How to read a South Indian Rasi and Navamsa chart
The twelve fixed boxes, where the Lagna is marked, and what the Navamsa (D-9) adds.
The Rasi chart (also called D-1) is the birth chart itself: it shows which of the twelve signs (rasis) each planet occupied at the moment of birth, and which sign was rising on the eastern horizon — the Lagna or ascendant.
The South Indian layout
In the South Indian style the signs never move. The grid has twelve boxes around an empty centre, starting with Meena (Pisces) at the top left and running clockwise: Mesha, Rishabha and Mithuna along the top, Kataka and Simha down the right, Kanni, Thula, Vrischika and Dhanu along the bottom, and Makara and Kumbha up the left. Because the signs are fixed, the Lagna is marked inside its box (as “Asc” or “Lagna”) instead of always being at the top, as in North Indian charts.
Planets are written in short form — Su (Sun), Mo (Moon), Ma (Mars), Me (Mercury), Ju (Jupiter), Ve (Venus), Sa (Saturn), Ra (Rahu) and Ke (Ketu). An “(R)” means the planet was retrograde.
Houses
Counting from the Lagna box as the 1st house, the next box clockwise is the 2nd house, and so on. The 7th house, directly opposite the Lagna, is the house of marriage and partnership.
The Navamsa chart (D-9)
Each sign spans 30°. Divide it into nine equal parts of 3°20′ and you get the navamsa. Each of the 108 navamsas also corresponds to one pada (quarter) of the 27 nakshatras. The Navamsa chart places every planet according to the navamsa it falls in.
Astrologers traditionally read the Navamsa for marriage and the spouse, and to judge how strong a planet really is: a planet in the same sign in both charts (vargottama) is considered especially strong.
Because the Lagna moves through a navamsa in about 13 minutes, the Navamsa Lagna is sensitive to the birth time — see why the exact birth time matters.
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For guidance only. Please consult an astrologer before taking decisions.