---
title: "The 12 Types of Kaal Sarp Dosh, and What the Names Track"
slug: "types-of-kaal-sarp-dosh"
canonical_url: "https://mahadasha.com/types-of-kaal-sarp-dosh"
description: "The 12 types of Kaal Sarp Dosh are named for Rahu's house, and the whole configuration forms in 3.69% of charts. Measured shares for each of the twelve."
published_date: "2026-08-07 07:00:00"
modified_date: "2026-08-07 07:00:00"
author: "Pawan Acharya"
keywords: "types of kaal sarp dosh, 12 types of kaal sarp dosh, kaal sarp dosh types, anant kaal sarp, takshak kaal sarp, kaal sarp yoga types"
locale: "en"
---

# The 12 Types of Kaal Sarp Dosh, and What the Names Track

> Thirty thousand charts, twelve names, and a distribution so flat that the type you get is decided by nothing but where Rahu happened to be standing.

The 12 types of Kaal Sarp Dosh are one of the most confidently repeated lists in popular astrology and one of the least examined. Each type has a serpent's name, a house, and a paragraph of consequences attached to it. What almost nobody supplies is how often any of them actually occurs.

We generated 30,000 birth charts across three bands of birth years and counted. The configuration itself forms in 3.69% of them. Then we sorted the ones that formed by type, and the result says something about the naming that the naming does not say about itself.

## First, how often the thing forms at all

Kaal Sarp Dosh requires all seven classical grahas, Sun through Saturn, to fall strictly inside the half of the zodiac running from Rahu to Ketu. One planet on the far side and the configuration does not exist. Our general  [Kaal Sarp Dosha page](https://mahadasha.com/kaal-sarp-dosha)  covers the definition in full.

| Outcome | Share of charts |
| --- | --- |
| Kaal Sarp Dosh forms | 3.69% |
| Kaal Amrit Yoga forms | 4.09% |
| Six of seven contained, not seven | 27.73% |
| Neither | 64.49% |

Two things in that table deserve more attention than they get.

The first is Kaal Amrit Yoga, which is the same geometry inverted: the seven contained in the Ketu to Rahu half rather than the Rahu to Ketu half. It is read as supportive rather than obstructive, and it happens slightly more often than the dosha does, in all three sampling windows. A configuration more common than the famous one, pointing the other way, and almost nobody mentions it exists.

The second is the six of seven row. That is the near miss, where one graha has escaped the containment. It is 7.5 times more common than the real thing, and it is the bucket that most online calculators report as partial Kaal Sarp Dosh. If you have been told you have a partial version, that row is where you are, and the classical condition is binary. Six is not a smaller seven.

## The 12 types of Kaal Sarp Dosh, with measured shares

The naming is keyed to the house Rahu occupies. Ketu is always in the opposite house, so naming one end names both.

| Rahu's house | Type | Share of formed doshas | Share of all charts |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Anant | 8.58% | 0.32% |
| 2 | Kulik | 8.40% | 0.31% |
| 3 | Vasuki | 8.49% | 0.31% |
| 4 | Shankhpal | 7.50% | 0.28% |
| 5 | Padma | 7.32% | 0.27% |
| 6 | Mahapadma | 8.67% | 0.32% |
| 7 | Takshak | 8.85% | 0.33% |
| 8 | Karkotak | 8.76% | 0.32% |
| 9 | Shankhachud | 8.49% | 0.31% |
| 10 | Ghatak | 8.49% | 0.31% |
| 11 | Vishdhar | 9.39% | 0.35% |
| 12 | Sheshnag | 7.05% | 0.26% |

A flat distribution would put every type at 8.33%. The measured range runs from 7.05% to 9.39%, a ratio of 1.33 between the largest and the smallest.

That is not a meaningful spread, and we can show it rather than assert it. In a different sampling window the extremes land on different names: Shankhachud tops the list at 9.23% and Kulik falls to the bottom at 6.92%. When the highest and lowest keep changing places between samples, the spread is sampling noise rather than structure.

So the twelve types are, to a good approximation, equally likely. Almost nothing else in this subject is uniform, which makes the flatness worth stating plainly: the type you have was decided by which house Rahu happened to occupy, and no type is rarer, commoner or more significant than another by frequency.

## Twelve names, six axes

Here is the structural fact the list obscures. Rahu and Ketu are always exactly opposite, so Rahu in the 1st house means Ketu in the 7th, and Rahu in the 7th means Ketu in the 1st. Those are the same axis, viewed from opposite ends.

Which means the twelve types are six axes counted twice:

- The 1 and 7 axis:  [Anant](https://mahadasha.com/anant-kaal-sarp-dosh)  and  [Takshak](https://mahadasha.com/takshak-kaal-sarp-dosh) , together 17.43% of formed doshas
- The 2 and 8 axis:  [Kulik](https://mahadasha.com/kulik-kaal-sarp-dosh)  and  [Karkotak](https://mahadasha.com/karkotak-kaal-sarp-dosh) , together 17.16%
- The 3 and 9 axis:  [Vasuki](https://mahadasha.com/vasuki-kaal-sarp-dosh)  and  [Shankhachud](https://mahadasha.com/shankhachud-kaal-sarp-dosh) , together 16.98%
- The 4 and 10 axis:  [Shankhpal](https://mahadasha.com/shankhpal-kaal-sarp-dosh)  and  [Ghatak](https://mahadasha.com/ghatak-kaal-sarp-dosh) , together 15.99%
- The 5 and 11 axis:  [Padma](https://mahadasha.com/padma-kaal-sarp-dosh)  and  [Vishdhar](https://mahadasha.com/vishdhar-kaal-sarp-dosh) , together 16.71%
- The 6 and 12 axis:  [Mahapadma](https://mahadasha.com/mahapadma-kaal-sarp-dosh)  and  [Sheshnag](https://mahadasha.com/sheshnag-kaal-sarp-dosh) , together 15.72%

Reading a type without reading its mirror is reading one end of a rod. Whatever Rahu is amplifying in its house, Ketu is subtracting from in the opposite one, and both halves of that statement belong in the interpretation.

## Where the names come from

Anant, Vasuki, Takshak, Karkotak and Shankhpal are naga names out of the Puranic serpent lists. They are mythological figures with their own stories, borrowed as labels for the twelve positions.

They are not diagnoses and the meanings do not translate. Ghatak is the most alarming word on the list and its share is 8.49%, which is within a whisker of the flat 8.33% expectation and lower than three of its neighbours. The name is doing no work that the frequencies support.

## Which planet usually breaks the containment

Since the configuration requires all seven grahas inside one half, it is worth asking which one usually spoils it. We looked at every chart where exactly one planet escaped.

| Planet | Share of single breaks |
| --- | --- |
| Moon | 28.22% |
| Saturn | 25.08% |
| Jupiter | 24.55% |
| Mars | 16.12% |
| Venus | 3.68% |
| Mercury | 1.39% |
| Sun | 0.96% |

The bottom three are the interesting part. Mercury never travels more than about 28 degrees from the Sun, and Venus never more than about 47. So if the Sun is inside the contained half, those two almost certainly are as well, and they are structurally unable to be the planet that escapes. The  [combustion guide](https://mahadasha.com/combustion-in-vedic-astrology)  covers that tether from the other side.

The Moon tops the list because it crosses the entire zodiac in 27 days, so it is the graha least likely to be caught anywhere in particular. Whether you have this configuration at all is decided more by the Moon than by anything else, and the Moon moves fast enough that a birth time wrong by a few hours can change the answer.

## Three more things worth measuring

Among the charts where the dosha did form: the ascendant fell inside the occupied half 51.67% of the time, Rahu landed in one of the growth houses 3, 6 or 11 in 26.56% of cases, and a graha sat within 1.5 degrees of the axis itself in 10.93%, which is the marginal case where two competent readers will disagree about whether the configuration exists.

The span of the seven grahas ran from 16.4 degrees to 179.6, averaging 117.4. A chart where all seven fit inside 20 degrees and a chart where they stretch across 179 both satisfy the same rule and are not describing the same sky.

## How to use the twelve

Establish first whether the configuration exists at all, because the near miss is 7.5 times more common than the real thing and most reports do not distinguish them. Our  [Kaal Sarp calculator](https://mahadasha.com/kaal-sarp-dosh-calculator)  applies the strict test rather than the generous one.

If it does exist, read the axis rather than the name. The house Rahu occupies and the house Ketu occupies are the two ends of the theme, and the twelve pages in this cluster work through each pair. Then read the ordinary chart underneath, because a configuration present in under four charts in a hundred still has to compete with everything else in the chart for explanatory power, and usually loses.

## Frequently asked questions about the types of Kaal Sarp Dosh

### How many types of Kaal Sarp Dosh are there?

Twelve, named for the house Rahu occupies, from Anant with Rahu in the 1st to Sheshnag with Rahu in the 12th. Structurally they are six axes counted from both ends, since Ketu always sits opposite Rahu.

### Which type of Kaal Sarp Dosh is the worst?

None of them is measurably distinct. Across 30,000 charts the twelve types ranged from 7.05% to 9.39% of formed cases, and the highest and lowest change places between sampling windows. The name tells you where Rahu is, nothing more.

### How common is Kaal Sarp Dosh?

It forms in 3.69% of charts. Kaal Amrit Yoga, the same geometry pointing the other way, forms in 4.09%, so the supportive version is slightly more common than the difficult one. The six of seven near miss is 27.73%, which is where most reports of a partial dosha actually belong.

### Does the type change how the dosha should be read?

Yes, but through the houses rather than the name. Rahu in the 10th and Ketu in the 4th is a statement about career against home. Rahu in the 5th and Ketu in the 11th is about creation against acquisition. The serpent names are labels attached to those axes, not descriptions of them.

### Can the type be wrong if my birth time is uncertain?

Easily. The type depends on Rahu's house, which depends on the ascendant, which moves a full sign every two hours or so. An hour of uncertainty can shift the type by one, and a larger error can change whether the configuration exists at all.