A birth chart has twelve houses, or bhavas. The 1st house is the lagna, the sign rising at birth. The next sign is the 2nd house, and so on round to the 12th. Each house has a name and stands for some parts of life. The 1st is the body, the 2nd wealth and family, the 4th home and mother, the 7th the spouse, the 10th work and honour, the 11th income. Astrologers read a topic from its house.
☕ Twelve rooms, one for each part of life
Think of the chart as a house with twelve rooms. Each room holds one group of topics. Money is kept in one room, the family in another, work in a third. To read about a topic, the astrologer opens its room.
The rooms are counted from the lagna. The sign rising in the east at birth is the 1st house. If the lagna is Kataka (Cancer), then Simha (Leo) is the 2nd house and Mithuna (Gemini) is the 12th. So two people with different lagnas have different signs in each house.
Parashara names the twelve houses in order: Tanu, Dhana, Sahaja, Bandhu, Putra, Ari, Yuvati, Randhra, Dharma, Karma, Labha and Vyaya (Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (Santhanam–Kapoor ed.), ch. 7, vv. 37–38, pp. 102–103). Each name is a clue. Tanu means the body. Dhana means wealth. Vyaya means spending.
A later chapter lists what each house covers (Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (Santhanam–Kapoor ed.), ch. 11, vv. 2–13, pp. 121–123). The table below restates that list in our own words. It shows only the everyday areas of life. It is a list of topics, not a forecast.
At a glance
- 1st — Tanu (the body): the body and looks, intellect, complexion, vigour, joys and sorrows, one's nature
- 2nd — Dhana (wealth): wealth, food grains, the family, metals
- 3rd — Sahaja (the co-born): courage, helpers, younger brothers and sisters, instruction, journeys
- 4th — Bandhu (kin): vehicles, relatives, the mother, comfort, savings, land and houses
- 5th — Putra (children): mantras, learning, knowledge, children, authority
- 6th — Ari (the opponent): opponents and rivals, the mother's brother, a stepmother
- 7th — Yuvati (the partner): the spouse, travel, trade
- 8th — Randhra (the hidden opening): struggles, rivals, strongholds, inheritance, past and future births
- 9th — Dharma (right conduct): fortune, dharma, pilgrimage, the spouse's brother
- 10th — Karma (action): authority, position, profession, honour, the father, living abroad, debts
- 11th — Labha (gain): income, prosperity, all kinds of goods, a son's wife, cattle
- 12th — Vyaya (spending): expenses and outgoings
- A house is not a sign. The sign in each house depends on the lagna.
- Houses are counted from the lagna, not from Mesha (Aries).
- One house covers many topics, and one topic can be read from two houses.
- The list names topics. It does not say whether they will go well or badly.
Frequently asked questions
What is a house, or bhava?
A house is one of the twelve parts of a birth chart. In the Nava app's rasi chart each house is one whole sign: the lagna's sign is the 1st house, and the signs that follow are the 2nd to the 12th. The reading counts a house from the lagna by the Sripati bhava, measured from the lagna's degree, so a planet near a house's edge can sit one house (at high latitudes, two) away from where the chart draws it.
Is a house the same as a rasi (sign)?
No. The twelve signs are fixed in the sky. The twelve houses start from your lagna. With Mesha (Aries) rising, Mesha (Aries) is the 1st house. With Tula (Libra) rising, Mesha (Aries) is the 7th house.
Why is the father in two houses?
Topics can be shared. The translator of Parashara notes that the father is read from the 9th and also from the 10th (Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (Santhanam–Kapoor ed.), ch. 11, p. 121). In the same way, rivals appear in the 6th and in the 8th.
Do other books give the same names?
Mostly, with other words beside them. Brihat Jataka gives a second set of names, such as kalpa for the 1st, vikrama for the 3rd, randhra for the 8th and vyaya for the 12th (Brihat Jataka, ch. I, vv. 15–16). The meanings line up with Parashara's.
Deep dive: counting the houses
How to find each house in a chart. What to read next.
🏠 How to count them
Number the signs from Mesha = 1 to Meena = 12. Then for any sign:
- house = (sign number − lagna sign number + 12) mod 12, plus 1.
Example: the lagna is Kataka (Cancer) (sign 4). Makara (Capricorn) is sign 10. (10 − 4 + 12) mod 12 = 6, plus 1 = 7. So Makara (Capricorn) is the 7th house. A planet in that sign is said to be in the 7th house.
📚 Before and after this page
The houses sit on top of the signs. Read the twelve rashis for the signs themselves, and lagna, rasi and birth star for how the lagna is found. Next, see how the houses fall into groups: kendra, trikona, dusthana and more.