Rāśi Reference

The twelve signs — quality, gender, element, lord, body part, and the classifications that actually get used.

Drawn from BPHS 4, BPHS 9. Ch. 4 · Ch. 9

The twelve

#	Sign	Sanskrit	Quality	Gender	Element	Lord	Kālapuruṣa
1	Aries	Meṣa	movable	male	fire	Mars	head
2	Taurus	Vṛṣabha	fixed	female	earth	Venus	face
3	Gemini	Mithuna	dual	male	air	Mercury	arms
4	Cancer	Karka	movable	female	water	Moon	heart
5	Leo	Siṁha	fixed	male	fire	Sun	stomach
6	Virgo	Kanyā	dual	female	earth	Mercury	hip
7	Libra	Tulā	movable	male	air	Venus	below navel
8	Scorpio	Vṛścika	fixed	female	water	Mars	private parts
9	Sagittarius	Dhanu	dual	male	fire	Jupiter	thighs
10	Capricorn	Makara	movable	female	earth	Saturn	knees
11	Aquarius	Kumbha	fixed	male	air	Saturn	ankles
12	Pisces	Mīna	dual	female	water	Jupiter	feet

The cycles — BPHS 4.5

Everything above is periodic, which is why Parashara gives it in one line rather than a table.

Quality repeats in threes from Aries: movable, fixed, dual.

Gender alternates: odd signs male, even female.

Sign-level benefic/malefic alternates: odd malefic, even benefic. This is not the planet-level scheme of BPHS 3.11 and the two are never combined.

Element repeats in fours: fire, earth, air, water.

Groupings that get used

Movable (chara): Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn. Initiate.

Fixed (sthira): Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius. Hold.

Dual (dvisvabhāva): Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces. Turn into something else. All four are ruled by just two planets — Mercury and Jupiter.

Odd / even matters for varga construction, for Upapada counting, and for Bālādi Avasthā direction.

Rāśi Dṛṣṭi — BPHS 9.1–3

Movable signs aspect the fixed signs, excluding the adjacent one. Fixed aspect the movable, likewise. Dual signs aspect the other dual signs, excluding their own.

No planet is involved — a sign aspects a sign. BPHS gives this system no strength apparatus and never states how it combines with Graha Dṛṣṭi when they disagree.

Signs not uniform across their span

Two cases worth knowing, from the sign profiles at BPHS 4.17–20:

Sagittarius — biped to 15°, quadruped after.

Capricorn — quadruped in the first half, footless and gliding in water in the second.

A reminder that “which sign” is often not a complete answer to “where is this planet”.

What else the sign profiles carry

BPHS 4.6–24 gives each sign the same properties: complexion, body type, footedness, strength by day or night, direction, caste, element, guṇa, terrain, and lord.

Used regularly: quality, element, lord, odd/even.

Used occasionally: direction and day/night strength, both of which feed Ṣaḍbala; footedness, which feeds questions of movement and residence.

Essentially never used: complexion, terrain. Read once and look up if ever needed.

Nakshatras and their lords

Twenty-seven, each 13°20′, each of four padas of 3°20′. A pada spans exactly one Navāṁśa, which is why the two divisions correspond.

Lords cycle in nines from Ashwini: Ketu, Venus, Sun, Moon, Mars, Rahu, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury — repeating three times.

#	Nakshatra	Lord	#	Nakshatra	Lord	#	Nakshatra	Lord
1	Ashwini	Ketu	10	Magha	Ketu	19	Mula	Ketu
2	Bharani	Venus	11	P. Phalguni	Venus	20	P. Ashadha	Venus
3	Krittika	Sun	12	U. Phalguni	Sun	21	U. Ashadha	Sun
4	Rohini	Moon	13	Hasta	Moon	22	Shravana	Moon
5	Mrigashira	Mars	14	Chitra	Mars	23	Dhanishtha	Mars
6	Ardra	Rahu	15	Swati	Rahu	24	Shatabhisha	Rahu
7	Punarvasu	Jupiter	16	Vishakha	Jupiter	25	P. Bhadrapada	Jupiter
8	Pushya	Saturn	17	Anuradha	Saturn	26	U. Bhadrapada	Saturn
9	Ashlesha	Mercury	18	Jyeshtha	Mercury	27	Revati	Mercury

BPHS 48.12–14 states the same cycle beginning from Krittika with the Sun, which is the identical sequence read from a different starting point.

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