Dividing the Signs, and the Houses

Chapter 1, verses 6 to 19 · Part of our series on the Brihat Jataka of Varahamihira

Each sign spans thirty degrees, a wide stretch of sky. Two planets in the same sign may stand at very different points within it, one at its very beginning and another near its end, and they will not act in quite the same way. To read a position more finely, each sign is divided into smaller parts.

Dividing the signs

The six divisions

Each kind of division cuts a sign into a certain number of parts, and every part is given a ruling planet, its lord. So wherever a planet stands, it falls not only in a sign but also in one part of this division, called hora, and each of those parts has its own lord. This part could be one drekkana, one navamsha, and so on; (drekkana and navamsha are two of the six kinds of divisions). The parts ruled by a particular planet are called that planet's varga, its "group". Verse 1.9 names six kinds of division:

द्रेष्काणहोरानवभागसंज्ञास्त्रिंशांशकद्वादशसंज्ञिताश्च । क्षेत्रं च यद्यस्य स तस्य वर्गो होरेति लग्नं भवनस्य चार्धम् ॥

dreṣkāṇahorānavabhāgasaṃjñās triṃśāṃśakadvādaśasaṃjñitāś ca | kṣetraṃ ca yad yasya sa tasya vargo horeti lagnaṃ bhavanasya cārdham ||

The parts called drekkana, hora and navamsha, those called trimshamsha and dvadashamsha, and the sign itself: whichever of these belongs to a planet is that planet's varga. Hora means the rising sign, and also half of a sign.

These six (the sign and its five divisions) are known together as the ṣaḍvarga, the "six groups":

The last line of the verse also tells us that the word hora has two meanings. It names the whole science, as we saw in the introduction. It also means the rising sign, the ascendant, and half of a sign. We will meet all three uses.\ \ The six kinds of division are:

1. Hora: the two halves of a sign

The hora divides a sign into two halves of 15 degrees. In Varahamihira's scheme, only the Sun and the Moon own horas. The second half of verse 1.11 gives the rule:

मार्तण्डेन्द्वोरयुजि समभे चन्द्रभान्वोश्च होरे ।

mārtaṇḍendvor ayuji samabhe candrabhānvoś ca hore |

In an odd sign the two horas belong to the Sun and the Moon; in an even sign, to the Moon and the Sun.

The odd signs are the first, third, fifth and so on: Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius and Aquarius. In these, the first half belongs to the Sun and the second to the Moon. The even signs are the second, fourth, sixth and so on: Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn and Pisces. In these it is the other way round: the first half belongs to the Moon and the second to the Sun.

2. Drekkana: the three thirds

The drekkana divides a sign into three parts of 10 degrees. Verse 1.11 continues:

द्रेष्काणाः स्युः स्वभवनसुतत्रित्रिकोणाधिपानाम् ॥

dreṣkāṇāḥ syuḥ svabhavanasutatritrikoṇādhipānām ||

The drekkanas belong to the lords of the sign itself, of the fifth sign, and of the ninth.

In other words, the 30 degrees of a sign are cut into three slices of 10 degrees each. The first slice carries the name of the sign itself, the second the name of the fifth sign from it, and the third the name of the ninth. Each slice is ruled by the lord of the sign whose name it carries. For Aries:

Counting the first, fifth and ninth from any sign always keeps you within the same group of three. The twelve signs fall into four such groups, each made of signs four apart, and in later usage they are known as the four elements: fire (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius), earth (Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn), air (Gemini, Libra, Aquarius) and water (Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces). So the three slices of a fire sign all carry fire-sign names.

Nothing moves in all this. A planet in Aries stays in Aries; its exact degree simply tells us which slice it stands in. Mars at 15° of Aries is in Aries, in the second slice, the Leo drekkana.

3. Navamsha: the ninths

The navamsha divides a sign into nine equal parts of 3° 20′ each. It is the most widely used division in jyotish.

It helps to be clear about what the word means. A navamsha is one of these nine small slices, lying inside the larger sign. Each slice also carries the name of a sign of its own, and so it has a lord of its own: the lord of the sign whose name it carries. A planet standing in that slice is in two places at once in this sense: in its real sign, and in the navamsha of that name.

The navamsha is also tied to the nakshatras. As a reminder, a nakshatra is one of 27 equal divisions of the zodiac, each 13° 20′ wide and named after a star or group of stars. Each nakshatra is divided into four quarters (padas), which gives 27 × 4 = 108 quarters around the zodiac. There are also 12 × 9 = 108 navamshas. So each navamsha matches exactly one quarter of a nakshatra.

Which sign names do the nine parts of a sign carry? They run in the ordinary order of the zodiac, Aries, Taurus, Gemini and so on. The only question is where each sign's run of nine names begins. The second half of verse 1.6 gives the rule:

अजमृगतौलिचन्द्रभवनादि नवांशविधिर्भवनसमांशकाधिपतयः स्वगृहात्क्रमशः ॥

ajamṛgataulicandrabhavanādi navāṃśavidhir bhavanasamāṃśakādhipatayaḥ svagṛhāt kramaśaḥ ||

The navamshas begin from Aries, Capricorn, Libra and Cancer. The lords of the parts that are as many as the signs (the twelfths) go in order from the sign itself.

The four starting points apply to Aries, Taurus, Gemini and Cancer, and then repeat for each following group of four. In practice the rule is easy to remember by element:

• Fire signs (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius) begin their navamshas from Aries.
• Earth signs (Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn) begin from Capricorn.
• Air signs (Gemini, Libra, Aquarius) begin from Libra.
• Water signs (Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces) begin from Cancer.

So the nine parts of Aries carry the names Aries, Taurus, Gemini and so on, up to Sagittarius. The nine parts of Taurus carry on the run from Capricorn through to Virgo. The names never break: all 108 small parts around the zodiac pass through the twelve sign names in order, nine times over.

An example makes this concrete. Suppose Jupiter stands at 12° of Leo. Each slice is 3° 20′ wide, so 12° falls in the fourth slice. Leo is a fire sign, so its run of names begins from Aries: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer. The fourth slice is named Cancer. So Jupiter is in Leo, in the Cancer navamsha. That slice is ruled by the Moon, the lord of Cancer, even though the planet standing in it is Jupiter.

4. Vargottama: a planet in the same sign twice over

Because the nine parts of every sign carry sign names, one of those nine parts always carries the name of the sign itself. In Aries, the run starts from Aries, so the very first part is named Aries. In Taurus, the run starts from Capricorn, and the fifth part is named Taurus. In Gemini, the run starts from Libra, and the ninth part is named Gemini.

Any planet standing in that particular slice, whichever planet it is, is in the same sign twice over: in its real sign, and in the navamsha of the same name. This position is called vargottama, "best of the divisions", and it is counted as a mark of strength. In Aries, for example, the Sun, Venus or Saturn would each be vargottama if it stood between 0° and 3° 20′ of the sign. Vargottama belongs to the position, not to any one planet. The first half of verse 1.14 gives the rule for every sign:

वर्गोत्तमाश्चरगृहादिषु पूर्वमध्यपर्यन्ततः शुभफला नवभागसंज्ञाः ।

vargottamāś caragṛhādiṣu pūrvamadhyaparyantataḥ śubhaphalā navabhāgasaṃjñāḥ |

In the movable, fixed and dual signs, the first, middle and last navamshas respectively are vargottama, and they give good results.

The pattern holds all around the zodiac. In every movable sign, the matching part is the first. In every fixed sign it is the fifth, in the middle. In every dual sign it is the ninth, at the end. Each sign has exactly one such part out of nine, so roughly one planet in nine stands in a vargottama position.

5. Dvadashamsha: the twelfths

The dvadashamsha divides a sign into twelve parts of 2° 30′, one for each sign. As verse 1.6 tells us, they go "in order from the sign itself": the first twelfth of Leo is Leo, the second Virgo, and so on, ending with Cancer.

6. Trimshamsha: the five unequal parts

The last division is the most unusual. The trimshamsha ("thirtieth part") does not divide a sign into thirty equal parts. Instead, each sign is split into five unequal stretches, one for each of the five "star" planets, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn. The Sun and Moon have no share. Verse 1.7 gives the rule:

कुजरविजगुरुज्ञशुक्रभागाः पवनसमीरणकौर्पिजूकलेयाः । अयुजि युजि तु भे विपर्ययस्थाः शशिभवनालिझषान्तमृक्षसन्धिः ॥

kujaravijagurujñaśukrabhāgāḥ pavanasamīraṇakaurpijūkaleyāḥ | ayuji yuji tu bhe viparyayasthāḥ śaśibhavanālijhaṣāntam ṛkṣasandhiḥ ||

In an odd sign, the parts of Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury and Venus are 5, 5, 8, 7 and 5 degrees. In an even sign they stand in reverse order. The ends of Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces are the junctions of sign and nakshatra.

Where sign and nakshatra meet

The signs and the nakshatras divide the same circle, but in different steps. The borders between nakshatras fall every 13° 20′: at 13° 20′, 26° 40′, 40°, 53° 20′ and so on. The borders between signs fall every 30°: at 30°, 60°, 90°, 120° and so on. Most of the time the two do not line up, so a nakshatra straddles two signs. Krittika, for example, begins at 26° 40′ of Aries and ends at 10° of Taurus.

The two sets of borders land on exactly the same point only three times in the whole circle: at 120°, 240° and 360°. These are the end of Cancer, the end of Scorpio and the end of Pisces. At each of them, a sign and a nakshatra (Ashlesha, Jyeshtha and Revati) end at the same instant, and the next sign begins together with a new nakshatra. Varahamihira calls these seams ṛkṣasandhi, "junctions of sign and nakshatra". Later tradition knows them as gaṇḍānta, and treats a birth at these junctions as delicate.

What the divisions add

Having looked at each division in turn, it helps to step back and see what they are for.

A division never moves a planet. A planet in Leo stays in Leo, in the same house of the chart. What the divisions add is a closer look at the quality of that placement, much as a magnifying glass shows the grain of a cloth that looks smooth from a distance.

Not every planet rules parts in every division. The two horas of a sign belong only to the two great lights, the Sun and the Moon. The unequal parts of the trimshamsha belong only to the five star planets. In the drekkana, the navamsha and the dvadashamsha, each part is named after a sign and ruled by that sign's lord. Within a single sign only a few planets appear: the three drekkanas of Aries, for example, belong to Mars, the Sun and Jupiter. But across all twelve signs, the parts are shared out among all seven planets.

The first thing the divisions reveal is strength. When a planet falls in a part that it rules itself, it stands in its own varga, at home in that finer layer of the sky. A planet that is at home in several of its divisions at once is strong and dignified. One that is at home in none of them is weaker, even if its sign looks good. Vargottama, described above, is a special case of the same idea: the planet finds its own sign repeated in the navamsha.

Beyond strength, each division is a lens with its own focus. The navamsha is the most important of them. Every planet in a chart stands in some navamsha, and so does the rising point. Astrologers read the sign of that navamsha alongside the real sign, as a second, deeper layer of the placement's character and strength. The drekkanas each carry a vivid image of their own. The trimshamsha helps describe character. Together, the divisions also help judge how each planet's period of life, its dasha, will unfold.

The houses

What a house is

The signs are fixed against the stars. What moves is the Earth, which turns once a day. To someone standing on the ground, the whole ring of the zodiac seems to wheel slowly across the sky, just as the Sun seems to rise and set. As it turns, one sign after another comes up over the eastern horizon, each taking roughly two hours to rise.

When a child is born, imagine freezing the sky at that moment. Two things are recorded. The first is where each planet stands among the signs. The planets travel slowly along the zodiac, so this depends mostly on the date. The second is which sign is coming up in the east at that very moment. This is the rising sign, the ascendant or lagna. Because a new sign rises every couple of hours, it depends on the exact time and place of birth.

The rising sign becomes the first house of the chart. The next sign in order becomes the second house, the one after that the third, and so on around the circle to the twelfth. Each house stands for an area of life: the self, wealth, siblings, home and so on. So the rising sign decides which sign falls in which house, and therefore in which area of life each planet acts. If Leo is rising, Virgo is the second house and Libra the third, and a planet standing in Libra acts in the third house. For someone born two hours later, with Virgo rising, the same planet in Libra would fall in the second house.

This is also why the rising sign is not the same as what people often call their "sign". In popular Western astrology, a person's sign usually means the sign the Sun was in at birth. In everyday Indian usage, one's rāśi usually means the sign of the Moon. The rising sign is a third thing, and it is from the rising sign that the chart is built.

So while the signs describe how a planet acts, the houses describe where in a person's life it acts.

The houses are counted from the rising sign as a whole. Whatever degree of it is actually on the horizon, the whole of that sign is the first house, the whole of the next sign is the second, and so on around the circle. The divisions do not change this count.

The rising point itself, though, is an exact degree. At the moment of birth, one particular degree of the rising sign is on the horizon, say 7° of Leo. Like a planet, that degree falls in one hora, one drekkana, one navamsha and so on. These describe the rising point more finely, just as they describe a planet.

Many astrologers today go a step further and draw each division as a full chart of its own, with its own twelve houses, such as the well-known navamsha chart. That practice grew in the later tradition. In this text, the divisions are read mainly as a finer description of the planets and the rising point within the one chart.

The twelve houses and their names

Verse 1.15 gives the main names of the houses, counting from the hora, the rising sign:

होरादयस्तनुकुटुम्बसहोत्थबन्धुपुत्रारिपत्नीमरणानि शुभास्पदायाः । रिःफाख्यमित्युपचयान्यरिकर्मलाभदुश्चिक्यसंज्ञितगृहाणि न नित्यमेके ॥

horādayas tanukuṭumbasahotthabandhuputrāripatnīmaraṇāni śubhāspadāyāḥ | riḥphākhyam ity upacayāny arikarmalābhaduścikyasaṃjñitagṛhāṇi na nityam eke ||

Beginning from the rising sign, the houses are: the body, the family, the co-born, the kin, children, enemies, the wife, death, good fortune, position, gains, and the house called loss. The houses of enemies, action, gains and courage are the houses of growth.

Verse 1.16 adds a second name for each house:

कल्पस्वविक्रमगृहप्रतिभाक्षतानि चित्तोत्थरन्ध्रगुरुमानभवव्ययानि । लग्नाच्चतुर्थनिधने चतुरस्रसंज्ञे द्यूनं च सप्तमगृहं दशमर्क्षमाज्ञा ॥

kalpasvavikramagṛhapratibhākṣatāni cittottharandhragurumānabhavavyayāni | lagnāc caturthanidhane caturasrasaṃjñe dyūnaṃ ca saptamagṛhaṃ daśamarkṣam ājñā ||

Vitality, wealth, valour, home, intelligence, injury, desire, the weak point, the teacher, honour, gain and expense. The fourth and eighth from the rising sign are called caturasra; the seventh house is dyūna; and the tenth sign is ājñā, command.

The second line also names two groups. The houses of growth (upacaya) are the third, sixth, tenth and eleventh. These are houses where difficult planets tend to do well over time, and where things increase. The fourth and eighth are called caturasra, "the square".

The text calls the seventh house the house of the "wife" (patnī), as it was written from a man's point of view. In general use it is the house of the spouse and of partnership.

The angles and the other groups

Verse 1.17 names the most important group: the four angles, the first, fourth, seventh and tenth houses.

कण्टककेन्द्रचतुष्टयसंज्ञाः सप्तमलग्नचतुर्थखभानाम् । तेषु यथाभिहितेषु बलाढ्याः कीटनराम्बुचराः पशवश्च ॥

kaṇṭakakendracatuṣṭayasaṃjñāḥ saptamalagnacaturthakhabhānām | teṣu yathābhihiteṣu balāḍhyāḥ kīṭanarāmbucarāḥ paśavaś ca ||

The seventh, the rising sign, the fourth and the tenth (the sky) are called kaṇṭaka, kendra and catuṣṭaya. In these, in the order given, insect signs, human signs, water signs and four-footed signs are strong.

The angles are simply four of the houses: the first, fourth, seventh and tenth. They are the houses at the four great points of the sky. The first is the rising point on the eastern horizon. The seventh is the setting point on the western horizon. The fourth is the lowest point, beneath the Earth. The tenth is the highest point of the sky.

The verse makes two separate statements about them. The first is about planets. Whatever planets happen to stand in these four houses at birth are counted as strong. The second is about signs. Each house falls in some sign, and certain kinds of sign are especially strong when they fall in a particular angle.

The second line adds that different kinds of signs are strongest in different angles. Human signs (such as Gemini, Virgo and Libra) are strongest when rising; water signs (such as Cancer and Pisces) in the fourth (lowest point, north); the insect sign, Scorpio, in the seventh (west); and four-footed signs (such as Aries, Taurus and Leo) in the tenth (highest point, south).

Verse 1.18 names the houses that follow the angles:

केन्द्रात्परं पणफरं परतस्तु सर्वमापोक्लिमं हिबुकमम्बु सुखं च वेश्म ।

kendrāt paraṃ paṇapharaṃ paratas tu sarvam āpoklimaṃ hibukam ambu sukhaṃ ca veśma |

The house after an angle is paṇaphara; the one after that is āpoklima. The fourth is called hibuka, water, happiness and dwelling. (first half of the verse)

So the twelve houses fall into three sets of four. The angles (1, 4, 7, 10) are the strongest. The succeedent houses, paṇaphara (2, 5, 8, 11), come next. The cadent houses, āpoklima (3, 6, 9, 12), are the weakest. The second half of the verse gives two more names: the seventh is jāmitra and asta, "setting", and the tenth is meṣūraṇa and karma, "action".

Verse 1.19 adds that the rising sign is strong when its own lord, Jupiter or Mercury joins it or looks at it, and no other planet does. It also gives the last names: the third house is duścikya and sahaja, "co-born", and the ninth is tapas, "austerity", and trikoṇa.

The twelve houses at a glance

Verses are from Varahamihira's Brihat Jataka, chapter 1. English renderings are our own, made from the Sanskrit and checked against the public-domain translation by N. Chidambaram Aiyar (1885; second edition 1905) and against the word-by-word analysis in Michael D. Neely's edition.