Navagraha (the nine planets)
The Navagraha are the nine “planets” of Vedic astrology: Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rahu and Ketu. A graha is something that seizes or influences, so the luminaries and lunar nodes are included.
Also known as: navgraha, nava graha
The full guide: Navagraha: Meaning of the Nine Planets in Vedic Astrology
Graha means “one who grasps”. The nine are the two luminaries, the five planets visible to the eye, and the two lunar nodes, Rahu and Ketu, which have no physical body but govern eclipses. Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are not part of classical Jyotish, though a few modern astrologers note them.
Parashara pictures the grahas as a royal court: the Sun is the king, the Moon the queen, Mars the commander, Mercury the prince, Jupiter and Venus the ministers, Saturn the servant, and Rahu and Ketu the army. Each rules signs, nakshatras, a day of the week and a period of the Vimshottari dasha.
Navagraha shrines, with the nine deities facing different directions, are found in many Indian temples, and worshipping all nine together is a common remedy. In a Kundli, their signs, houses, aspects and periods together tell the story of a life.