Vedic · Glossary
Kāraka · a significator
The planet that stands for a matter, coloring it by its own condition.
Reading
A kāraka is a planet that stands for a matter. The Sanskrit means doer or maker, the one that brings a thing about. In a chart, the kāraka for a topic is the planet that signifies it, and its condition is read alongside the house that governs the same topic.
Some kārakas are fixed by nature, the same in every chart. Jupiter is the natural significator of children, Venus of the spouse, the Sun of the father and the soul, the Moon of the mother and the mind. These are the naisargika kārakas, the significators given by the planets’ own natures.
Other kārakas are assigned within a single chart, by degree, and change from one chart to the next. These are the chara kārakas of Jaimini. Because a matter is read partly through its kāraka, the planet’s strength, dignity, and placement carry into the topic, so a weak kāraka is read as pressure on the thing it holds.
Where it rhymes
The same archetype, spoken in other systems.