Ashtakavarga gives each of the seven classical grahas its own table of points. Every table scores the 12 signs from eight reference points — the seven grahas and the Lagna — and a sign collects one bindu for each list it turns up in. Stack the seven tables sign by sign and you get the sarvashtakavarga, the figure out of 56 that most people have seen.
The total of that stack does not depend on your chart. It is 337 in every horoscope ever cast, because the number of bindus a graha hands out belongs to the lists rather than to the sky. So the question the number invites — is mine good? — has no answer. The one worth asking is where it went.
Why is my sarvashtakavarga always 337?
Because the count each graha gives out is fixed by its own lists, not by where anything sits. Guru (Jupiter) hands out 56 bindus in every chart ever cast, and Mangal (Mars) 39. The seven come to 337 every time. Only the 12 signs underneath them move.
| Graha | Bindus it gives out | Average per sign |
|---|---|---|
| Surya (Sun) | 48 | 4.0 |
| Chandra (Moon) | 49 | 4.1 |
| Mangal (Mars) | 39 | 3.3 |
| Budha (Mercury) | 54 | 4.5 |
| Guru (Jupiter) | 56 | 4.7 |
| Shukra (Venus) | 52 | 4.3 |
| Shani (Saturn) | 39 | 3.3 |
Guru (Jupiter) is the most generous of the seven at 56, and Mangal (Mars) and Shani (Saturn) the least at 39. The column adds to 337 whoever the chart belongs to, which is why it works as a checksum on the tables rather than as a reading.
What actually varies, then?
Where the bindus land. Across 5,000 charts, which is 60,000 readings of a single sign, one sign held as few as 13 and as many as 49 out of 56. The average is pinned at 28.1, because that is 337 shared 12 ways. No chart is the average.
13–49
bindus one sign can hold
Out of 56, over 60,000 readings of a sign.
16.1
is the usual gap, best sign to worst
It ran from 6 to 31 across the 5,000 charts.
28.1
is every chart’s average per sign
337 across 12 signs. The same figure in every chart.
Bindus in one sign, in bands of 4 labelled by the lower edge: 12 to 15, 0%; 16 to 19, 2.2%; 20 to 23, 14.2%; 24 to 27, 30.9%; 28 to 31, 30.1%; 32 to 35, 16%; 36 to 39, 5.3%; 40 to 43, 1.2%; 44 to 47, 0.1%; 48 to 51, 0%.The commonest band is 24 to 27 bindus. A sign in the forties is rare, and across the whole sample none held fewer than 13. Eight reference points scattered around a zodiac cannot all pile into one sign, and they cannot all avoid one either.
337 is the size of the pot. Everything a reader is actually looking at is how it was shared out — and the total is the one number that cannot tell them.
How many signs should be above 30 bindus?
About 4.3 of the 12, and that is not a comment on anybody's chart. The common tables draw the line at 30 of 56, while every chart averages 28.1 per sign. The line sits above the average each chart is held to, so most signs fall under it by arithmetic rather than by weakness.
4.3
signs at or above 30, on average
Of 12. It ran from 1 to 8 across the sample.
36.8
is the usual best sign in a chart
The highest any chart reached was 49; the most modest best sign was 31.
20.7
is the usual lowest sign in a chart
It ran from 13 to 26. Every chart has one.
Does a sign with more bindus mean something good?
The texts read a sign holding many bindus as a supported place for a graha to cross, and one holding few as asking for care. That is a rating of the sign for a transit, not a verdict on the person whose chart it is. And because the 337 is shared out, a sign holding more means another holds less. Every chart has both kinds.
Does a graha favour its own sign?
Five of the seven do. Chandra (Moon), Mangal (Mars), Budha (Mercury), Guru (Jupiter) and Shukra (Venus) each give their own sign more than their flat average. Surya (Sun) comes out level. Shani (Saturn) comes out below, and is the only one of the seven whose own sign can hold nothing at all from its own table.
| Graha | Average per sign | Average in its own sign | Lowest seen there |
|---|---|---|---|
| Surya (Sun) | 4.00 | 3.99 | 1 |
| Chandra (Moon) | 4.10 | 4.56 | 1 |
| Mangal (Mars) | 3.30 | 3.58 | 1 |
| Budha (Mercury) | 4.50 | 4.72 | 1 |
| Guru (Jupiter) | 4.70 | 4.99 | 1 |
| Shukra (Venus) | 4.30 | 4.53 | 1 |
| Shani (Saturn) | 3.30 | 2.97 | 0 |
Printed to two decimals on purpose: at one, Surya (Sun)'s own-sign average and its flat average are the same number and the finding disappears. The reason is in the lists rather than in the sky — Shani (Saturn)'s own list is the only one of the seven that leaves out the 1st, so it alone cannot give itself a point.
The Ashtakavarga page prints all seven tables for a birth date, time and place, with the sarvashtakavarga they add to and the house each sign holds. Your own 337 is there, and so is where it went.
Questions people ask about Ashtakavarga
Why is every sarvashtakavarga 337?
Because the number of bindus each graha hands out is set by its own lists and does not depend on the chart. Surya (Sun) always gives 48 bindus, Chandra (Moon) 49, Mangal (Mars) 39, Budha (Mercury) 54, Guru (Jupiter) 56, Shukra (Venus) 52 and Shani (Saturn) 39 — and those add to 337 every time. What changes from chart to chart is which signs receive them.
What is a good sarvashtakavarga score?
The total cannot be good or bad, because it is 337 for everybody. For one sign, the common tables draw the line at 30 of 56. Measured over 5,000 charts, 4.3 signs of 12 clear it in a typical chart, and the count ran from 1 to 8.
Which sign in my chart holds the most bindus?
Whichever one the tables gave them to, and it differs chart to chart. Across 5,000 charts the strongest sign averaged 36.8 bindus and the weakest 20.7, a usual gap of 16.1. The Ashtakavarga calculator on this site names both for a given birth date, time and place.
Do Rahu and Ketu have a bhinnashtakavarga?
Not in the classical eight-fold system, which gives a table to the seven grahas only. Some later schools add a Rahu table. This engine does not follow that, so those seven tables are the whole of the 337 between them.
Does Ashtakavarga need an exact birth time?
It helps, because the Lagna is one of the eight reference points every table is scored from. Without a birth time the tables are scored from seven points instead, the totals fall short of the classical figures, and the sarva comes to less than 337. That is a different calculation rather than a rougher version of the same one.
What is the difference between bhinnashtakavarga and sarvashtakavarga?
A bhinnashtakavarga is one graha's own table of bindus across the 12 signs — there are seven of them. The sarvashtakavarga is all seven added together sign by sign, which is why one sign can hold up to 56 there and only eight in a single table.
What this does not cover
- 5,000 charts, not every chart. Moments drawn across 1950 to 2025, which is enough to show the range a sign covers and not enough to claim the extremes are the extremes. The 337 is not a sampling result — it is a property of the tables, and the sample is what confirms the walk reproduces it.
- No shodhana is applied. The trikona and ekadhipatya reductions refine these figures for transit work, and the texts differ on the order they go in. Every number here is a raw bindu count, and none of it should be called reduced.
- The 30-bindu line is a convention, not a measurement. It is where the common tables draw it for a transit. This page counts how many signs fall either side; it does not test whether the line predicts anything.
- Lahiri ayanamsa, whole-sign houses, sidereal. Ashtakavarga counts in whole signs, so a chart cast tropically would put roughly a sign’s worth of bodies elsewhere and produce a different set of tables that looked exactly the same.
- The own-sign reason is read off the classical lists, not measured. The averages in that table are measured. Why one graha cannot give itself a point is a fact about which houses its list names, which anybody can check in the text.
- Nothing here says what any of it means for a person. This page counts bindus and compares them to a line the texts drew. What the tradition reads into a strong or weak sign is a different question, and it is about the sign rather than about you.