Sahams (Sensitive Points)

What is a Saham?

A Saham is a sensitive point of the annual chart — a spot on the zodiac that carries meaning for one matter of life, even though no planet sits there. It is the Tajika tradition’s version of the Arabic Part (or Lot): a point computed by transferring an arc. Given three reference points A, B and C, the Saham is placed so that it stands as far from C as A stands from B.

Sahams belong to Varshaphala, the annual solar-return system. They are read in the annual chart, against its lagna and its houses, to see which departments of life the year emphasises. AstroShruti computes 36 Sahams in the traditional numbering.

The construction: A − B + C

Every Saham is the same shape — an arc:

Saham = A − B + C

Read it as: take the distance from B to A, and lay it off again starting from C. The three terms are longitudes (in the annual chart), and A, B, C are drawn from a small vocabulary:

• The seven planets — Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn.
• Lagna — the annual ascendant.
• A house cusp, written HouseN — this is Lagna + (N − 1) × 30°.
• A sign lord, written LordN — the lord of the Nth sign counted from the annual lagna; LagnaLord is the lord of the lagna’s own sign; SunSignLord and MoonSignLord are the lords of the signs the Sun and Moon occupy.
• 15° Cancer (a fixed 105°), used by one Saham (Jalapatana).
• An earlier Saham — Punya and Sastra feed into later Sahams, so they are computed first and referred to by name.

The +30° correction

After computing A − B + C, the classical rule applies one correction. Walk zodiacally (in sign order) from B toward A. If the sign of C is not met on the way, add 30° — one sign, not a full circle. AstroShruti implements this at the sign level, exactly as the texts state it (“does C’s rashi fall in the arc from B to A?”). Skipping this step, or adding a whole revolution instead of one sign, is a common source of disagreement between calculators.

The day/night reversal

Most Sahams reverse for a night birth: A and B swap places. “Night” here means the Sun was below the horizon at the Varsha Pravesh (the solar-return moment), not at the original birth. The determination has to be right before any Saham is computed, because it flips more than half of them.

The reversal is why Punya and Vidya are mirror images. Punya is Moon − Sun + Lagna by day; reversed at night it becomes Sun − Moon + Lagna — which is exactly Vidya’s day formula. The two Sahams are distinct points read for different matters, but the machinery is the same arc run in opposite directions.

A handful of Sahams do not reverse — they use the same formula day and night. AstroShruti marks these: Bhratri, Roga, Mrityu, Paradesa, Artha, Vyapara and Labha are computed identically regardless of a day or night chart.

The exact formulas

These are copied from the engine as A − B + C (before the day/night swap). “Lord of the Nth” is counted from the annual lagna.

The full engine set has 36; the rest — Samartha, Rajya, Kali, Bandhu, Paradara, Vanik, Santapa, Sraddha, Preeti, Jadya, Vyapara, Shatru, Bandhana and Apamrityu — follow the same construction.

Two Sahams with their own exceptions

A couple of formulas above are not pure “swap A and B at night”:

• Samartha (enterprise, capability) is normally Mars − LagnaLord + Lagna. But Mars cannot be its own reference point, so when Mars owns the annual lagna, Jupiter stands in for the lagna lord and the day/night order is inverted.
• Karyasiddhi by day is Saturn − Sun + (Sun’s-sign lord). Its night form is a wholesale substitution, not a simple swap: it becomes Saturn − Moon + (Moon’s-sign lord), and does not reverse further.

A worked walk-through: Punya

Suppose an annual chart has Moon at 40°, Sun at 200°, and the Lagna at 100° (all longitudes measured from 0° Aries). It is a day chart.

1. A − B + C = Moon − Sun + Lagna = 40 − 200 + 100 = −60°.
2. Apply the +30° check. Walking from B (Sun, in Libra, sign 6) toward A (Moon, in Taurus, sign 1), is C’s sign (Lagna at 100°, Cancer, sign 3) met? Yes — so no correction is added.
3. Wrap to [0°, 360°): −60° + 360° = 300° — 0° Aquarius.

Now the same chart as a night birth: A and B swap, so Punya becomes Sun − Moon + Lagna = 200 − 40 + 100 = 260°, then the +30° check is re-applied to the swapped arc. The point moves — which is the whole reason the day/night state must be settled first.

Once placed, AstroShruti reports each Saham’s sign, its degree in the sign, the house it falls in (counted from the annual lagna) and the lord of its sign — so Punya at 300° reads as Aquarius, in whatever house Aquarius is from the annual lagna, lord Saturn.

Honest notes and limitations

• The set is 36, in Charak’s numbering. AstroShruti follows K. S. Charak’s Varshaphala, cross-checked against the Tajika Neelakanthi Saham list. Other software carries different counts and orderings; this is a domain where the classical lists themselves vary, so an exact match with another calculator is not guaranteed and not a defect.
• Two entries are genuinely contested, and AstroShruti says so in its output rather than presenting a guess as settled:
  • Gaurava — the classical Tajika Neelakanthi gives Jupiter − Moon + Sun (followed here); several modern lists give Sun − Moon + Jupiter.
  • Roga — Lagna − Moon + Lagna (followed here) versus Saturn − Moon + Lagna.
• Rajya shares Pitri’s formula. In the classical lists Rajya (authority, office) and Pitri (father) are computed identically — Saturn − Sun + Lagna — and read for different matters. AstroShruti does not invent a separate arc for Rajya; it computes the shared point and labels both.
• Whether Vivaha reverses at night is disputed in the sources. AstroShruti reverses it. This is a stated choice, not an oversight.

Where Sahams connect

• Sahams are computed from the annual Tajika chart and are read against its houses.
• The Tajika aspects — Ithasala and Ishrafa — are what animate a Saham: a Saham activated by an applying aspect is where the year’s promise lands.
• The Mudda dasha times when within the year a Saham’s matter matures.