Ubhayachari Yoga: planets on both sides of the Sun, the rule as coded, and a worked chart

"Ubhaya" means both, and Ubhayachari is the both-sides case of the solar yogas: a planet in the sign before the Sun and another in the sign after it. Where Vesi is the 2nd side alone and Vasi the 12th side alone, Ubhayachari takes over whenever both are occupied. It is the Sun's counterpart to the Moon's Durudhura. This page gives the rule as the engine applies it, what the texts say, why it turns up in about a third of charts, and a worked example. The general question of what a yoga is worth is covered in what a yoga in your chart means.

The rule: how Ubhayachari Yoga forms

Count signs from the Sun's sign as the 1st, using whole signs. The engine reports Ubhayachari when both of these hold:

1. 1.At least one of Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus or Saturn occupies the 2nd sign from the Sun.
2. 2.At least one of the same five occupies the 12th sign from the Sun.

The Moon, Rahu and Ketu never count. Saravali Ch. 14 Sl. 1 says "excluding the Moon (and nodes)"; BPHS Ch. 38 Sl. 1 says "barring Candr" and names the causing planets as "Mangal etc." The nodes are therefore out on Saravali's explicit word. A planet in the Sun's own sign is the 1st from it and plays no part.

When both sides are occupied the engine reports Ubhayachari and does not also report Vesi or Vasi. The three are treated as exclusive cases, which is how both texts frame them - 2nd only, 12th only, or both. So a chart showing Ubhayachari has, in effect, the conditions for Vesi and Vasi at once, but is given only the combined name.

Which side is which

For Ubhayachari the side does not matter - both must be occupied - but the engine records which planets are on which side, and the sentence it shows names them: "The 2nd sign from your Sun holds ..., and the 12th holds ... - flanking the Sun on both sides." The engine's comment notes that an earlier version had the Vesi and Vasi sides swapped. That never affected Ubhayachari, which needs both.

What the classical texts say

Saravali Ch. 14 Sl. 11 gives the fullest reading of the three solar yogas for this one: forbearance, great fortune, a body even and strong but not very tall, firmness, learning, happiness, many servants, protection of one's relatives, being "equal to a king", constant enthusiasm and enjoyment of pleasures. BPHS Ch. 38 Sl. 2-3 is brief: a king, or equal to a king, and happy. The two agree in tone, and unlike Vesi they do not contradict each other. The engine's line condenses them: "Classically read as steadiness and abundance - a well-rounded, resilient temperament with the means to enjoy it."

Unlike Vesi and Vasi, Saravali gives no per-planet lines for Ubhayachari; Sl. 11 treats it as one yoga. Advanced Predictive Astrology mentions it twice: on p. 147, among the yogas the author says are capped by the Moon's position from the Sun, and on p. 209, in a list of combinations the author says are found in the charts of eminent people, alongside Raja Yogas, the Pancha Mahapurusha yogas, Adhi and Gaja Kesari. That is an observation in passing, with no count or rule attached, and this page does not build on it. Jyotisha Siddhanta Sara (pp. 152-153) gives the same rule and calls it "Subhobhayachari" when the flanking planets are good and well placed, "Papobhayachari" otherwise - a split the engine does not make. The Bhrigu Sutras translation does not name the yoga.

How rare it is

In the engine's sample Ubhayachari fired in 1,020 of 3,000 sampled birth moments 1985-2060 - 34 percent, about one chart in three. That makes it more common than either of its one-sided siblings in the same sample (Vesi 820, Vasi 843) and far more common than its lunar counterpart Durudhura (314). Taken together, the three solar yogas covered 2,683 of the 3,000 moments.

Why should the two-sided case be the most common? Because the Sun travels with company. Mercury and Venus are never far from it, and they often sit on opposite sides of it - one in the sign before, one in the sign after. A tally of the causing planets the engine named in those 1,020 moments shows exactly this:

Venus took part in about four Ubhayachari moments in five, Mercury in nearly three in four. In 378 moments every causing planet was a benefic. In only 9 of the 1,020 were the causes Mars and Saturn alone - the one case where BPHS Sl. 4's reversal would apply in full. The other 633 mixed benefics and malefics, and BPHS does not say how a mixed Ubhayachari should be read. In practice, then, Ubhayachari is overwhelmingly a description of where the Sun's two inner companions stand, and the "contrary" case is a rarity.

The picture in the sky

Zodiac longitude increases eastward. A planet in the sign before the Sun lies west of it and rises before it - a morning object; a planet in the sign after the Sun lies east of it and sets after it - an evening object. An Ubhayachari formed by Mercury and Venus on opposite sides is therefore one in which one of them is on the morning side of the Sun and the other on the evening side. Neither text explains the yoga this way and the engine does not use it; it is simply what the sign count describes physically.

Worked example: a 1985 New Delhi chart

The engine's search found this chart: 19 January 1985 at 11:14 IST in New Delhi. You can re-enter it in the birth chart calculator. The ascendant is Pisces at 23.04 degrees.

1. 1.The Sun is in Capricorn. Its 2nd sign is Aquarius and its 12th is Sagittarius.
2. 2.Aquarius holds Mars and Venus. Condition one holds.
3. 3.Sagittarius holds Mercury - and the Moon, which does not count. Mercury alone satisfies condition two.
4. 4.Both sides are occupied, so the yoga is Ubhayachari. Jupiter, in Capricorn with the Sun, takes no part.

The engine reports Ubhayachari Yoga with the planets Mars, Venus, Mercury and the Sun, and the sentence "The 2nd sign from your Sun holds Mars, Venus, and the 12th holds Mercury - flanking the Sun on both sides." For BPHS Sl. 4 this is a mixed case: Venus and Mercury are benefics, Mars a malefic. The example also shows how the Moon's exclusion works in practice - had the Moon been allowed to count, it would have been a second planet on the 12th side, but it would not have changed the verdict, since Mercury is already there.

Saravali Sl. 10 asks next for the strength of the Sun and of the causing planets. The engine's dignity grades give the sign-based part of that answer: the Sun in Capricorn is "Neutral"; Mars and Venus in Aquarius are both "Friendly sign"; Mercury in Sagittarius is "Friendly sign". None of the causing planets is exalted, debilitated or combust. The one weakened planet in the picture is Jupiter, debilitated and combust in Capricorn with the Sun - but Jupiter is not a cause here, so the Ubhayachari reading is untouched by it. The text also asks for the divisions (amsas) the planets occupy, which a reader would take from the navamsa and other varga charts; the engine does not fold those into the yoga.

This chart returns eight yogas in all, among them Durudhura (the Moon in Sagittarius has Jupiter in the 2nd from it and Saturn in the 12th, the Sun in the 2nd being excluded from that count), Amala and Sarala. Eight is not unusual for a chart in this engine; it is a reminder that a list of yogas is a list of separate tests, not a score.

Ubhayachari beside its neighbouring yogas

The Sun family has three members - Vesi, Vasi and Ubhayachari - and no fourth "unsupported Sun" case; the engine comment notes Saravali names none. The Moon family mirrors it with Sunapha, Anapha, Durudhura and Kemadruma. The striking difference between the two families is frequency: in the same sample the both-sides case was the most common solar outcome but the least common lunar one, because the Moon, unlike the Sun, has no planets that keep it company.

For the planets that most often form it, see the Venus and Mercury pages; for the Sun's own condition, which Saravali Sl. 10 says must be weighed, see combustion and the Sun page linked above.

What the rule does and does not establish

Ubhayachari establishes that the Sun has at least one of five planets on each side of it by sign. The texts read that warmly, and Saravali asks for the Sun's and the planets' strength to be weighed; BPHS reverses the reading for malefic causes. Neither gives a timing rule. Because it fires in about a third of charts in the engine's sample, it cannot on its own distinguish one chart sharply from another. A yoga is a named rule about positions, not a promise; a chart without it has lost nothing the texts guarantee elsewhere.

To see whether your chart has Ubhayachari, Vesi or Vasi, and which planets form it on each side, run the yoga calculator.

Questions about Ubhayachari Yoga

What does Ubhayachari Yoga mean?

A planet other than the Moon or a node on each side of the Sun: at least one of Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus or Saturn in the 2nd sign from the Sun, and at least one in the 12th.

Can a chart have Ubhayachari and Vesi or Vasi together?

Not in this app. With both sides occupied the engine reports only Ubhayachari, following the texts' three-case framing.

Does the Moon next to the Sun count?

No. Saravali and BPHS both exclude the Moon from the solar yogas, and Saravali excludes the nodes too.

How common is Ubhayachari Yoga?

It fired in 1,020 of 3,000 sampled birth moments 1985-2060 in this engine - 34 percent, the most common of the three solar yogas.

Why is it so much more common than Durudhura?

Mercury and Venus stay close to the Sun and are often on opposite sides of it. The Moon has no such companions, so planets flanking it on both sides are rarer: Durudhura fired 314 times in the same sample.

Does BPHS read a malefic-formed Ubhayachari differently?

Yes, Ch. 38 Sl. 4 says malefic causes give contrary effects. In the engine's sample only 9 of 1,020 Ubhayachari moments were formed by Mars and Saturn alone. The engine shows one line in every case.

Which planets usually form Ubhayachari Yoga?

Venus and Mercury. In the engine's sample Venus took part in 825 of the 1,020 Ubhayachari moments and Mercury in 733, because both stay close to the Sun. Mars took part in 446, Jupiter in 333 and Saturn in 292.

Is there anything to do if my chart has Ubhayachari?

No. It is a named rule about positions. This app does not prescribe remedies.