अष्टकवर्ग Aṣṭakavarga

Ashtakavarga scores every sign by benefic points contributed from eight vantage points — a heat map of the zodiac showing where each planet, and the chart as a whole, runs strong or thin. Where shadbala scores a planet, ashtakavarga scores the ground it stands and moves on. For each planet the system asks the seven grahas and the ascendant — eight vantage points in all — to cast a yes or no over every sign, and the yeses collect as points, called bindus. A sign with many points is fertile territory for that planet; one with few is thin ground where it struggles. Summed across all the planets, the totals become the sarvashtakavarga — a single heat map of the whole zodiac, showing where a chart is rich and where it is bare. Its most practical use is timing: when a slow planet like Saturn or Jupiter transits a sign, the points that sign carries tell you how much the passage is likely to help or hurt — a high-point transit tends to go well, a low-point one to feel like heavy going. It is the tradition's main instrument for asking not only when something happens, but how well.