Divisional Charts (Vargas) and Viṁśopaka: Zooming Into Your Chart

A zoom lens on each sign

Your birth chart (the rāśi chart) places each planet in one of twelve signs of 30°. The divisional charts (vargas) zoom in: they cut every sign into smaller slices and give each slice a sign of its own. A planet at 22° of Sagittarius and another at 2° of Sagittarius share a sign in the birth chart, but they may land in very different signs once the sign is sliced.

Each varga is written "D" plus the number of slices: the D9 or navāṁśa cuts each sign into nine parts of 3°20′; the D10 into ten parts of 3°; the D60 into sixty parts of half a degree. Most vargas use equal slices; the D30 (triṁśāṁśa) is the exception, with unequal parts of 5°, 5°, 8°, 7° and 5° belonging to Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury and Venus. The construction rules are in BPHS 6; the site follows them and was checked against every worked example in the commentary of the edition it uses.

The sixteen charts and what each is for

BPHS 7.1–6 says which subject each varga is examined for:

Inside a varga, the site looks at the house that BPHS 12 gives for that subject — the 7th for the spouse in the D9, the 5th for children in the D7, the 4th and 9th for mother and father in the D12 — and judges it through that house's lord, as BPHS 7.43 suggests ("what is judged from a house is judged from its lord too"). Applying a house reading inside a varga is the site's composition, and it says so.

Vargottama: the same sign twice

When a planet falls in the same sign in the birth chart and in the navāṁśa, it is called vargottama, "best in its division" (Bṛhat Jātaka 1.14; Phaladīpikā 3.1). The planet speaks with one voice at both levels, which is traditionally read as strength and consistency.

In the site's sample chart (25 December 1990, 03:20, Paris), Saturn sits at 1° of Capricorn — and its navāṁśa is Capricorn too: Saturn is vargottama, in its own sign at both levels. Venus, the soul planet of this chart, sits in Sagittarius but falls in its own sign Libra in the navāṁśa; that navāṁśa sign is the kārakāṁśa discussed in another article of this series.

Viṁśopaka: a score out of twenty

Looking at sixteen charts one by one is a lot. BPHS 7 offers a summary, the Viṁśopaka ("out of twenty") strength:

In each varga, rate the planet by its relationship with the lord of the sign it falls in: own sign 20 points, great friend 18, friend 15, neutral 10, enemy 7, great enemy 5 (BPHS 7.24–25; the relationship used is the compound one, explained in the article on planet strength).

Weight the vargas. BPHS 7.17–24 gives four sets: six vargas (ṣaḍvarga: D1 counts 6, D2 2, D3 4, D9 5, D12 2, D30 1), seven, ten and all sixteen. Each set adds up to 20.

Add up weight times points, divide by 20. Below 5 the planet gives no result, 5–10 a slight one, 10–15 a medium one, above 15 its full result (BPHS 7.26–27).

In the sample chart, Saturn scores 18.9 on the six-varga scale — full — while Mars scores 7.9, slight. On all sixteen vargas the same two planets score 13.7 and 8.05: the wider set averages more charts, so extremes soften.

Why your birth time matters

The vargas depend on the ascendant degree, and the ascendant moves fast — on average a degree every four minutes. The finer the slices, the sooner a small error changes the varga's rising sign.

The sample chart shows it clearly. Its birth-chart ascendant, Libra 5°47′, is 32 minutes of clock time away from changing sign. But the navāṁśa ascendant (Scorpio) is only 4.8 minutes from its edge, the D10 ascendant 1.2 minutes, and each D60 slice lasts under 3 minutes here. If this birth time were five minutes off, the navāṁśa rising sign could be different.

So the site:

computes, for every varga, how many minutes the ascendant is from a boundary, and flags any varga where it is less than five minutes (a site convention);

always adds a caution for the D40, D45 and D60, which need a birth time accurate to a couple of minutes;

notes that planets move far more slowly than the ascendant, so planet signs in most vargas are reliable even when the ascendant is not (the Moon, the fastest, is the one to watch in the finest vargas).

This is also why two careful astrologers can show you different navāṁśa or daśāṁśa charts for the same birthday: a difference of a few minutes in the recorded time, or in the time zone used, is enough. If your birth time comes from memory rather than a record, read the fine vargas lightly and lean on the birth chart and the navāṁśa.

In your own chart

Your report shows all sixteen vargas with their purpose, the key house of each, every planet's Viṁśopaka score on the four scales, and a time-sensitivity flag wherever a few minutes would change the picture. Calculate your chart.

Related articles

Kārakāṁśa: your soul planet's navāṁśa

Planet strength: Ṣaḍbala and avasthās

Reading a chart from several starting points