Upagraha – SubPlanets | Vedic Astrology

The word Upagraha means sub planet. Apart from the base 9 planets – Sun, Moon, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Saturn, Venus, Rahu and Ketu – these subplanets are defined. Like Rahu and Ketu (Chaaya Grahas), Upagrahas doesn’t exist physically. In fact, these are particular mathematical points calculated based on Sun’s longitude position.

In this post we are going to cover on the calculations to find the placement of five upagrahas. Later, we can discuss on the effects of Upagrahas in each houses. All the Upagraha mentioned below are malefic in nature.

Here is the list of Upagrahas

1. Dhooma
2. Vyathipata
3. Parivesha
4. Indra Chapa
5. Upketu

These upagrahas are called Aparakahas Grahas – Non luminous subplanets. The longitude position of Sun is the base for deriving all these five upagrahas.

Here is a practical example for you.

Calculating Position of the sun

Before calculating five upagrahas, the first step is to identify the position of Sun. In the chart given above, Sun is placed in Virgo (Longitude 0^o 35′ 31”).

Mathematical calculations will be easy to perform with a fixed starting point. Hence, lets derive the Sun’s Longitude angle using Aries as base.

Sun is residing in 6th house at 0^o 35′ 31”. Each house corresponds to 30^o. Hence the position of Sun with respect to the chart (Aries as base) can be expressed as 30^o * 5 + 0^o 35′ 31” => 150^o 35′ 31”

Calculating Dhooma

1. Dhooma is 4 signs and 13^o 20′ from Sun’s longitude position.
2. Since each sign corresponds to 30^o, we need to move 30 * 4 + 13^o20′ = 133^o20′ from Sun’s longitute position.
3. As we calculated in the previous section. Sun is at 150^o 35′ 31”. Lets add both to find the position of dhooma

150o 35' 31''
133o 20' 00''
-------------------
283o 55' 31''

The above mentioned angle can be represented as 9 * 30^o + 13^o 55′ 31′. Hence, we can move 9 houses from Aries and on the 10th house, exactly at 13^o 55′ 31′ – Dhooma is placed. As mentioned in the diagram, Dhooma is placed in Capricorn – 13^o 55′ 31′

Calculating Vyathipata

1. Vyathipata is the difference between 12 signs and Dhooma
2. 12 signs corresponds to 12 * 30^o = 360^o.
3. From the previous section Dhooma is place at 283^o 55′ 31”
4. Vyathipata can be arrived by subtracting it from 360.

360o 00' 00''
283o 55' 31''
----------------
76o 04' 29''

The above mentioned angle can be represented as 2 * 30^o + 16^o 04′ 29”. Hence, we can move 2 houses from Aries and on the 3rd house, exactly at 16^o 04′ 29”– Vyathipata is placed. As mentioned in the diagram, Vyathipata is placed in Gemini- 16^o 04′ 29”

Calculating Parivesha

1. Add six signs to Vyathipata to know Parivesha
2. From the previous section, we found that Vyathipata is in Gemini – 16^o 04′ 29”
3. Calculating Parivesha is pretty easy now. Move six signs from Gemini and add the degrees we derived for Vyathipata

Seventh house from Vyathipata is Sagittarius. Hence Parivesh is placed in Sagittarius – 16^o 04′ 29”

Calculating Indrachapa

1. Indrachapa is the difference between 12 signs and Parivesha.
2. 12 signs corresponds to 12 * 30^o = 360^o.
3. From the previous section Parivesha is place in Sagittarius – 16^o 04′ 29”
4. Sagittarius – 16^o 04′ 29” – can also be represented as 8 Signs + 16^o 04′ 29” or 8 * 30^o + 16^o 04′ 29” => 240^o + + 16^o 04′ 29” => 256^o 04′ 29”

360o 00' 00''
256o 04' 29''
-------------------
103o 55' 31''

The above mentioned angle can be represented as 3 * 30^o + 13^o 55′ 31”. Hence, we can move 3 houses from Aries and on the 4th house, exactly at 13^o 55′ 31′‘– Indrachapa is placed. As mentioned in the diagram, Indrachapa is placed in Cancer- 13^o 55′ 31′

Calculating Upaketu

1. Upaketu can be derived by adding 16^o 40′ to Indrachapa
2. From the previous section, Indrachapa is placed at 103^o 55′ 31”

103o 55' 31''
016o 40' 00'
-------------------
120o 35' 41'

The above mentioned angle can be represented as 4 * 30^o + 0^o 35′ 31”. Hence, we can move 4 houses from Aries and on the 5th house, exactly at 0^o 35′ 31”‘– Upaketu is placed. As mentioned in the diagram, Upaketu is placed in Leo- 0^o 35′ 31”

Verifying the calculations

We calculated the 5 different mathematical points based on Sun’s longitude position. All the mathematical points are malefic in nature. To verify the calculation, add one sign to Upaketu. The result should be the Sun’s longitude position from which we made the calculation.

Upaketu is placed in Leo- 0^o 35′ 31”. Adding 30 degrees or a sign would result in Virgo– 0^o 35′ 31”. Thats the exact position from which we made our calculations. Hence all the calculations which we made are correct.

Tabulating all the results together as below

These are the malefic points which produces bad effect . Later, we are going to deep dive on these items and understand about their positions and strength. For now, lets focus on the calculations and placements.

Its a long post and we made so many calculations to arrive these points. There are many astrological softwares available which would instantly derive all these calculations. I use Vedic Horo to find these values. However, its always to good to know how these calculations are made.