Which planet is your darakaraka? The Jaimini spouse karaka

Last updated 25 October 2026

Give your date and time of birth to find the planet with the lowest degree count inside its sign, the one Jaimini astrology treats as the spouse significator. The page then explains how it is found, what an astrologer weighs alongside it, and a worked example of the two counting schemes.

The spouse karaka in Jaimini astrology

The Sanskrit word dara refers to a wife, and by extension to a spouse of either sex. Among the movable karakas of Jaimini astrology, the darakaraka is the one tied to the marriage partner, and it always comes last in the ranking: of all the planets compared, it has made the least progress through the sign it occupies. Where the atmakaraka at the head of the list represents the self, the darakaraka at the bottom represents the person who stands opposite the self in partnership.

That pairing is the key to how practitioners think about it. The darakaraka is not a forecast of when you will marry or whether a marriage will last. It is the planet through which a Jaimini reader looks at the spouse as a significant other in your chart, and at what you seek and meet in close partnership.

How the tool finds it

The form asks for a date, a clock time and the offset from UTC that applied where you were born; picking a listed city simply fills that offset in. Planet positions are worked out in the sidereal zodiac (Lahiri ayanamsa), the sign is set aside, and the planets are sorted by how far into their signs they have got. The planet in last place is the darakaraka; the planet in second place is the amatyakaraka, which the result shows too.

The calculator runs both ranking schemes. The seven-karaka count leaves the nodes out entirely. The eight-karaka count brings in Rahu, whose figure is reversed (subtracted from 30) because it travels backwards. Alongside each darakaraka and amatyakaraka you see its sign and degree, its birth star and quarter, and its D9 sign, flagged vargottama if D1 and D9 agree. Many present-day astrologers look at the D9 placement of the spouse karaka, but the old texts describe that kind of reading for the atmakaraka, so treat the D9 column as modern practice.

If the time is unknown, tick the box and the tool covers the entire date, listing the darakaraka under both schemes, and the amatyakaraka, for each stretch of the clock. That makes it plain whether the hour of birth matters for you.

Why it is not a description of your spouse

Search for any darakaraka planet and you will find confident portraits: a Venus darakaraka brings an attractive partner, a Saturn darakaraka an older or serious one, and so on. These lists borrow the planet's general meaning and apply it with no reference to the rest of the chart. A competent astrologer works differently.

• The darakaraka's own condition. Its sign, house, dignity and the planets with it shape how its significations come through. A well-placed planet and an afflicted one in the same role are read quite differently.
• The Upapada. Jaimini practitioners lean heavily on the Upapada lagna, the image point derived from the 12th house, when the question is marriage. The Arudha lagna calculator shows it along with the other padas.
• The 7th house, its lord and the navamsa. These Parashari markers remain in play even in a Jaimini-led reading, and a practitioner usually checks that the indicators agree before saying anything firm.
• Timing. Questions about when, rather than who, are answered from dashas and transits. The darakaraka may be part of that picture, but it does not set dates by itself.

If you are using the result to think about a real relationship decision, treat it as one input to a conversation, not a verdict. A trusted counsellor or family member who knows the people involved will often see things no chart factor can, and our guide to the kundli matching consultation explains how astrologers usually compare two charts.

A worked example: when Rahu changes the answer

The table below ranks an invented chart, not anyone's real birth data, so you can see exactly how the two schemes can part company. With seven karakas Mercury, at just over 3 degrees of its sign, has the lowest figure and is the darakaraka. Rahu sits at 28°10′ of Dhanu, so with eight karakas it counts as 1°50′, lower than Mercury. Rahu becomes the darakaraka and Mercury moves up to gnatikaraka. Mars stays the atmakaraka and Venus the amatyakaraka in both schemes, so only the lower ranks are affected.

The example also shows why the result prints the counted degree under each planet. Rahu's position in the sign is high, yet its counted figure is the lowest in the chart; without the reversal it would have looked like an atmakaraka candidate instead.

Questions to ask your astrologer about the darakaraka

• Which karaka scheme do you follow, and does it change my darakaraka?
• How strong is my darakaraka by sign and house, and what is with it?
• Do my Upapada, 7th house and darakaraka point the same way, or do they disagree?
• Do you read the darakaraka's navamsa sign, and what weight do you give it?
• My darakaraka is only just behind another planet. Would a small error in my birth time change your reading?
• Is any of this about timing, or only about the nature of partnership in my chart?

If you are preparing for a reading about marriage, our guide on birth details for astrology explains how to check the time first.