Planetary avasthas are the states a planet is in, and the avasthas table on your chart page shows the most widely used set of them, the Baladi avasthas, which give each planet an age. A planet can be Bala, the infant, Kumara, the youth, Yuva, the adult in its prime, Vriddha, the elder, or Mrita, literally the dead. The age is worked out from the planet’s degree within its sign, and it is read as a measure of how fully the planet is able to deliver its results. The kundali calculator lists the state, a strength figure and a one-line effect for each of the seven planets. This article explains how the five states are fixed, why the order runs backwards in even signs, what the strength figures mean and how much weight to give them, why the Atmakaraka is nearly always Bala or Mrita, why an exalted planet can be Mrita, the other avastha systems, and timing, and ends with two charts.
The avasthas are one of several strength measures on the chart page, each covered in this series: Digbala, a planet’s directional strength, and Shadbala, the six-fold strength that combines many factors.
Conventions used. Planet positions are sidereal, using Lahiri, the same setting as the kundali calculator and Jagannatha Hora. Avasthas follow the Baladi scheme of Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, with five six-degree bands per sign and the order reversed in even signs. The percentages rest on a Swiss Ephemeris sample of 30,000 randomly timed births from 1950 to 2010.
Your planets' ages, read against the rest of the chart.
A consultation weighs each planet's avastha alongside its dignity, house, directional strength and dasha, so you know which planets in your chart are ready to deliver and when, rather than reading one table in isolation.
In this article
- What the planetary avasthas table shows
- The five Baladi states
- Why even signs run backwards
- How much weight the state carries
- Every chart has a mix
- The Atmakaraka paradox
- Every gandanta planet is Bala
- When exaltation and avastha disagree
- The other avastha systems
- Avasthas and the dasha
- Two charts read through their avasthas
- Frequently asked questions
What the planetary avasthas table shows
The table lists the seven visible planets, from the Sun to Saturn, with four columns: the planet, its avastha, a strength figure and a short note on the effect. Rahu and Ketu are left out, as they are in the classical scheme. The strength figure is the share of its results a planet in that state is traditionally expected to give: 100 percent for Yuva, 50 for Kumara, 25 for Bala, about 12 for Vriddha and none for Mrita. Those proportions come from Parashara’s own statement of the scheme, where the adult gives full results, the youth half, the infant a quarter, the elder very little and the dead nothing.
Read literally, that last line alarms people, and it is the main reason this article exists. The avastha of planets is one input among many, and the rest of the article explains why a Mrita planet in a real chart rarely behaves as though it were dead.
The five Baladi states
Each sign is divided into five bands of six degrees. In the odd signs, Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius and Aquarius, the states run from infancy to death as the degree rises. In the even signs, Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn and Pisces, they run the other way. The table sets out the baladi avastha bands and the share of results traditionally attached to each state.
| Degrees within the sign | State in odd signs | State in even signs | Share of results |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0° to 6° | Bala (infant) | Mrita (dead) | Bala a quarter; Mrita none |
| 6° to 12° | Kumara (youth) | Vriddha (elder) | Kumara half; Vriddha very little |
| 12° to 18° | Yuva (prime) | Yuva (prime) | Full results |
| 18° to 24° | Vriddha (elder) | Kumara (youth) | Vriddha very little; Kumara half |
| 24° to 30° | Mrita (dead) | Bala (infant) | Mrita none; Bala a quarter |
The middle band is Yuva in every sign, so a planet between 12 and 18 degrees is always in its prime. Everywhere else the parity of the sign decides the state, which is why a planet at 3 degrees can be an infant in Aries and dead in Taurus.
Why even signs run backwards
The odd signs are the masculine or active signs in the classical scheme and the even signs the feminine or receptive ones, and many of Parashara’s calculations reverse direction between them. In the Baladi scheme the reversal means a planet’s life in an even sign begins at the end of the sign and runs back toward the start. One practical consequence follows. Whenever you check a planet by hand, look at the sign’s parity before the degree; the most common error in hand calculations and in careless software alike is to apply the odd-sign order everywhere, which gets every planet in an even sign wrong except the ones between 12 and 18 degrees.
How much weight the state carries
Most practitioners treat planetary avasthas, and the Baladi state in particular, as a modifier of a planet’s capacity rather than a verdict on it. A Yuva planet can deliver its promise directly and completely. A Kumara planet delivers readily but with less weight, like a capable young person not yet at full strength. A Bala planet gives results that start small and grow, often later than expected. A Vriddha planet gives results that are dignified but thin, sometimes arriving through age or experience. A Mrita planet tends to give results that feel absent, arrive through other people, or take an unexpected form.
What the state cannot do is override the planet’s dignity, house, lordship, aspects and dasha. A Mrita planet that is well placed, strongly aspected by benefics and running a favourable dasha will still produce, and a Yuva planet that is debilitated in a difficult house will still struggle.
Every chart has a mix
Because the states are fixed by degree, each one covers a fifth of the zodiac, and in the sample each planet was in each state almost exactly a fifth of the time. What varies is the mix within a chart. One chart in five had no Yuva planet at all, 37 percent had one, 29 percent two, 11 percent three and about 3 percent four or more. Eighty percent of charts had at least one Mrita planet, and 23 percent had all five states represented.
Those figures are the best reassurance there is about the mrita avastha. Four charts in five contain a dead planet by this scheme, including the charts of people whose lives are full and successful in every area that planet governs. The state describes a quality of delivery, and it is read together with everything else.
The Atmakaraka paradox
The Atmakaraka is whichever planet stands furthest into its sign, so it almost always sits in the last six degrees, which is Mrita in an odd sign and Bala in an even one. In the sample the Atmakaraka was Mrita in 39 percent of charts and Bala in another 39 percent; it was Yuva in only 3 percent. The Darakaraka, the lowest-degree planet, shows the mirror pattern, Bala in 41 percent and Mrita in 39.
This follows from how the two schemes are built and says nothing about the soul or the spouse. Jaimini’s karakas are read by role, sign, house and navamsa, as the Atmakaraka guide and the planet-by-planet articles such as Venus as Atmakaraka explain, and applying the Baladi share of results to a karaka’s role would make nearly every chart’s soul planet either dead or newborn. The sensible practice is to read the Baladi state for the planet’s own significations and dasha, and to leave the karaka role to Jaimini’s methods.
Every gandanta planet is Bala
The bala avastha has a neat connection with gandanta. The water side of each gandanta knot is the last pada of an even sign, and the last six degrees of an even sign are Bala; the fire side is the first pada of an odd sign, and the first six degrees of an odd sign are Bala too. So every planet flagged as gandanta is also, without exception, in the infant state. The two readings agree: gandanta describes a planet caught between an ending and a new start, and Bala describes a planet whose results begin small and grow.
When exaltation and avastha disagree
Dignity and avastha measure different things, and at the exact exaltation points they often disagree. The Moon at its deepest exaltation, 3 degrees Taurus, is Mrita, because Taurus is an even sign; Jupiter at 5 degrees Cancer is Mrita for the same reason. Mars at 28 degrees Capricorn and Venus at 27 degrees Pisces are Bala, the Sun at 10 degrees Aries is Kumara, Saturn at 20 degrees Libra is Vriddha, and only Mercury, at 15 degrees Virgo, is Yuva at its peak.
Practitioners do not conclude from this that the exalted Moon gives nothing. Dignity describes the quality and strength of what a planet has to give; the Baladi state describes how readily and completely it gives it. An exalted Moon in Mrita avastha still carries an exalted Moon’s emotional steadiness and public appeal, but its tangible results may arrive through others or in a less direct form. When the two measures disagree, dignity, house and dasha usually weigh more.
The other avastha systems
Parashara describes several sets of avasthas, and the calculator shows the Baladi set because it is the simplest to compute and the most widely used. The Jagradadi avasthas describe awareness: a planet in its own or exaltation sign is Jagrat, awake, and gives full results; in a friend’s or neutral sign it is Swapna, dreaming, and gives middling results; in an enemy’s sign or debilitated it is Sushupti, asleep, and gives little. The Deeptadi avasthas describe mood through nine states driven mainly by dignity, for example Deepta when exalted, Swastha in its own sign, Deena in an enemy’s sign, Vikala when combust and Khala when debilitated; combustion itself is covered in the guide to retrograde and combust planets.
Two more are used by specialists. The Lajjitadi avasthas assign six emotional states, from Garvita, proud, to Kshobhita, agitated, according to sign, conjunctions and aspects. The Shayanadi avasthas give twelve states of activity from a formula involving the nakshatra, the navamsa and the time of birth. Reading all of them together is rarely practical; the Baladi state is the usual starting point, with Jagradadi as a quick cross-check through dignity.
Avasthas and the dasha
The Baladi state is fixed at birth, and it matters most when the planet’s own dasha runs. A Yuva planet’s Mahadasha or sub-period tends to deliver the planet’s promise directly. A Kumara or Bala planet’s period tends to begin modestly and build, which is why people with a Bala dasha lord often describe results that came later in the period than they expected. A Vriddha planet’s period tends to bring results tied to experience, seniority or older people. A Mrita planet’s period does not pass empty; its results more often arrive through other people, in someone else’s name, or in a form the person did not plan.
That makes the avastha most useful as a question of form and pace rather than of yes or no. When a period is about to begin, knowing the lord’s state helps set expectations: fast and direct, slow and growing, or indirect. The chart’s promise for the matter, shown by houses, lords and dignity, still decides whether the result comes.
Two charts read through their avasthas
A woman with Libra rising, details altered. Venus, her lagna lord, sits at 16 degrees Libra in the lagna, in its own sign, forming Malavya yoga and in yuva avastha, the prime. Her Moon in Ashlesha gave her twelve years of Mercury’s period at birth, then Ketu’s seven, and Venus’s twenty from nineteen. She studied textile design, and at twenty-six, in Venus-Rahu, started a small clothing label from a rented room. At thirty-two, in Venus-Saturn, with Saturn her yogakaraka, she opened a flagship store, and by thirty-six, in Venus-Mercury, the label was exporting. Every step came in a Venus sub-period, and each delivered in full: a Yuva planet behaving as the scheme predicts.
A man with Virgo rising, details altered. Mercury, his lagna and tenth lord, sits at 2 degrees Taurus in the ninth, in an even sign’s first six degrees and therefore Mrita. His Moon in Punarvasu left six years of Jupiter’s period at birth, then Saturn’s nineteen, and Mercury’s own seventeen from twenty-five. He joined a publishing house as an editor at twenty-five, and for most of the next decade his best work appeared under other people’s names, as the uncredited editor behind several successful books. At thirty-eight, in Mercury-Jupiter, with Jupiter his seventh lord, he published a book of his own to good reviews. The Mercury period delivered throughout; the Mrita state showed in whose name the results appeared, and for how long.
Frequently asked questions
What are avasthas in astrology?
Avasthas are states a planet is in, used to judge how fully it delivers its results. The most common set, the Baladi avasthas, gives each planet an age from its degree within the sign: Bala, Kumara, Yuva, Vriddha or Mrita.
What does Mrita avastha mean? Is it bad?
Mrita means dead, and classically a Mrita planet gives none of its results, but in practice it is read as results that feel absent, come through others or take an unexpected form. Eighty percent of charts have at least one Mrita planet, so it is common and never decisive on its own.
What do the strength percentages in the table mean?
They are the traditional share of results for each state: 100 percent for Yuva, 50 for Kumara, 25 for Bala, about 12 for Vriddha and 0 for Mrita. They adjust a planet’s capacity and are read alongside its dignity, house and dasha.
Why is the order reversed in even signs?
Odd and even signs run in opposite directions in many of Parashara’s calculations. In the even signs, Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn and Pisces, the Baladi states run from Mrita at 0 degrees to Bala at 30.
My exalted planet is in Mrita avastha. Which matters more?
Usually the dignity. Exaltation describes the quality of what the planet gives; the avastha describes how directly it gives it. An exalted Moon at 3 degrees Taurus is Mrita, yet it keeps an exalted Moon’s qualities, with results that may arrive less directly.
Are there other avastha systems?
Yes. The Jagradadi states follow dignity (awake, dreaming, asleep), the Deeptadi states describe nine moods such as Deepta when exalted and Khala when debilitated, the Lajjitadi states six emotional conditions, and the Shayanadi states twelve kinds of activity.
How do avasthas affect dasha results?
They shape the form and pace of a planet’s period. A Yuva lord tends to deliver directly, a Bala or Kumara lord slowly and increasingly, a Vriddha lord through experience, and a Mrita lord indirectly or through others. Whether the result comes still depends on the rest of the chart.
Know which of your planets are ready to deliver.
A consultation reads each planet's avastha together with its dignity, directional strength, Shadbala and dasha, and tells you what form and pace to expect from the periods ahead.