Chart basics
Bhava (house) in Vedic astrology
Updated
Bhava: how the API computes it
The API numbers the houses 1 to 12 from the rising sign (the sign coming up in the east at birth). Each house is one whole sign (CH-06). If Gemini rises, house 1 is Gemini, house 2 is Cancer, and so on around the circle.
Every planet in POST /v1/planets comes back with its house number next to its sign. The ascendant, another name for the rising sign, is always house 1. Classical texts give each house a meaning.
House 1 is the self, house 2 money and family, house 4 home, house 7 partners, house 10 work, and so on. The API also sorts houses into named groups, because many rules ask if a planet sits in one of them. The kendras are houses 1, 4, 7 and 10, and the trikonas are 1, 5 and 9.
The dusthanas are 6, 8 and 12, and the upachayas are 3, 6, 10 and 11. The lord of a house is the ruler of its sign. So the same planet can rule two houses in one chart.
For example, John Doe has a Virgo ascendant, so Mercury rules both house 1 and house 10.
Get it from the API
POST /v1/special-lagnas
# John Doe, born Aug 15, 1990, 10:30 AM, New York
curl -X POST "https://apiforastrology.com/api/astrology/v1/special-lagnas" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $ASTROLOGY_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"year":1990,"month":8,"day":15,"hour":10,"minute":30,"second":0,"latitude":40.7128,"longitude":-74.006,"timezone":"America/New_York"}'{
"reckoned_from": {
"sunrise": "1990-08-15T06:10:44-04:00",
"sun_at_sunrise": {
"longitude": 118.6023214,
"sign": "Cancer",
"sign_number": 4,
"degree_in_sign": 28.6023214,
"degree_dms": "28 : 36 : 08",
"nakshatra": "Ashlesha",
"nakshatra_lord": "Mercury",
"pada": 4
},
"ishtakaal": {
"minutes": 259.262,
"ghatis": 10.802583,
"ghati_pala_vipala": "10:48:09"
},
"sunrise_convention": "the center of the Sun crossing the true horizon, without refraction (the bending of light by the air) -- the classical astrological sunrise. Civil calendars print the moment the top edge appears, three to four minutes earlier. That gap…"
},
"bhava_lagna": {
"longitude": 183.4178209,
"sign": "Libra",
"sign_number": 7,
"degree_in_sign": 3.4178209,
"degree_dms": "03 : 25 : 04",
"nakshatra": "Chitra",
"nakshatra_lord": "Mars",
"pada": 4,
"rule": "the Sun at sunrise plus one sign per 5 ghatis"
},
"hora_lagna": {
"longitude": 248.2333205,
"sign": "Sagittarius",
"sign_number": 9,
"degree_in_sign": 8.2333205,
"degree_dms": "08 : 14 : 00",
"nakshatra": "Mool",
"nakshatra_lord": "Ketu",
"pada": 3,
"rule": "the Sun at sunrise plus one sign per 2.5 ghatis"
},
"ghati_lagna": {
"longitude": 82.6798191,
"sign": "Gemini",
"sign_number": 3,
"degree_in_sign": 22.6798191,
"degree_dms": "22 : 40 : 47",
"nakshatra": "Punarvasu",
"nakshatra_lord": "Jupiter",
"pada": 1,
"rule": "the Sun at sunrise plus one sign per ghati"
},
"pranapada": {
"longitude": 335.0853317,
"sign": "Pisces",
"sign_number": 12,
"degree_in_sign": 5.0853317,
"degree_dms": "05 : 05 : 07",
"nakshatra": "Uttara Bhadrapada",
"nakshatra_lord": "Saturn",
"pada": 1,
"sun_sign_quality": "movable",
"rule": "two degrees per pala (24 seconds) since sunrise. When the Sun is in a movable sign they are added to the Sun. In a fixed sign they are added to the 9th from it, and in a dual sign to the 5th"
},
"indu_lagna": {
"sign": "Taurus",
"sign_number": 2,
"ninth_lord_from_lagna": "Venus",
"ninth_lord_from_moon": "Saturn",
"kalas": 13,
"rule": "kalas of the two 9th lords, reduced by twelve, counted from the Moon's sign. A sign with no degree"
},
"varnada_lagna": {
"sign": "Aquarius",
"sign_number": 11,
"combined": "differenced",
"rule": "BPHS: counts from Aries for an odd sign and back from Pisces for an even one, for the lagna and the hora lagna. Added if both signs are odd or both even, else the difference is taken. The result is counted the lagna's way"
},
"yogi": {
"yogi_point": {
"longitude": 266.6837094,
"sign": "Sagittarius",
"sign_number": 9,
"degree_in_sign": 26.6837094,
"degree_dms": "26 : 41 : 01",
"nakshatra": "Uttara Ashadha",
"nakshatra_lord": "Sun",
"pada": 1
},
"yogi": "Sun",
"duplicate_yogi": "Jupiter",
"avayogi": "Saturn",
"avayogi_point": {
"longitude": 93.3503761,
"sign": "Cancer",
"sign_number": 4,
"degree_in_sign": 3.3503761,
"degree_dms": "03 : 21 : 01",
"nakshatra": "Pushya",
"nakshatra_lord": "Saturn",
"pada": 1
}
},
"jaimini": {
"atmakaraka": "Sun",
"maheshwara": {
"graha": "Saturn",
"from_sign": "Aquarius",
"atmakaraka": "Sun",
"rule": "lord of the 8th sign from the atmakaraka",
"not_applied": [
"the exception for an atmakaraka in its own or exaltation sign, and for a node joining the 8th lord, which texts state differently"
]
},
"rudra": {
"graha": "Venus",
"from_sign": "Libra",
"lord_of_2nd": "Venus",
"lord_of_8th": "Mars",
"stronger_lord": "Venus",
"weaker_lord": "Mars",
"decided_by": "the atmakaraka is in it",
"malefics_on_stronger": [
"Mars"
],
"malefics_on_weaker": [],
"flipped": false,
"rule": "the stronger of the 2nd and 8th lords, by the rashi bala of the signs they sit in: atmakaraka, then more grahas, then rashi drishti from the sign's lord, Jupiter or Mercury, then dual over fixed over movable. A tie keeps the 8th lord. The…",
"disputed": [
{
"reading": "compare the 2nd and 8th signs themselves, not the signs the lords sit in",
"graha": "Venus",
"agrees": true
},
{
"reading": "malefic aspect read by rashi drishti, not graha drishti",
"graha": "Venus",
"agrees": true
},
{
"reading": "the nodes cast graha drishti too (5th, 7th and 9th)",
"graha": "Venus",
"agrees": true
}
]
},
"brahma": {
"from_sign": "Virgo",
"start_decided_by": "tie; the lagna kept",
"candidates": [
{
"graha": "Saturn",
"lord_of": 6,
"sign": "Sagittarius",
"house": 4,
"odd_sign": true,
"odd_house": false,
"visible_half": false,
"passes": false
},
{
"graha": "Mars",
"lord_of": 8,
"sign": "Aries",
"house": 8,
"odd_sign": true,
"odd_house": false,
"visible_half": true,
"passes": true
},
{
"graha": "Sun",
"lord_of": 12,
"sign": "Cancer",
"house": 11,
"odd_sign": false,
"odd_house": true,
"visible_half": true,
"passes": false
}
],
"stage": "primary",
"rule": "from the stronger of the lagna and the 7th (rashi bala), the lords of the 6th, 8th and 12th. The strongest in an odd sign and houses 7-12 wins (primary); failing that, the strongest in an odd sign from any house (hemisphere dropped);…",
"disputed": [],
"chosen_by": "the only one that qualifies",
"graha": "Mars",
"found": true
}
},
"dagdha_rashis": {
"tithi": {
"name": "Dashami",
"index": 25,
"paksha": "krishna"
},
"burnt_signs": [
"Leo",
"Scorpio"
],
"rule": "the signs burnt by the birth tithi; Purnima and Amavasya burn none"
},
"not_computed": {
"jaimini_hora_lagna": "One outside report prints a separate Jaimini hora lagna. For one chart it matches the Parashari one. For another, it is the Parashari arc counted from the lagna instead of the Sun. No cited rule produces both, so none is invented (SL-04).",
"sree_lagna": "Not in BPHS. The formula in use has no outside figure here to check it against."
},
"meta": {
"ayanamsa": "lahiri",
"ayanamsa_value": 23.7260727,
"julian_day": 2448119.10483,
"ephemeris": "JPL DE440s",
"node": "true",
"timezone": {
"source": "zone",
"offset_hours": -4,
"zone": "America/New_York",
"abbreviation": "EDT",
"dst": true,
"dst_hours": 1,
"ambiguous_resolved_by_fold": null,
"note": "read from the IANA tz database at this instant, so daylight saving and historical offset changes are included"
}
}
}Where the API returns it
| POST | /v1/special-lagnas | Special lagnas, the yogi point, Jaimini lords and dagdha signs |
| POST | /v1/shadbala | Planet and house strength (shadbala and bhava bala) |
| POST | /v1/matching/parasparam | Each person's planets placed in the other's chart |
| POST | /v1/planets | Planet positions and the ascendant |
| POST | /v1/varshaphal | The Tajik annual chart (varshaphal) for one year |
| POST | /v1/ascendant | The ascendant only |
What the API reference says
Each line is quoted from the reference page of the endpoint named above it.
- POST /v1/shadbala · Planet and house strength (shadbala and bhava bala)Returns how strong each planet is (shadbala, meaning "six-fold strength") and how strong each of the twelve houses is (bhava bala).
- POST /v1/special-lagnas · Special lagnas, the yogi point, Jaimini lords and dagdha signsBhava, hora and ghati lagna start at the Sun's degree at sunrise and move at a fixed pace.
- POST /v1/matching/parasparam · Each person's planets placed in the other's chartPlaces each person's planets in the other person's houses (bhavas).
- POST /v1/chart/chalitReturns the bhava chalit chart, the house table found beside the birth chart in most printed kundlis (birth chart books).
Feature page: Kundli and birth charts. Who uses it: Astrology apps. The classical rules the API follows are in the rulebook.
How we check the numbers
Every value here starts from planet positions worked out from NASA JPL planet data (DE440). We test them against NASA JPL Horizons, NASA's planet position service. On 25,571 positions from 1850 to 2149, the Sun and planets agree within 0.001 arc seconds. The Moon agrees within 0.011. On 2,000 random birth charts, the rising sign agrees with Swiss Ephemeris within 0.004 arc seconds. An arc second is 1/3,600 of a degree. A practicing astrologer reviews the rules behind these answers. See how we test.
Related terms
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Your first answer
John Doe, New York
- RisingVirgoHast
- SunCancerAshlesha
- MoonTaurusMrigashira
- MarsAriesKrittika
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