A chart has two common starting points. One is the lagna, the sign rising at birth. The other is the Moon's sign, your rasi. Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra says what is said from the lagna is said from the Moon too. Raman reads first from whichever of the two is stronger. Nava's personal day score is counted from the Moon.
☕ Two places to stand
Houses are counted from somewhere. Count from the lagna and you get one set of twelve houses. Count from the Moon's sign and you get another, called Chandra lagna. The two agree only when the Moon is in the lagna.
Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra gives one answer (Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (Santhanam–Kapoor ed.), ch. 12, v. 11, p. 129). Whatever is said for the lagna is to be applied to the Moon as well. So the chart is read twice, once from each.
Raman sets an order (B. V. Raman, How to Judge a Horoscope, vol. 1, p. 11). Start from whichever of the lagna and the Moon is stronger. He measures strength by Shadbala, the six-fold strength, and explains it in another of his books.
Jataka Parijata uses both for timing (Jataka Parijata (tr. Subramanya Sastri), ch. XVIII, vv. 6–7, p. 1007). To judge a dasa, it looks at the lagna rising when the dasa begins, and at the Moon at that moment. Note that this lagna is the one at the dasa's start, not the birth lagna.
At a glance
- Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra: both, the Moon in parallel with the lagna (Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (Santhanam–Kapoor ed.), ch. 12, v. 11, p. 129).
- Raman: the stronger of the two first, by six-fold strength (B. V. Raman, How to Judge a Horoscope, vol. 1, p. 11).
- Jataka Parijata, for a dasa: the lagna rising at its start, and the Moon at that moment (Jataka Parijata (tr. Subramanya Sastri), ch. XVIII, vv. 6–7, p. 1007).
- Nava's personal day score: the Moon. The running dasa's planets: the lagna, when the birth time gives one.
- Your rasi is the Moon's sign. Your lagna is the rising sign. They are different things.
- Daily rasi palan and chandrashtamam are counted from the Moon's sign, not the lagna.
- The lagna needs an exact birth time. The Moon's sign rarely changes within a few hours.
- Reading from both is not a contradiction. It is the same rules applied from two places.
Frequently asked questions
What is Chandra lagna?
It is the Moon's sign used as the 1st house. The houses are then counted from it, the same way they are counted from the lagna.
Why does Nava's day score use the Moon?
The daily factors it scores are counted from the Moon in the tradition itself: tarabalam from the birth star, chandrabalam and chandrashtamam from the Moon sign. The Moon sign also rarely depends on the exact hour, while the lagna changes about every two hours.
Does Nava ever use the lagna?
Yes, when your birth time gives one. The running dasa's planets are then judged by the houses they rule from the lagna. Nava does not pick the stronger of the two the way Raman does.
How would I know which is stronger?
Raman weighs the two by Shadbala, the six-fold strength. He does not give the full method in this book, and the app does not make this comparison.
Deep dive: the anchor Nava uses
What the app counts from. What to read first.
🌙 The anchor Nava follows
What Nava follows: the Moon. Your personal day score is counted from your birth Moon sign and birth star: tarabalam, chandrabalam, chandrashtamam and Saturn's transit counted from the Moon sign. It never compares the lagna and the Moon for strength. When your birth time gives a lagna, one more part of the score, the running dasa, reads its planets by the houses they rule from the lagna. This is a choice, not a ruling on which reading is right.
📚 Read first
This page builds on lagna, rasi and birth star and the twelve houses. For how a house is judged by its lord, see a house and its lord.