--- title: "Divisional Charts in Vedic Astrology: The Complete Varga Guide" slug: "divisional-charts-in-vedic-astrology" canonical_url: "https://mahadasha.com/divisional-charts-in-vedic-astrology" description: "Divisional charts in Vedic astrology cut one birth chart into twenty. What each varga governs, how a D-chart is derived, and which four to read first." published_date: "2026-08-07 10:00:00" modified_date: "2026-08-07 10:00:00" author: "Pawan Acharya" keywords: "divisional charts in vedic astrology, varga charts, d charts astrology, shodashavarga, vimshopaka bala, d1 d9 d10 charts, vargottama, divisional chart calculator" locale: "en" --- # Divisional Charts in Vedic Astrology: The Complete Varga Guide > Twenty charts come out of one moment of birth, and sixteen of them carry a formal weight that adds up to exactly twenty. Here is what each varga is for, how the arithmetic works, and the order to read them in. # Divisional Charts in Vedic Astrology: The Complete Varga Guide Divisional charts in Vedic astrology take the same twelve signs you already have and slice each one into smaller pieces, then treat every piece as a sign in its own right. Nothing new enters the calculation. The planets keep the exact longitudes they held at birth, and all that changes is the resolution at which you look at them. That is why a varga chart can contradict the impression your D1 gives without either chart being wrong. There are twenty of them with a working calculator on this site, running from the D1 itself up to the D60. Sixteen belong to Parashara's canonical set. Four do not, and knowing which four is more useful than most beginners expect. ## What divisional charts in Vedic astrology actually are Take a planet at 17°42' Scorpio. In the D1 it is in Scorpio, and that is the end of the story. In the Navamsa the sign is cut into nine parts of 3°20' each, so 17°42' falls in the sixth part, and that sixth part is assigned to a different sign by a fixed rule. The planet has not moved. You have simply asked a narrower question and got a narrower answer. Each varga is tuned to a subject. The D9 answers about marriage and about whether a planet can deliver what it promises. The D10 answers about profession. The D7 answers about children. Asking the D10 about your marriage is like asking a tax return about your health: the document is accurate and it is not about that. Two consequences follow, and both get ignored constantly. The first is that a divisional chart is never read alone. It refines a promise the D1 already made; it does not invent one. The second is that the finer the division, the more brutally it depends on birth time. The ascendant moves about one degree every four minutes, so a D9 ascendant changes roughly every thirteen minutes and a D60 ascendant changes every two. If your recorded time is a rounded "about half past six", the D60 is fiction and you should say so rather than read it. ## How a divisional chart is derived Every varga needs two things: how many parts, and where the count starts. The number of parts is the D-number. D9 means nine parts of 3°20', D12 means twelve of 2°30', D60 means sixty of 0°30'. The starting sign is where the traditions get specific and where software gets it wrong. Some vargas count from the natal sign itself. Some count from an absolute sign that depends only on whether the natal sign is movable, fixed or dual. The Chaturvimsamsa starts from Leo for odd signs and Cancer for even ones. The Bhamsa is the only one keyed to element rather than modality, starting from Aries, Cancer, Libra or Capricorn depending on whether the sign is fiery, watery, airy or earthy. One varga refuses the pattern completely. The Trimsamsa has unequal divisions: five degrees, then five, then eight, then seven, then five, allotted to Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury and Venus in an odd sign and reversed in an even one. The Sun and the Moon own no trimsamsa at all, which means a D30 position can never fall in Cancer or Leo. Ten signs, not twelve. ## The four classical groups, and what they are for Parashara collects the vargas into nested sets used for measuring planetary strength rather than for reading subjects. - **Shadvarga**, six charts: D1, D2, D3, D9, D12, D30. - **Saptavarga**, seven: the six above plus D7. - **Dashavarga**, ten: D1, D2, D3, D7, D9, D10, D12, D16, D30, D60. - **Shodashavarga**, sixteen: the ten above plus D4, D20, D24, D27, D40, D45. The Shodashavarga set carries Vimshopaka weights, and the weights sum to exactly twenty, which is what the name means. The D60 takes 4, the D1 takes 3.5, the D9 takes 3, the D16 takes 2, and the rest divide the remaining 7.5 between them in units of half a point and one point. That table produces the single most counter-intuitive fact in the subject. The Dashamsha, which every career reading leans on, is worth half a point out of twenty. The Shashtiamsa, which almost nobody looks at, is worth eight times that. Weight in the strength calculation and importance for a subject are two different questions, and conflating them is how people end up dismissing the D10 or over-reading the D60. The four charts outside all of it are D5, D6, D8 and D11. They have no BPHS rule, no Vimshopaka weight and no consensus derivation, so different programs produce different results for them. They are worth reading, but not worth arguing about. ## Which divisional charts to read first Twenty is too many to start with. Four cover most of what people actually come to astrology asking. 1. [The Navamsa chart (D9)](https://mahadasha.com/navamsa-chart-d9) for marriage, the spouse, and whether a planet has the strength to deliver. 2. [The Dashamsha chart (D10)](https://mahadasha.com/dashamsha-chart-d10) for profession, standing and the shape of a career. 3. [The Saptamsha chart (D7)](https://mahadasha.com/saptamsha-chart-d7) for children and progeny. 4. [The Hora chart (D2)](https://mahadasha.com/hora-chart-d2) for whether wealth is earned or accumulated. Add [the Dwadashamsha chart (D12)](https://mahadasha.com/dwadashamsha-chart-d12) when the question is about parents, [the Chaturthamsa chart (D4)](https://mahadasha.com/chaturthamsa-chart-d4) when it is about property, and [the Trimsamsa chart (D30)](https://mahadasha.com/trimsamsa-chart-d30) when something in the D1 already looks difficult and you want to know how deep it runs. ## Vargottama, and reading across charts When a planet occupies the same sign in the D1 and the D9 it is called vargottama, and the reading is unusually clean: what the birth chart says about that planet is what happens. The condition is not rare, and it is the easiest cross-chart check to make on your own. The general method is a comparison rather than a lookup. Find the significator and the relevant house lord in the D1. Find where they land in the varga that governs the subject. A planet dignified in both charts delivers. A planet strong in the D1 and wrecked in the varga makes the promise and struggles to keep it, which is the classic signature behind a marriage that looks well-matched on paper and grinds in practice. A planet weak in the D1 and strong in the varga is the late bloomer. Timing is separate again. The varga tells you the quality of a result; the [dasha](https://mahadasha.com/dasha-calculator) tells you when it arrives. Reading a D10 without checking which period is running produces an accurate description of a career that has not started yet. ## Frequently asked questions ### How many divisional charts in Vedic astrology are there? Sixteen in Parashara's Shodashavarga, which is the canonical set. Counting the four common extras with no classical rule, and the 64th Navamsa, most software offers between twenty and twenty-two. This site calculates twenty vargas plus the D64. ### How accurate does my birth time need to be? For the D9, within about ten minutes. For the D10, about twelve. For the D30 and beyond, within a couple of minutes, because the D60 ascendant changes every two. If your time came from memory rather than a record, treat the higher vargas as unreliable until it has been rectified. ### Can a divisional chart be read on its own? No. A varga has no independent promise to make. It magnifies whatever the D1 already contains, and a strong D10 attached to a weak 10th house in the birth chart describes potential that the chart does not fund. ### Why do two websites give me different divisional charts? Usually the starting sign, occasionally the ayanamsa. Several vargas count from an absolute sign rather than from the natal sign, and an implementation that gets that backwards produces a plausible chart in the wrong sign. The four extras outside the classical sixteen genuinely have no agreed rule, so disagreement there is expected. Every chart described here can be cast from your own birth details with the [divisional chart calculator](https://mahadasha.com/divisional-chart) , and each varga below has a page of its own explaining what it shows and how to read it.