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Navagraha (nine graha) include the Sun, the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rahu and Ketu.

But interestingly, the Sun is not a planet and it is a star, Moon (astronomical body),Rahu (Northern lunar node) and Ketu (Southern lunar node). Technically those are not planets right?

Can any Scriptures describe about why Sun, Moon, Rahu and Kethu are called Navagraha?

Edit: We have 9 planets in our solar system in which why only 5 are planets? Why Earth not consider a part of it in Navagraha? still why Hindu astrologers draw the birth charts of individuals based upon the graha position at the time of their birth.

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    Who said Graha means "Planet". None of english word has any equivalent meaning for "Graha", so we just for convention say "Planets". But Graha and Planets have no equivalence between them.
    – user12826
    Dec 24, 2017 at 8:57
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    Graha in Sanskrit means something which moves (hence Sun and moon are Grahas). Planet in English means a celestial object which revolves around nearest Star. Both are different things.
    – The Destroyer
    Dec 24, 2017 at 9:23
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    Planet word is an english word propounded by the scientists to denote an object moving around sun. In fact we can also call the Planets "satellites of sun". We do not have some word in english for Grahas so we call them Planets for translation. In fact, some people even translate "Lokas"(like BhuLoka , bhuvarLoka, SvarLoka et cetera), as planets some times. But we know Lokas are not Planets.
    – user12826
    Dec 24, 2017 at 9:33
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    "Technicality those are not planets right?" scientific questions are not endorsed here.
    – Pandya
    Dec 24, 2017 at 9:54
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    Just like today's people assumed to give the name "Planet" to massive objects moving around sun. There is no Tag on those planets "We are planets". We ourselves have named them as "planets". Tomorrow we may call them any thing else. Same way, earlier people just called those stars which also move as "Grahas". And those objects which do not move as "Taaraa". If you see sky, the stars are static they do not move. But only these 9 things change their position in sky, so since they move they are called "Grahas".
    – user12826
    Dec 24, 2017 at 10:09

1 Answer 1

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The term Planet is misleading as Hart De Fouw points out in his book:

'Planet' is the best of a poor crop of English synonyms for the Sanskrit word graha. A graha is literally a Seizer

The term Graha is essentially related to Grahan, which means to seize or hold. Hence, Grahas are energies that take hold of you or dominate at different points of time.

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