Bhrigu Bindu Calculator

Halfway from Rahu to the Moon

Write both positions as absolute longitudes, counted from 0° Aries round to 360°. Subtract Rahu from the Moon; if the answer is negative, add 360°. What is left is the arc travelled forward through the signs, in their usual order, from Rahu to the Moon. Halve that arc and add the half to Rahu's longitude, subtracting 360° if the total passes a full circle. The result is the Bhrigu Bindu, and its sign and degree come straight from that longitude.

Rahu here is the mean node, the smoothed position that is our engine's default, as on the site's other chart pages. The true node swings to either side of the mean by up to about two degrees, and because only half of Rahu's position enters the midpoint, switching nodes moves the Bhrigu Bindu by about a degree at most. Near a sign boundary that small shift can still change the sign, so the result prints the degree in full.

Two conventions, one hundred and eighty degrees apart

Two points on a circle have two midpoints, one on each arc between them, and they always sit exactly opposite each other. The rule above takes the arc that runs forward from Rahu to the Moon, whatever its length. Some calculators take the shorter of the two arcs instead. When the Moon is less than 180° ahead of Rahu the two readings agree; when it is more than 180° ahead they part, and the shorter-arc point lands in the opposite sign.

Neither convention is wrong as arithmetic, and the difference is easy to recognise because it is always a clean 180°. This page uses the forward arc, which is the method our engine applies. Whenever the shorter arc would give a different point, the result says so and prints that point as well, labelled as the other convention, so a reading made elsewhere can be matched to the one here.

How the point is used

In the Bhrigu Nadi approach the Bhrigu Bindu is traditionally treated as a point that becomes active when a slow planet passes over it. Jupiter and Saturn are the planets usually watched, since they take about a year and about two and a half years respectively to cross one sign, and some readers also note the transits of Rahu and Ketu across the point. That approach describes such a crossing as a time when matters connected with the point's house come into focus.

This calculator does not make that kind of forecast. It locates the point and names its house, which is the information any such reading starts from. The house is counted from the rasi lagna with whole signs, so the sign of the lagna counts as the first house. Readers who want to follow transits can compare the point with the current positions of Jupiter and Saturn in any ephemeris.

The 1961 chart, worked through

In the illustrative chart, 13 December 1961 at 05:30 in Channarayapatna with the Lahiri ayanamsa, the mean Rahu is at Cancer 27°41′ and the Moon at Aquarius 3°18′. The arc forward from Rahu to the Moon is 185°36′, and half of it is 92°48′. Adding that half to Rahu carries the point forward through Leo, Virgo and Libra into the first degree of Scorpio: the Bhrigu Bindu is at Scorpio 0°30′. Each figure is rounded down to the arc-minute, so adding the rounded figures by hand can come out one arc-minute short.

Scorpio is also the rising sign of this chart, so the Bhrigu Bindu falls in the first house. The example shows the second convention at work too: the Moon is 185°36′ ahead of Rahu, more than half the circle, so the shorter-arc midpoint lies opposite, at Taurus 0°30′ in the seventh house. A reading built on that other convention would start from a different house, which is why the result always names the method.

What moves the result

The Moon moves about thirteen degrees a day and Rahu only a few arc-minutes, so the Bhrigu Bindu itself moves about six and a half degrees a day. An error of an hour in the birth time moves the point by roughly a quarter of a degree, which matters only near a sign boundary. The house from the lagna is more delicate, because the rising sign changes about every two hours.

The point also jumps by 180° once a month under this convention, at the moment the Moon passes Rahu and the forward arc falls back from almost 360° to almost nothing. Two births a day apart can therefore have points in opposite signs. That is a property of the definition, not an error, and it is one more reason to read the result together with the figures that produced it.

How is the Bhrigu Bindu calculated?

Subtract Rahu's longitude from the Moon's, adding 360° if the result is negative. Halve that arc and add it to Rahu. The total, reduced below 360° if needed, is the Bhrigu Bindu. The calculator shows each of these figures for your chart.

Which Rahu does this calculator use, mean or true?

The mean node, our engine's default, as on the site's other chart pages. Because only half of Rahu's position enters the midpoint, the true node would move the Bhrigu Bindu by about a degree at most. That can still change the sign when the point sits close to a boundary.

Why does another site give a Bhrigu Bindu in the opposite sign?

It probably takes the midpoint on the shorter arc between the Moon and Rahu. The two methods agree when the Moon is less than 180° ahead of Rahu and are exactly opposite otherwise. When they differ, the result here prints both, labelled.

Is the Bhrigu Bindu in Brihat Parasara Hora Sastra?

No. It comes from later practice associated with the Bhrigu Nadi tradition, and the point takes its name from the sage Bhrigu. Parashara's text describes other derived lagnas, such as the hora and ghati lagnas, but this midpoint is not among them.

Does the Bhrigu Bindu need an exact birth time?

Less than most points. It moves about six and a half degrees a day, so an hour's error shifts it by roughly a quarter of a degree. The house from the lagna depends on the rising sign, though, and that needs a reasonably accurate time.

What is the Bhrigu Bindu used for?

Traditionally, slow planets, chiefly Jupiter and Saturn, are watched as they cross it, and the house it falls in is noted. This page locates the point and its house for reference; it does not forecast what any transit will bring.