Speeds of Grahas

The grahas, when seen from the earth, move along the zodiac belt, at varying speeds.

Accordingly, each graha will be seen to traverse a rasi (zodiac sign) for a particular amount of time.

e.g. Sun moves at a rate of 1 degree per day.
Thus it traverses a rasi (30deg) in 30 days, which is approximately 1 Solar Month.
The Sun hence goes round the 12 signs of the zodiac / bha-chakra (360 deg) in approximately 12 Solar Months, i.e. 1 Solar Year.
The movement of the Sun from one sign to another is called Sankranti.
Where Makar Sankranti means that Sun enters the rasi Makara (Capricorn).

The Moon goes round the zodiac in 27.32 days, which is also the period of it’s revolution around the earth. This constitutes a Lunar Month.

At this stage, without going into further details about what defines a month or year etc. in astrology, following are the average speeds of the grahas around the zodiac / bha-chakra:

Graha	Completes the round of the zodiac (360 deg) in	Traverses a Rasi (30 deg) in approximately	Moves 1deg in approximately
Sun	1 year	1 month	1 day
Moon	27 ⅓ days	2 ¼ days	1 ¾ hrs
Mars	1.88 yrs	1.88 months	46 hrs
Mercury	88 days	7 ⅓ days	6 hrs
Jupiter	11.86 yrs	11.86 months	12 days
Venus	224.7 days	18 3/4 days	15 hrs
Saturn	29.46 years	2 ½ years	29 ¾ days
Rahu	18.6 years	18.6 months	18.8 days
Ketu	18.6 years	18.6 months	18.8 days

From Kepler’s Laws of Planetary Motion, we know that the orbits of the planets are elliptical, with Sun at the focus. Hence, the speed of each planet also varies at different points on its orbit – it being slower nearer to the Sun and faster when away from the Sun. This is in accordance with Kepler’s second law of planetary motion, i.e. The line joining a planet and the sun sweeps out equal areas during equal intervals of time.

Kepler's 2nd Law
Area sweeped between points a and b
is equal to area aweeped between points c and d in equal time.

A closer look at the Kepler’s 3rd law will reveal that farther the planet is from the Sun, the slower it will move. Kepler actually derived a mathematical relationship to that effect.

In the above table, you can notice that the speed of Saturn (that is farthest from the Sun) is slowest, while that of Mercury (that is nearest to the Sun) is the fastest, in the scheme of the Solar System.

However, when you take into account the 9 grahas, you will include Moon, which then becomes the fastest graha seen to be moving in the bha-chakra.

Note that Sun, Moon, Rahu and Ketu are not considered to be Planets, but are Grahas.

Rahu = North Node and Ketu = South Node are the points of intersection of the Moon’s orbit with that of the Elliptic (Sun’s orbit) as seen moving in the skies when you view them from the Earth.


With Earth as the reference point, as studied in astrology, the speeds of grahas are seen to vary, with even the Sun appearing to move faster at times and slower at other times. Remember that the Sun appears to move in the Elliptic, when viewed from the Earth.


The grahas, from geocentric point of view, will also appear to move at varying speed when seen relative to the motion of the Earth. They sometimes appear to move very fast, or even appear to be stationary or moving in reverse direction, much like when you observe a moving train, while sitting in another moving train. This phenomenon is similar to what Galilieo discovered and Einstein refined about Relative Motion.

More about the Speeds of Grahas later…