The chain from Atmakaraka to Karakamsha
Two charts are involved and it is easy to mix them up. The Atmakaraka is decided in the D1 birth chart, by degree within sign. The Karakamsha is that same graha's sign in the D9 Navamsa. So the planet comes from one chart and the sign from another — a degree from the D1 printed beside a D9 sign is a mistake, not a reading.
Atmakaraka from the D1 → its sign in the D9 = Karakamsha Lagna
Three devatas, three reference points
The three deities are not read from the same place, and this is where calculators most often diverge. Two count from the Karakamsha; the third counts from the Navamsa ascendant instead.
- Ishta Devata — the 12th from the Karakamsha. The 12th is the house of liberation, so the deity found there is the one that carries the soul towards moksha.
- Dharma Devata — the 9th from the Karakamsha. The 9th is dharma, so this deity governs purpose and duty in the present life.
- Pala Devata — the 9th from the Navamsa ascendant, not from the Karakamsha. This is the sustainer, concerned with material support. When the Karakamsha happens to fall on the D9 ascendant, the Dharma and Pala devatas coincide.
How a house resolves to a graha
Each devata house has to be reduced to a single graha before it names a deity. The classical rule is: take the strongest graha occupying that house, judged by highest degree; if the house is empty, take the sign's lord instead.
Empty devata houses are common, so the fallback matters. Some calculators quietly substitute a graha that merely aspects the house, which produces a different deity from the same chart. This page always states which of the two rules produced your result.
What the Karakamsha itself shows
Read as an ascendant in its own right, the Karakamsha describes the terrain the soul is working through — the natural aptitudes, and the direction spiritual effort takes. It is common for no graha to occupy it at all; in that case the sign's lord and any grahas aspecting it by Rashi Drishti carry the reading.
