How the Chaturthāṁśa is constructed
Each sign is divided into four parts of 7°30' each, and the four divisions fall on the four kendras from that sign.
- 0° – 7°30'
- The sign itself. Presided over by Sanaka.
- 7°30' – 15°
- The 4th sign from it. Presided over by Sananda.
- 15° – 22°30'
- The 7th sign from it. Presided over by Kumāra.
- 22°30' – 30°
- The 10th sign from it. Presided over by Sanātana.
- Why kendras
- The four angles are the structural houses of any chart — the frame rather than the contents. A chart of what is fixed is built out of the four fixed points, and the four divisions of Aries are therefore Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn.
How to read the D-4
Read the 4th house of the D-4 first — property within the property chart — then its lord, then the D-4 Lagna. A strong 4th lord placed in a kendra or trine of the D-4 is the clearest single indication of holding land or a home in one's own name.
The 12th of the D-4 is worth attention in any question about buying or selling, since it carries loss and letting go of fixed assets, and the 8th carries property that comes through inheritance, joint ownership or a legal process rather than through purchase.
Distinguish the chart from the Horā. A person can be wealthy with a weak D-4 — income and liquidity with nothing settled underneath. The reverse is more common than it sounds: modest earnings and a strong D-4 usually means land or a house held in the family, worth more than the visible income suggests.
Why this is also the chart of contentment
The 4th house is sukha — happiness, comfort, the state of being at ease — before it is real estate. The D-4 inherits that. It shows not only whether property is held but whether it gives peace, and those come apart more often than one would like.
A D-4 crowded with malefics can accompany substantial holdings and no rest at all: property that is disputed, mortgaged, distant, or a home that is not a refuge. When the question is about buying a house, this is the part of the reading that decides whether the purchase is a good idea rather than merely a possible one.
The Chaturthāṁśa at a glance
Every figure here is specific to this division. The Vimśopaka rows give the share of the twenty-point strength score the Chaturthāṁśa carries in each classical scheme — a blank means the division is not counted in that scheme at all.
| D4 | |
|---|---|
| Divisions per sign | 4 |
| Arc of one division | 7°30' |
| Divisional Lagna changes every | about half an hour |
| Vimśopaka weight · Ṣaḍvarga (6) | — |
| Vimśopaka weight · Saptavarga (7) | — |
| Vimśopaka weight · Daśavarga (10) | — |
| Vimśopaka weight · Ṣoḍaśavarga (16) | ½ |
Counted only in the full sixteen-division scheme. That is a statement about how the tradition ranks it — real, but supporting rather than decisive.
How accurate your birth time needs to be for the Chaturthāṁśa
The Rāśi Lagna moves through a whole sign in roughly two hours, which is why the birth chart tolerates an approximate time. This division cuts each sign into 4, so the D4 Lagna moves to a new sign about half an hour — and the planets near a boundary shift with it. If your recorded time is uncertain by more than that, treat the D4 Lagna and any house-based conclusion drawn from it as provisional, and rectify the time against dated life events before relying on it. Sign placements of the slower grahas stay stable much longer than the Lagna does.
How this is computed
Positions come from an astronomical ephemeris, converted to the sidereal zodiac on the Lahiri (Citrapakṣa) ayanāṁśa and computed by our own Parāśara engine — no pre-written results, and no language model anywhere near a number. Where the classical texts disagree, this page names the convention we follow instead of quietly picking one.