Nava marks Saturn in five houses from your Moon sign: the 12th, 1st and 2nd as 7½ Shani, the 4th as Kantaka Shani and the 8th as Ashtama Shani. In the books read for this page, Raman uses the 12th as the start of sade sati and Rath calls the 1st its main part; both are uses inside worked examples, not stated rules. Rath also treats the 8th as a hard transit but calls it Kantaka. No book read names the 2nd or the 4th as a Saturn period.
☕ House by house, book by book
Saturn's place is counted from your Moon sign, which is the 1st house. Nava gives a name to five of the twelve, in the card “Saturn's houses as Nava names them” below. The sade sati page explains what those periods are. This page asks a narrower question: which of the five houses does a book actually use, where, and how strongly.
The 12th. Raman marks Saturn's entry into the 12th sign from the natal Moon as the start of sade sati (B. V. Raman, How to Judge a Horoscope, vol. 1, p. 292). It is a use inside a worked example, not a rule he states, and he gives neither the three-house span, nor the seven and a half years, nor where the period ends.
The 1st. Rath calls Saturn over the natal Moon's own sign the main part of sade sati (Sanjay Rath, Crux of Vedic Astrology, p. 580). That too is a use in a case study; the 12th and the 2nd are not mentioned there. The 2nd, the last part of 7½ Shani, is named by neither author.
The 8th. Rath treats Saturn in the 8th sign from the natal Moon as a hard transit, twice and in two chapters (Sanjay Rath, Crux of Vedic Astrology, pp. 413, 453), but he calls it Kantaka Sani, the name Nava gives the 4th. Neither Raman nor Rath uses the name Ashtama Shani.
The 4th. No book read for this page names a Saturn period for the 4th. The transit chapter of an old South Indian manual gives Saturn a result in each of the twelve houses from the Moon sign, the 4th among them (Kalaprakasika (1917 ed.), ch. XXXVI, p. 208), but it names no period and gives no span. None of the sources read gives the name Kantaka Shani for the 4th; it is the name Nava uses.
What Nava follows: its own names: 7½ Shani for the 12th, 1st and 2nd, Kantaka Shani for the 4th and Ashtama Shani for the 8th. Rath's name for the 8th is reported here; it does not change the labels. No source read here names the 4th or sets the three-house span; those are Nava's labels. The house counted from your Moon sign is what stays the same.
Five houses, three names
- 12th: 7½ Shani, first phase
- 1st: 7½ Shani, middle phase
- 2nd: 7½ Shani, last phase
- 4th: Kantaka Shani
- 8th: Ashtama Shani
- Mix-up: sade sati is a rule of the classical books. In the books read here it appears only as a use inside worked examples; none of them sets the three-house span.
- Mix-up: Kantaka Shani is always the 4th. Rath uses Kantaka for the 8th, and no source read here gives the name to the 4th. The house is the fact; the name depends on who is speaking.
- Mix-up: two authors using a house prove it. A use in one author's case study is weaker than a stated rule, and agreement between authors of one line of tradition is not independent proof.
Frequently asked questions
Is sade sati in Parashara's book?
No. The edition of Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra read for this series has no chapter on transits, and it does not name sade sati. The 12th and the 1st appear as uses in two modern authors' worked examples; no source read here sets the three-house span.
Why does one author call the 8th Kantaka?
Kantaka means a thorn. Rath uses it for the 8th; Nava gives the name to the 4th, and none of the sources read here gives the 4th that name.
Does Nava count a Saturn period from the first entry or the last?
From the first entry to the final exit. When Saturn steps back over the line for a few months, Nava keeps the period whole. Saturn's sign is read on drik (Lahiri) positions, whichever panchang you choose.
Deep dive: a use is not a rule
Why a worked example counts for less than a stated rule, what Saturn's own bindus add, and what this builds on.
📖 A use is weaker than a rule
An author who states a rule tells you what he holds. An author who applies a convention inside a worked example tells you only that he used it that once. Both Raman's 12th and Rath's 1st and 8th are of the second kind. They show that the houses were in use; they do not fix the span, the length or the names. That is why this page reports each one with its strength and does not build a rule from them.
🔢 Saturn's own bindus
The translator of Jataka Parijata notes that the good transit houses printed in almanacs are each planet's own bindu houses counted from the Moon (Jataka Parijata (tr. Subramanya Sastri), ch. X, pp. 656–657). For Saturn those are the 3rd, 6th and 11th. None of the five named houses is among them, which fits the five without naming any of them. More on ashtakavarga basics.
🧭 What this builds on
What 7½ Shani, Kantaka Shani and Ashtama Shani are, and how long each lasts, is on Sade Sati and Ashtama Shani.