How the North Indian chart is laid out
The single most important visual rule: houses stay fixed. The numbers printed in the compartments are Rashis, not house numbers.
In a North Indian chart, the geometric position tells you the house. The top-centre diamond is always the 1st house. From there the houses proceed anti-clockwise: 2nd and 3rd on the upper-left side, 4th on the left, 5th and 6th on the lower-left, 7th at the bottom, 8th and 9th on the lower-right, 10th on the right, then 11th and 12th on the upper-right.
Because the house positions never move, astrologers usually do not print large house numbers inside each compartment. Instead, the large number inside a compartment tells you which zodiac sign (Rashi) occupies that fixed house.
This is exactly why “2” in the top-centre diamond does NOT mean 2nd house. The top-centre diamond is still House 1 by position; the “2” means Rashi number 2, Taurus, is rising there.
The four large central diamonds are easy anchors to memorize: top = House 1, left = House 4, bottom = House 7, right = House 10. Once these four are fixed in your mind, the corner triangles become much easier to count.
Our chart follows this standard convention: the prominent number is the Rashi number. House number is learned from the fixed position and shown in the inspector/accessibility text when you click a compartment.
North Indian chart: fixed houses, moving Rashis
Teaching example: Taurus Lagna. The large 2 in the top 1st-house position means Taurus, not House 2.
Memorize these four anchors; count the remaining houses anti-clockwise.
How to read it
- Find the top-centre diamond: House 1.
- Move anti-clockwise to House 2, then House 3, and continue to 12.
- Ignore the printed number for house counting; use the compartment position.
- Read the printed number as the Rashi occupying that house.
Key points
- Position tells the house; the printed number tells the Rashi.
- Observation comes before interpretation.
- Exact degree belongs in the planet table, not in a guessed chart label.
Apply it to a chart
If the top-centre compartment shows 2, read it as: House 1 = Taurus.
Directly opposite at the bottom is House 7. Counting Rashis from Taurus gives Scorpio there, so that compartment will show 8.
The right-hand central diamond is House 10; for Taurus Lagna it contains Aquarius, so it shows 11.
Do not read the prominent number as a house number. In this chart style, position = house; printed number = Rashi.
Apply this lesson to a chart
- Open Kundli Lab and identify Houses 1, 4, 7 and 10 without using any printed house number.
- Choose one house and write: House → Rashi → lord → lord placement.
- Check your sentence against the house inspector before moving on.