How the Mantri Mandala is determined
Each Hindu year is governed by a cabinet of planetary ministers — a King, a Prime Minister, a commander, and the lords of crops, rain, wealth and more. Here is how the ten offices are assigned.
The cabinet of the year
The Mantri Mandala (also Rajadi Phala — “the fruits beginning with the King”) is the classical cabinet of the Samvatsara. Each Hindu lunar year is assigned a planetary Raja (King) and Mantri (Prime Minister), a commander of the army, and eight further ministers who preside over the year’s crops, rain, wealth, prices and produce.
It is a year quality, not a daily one — the same cabinet holds for all ~355 days of the Vikram Samvat year. Traditional almanacs read it for the year’s agricultural and economic omens.
“The lord of the day on which the year begins is the King; the lord of the day the Sun enters Aries is the Minister — thus the year’s cabinet is known.”
One office per solar ingress
Every office takes the weekday-lord (vaara-swami) of a specific event of the year. Read the weekday on which the event falls, and its planetary lord holds that office.
| Office | Portfolio | Fixed by the weekday of |
|---|---|---|
| Raja | King | Chaitra Shukla Pratipada — the lunar new-year day |
| Mantri | Prime Minister | Sun entering Mesha (Aries) — Mesha Sankranti |
| Senadhipati | Commander-in-Chief | Sun entering Simha (Leo) |
| Sasyadhipati | Kharif crops | Sun entering Karka (Cancer) |
| Dhanyadhipati | Rabi crops | Sun entering Dhanu (Sagittarius) |
| Dhanadhipati | Wealth & economy | Sun entering Kanya (Virgo) |
| Meghadhipati | Clouds & rain | Sun entering Ardra nakshatra |
| Rasadhipati | Sap & liquids | Sun entering Tula (Libra) |
| Nirasadhipati | Metals & minerals | Sun entering Makara (Capricorn) |
| Phaladhipati | Fruits & flowers | Sun entering Meena (Pisces) |
The weekday is the sunrise-reckoned vaara — a day runs sunrise to sunrise, so an ingress that falls after midnight but before sunrise belongs to the previous day’s weekday. Ingresses are the true sidereal (Lahiri) crossings.
Weekday → planetary lord
Each weekday is ruled by one of the seven grahas; that graha takes any office fixed to that weekday. This is why a planet can hold several offices in one year.
| Weekday | Ruling graha |
|---|---|
| Sunday | Sun (Surya) |
| Monday | Moon (Chandra) |
| Tuesday | Mars (Mangal) |
| Wednesday | Mercury (Budha) |
| Thursday | Jupiter (Guru) |
| Friday | Venus (Shukra) |
| Saturday | Saturn (Shani) |
Computed for your city
Because each office is fixed by the sunrise-reckoned weekday, an ingress that falls close to sunrise can land on a different day — and so a different lord — in different cities. We compute the cabinet for your city’s own sunrise, not a fixed meridian, so a far-eastern or western city gets its true cabinet rather than New Delhi’s. The udayavyāpinī test (the tithi prevailing at sunrise) is applied at whole-minute resolution — the way a pañcāṅga reads it — and the day the lunar year begins (Ugadi) follows the classical kṣaya-tithi rule when Pratipadā touches no sunrise.
All positions are true Drik-Ganita, computed with the latest Swiss Ephemeris and the Lahiri (Chitrapaksha) ayanāṁśa. Two independent engines can legitimately differ by a few seconds on an ingress or tithi instant — kernel version, ΔT and rounding all enter — so at a rare sunrise knife-edge a city’s Raja can sit one day either side; we resolve it the śāstra way, at the sunrise minute.
The texts we stand on
The rules on this page are drawn from the standard muhurta and dharma-nirnaya literature, computed on a modern astronomical foundation.
Muhurta Chintamani
Daivajna Ramacharya — the Samvatsaradi chapter on the Rajadi offices.
Narada Samhita
On the year lords and their agricultural and economic significations.
Swiss Ephemeris (Lahiri)
The sidereal solar ingress instants that fix each office’s weekday.
Computation: true positions from the Swiss Ephemeris, sidereal with the Lahiri (Chitrapaksha) ayanamsa — the standard adopted by the Indian Calendar Reform Committee for the Rashtriya Panchang.
More from the methodology
How Anandadi & Tamil Yoga are determined
The 28-fold Anandadi yoga cycle and the Tamil Siddha / Amrita / Marana yoga — how each is counted from the nakshatra and weekday.
How Chandrashtama is determined
The janma rashi and nakshatras for whom the day is inauspicious because the Moon is in their 8th house — and the window it lasts.
How Kari Dina is determined
The five days of the year to avoid for auspicious activities — two after solstitial sankrantis, three on lunar Pratipada days.
How Nivas & Shool are determined
Homahuti, Agnivasa, Shivavasa and Kumbha Chakra — the residence and direction indicators, with their exact tithi/nakshatra formulas.
How Ganda Mula is determined
The six Mercury- and Ketu-ruled nakshatras at the sign junctions, and why they call for caution.
How Chandrabala is calculated
The day’s Moon-sign counted from your janma rashi, and the houses that give a favourable Moon.
This year's panchang
See the Mantri Mandala of the current Vikram Samvat year in the daily panchang.
How the Mantri Mandala is determined — Frequently Asked Questions
The Mantri Mandala (Rajadi Phala) is the planetary cabinet of the Vikram Samvat year — a King (Raja), Prime Minister (Mantri), army commander and eight further ministers for crops, rain, wealth and produce. It holds for the whole year.
The Raja is the planetary lord of the weekday on which the lunar year begins (Chaitra Shukla Pratipada); the Mantri is the lord of the weekday on which the Sun enters Aries (Mesha Sankranti).
Each office is tied to a weekday, and there are only seven weekday-lords for ten offices — so when several of the year’s ingresses fall on the same weekday, that weekday’s planet holds all those offices.
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