Bālādi — the five ages, by degree
The simplest scheme: a sign is divided into five bands of 6° each, and the graha's age follows from which band it occupies. The order runs forward in an odd sign and backward in an even one.
| State | Degrees (odd sign) | Meaning | Strength |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bāla (infant) | 0° – 6° | Immature; cannot yet act on its own account. | Quarter |
| Kumāra (child) | 6° – 12° | Growing capacity, not yet reliable. | Half |
| Yuvā (youth) | 12° – 18° | Full vigour. The graha acts at its strongest. | Full |
| Vṛddha (old) | 18° – 24° | Declining; experienced but slowing. | Little |
| Mṛta (dead) | 24° – 30° | Effectively unable to deliver its own significations. | None |
In an even sign the order reverses, so 0°–6° is Mṛta and 24°–30° is Bāla. This reversal is skipped by a surprising number of tools; if another calculator gives you the opposite age for a planet in an even sign, that is why.
Lajjitādi — the six conditional states
These are not degree bands but conditions. A graha can hold more than one at once, or none. Three of the six actively damage the house the graha occupies.
- Lajjita (ashamed)
- In the 5th house, conjoined with the Sun, Mars, Saturn, Rāhu or Ketu. The graha is present in the house of merit and cannot show itself well there.
- Garvita (proud)
- In exaltation or mūlatrikoṇa. The graha acts with full confidence — and, at the extreme, with the over-reach that pride implies.
- Kṣudhita (starved)
- In an enemy sign, or receiving an enemy's aspect or conjunction, or conjoined with Saturn. Damages the house it sits in. The graha wants and does not receive.
- Tṛṣita (thirsty)
- In a watery sign with malefic contact and no benefic support. Damages the house. A state of unsatisfied craving rather than outright deprivation.
- Mudita (delighted)
- In a friend's sign, or with a benefic, or aspected by a friend or by Jupiter. The graha is at ease and gives its results generously.
- Kṣobhita (agitated)
- Conjoined with the Sun and afflicted by malefics or an enemy. Damages the house. Combustion with additional pressure on top of it.
Śayanādi — the twelve postures
The Śayanādi scheme assigns each graha one of twelve postures — reclining, sitting, standing, walking, and so on — derived from an arithmetical procedure on the graha's longitude, its nakṣatra and the birth details.
It is the most elaborate of the schemes and the least tractable. The classical material gives the derivation and a set of results per posture, but the results are largely reformulations of favourable and unfavourable rather than distinct predictions.
It has one clear structural use, which is worth knowing: in the varga-strength apparatus, a graha in an inauspicious Śayanādi state is among the conditions for not counting a division as good when tallying Vaiśeṣikāṁśa. That is a real, load-bearing application.
How much weight the avasthās should carry — an honest answer
Most of what the avasthās say, the chart has already said. "Kṣudhita" means an enemy sign or an enemy's aspect; "Garvita" means exaltation or mūlatrikoṇa. If you have already weighed dignity, aspects and conjunctions, then reading these states as additional findings counts the same fact twice — and double-counting is how a reading drifts from a chart into a story. Treat the avasthās as vivid restatements of dignity, useful for describing a condition you have already established, and let placement, lordship, dignity, strength and aspects carry the actual weight of the judgement. The exceptions are Bālādi, which adds genuinely independent information from the degree, and the Śayanādi flag used inside the varga-strength count.
How birth-time error affects the avasthās
Bālādi is the sensitive one, and obviously so: it is read from bands of six degrees, so a graha near a boundary crosses from Yuvā to Vṛddha on a small change. The Moon moves through a full band in about twelve hours, and the faster grahas take days, so for everything but the Moon a rough time is adequate here. The Lajjitādi states are condition-based rather than degree-based and barely move at all — except where the house a graha occupies is in question, which is an ascendant matter and shifts with the Lagna.
How this is computed
Positions come from an astronomical ephemeris, converted to the sidereal zodiac on the Lahiri (Citrapakṣa) ayanāṁśa and computed by our own Parāśara engine — no pre-written results, and no language model anywhere near a number. Where the classical texts disagree, this page names the convention we follow instead of quietly picking one.