What is a graha (planet) in Jyotish?
A graha is a planet in Jyotish. The system counts nine grahas: the seven visible planets from the Sun to Saturn, plus Rahu and Ketu, the two nodes of the Moon's orbit.
What it is
The seven grahas are Surya (Sun), Chandra (Moon), Mangal (Mars), Budha (Mercury), Guru (Jupiter), Shukra (Venus) and Shani (Saturn). Rahu and Ketu are not physical bodies; they are the points where the Moon's orbit crosses the ecliptic.
How it is worked out or read
The tools compute the seven grahas from an ephemeris, and Rahu from the mean node formula (Meeus, chapter 47). Ketu is always 180 degrees from Rahu.
Where it appears on this site
Each graha is listed in the birth chart. The glossary gives the Sanskrit names.
Grahas in the sky and in the chart
The word graha means something that seizes or influences, and in the chart it names a body whose position is computed. The seven visible grahas are positions in the sky that can be followed night by night. Rahu and Ketu are different. They are computed points, the places where the Moon's orbit crosses the ecliptic, and they have no visible disc. The chart treats all nine alike for the purpose of signs and houses, but a reader who knows the difference will not expect Rahu to rise or set like the Moon. The clearest way to think about it is that the seven are bodies and the two nodes are geometry.
How grahas are read
A graha is read by its sign and dignity, by the house it occupies, by the houses it rules, by its aspects, and by its dasha period. Each of these is a separate line of evidence, and the classical method combines them. A graha in its own sign in a kendra is read differently from the same graha in an enemy's sign in a dusthana, and the difference is the point of the method. The graha pages on this site describe each one in turn, with the rules shown as the texts state them.
Grahas and their dasha years
Each graha also has a fixed number of years in the Vimshottari dasha: the Sun six, the Moon ten, Mars seven, Rahu eighteen, Jupiter sixteen, Saturn nineteen, Mercury seventeen, Ketu seven and Venus twenty. These years are the reason the dasha cycle lasts 120 years in total. The graha pages explain the years, and the dasha tool shows them in use, so a reader can see where each graha sits in a lifetime cycle.
Grahas as a vocabulary
Thinking of the grahas as a vocabulary helps a reader use them without accepting every claim attached to them. Each graha names a set of themes, such as the Sun for self and authority, the Moon for mind and feeling, and Mars for energy and action, and the reader can use these names to describe a chart clearly.
Grahas and the reader's own judgement
Grahas are a framework, and the reader's own judgement is still needed to decide how they apply. A reader who studies the grahas carefully learns to hold their traditional meanings lightly, testing each one against the chart and against experience.