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Series 11 · Chart Foundations

Chart Foundations

How a birth chart is read, one idea at a time: the twelve houses and their groups, planetary friendship, exaltation and dignity, aspects, combustion, and which planets help which lagna. Each rule with its source.

Part 1
⏱️ 5 min read Beginner

The Twelve Houses (Bhavas): Names and What Each One Covers

What a house is. How the twelve are counted from the lagna. The name of each house and the parts of life it is read for.

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Part 2
⏱️ 5 min read Beginner

House Groups: Kendra, Trikona, Dusthana, Panaphara, Apoklima and Upachaya

The twelve houses fall into named groups. Which houses are in each. Where the books differ, and the sets Nava uses.

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Part 3
⏱️ 4 min read Beginner

Vishnu and Lakshmi Places: Kendras, Trikonas and Their Lords

Why the kendras are called Vishnu's places and the trikonas Lakshmi's. How the lords of the two are linked.

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Part 4
⏱️ 5 min read Beginner

Natural Benefics and Malefics: Why the Moon and Mercury Change Sides

Five planets keep one nature. The Moon and Mercury depend on the day and the company.

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Part 5
⏱️ 6 min read Intermediate

Natural Planetary Friendship Is a Rule, Not a Table

Count from the moolatrikona sign, add the exaltation lord, and all 42 friendships follow.

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Part 6
⏱️ 5 min read Intermediate

Temporary and Five-Fold Friendship: Where Two Planets Sit

Natural friendship is fixed. Placement adds a second, temporary layer. Together they make five grades.

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Part 7
⏱️ 5 min read Beginner

Exaltation and Debilitation: Each Planet's Best and Weakest Sign

Where each planet is exalted. Where it is debilitated. The exact deepest degree.

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Part 8
⏱️ 6 min read Advanced

Moolatrikona: Why the Books Give Different Degree Bands

Every book agrees on the signs. They differ on the degrees. Here is each one, and the one Nava uses.

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Part 9
⏱️ 5 min read Intermediate

Dignity and the Share of Results: Full, ¾, ½, ¼, ⅛, Nil

The sign a planet stands in sets how much of its good the books let it give.

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Part 10
⏱️ 4 min read Beginner

Graha Drishti: How Planets Aspect the 7th, and Mars, Jupiter and Saturn's Special Aspects

What an aspect is. Quarter, half, three-quarter and full. Which houses each planet looks at.

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Part 11
⏱️ 6 min read Advanced

Aspect Strength as a Curve: Drishti in Virupas

The six rules that turn an angle into 0 to 60 virupas. The special additions. Which way the angle is measured.

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Part 12
⏱️ 5 min read Intermediate

Combustion (Asta): How Close to the Sun a Planet Sets

The orb for each planet. Why Saturn is 15° or 16°. The retrograde orbs. Why the nodes never combust.

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Part 13
⏱️ 4 min read Intermediate

Graha Yuddha: When Two Planets Are at War

Which planets can be at war. How close they must be. Who wins. What moves to the winner.

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Part 14
⏱️ 4 min read Intermediate

Conjunction: Same Sign, or Within 12°?

Two ways to say two planets are together. Where they disagree. Which one Nava uses.

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Part 15
⏱️ 6 min read Intermediate

A House and Its Lord: How the Lord's Place Helps or Weakens a House

Every house has a lord. Jataka Parijata's rules for when the lord's sign and place strengthen the house, and when they weaken it.

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Part 16
⏱️ 6 min read Advanced

Functional Benefics and Yogakarakas: How Lordship Changes a Planet's Role

Why a planet's role depends on the lagna. The six yogakaraka lagnas. Where the books and the app part ways.

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Part 17
⏱️ 5 min read Advanced

Kendradhipati Dosha: When a Benefic Ruling an Angle Stops Helping

What the blemish is. Who it touches. How the books read it. What the app does.

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Part 18
⏱️ 6 min read Advanced

Neecha Bhanga: When a Debilitation Is Cancelled

The conditions in the books. The three Nava checks. Where they differ.

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Part 19
⏱️ 4 min read Advanced

Badhaka Sthana: The House of Obstruction, by Sign Type

How to count it from a movable, fixed or dual sign. Its lord. Which books state it.

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Part 20
⏱️ 5 min read Advanced

Lagna or Moon: Which Is a Chart Read From?

Two starting points. Three ways the books use them. The one the app uses.

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Part 21
⏱️ 5 min read Beginner

Graha Correspondences: Tastes, Trees, Seasons and Metals

What each planet stands for in the old books. Where the translations differ.

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Part 22
⏱️ 4 min read Beginner

The Grahas and the Avataras

Parashara's pairing of the nine grahas with the avataras of Vishnu, told as tradition.

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Part 23
⏱️ 4 min read Beginner

Kalapurusha: The Zodiac as a Body

The twelve signs as the limbs of the Person of Time, from head to feet.

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Part 24
⏱️ 5 min read Beginner

Elements and Gunas in a Chart: The Strongest Planet Rule

How Parashara gives a whole chart one element and one guna, and when the rule weakens.

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Part 25
⏱️ 5 min read Intermediate

Rising Lengths of the Signs, and When in a Dasa Results Are Said to Show

Why signs take unequal time to rise. Brihat Jataka's measures. Its start, middle and end rule for a dasa.

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Part 26
⏱️ 4 min read Intermediate

Pushkara Degrees: Twelve Moon Degrees Called Auspicious

One degree in each sign, from Jataka Parijata, and how to read the list.

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Part 27
⏱️ 5 min read Advanced

Arohi and Avarohi: Rising Toward Exaltation, or Falling Away

Which half of the circle a planet stands in. How two books use it.

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Covering Over 30,000 Towns Worldwide

Your City’s Panchangam, Every Day

Many printed calendars are computed for one town. Nava Panchangam computes sunrise, sunset and the windows that depend on them, such as Rahu Kalam, for your city, with a choice of Vakya or Drik; a tithi’s ending instant is the same everywhere.

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