Divisional Charts and the Navamsa (D9): What They Are

A divisional chart (varga) is a second chart derived from your birth chart by dividing each 30° sign into equal smaller parts and assigning each part to a sign. The planets and Lagna are then re-placed according to which part they fall in. The most important is the Navamsa (D9), which divides each sign into nine parts of 3°20′. In Parashari astrology, the Navamsa is used to refine the reading of the whole chart, and especially of marriage and the inner strength of each planet. The main birth chart is called the D1 or rashi chart.

Why divide a sign at all?

In the birth chart, a planet at 1° and a planet at 29° of the same sign look identical: same sign, same house. Divisional charts are the tradition's way of distinguishing them. Each varga zooms in on part of the degree and, by convention, is associated with a particular area of life.

The idea is old. The Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra describes a set of sixteen vargas, the Shodasavarga, and also groups them into smaller sets of six, seven and ten (shadvarga, saptavarga and dasavarga).

The sixteen classical vargas

The last column is an average guide to how much birth-time precision each varga needs: roughly how long the Lagna takes to cross one division. Real values vary with the sign rising and your latitude (see Lagna explained).

Varga	Name	Each part spans	Traditional focus	Lagna changes about every
D1	Rashi	30°	The whole life; the main chart	2 hours
D2	Hora	15°	Wealth and resources	1 hour
D3	Drekkana	10°	Siblings, courage	40 minutes
D4	Chaturthamsa	7°30′	Property, home, fortune	30 minutes
D7	Saptamsa	about 4°17′	Children	17 minutes
D9	Navamsa	3°20′	Marriage, dharma, planetary strength	13 minutes
D10	Dasamsa	3°	Career and public life	12 minutes
D12	Dwadasamsa	2°30′	Parents and lineage	10 minutes
D16	Shodasamsa	1°52′30″	Vehicles, comforts	7–8 minutes
D20	Vimsamsa	1°30′	Spiritual practice	6 minutes
D24	Chaturvimsamsa	1°15′	Learning and education	5 minutes
D27	Saptavimsamsa (Bhamsa)	about 1°07′	Strength and stamina	4–5 minutes
D30	Trimsamsa	five unequal parts (5°, 5°, 8°, 7°, 5° in odd signs; reversed in even signs)	Hardships and their nature	varies
D40	Khavedamsa	0°45′	Auspicious and inauspicious effects; read by some modern teachers as the maternal line	3 minutes
D45	Akshavedamsa	0°40′	General indications; read by some modern teachers as the paternal line	under 3 minutes
D60	Shashtyamsa	0°30′	General indications; read by some schools as past-life karma and given heavy weight	2 minutes

The "focus" column lists the commonly given traditional associations; different texts and teachers phrase them differently. The timing column is arithmetic: the rising degree moves, on average, about one degree every four minutes.

How the Navamsa is calculated: three equivalent methods

You will see the rule stated in different ways. They all give the same answer.

Method 1: by element

Divide the sign into nine parts of 3°20′. The first part of each sign is counted from:

• Fire signs (Mesha, Simha, Dhanu): from Mesha
• Earth signs (Vrishabha, Kanya, Makara): from Makara
• Air signs (Mithuna, Tula, Kumbha): from Tula
• Water signs (Karka, Vrischika, Meena): from Karka

Then count forward one sign per part.

Method 2: by modality

• Movable signs (Mesha, Karka, Tula, Makara): start from the same sign.
• Fixed signs (Vrishabha, Simha, Vrischika, Kumbha): start from the 9th sign from it.
• Dual signs (Mithuna, Kanya, Dhanu, Meena): start from the 5th sign from it.

Method 3: one continuous count

Take the planet's position on the whole 360° zodiac, count how many complete 3°20′ steps it is from 0° Mesha, and divide that count by 12; the remainder (counting Mesha as 0) is the Navamsa sign. Put simply, the Navamsa signs run Mesha, Vrishabha, Mithuna… round and round the zodiac in unbroken order, 108 times 3°20′.

This third view shows something neat: there are 108 navamsas and 108 nakshatra padas, and they are the same arcs. Each pada of the 27 nakshatras corresponds to one navamsa. Ashwini pada 1 is the Mesha navamsa, pada 2 Vrishabha, and so on. See the 27 Nakshatras.

A worked example

Venus is at 17°45′ Simha in a birth chart.

• Method 1: Simha is a fire sign, so count from Mesha. 17°45′ ÷ 3°20′ = 5.3, so Venus is in the 6th part. Counting six signs from Mesha: Mesha, Vrishabha, Mithuna, Karka, Simha, Kanya.
• Method 3: 120° + 17°45′ = 137°45′; 137°45′ ÷ 3°20′ = 41.3, so 41 complete steps. 41 ÷ 12 leaves a remainder of 5; counting Mesha as 0, that is Kanya.
• Pada check: 17°45′ Simha is Purva Phalguni pada 2, which corresponds to the Kanya navamsa.

So Venus is in Simha in the D1 chart and in Kanya in the D9. In tradition, Kanya is Venus's sign of debilitation, so an astrologer would note that Venus falls in its sign of debilitation in the Navamsa. Whether that matters, and how much, depends on the school and on the rest of the chart.

Vargottama: the same sign in both charts

When a planet or the Lagna occupies the same sign in the D1 and the D9, it is called vargottama. Tradition considers a vargottama planet to be strong and consistent in its results.

By the continuous-count rule, this happens in the first navamsa of movable signs (0°–3°20′), the middle navamsa of fixed signs (13°20′–16°40′), and the last navamsa of dual signs (26°40′–30°).

How astrologers use the Navamsa

What follows is traditional interpretation, and it varies by school.

• Marriage and partnership. The D9 is read alongside the 7th house of the birth chart for marriage and the spouse. Many astrologers will not judge marriage questions from the D1 alone.
• Strength of planets. A planet's dignity in the D9 is used to confirm or qualify its dignity in the D1. Some astrologers describe the birth chart as the tree and the Navamsa as its fruit.
• Dharma and later life. Some teachers describe the D9 as showing inner nature, spiritual direction and how a person's life develops in its second half.
• A Navamsa Lagna. The D9 has its own Lagna, and its houses are counted from it just as in the birth chart (see the 12 houses).

Other vargas are used for specific questions: the D10 for career, the D7 for children, the D12 for parents. Not every astrologer uses all sixteen; many work mainly with the D1, D9 and D10.

Birth time: the practical limit

Every varga depends on exact degrees, so each is more sensitive to birth time than the last. The planets move slowly, so their varga positions are usually stable. The Lagna of each varga is the fragile part:

• The D9 Lagna can change with an error of around a quarter of an hour, less near a boundary.
• The D60 Lagna changes about every two minutes, finer than most hospital records are written.

Many careful astrologers therefore use the finest vargas only when the birth time is known to the minute or has been rectified, and treat them as unreliable otherwise. Our guide to birth time accuracy explains what to do if your time is uncertain.

As with all of Jyotish, divisional charts are a traditional interpretive method, not a scientifically tested one, and their meanings should not be taken as predictions of fact.