Then Garatkarava Artabhaga asked. 'Yagnavalkya,' he said, 'how many Grahas are there, and how many Atigrahas?' 'Eight Grahas,' he replied,' and eight Atigrahas.' 'And what are these eight Grahas and eight Atigrahas?'

In plain words: A new challenger, Artabhaga, asks Yagnavalkya about the eight 'graspers' and the eight 'over-graspers'. These are things that seize us and the things that seize them in turn. Yagnavalkya says there are eight of each.