How to read a North Indian birth chart

A chart (chakra, the Sanskrit word for a chart or wheel) is drawn from the signs occupied by the planets and the lagna: twelve areas each stand for one sign, and each planet is written in the area of the sign it occupies.

P.V.R. Narasimha Rao (PVR), author of Vedic Astrology: An Integrated Approach, names three popular chart styles in India: South Indian, North Indian and East Indian.

South and East Indian charts are rasi-based, meaning each sign always sits in the same box (rasi is the Sanskrit word for a sign). The North Indian chart is bhava-based, meaning each house always sits in the same place (bhava is the Sanskrit word for house).

In the North Indian chart, the box marked Asc (ascendant, lagna; Skybond's charts write Lagna) always shows the 1st house. It may hold Aries in one chart, Taurus in another and Gemini in a third.

The layout follows the same pattern in all North Indian charts. The 1st house is the top centre diamond, the 2nd is the triangle to its upper left, and the houses run counter-clockwise.

That puts the 4th house in the left centre diamond, the 7th in the bottom centre diamond and the 10th in the right centre diamond.

The four centre diamonds are the 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th houses, called the kendras (angular houses); the eight triangles are the other houses.

Each number in a house is the number of the sign in it: 1 for Aries, 2 for Taurus, 3 for Gemini, and so on to 12 for Pisces. In PVR's example the Asc box shows 4, so the 1st house is Cancer.

Houses are counted from the sign holding the lagna: that sign is the 1st house, the next sign the 2nd, and so on, wrapping around so that after Pisces comes Aries.

If no other reference point is named, houses are counted from the lagna. This is why the numbers matter so much in a North Indian chart: the house positions never change, so the numbers are the only way to tell which sign each house holds.

The reading order follows from how the chart is built:

1. Find the Asc diamond at the top centre.
2. Read its number: that is the lagna's sign. 3.

Count the houses counter-clockwise. 4. Read the number and the planets in each house.

Steps 1 and 2 fix the whole chart: once the Asc number is known, every other house's sign follows from the counter-clockwise count.

One small mark to watch for in step 4: a planet marked R (or (R)) is retrograde, meaning it appears to move backwards for a while.

Skybond's teaching chart (used for lessons, not a real person's) has a Cancer lagna, so the top diamond shows 4.

Reading counter-clockwise from there: the Moon sits in the 2nd house (Leo, number 5), Jupiter in the 3rd (Virgo, 6), Rahu in the 5th (Scorpio, 8), the Sun and Saturn together in the 7th (Capricorn, 10), Mercury in the 8th (Aquarius, 11), Venus in the 9th (Pisces, 12), Ketu in the 11th (Taurus, 2), and Mars, marked R for retrograde, in the 12th (Gemini, 3). Houses 1, 4, 6 and 10 are empty.

Notice what the fixed-house layout does for you here. Because the houses are fixed, you can see at a glance which houses are occupied, and the kendras sit in the middle of the drawing.

Because the signs move, you must read the numbers to know the signs: nothing about Cancer, Leo or Capricorn is visible in the shape of the chart itself.

The North Indian chart is bhava-based: each house always sits in the same place. South Indian charts are rasi-based: each sign always sits in the same box.

In practice, that means a South Indian chart needs no sign numbers, because every box is always the same sign, while a North Indian chart needs the lagna marked and a number in every house.

Skybond draws charts in the North Indian style.

Courses tend to teach both diagrams early: Komilla Sutton's course covers the North Indian and South Indian charts in its first week.