The Navamsha (D9) and the Sixteen Divisional Charts

The birth chart (D1) gives the broad picture of life, but where a planet sits within a sign's 30 degrees also says a great deal. Charts built by dividing each sign into smaller parts are called vargas or divisional charts. The most important is the navamsha, the ninefold division.

How the navamsha is found

A sign is 30 degrees; divided by nine, each part is 3°20′, exactly one nakshatra pada. The sign from which the count starts depends on the element:

Example: a planet at 14° Leo. Leo is a fire sign, so the count starts from Aries. 14° falls in the fifth part (13°20′ to 16°40′). The fifth sign from Aries is Leo, so the planet is in Leo in the navamsha.

An easy way to remember it: Ashwini's first pada is the Aries navamsha, its second Taurus, and each pada moves one sign on; the 108 padas go round the twelve signs nine times.

Vargottama

A planet in the same sign in both the birth chart and the navamsha is vargottama, and is held to be very strong, almost like a planet in its own sign. It happens in a fixed part of each sign: the first navamsha of movable signs, the fifth of fixed signs, the ninth of dual signs. A vargottama lagna is also considered auspicious.

Why the navamsha matters so much

• A planet's real strength: a planet exalted in the birth chart but debilitated in the navamsha does not deliver as promised; debilitated in the birth chart but exalted in the navamsha, its debilitation is cancelled.
• Marriage and spouse: the navamsha is called the chart of marriage. Its seventh house, that house's lord and the condition of Venus and Jupiter in it are read for married life.
• The second half of life: by common view the navamsha shows the results of middle age and later more clearly.
• Dharma and fortune: "nava" means ninth, and the navamsha mirrors the ninth house's fortune and dharma.

The sixteen divisional charts

Parashara describes sixteen divisional charts. The main ones:

The finer the division, the more exact the birth time must be. In the shashtyamsha each part is only half a degree, so a few minutes' error in the lagna changes the chart. When the birth time is uncertain, rely mainly on D1 and D9.