Panchadha Maitri: Natural, Temporary and Compound Friendship

What is Panchadha Maitri?

This guide follows Tables 7–8 and sections 3.4.1–3.4.3 of P. V. R. Narasimha Rao's textbook. The tables below make that convention reproducible. Friendship is a technical label within Jyotish; it is not a measured attraction between planets or evidence about whether two people will like one another.

Separate the three questions before calculating

The natural question is: how does planet A regard planet B in the selected reference table? The temporary question is: which sign-position does B occupy when counted from A's sign in this chart? The compound question combines those two answers. Record all three instead of saving only a final friendly or hostile label.

“Temporary” here means dependent on chart placement. It does not mean that the result expires after a fixed number of days or describes the current transit automatically. A temporary relationship calculated in a birth chart is a property of the placements used for that calculation.

Choose the chart layer first. If A's sign comes from D1 and B's from D9, the count no longer belongs to one declared chart. A software comparison needs the same layer, zodiac and planetary positions before different relationship labels can be investigated usefully.

Read the natural table across the reference planet's row

Start at the row of the planet whose relationship you want, then move to the other planet's column. The Moon row calls Mercury a friend. The Mercury row calls the Moon an enemy. Those two entries are deliberately different in the cited convention; a table should not be made symmetric merely because the everyday word friendship suggests reciprocity.

The dash on the diagonal means that this is not a two-planet comparison. It is not a neutral result. A planet in its own sign involves the separate concept of sign ownership or dignity. Filling the diagonal with a guessed relationship would merge two different questions.

The table uses seven classical planets, including the Sun and Moon in the traditional terminology. It supplies no Rahu or Ketu row. Extending it to nodes requires an explicitly named additional convention, rather than copying another planet's row without explanation.

Count the second planet's sign inclusively

Count the reference sign as one. From Aries, Taurus is second, Gemini third and Cancer fourth. A planet in Capricorn is tenth from Aries; one in Aquarius is eleventh and one in Pisces twelfth. These six positions give temporary friendship in the chosen rule.

The remaining positions—1, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9—give temporary enmity. There is no third temporary-neutral category in this table. Neutrality enters through the natural table or through the combination of the two layers.

The same-sign case counts as one, not zero or twelve. For example, two different planets in Cancer have a first-position relationship. Under this temporary rule they are enemies, even though another technique might interpret their conjunction differently. The temporary classification is not a complete judgement of a conjunction.

Why the temporary relation is reciprocal but the natural one may not be

The reverse-direction column is a useful arithmetic check. A second-position relationship becomes twelfth in the other direction; third becomes eleventh; fourth becomes tenth. Every one of these partners remains in the temporary-friend set.

The enemy positions pair in the same way: fifth with ninth, sixth with eighth, seventh with seventh, and first with first. Consequently, both members of a two-planet pair have the same temporary status under this sign-counting rule. The inclusive counts may differ, but their classifications agree.

This does not make the final compound relationship reciprocal. Its other input—the natural relationship—can differ by direction. When a report shows two different compound results, inspect the natural rows before assuming the software made a counting error.

Combine the two layers using the full six-case table

Adhimitra is the combination of natural friendship and temporary friendship. Adhisatru combines natural enmity and temporary enmity. A natural friend made temporarily hostile becomes Sama, as does a natural enemy made temporarily friendly. These are two routes to the same neutral compound label.

That leaves the naturally neutral cases. Temporary friendship makes the result Mitra; temporary enmity makes it Satru. Thus three natural possibilities multiplied by two temporary possibilities yield six combinations but five distinct outcomes.

Do not describe Sama as a missing result. The two inputs can be present and well defined while offsetting in this classification. Equally, Adhimitra is not a promise that all other chart factors become favourable. It is one named relationship produced by one rule.

Four placement exercises, read in both directions

These are independent exercises, not the placements of a single historical birth chart. The first pair puts the Sun in Aries and the Moon in Taurus. Their counts are second and twelfth, so both temporary relationships are friendly. Because both natural rows are also friendly, each direction gives Adhimitra.

The second pair replaces the reference bodies with the Moon in Aries and Mercury in Taurus. The temporary result is still friendly in both directions. But the Moon's natural friendship makes Mercury Adhimitra from the Moon's perspective, while Mercury's natural enmity makes the Moon Sama from Mercury's perspective.

The Mars–Mercury pair demonstrates another asymmetry. Mars regards Mercury as an enemy, whereas Mercury regards Mars as neutral. With the same second/twelfth temporary friendship, the compound results are Sama and Mitra respectively.

Finally, Jupiter and Venus share Cancer in the last exercise. The first-position count gives temporary enmity in both directions. Jupiter's natural enmity toward Venus produces Adhisatru; Venus's natural neutrality toward Jupiter produces Satru. Shared location has not erased the difference between their natural rows.

A six-step worksheet you can audit

1. Write the chart layer and the two planetary signs.
2. Name the reference planet and the planet being evaluated.
3. Read the natural relationship from the reference planet's row.
4. Count inclusively from its sign and classify the temporary relationship.
5. Use the matching row of the combination table.
6. Repeat from the other planet's perspective if both directions are required.

For Moon in Aries and Mercury in Taurus, a complete first line reads: Moon to Mercury; second sign; natural friend; temporary friend; Adhimitra. The reverse line reads: Mercury to Moon; twelfth sign; natural enemy; temporary friend; Sama. Saving these intermediate fields makes a disagreement easy to locate.

A single column headed “relationship” is insufficient when natural and compound data coexist. Use headings such as natural, temporary and compound, and include an arrow or explicit from/to labels. A correct number with an ambiguous direction can still mislead its reader.

A compact checking method, not a planetary strength score

For checking the six-case table, encode natural friend as +1, neutral as 0 and enemy as −1. Encode temporary friend as +1 and enemy as −1. Their sums are +2, +1, 0, −1 and −2, corresponding to Adhimitra, Mitra, Sama, Satru and Adhisatru.

This is an arithmetic way to reproduce the table, not an extra classical unit of strength. The value +2 does not mean twice as favourable as +1, and zero does not establish a 50% chance of an event. The numbers are labels chosen to make a lookup easy to test.

The method also reveals a common error: allowing temporary zero. Doing so creates combinations that the named two-category temporary rule never supplies. If another system uses a different temporary classification, document that separate system rather than quietly changing this table.

Sign boundaries matter; distance within one sign does not change this count

Consider two hypothetical reports that agree on planet names but place one planet on different sides of a sign boundary. Its temporary relation can change because the input sign changed. First compare the longitude, zodiac convention and selected chart before debating the final relationship name.

Within the same assigned sign, moving a planet from one degree to another does not change this particular sign-position count. That does not mean degrees are irrelevant to all astrology. It means the operation defined here reads sign membership, whereas other operations may read degrees, angular separation or divisional boundaries.

Keep displayed rounding separate from the underlying coordinate. A screen may round a longitude close to the next sign while the calculation still uses the previous sign. A useful report saves the unrounded sign assignment and its method rather than reconstructing it from a shortened label.

Friendship, aspects, dignity and compatibility answer different questions

A friendship relationship does not establish that one planet aspects another. An aspect rule needs its own count or angle. Likewise, exaltation, debilitation and ownership are distinct classifications. A report can show these fields together, but their labels should not be substituted for one another.

Do not turn this one-chart, two-planet worksheet into a two-person compatibility score. Some matching systems use planetary relationships as one component, but their inputs, weighting and broader conventions must be defined independently. The calculation here supplies no overall matching percentage.

Nor should the words enemy and friend be used to rank the worth of people associated with a planet in an interpretation. They describe entries in a traditional method. Moving from that method to a claim about an individual's conduct requires reasoning and evidence that a relationship table does not contain.

What to compare when two applications disagree

1. The selected chart and zodiac settings.
2. The exact sign assignment of both planets.
3. The direction: which planet is the row or reference.
4. The natural table, including its handling of any nodes.
5. The temporary-position rule and inclusive count.
6. Whether the displayed result is natural, temporary or compound.

Compare an easy reciprocal pair first, then the Moon–Mercury asymmetric example, then a same-sign pair. These three checks separate several possible mistakes without requiring a whole-chart interpretation. Keep the original report settings so the exercise can be repeated.

You can inspect placements in your Kundli. For related distinctions, read Rashi chart versus Bhava Chalit, full planetary aspect counting and Baladi Avastha degree bands. These explain other operations; none replaces the three-stage friendship worksheet.

Frequently asked questions