Spectroscopy is a branch of physics which deals with the study of interaction of electromagnetic radiation with matter.The spectroscopic studies of trivalent lanthanide (Ln3+) ion based materials are attracting much attention due to their potential technological applications in optical devices such as solid state lasers, optical fiber amplifiers, light converters, optical storage materials, phosphors and sensors, spectral hole burning high density memories, accousto-optic modifiers and planar wave guides.The present work deals with composition dependent optical absorption and photoluminescence studies of Pr3+, Sm3+, Eu3+, Dy3+ and Er3+ doped different chlorophosphate glasses. The most important glasses are formed by oxides such as SiO2, GeO2, B2O3 and P2O5. Spectroscopic parameters such as Racah (E1, E2 and E3), spin-orbit interaction ( 4f) parameters and hydrogenic ratios (E1/E3 and E2/E3) are obtained for different rare earth doped sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, sodium-potassium, sodium-magnesium and sodium-calcium chlorophosphate glass matrices. Hence these materials are suggested for lasing materials.