha Sankranti, the Sun's entry into sidereal Aries, around 14 April. For 2026 the engine gives:

This is also why a Vedic Sun sign usually differs from a Western one. A Western Sun enters Aries at the March equinox, near 0 degrees of tropical longitude; the sidereal Sun enters about three and a half weeks later, the gap being the ayanamsa. The Ayanamsa calculator gives that offset for any date, and why apps disagree covers what else changes with it.

For the transit reading itself, this app counts the transiting Sun's house from your natal Moon sign by the malefic rule of its source (Kannan's transit chapter, cited in the engine): favourable in the 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 11th, more testing in the 1st, 4th, 8th and 12th, unremarkable elsewhere, with the 11th favourable for every planet. The Sun in the 5th from the Moon is flagged as one of that source's intensified combinations. Because the Sun stays about thirty days in a sign, each reading lasts about a month. The Gochar calculator shows the Sun's current house from your Moon, and the Daily feature prints its sign and house each day.

Once a year the Sun returns to the exact sidereal degree it held at your birth. The Varshaphal calculator casts a chart for that instant, found to under a second, and reads the year from it. In every annual chart the Sun is back in its natal sign; only its house moves, with the year's Lagna.

Sunday and the Sun's hora

Saravali Ch. 7 Sloka 1-3 gives the weekdays to the seven grahas in order from the Sun and divides each day, sunrise to sunrise, into 24 horas: the first belongs to the weekday's lord, each next one to the lord of the sixth weekday from it, so the first hora of every Sunday is the Sun's. Sloka 5-6 gives the use: an enterprise about some house goes better when begun in the year, month, weekday or hora of that house's lord, worth 25, 50, 75 and 100 per cent of the good effect respectively. For whatever house Leo occupies in your chart, the Sun's weekday and hora are the ones the text means. The Hora calculator builds the same sequence but cuts daylight and night into twelve horas each, where the BPHS translator's note on Ch. 27 Sloka 13 describes 24 equal hours. Separately, BPHS Ch. 6 Sloka 5-6 gives the first half of each odd sign and the second half of each even sign to the Sun's Hora, and the Hora (D2) calculator shows which half each of your grahas falls in.

The Sun and the number 1

Advanced Vedic Numerology's table of numbers and planets gives 1 to the Sun, and this app's numerology engine names the Sun as the ruler of Mulank 1, which it calls the Initiator. The link is a mapping, not a calculation from the chart: a Mulank 1 person need not have a strong Sun, and a strong Sun says nothing about the birth date. Number 1 in numerology covers the numerology side, Mulank, Bhagyank and Life Path how the numbers are found, and the Numerology feature what the app does with them.

Checking the Sun in your own chart

1. 1.Cast the chart with the Birth Chart calculator and note the Sun's sign, degree, nakshatra and house. Check the house against the time-of-day table above.
2. 2.Read the dignity off the sign table. If the Sun is in Leo, note whether its degree is under 20 (Moolatrikona) or 20 and over (own sign).
3. 3.Find the house it rules from your Lagna in the BPHS Ch. 34 table, and whether your Kundali's Yoga Karaka panel lists it.
4. 4.Note who sits with the Sun and whether the birth chart marks them combust. Remember Mercury is combust on most of the days it shares the Sun's sign.
5. 5.Find what aspects the Sun: any planet in the 7th from it, Mars from the 4th or 8th behind it, Jupiter from the 5th or 9th, Saturn from the 3rd or 10th. Jupiter and Saturn are the two Saravali Ch. 22 treats most consistently.
6. 6.Check its strength in the Shad Bala calculator: directional strength peaks in the 10th, and a day birth adds time strength.
7. 7.Look at its Ashtakavarga row and its role among the Char Karakas.
8. 8.Last, timing: when the Sun'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 the Methodology page explains how the positions are computed.

Common misreadings

• "The Sun is a malefic, so a prominent Sun is bad." BPHS ranks it the second-mildest malefic, exempts it from the evil of 8th lordship, and names it a Yoga Karaka for Scorpio Lagna. Saravali's Sun does well in the 3rd, 6th, 10th and 11th.
• "Own sign is the strongest place." Exaltation in Aries is stronger in every scheme here. BPHS gives own sign half the good effect of exaltation, and the ray count puts an own-sign Sun at 10 degrees of Leo below a Sun in Pisces.
• "My app says Moolatrikona, so it is." For Leo it depends on the degree: BPHS, Saravali and Bhrigu Sutras put Moolatrikona in the first 20 degrees, and this app's engine has followed them since October 2026 (before that it used the last 10), so a label saved earlier may be the reverse of today's.
• "A combust planet is destroyed." The texts weaken it, sometimes sharply, but combustion is common: Mercury is combust on 43.5 per cent of days by this app's orb, and the orb itself differs between sources.
• "Mercury aspects my Sun." It cannot: Mercury never travels more than about 28 degrees from the Sun, and a full aspect needs six signs. Venus cannot either.
• "The Sun Mahadasha is six hard years." BPHS Ch. 47 makes the outcome depend on the Sun's sign, house, company and aspects at birth, and Saravali sorts it into five kinds. Its sub-periods differ too, running from about three and a half months to a year.
• "My Vedic Sun sign should match my Western one." Sidereal ingresses fall around the middle of each month, weeks after the tropical ones, so for most birth dates the sign moves back by one.

Related pages

The other grahas: the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rahu and Ketu. The houses the Sun is most tied to: the 1st house, its house-karaka role; the 9th, where the father is read; and the 10th, where it gains directional strength. Every book cited here is listed on the Sources page.

Is the Sun a benefic or a malefic in Vedic astrology?

A natural malefic in BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 11 and Saravali Ch. 4 Sloka 9, though BPHS Ch. 34 Sloka 8-10 ranks it the second-mildest, after the weak Moon. Its role in a given chart depends on the Lagna: BPHS Ch. 34 makes it auspicious for Aries, Taurus, Leo and Sagittarius and a Yoga Karaka for Scorpio.

Where is the Sun exalted and debilitated?

Exalted in Aries, deepest at 10 degrees; debilitated in Libra, deepest at 10 degrees (BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 49-50). Its only own sign is Leo.

Is my Leo Sun Moolatrikona or own sign?

It depends on the degree. BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 51-54, Saravali Ch. 5 Sloka 21-24 and Bhrigu Sutras put the Sun's Moolatrikona at 0 to 20 degrees of Leo, and the app follows them: below 20 it reads Moolatrikona, from 20 own sign. Before October 2026 the app had it the other way round.

Which planets are the Sun's friends and enemies?

Friends: the Moon, Mars and Jupiter. Neutral: Mercury. Enemies: Venus and Saturn. BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 55 derives this from Leo, and Saravali Ch. 4 Sloka 28-29 and Bhrigu Sutras state it directly. In a given chart the temporary relation of BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 56 can shift each of these by one step.

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

Six 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.

Is my Vedic Sun sign the same as my Western sun sign?

Usually not. The sidereal Sun enters each sign around the middle of the month, about three and a half weeks after the tropical Sun does. The Sun Sign calculator gives the sidereal sign, and says when your birth date sits on a sign change.

What is combustion, and does it cancel a planet?

A planet close enough to the Sun is called combust. Saravali Ch. 5 and BPHS Ch. 45 treat it as a damaged state, and Saravali Ch. 36 strips a combust planet of its rays, Venus and Saturn excepted. This app flags it per planet with a separate orb for each and removes a combust planet's position strength in Shad Bala. It weakens the planet; it does not erase its houses or lordships.

Is the Sun stronger in the 10th house?

In directional strength, yes: BPHS Ch. 3 and Ch. 27 and Saravali Ch. 4 all give the Sun full Dig Bala in the 10th. That is one of six strengths, and its sign, aspects and company still apply.

Can the Sun be my Atma Karaka?

Yes, when it has travelled further through its sign than any other of the seven grahas (BPHS Ch. 32 Sloka 3-8). The Char Karakas calculator shows which role each of your grahas holds.

Does the app suggest remedies for a weak Sun?

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