Glossary of Vedic astrology, numerology, Vastu and palmistry terms
The words RishiSetu’s lessons use, each explained in a sentence or two, from rashi and nakshatra to Mulank, disha and the mounts of the hand. Open a term for the rule behind it, its classical source and the lesson that teaches it.
- 97 terms
- Vedic astrology
- Numerology
- Vastu Shastra
- Palmistry
- Samudrika Shastra
Vedic astrology
- JyotishVedic astrology, the Indian study of the sky and how charts are read. The word means "science of light".
- Kundali (birth chart)A map of where the Sun, Moon and planets stood in the sky at the moment and place of birth.
- Rashi (sign)One of the 12 equal 30° parts of the zodiac, from Aries (1) to Pisces (12).
- GrahaOne of the nine bodies used in Jyotish: Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rahu and Ketu.
- Bhava (house)One of the 12 houses of a chart. Each house stands for areas of life and holds one sign.
- Lagna (ascendant)The sign rising on the eastern horizon at birth. It becomes the 1st house.
- Sidereal zodiac (nirayana)A zodiac measured against the fixed stars, as Jyotish uses. Western astrology mostly uses the tropical zodiac instead.
- AyanamshaThe gap, in degrees, between the tropical and sidereal zodiacs.
- Rahu and KetuThe two points where the Moon's path crosses the Sun's path. They are always exactly opposite each other.
- NakshatraOne of 27 lunar mansions, each 13°20′ of the zodiac. Each is split into 4 padas.
- PadaA quarter of a nakshatra, 3°20′ wide.
- Whole-sign housesThe house system where each house is one whole sign, counted from the Lagna's sign.
- North Indian chartA diamond-style chart where houses stay fixed (the 1st is the top centre) and the numbers show signs.
- Sign lord (rashi swami)The graha that rules a sign, for example Mars for Aries and Venus for Taurus.
- Retrograde (vakri)When a planet seems to move backwards through the signs, as seen from Earth.
- Exalted (uchcha)The sign where a graha is at its strongest, such as Mars in Capricorn.
- Debilitated (neecha)The sign opposite a graha's exaltation, where it is weakest, such as Mars in Cancer.
- Tithi (lunar day)A lunar day. Each tithi is 12° of the Moon moving ahead of the Sun, so a lunar month has 30 tithis.
- Vara (weekday)The day of the week, each ruled by a graha: Sunday by the Sun, Monday by the Moon, Tuesday by Mars, and so on.
- PanchangThe Hindu almanac, built from five limbs of time: tithi, vara, nakshatra, yoga and karana.
- Dasha (planetary period)A period of life ruled by one graha. The Vimshottari system runs 120 years and starts from the lord of the Moon's nakshatra at birth.
- Drishti (aspect)A graha's sight on other houses. Every graha looks at the 7th house from itself; Mars also the 4th and 8th, Jupiter the 5th and 9th, Saturn the 3rd and 10th.
- Kendra (angular houses)The 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th houses, the pillars of the chart.
- Trikona (trine houses)The 1st, 5th and 9th houses, which form a triangle in the chart.
- Dusthana (difficult houses)The 6th, 8th and 12th houses.
- Navamsha (D9 chart)A divisional chart made by splitting each sign into nine parts of 3°20′.
- Gochar (transit)Where the grahas are in the sky now, read against the birth chart.
- MuhurtaA time chosen from the sky for beginning something, such as a wedding or a journey.
Numerology
- Numerology (ank jyotish)The study of numbers from a birth date and name, each number linked to a graha.
- ReductionAdding the digits of a number again and again until one digit (1 to 9) is left.
- Mulank (birth number)The day of birth reduced to one digit. Born on the 29th gives 2 + 9 = 11, then 1 + 1 = 2.
- Bhagyank (destiny number)All digits of the full birth date added and reduced to one digit.
- Lo Shu gridA 3×3 square (4 9 2 / 3 5 7 / 8 1 6) filled with the non-zero digits of a birth date.
- Ank (number)A digit from 1 to 9. In ank jyotish each has a graha: 1 Sun, 2 Moon, 3 Jupiter, 4 Rahu, 5 Mercury, 6 Venus, 7 Ketu, 8 Saturn, 9 Mars.
- Namank (name number)The letters of a name given number values, added and reduced to one digit. Indian practice mostly uses the Chaldean values.
- Chaldean systemA way of giving letters number values from 1 to 8. No letter gets 9.
- Pythagorean systemLetters numbered 1 to 9 in alphabet order, then again from 1 (A = 1, I = 9, J = 1).
- Missing numberA digit from 1 to 9 that does not appear anywhere in a person's Lo Shu grid.
- Repeated numberA digit that appears more than once in the birth date; it is written that many times in its box of the Lo Shu grid.
- Personal yearThe day and month of birth added to the digits of the current year, then reduced to one digit.
- Magic sum of Lo ShuEvery row, column and diagonal of the Lo Shu square adds up to 15.
Vastu Shastra
- Vastu ShastraThe traditional Indian science of building: how a site, a house and its rooms are placed in harmony with the directions and the elements. Its classical texts are the Mayamata, the Manasara and Brihat Samhita chapter 53.
- DikpalaThe guardian of a direction. Eight dikpalas guard the eight directions, each with a graha: Indra the east, Agni the south-east, Yama the south, Nirriti the south-west, Varuna the west, Vayu the north-west, Kubera the north and Ishana the north-east. Brahma holds the centre.
- Ishana (north-east)The north-east, named after its guardian, with Jupiter as its graha. It is the zone of water and prayer, kept the lowest, lightest and most open part of the house. A missing north-east corner is the most serious fault a plot can have.
- Pancha BhutaThe five elements, each with its zone in a plot: water in the north-east, fire in the south-east, earth in the south-west, air in the north-west and space at the centre. A room belongs in the zone of the element it uses, such as the kitchen in the south-east.
- Vastu PurushaThe being the texts describe lying face down on every plot, head in the north-east and feet in the south-west. The gods who hold him down each guard a part of the plot.
- Vastu Purusha MandalaThe plot drawn as a grid of squares called padas: 64 (8 × 8) for temples or 81 (9 × 9) for houses. In the 81-pada mandala Brahma holds the nine central padas and 32 devatas guard the outer ring, 45 devatas in all.
- BrahmasthanaThe centre of the plot, its central padas, which belong to Brahma. It is kept open, free of pillars, beams, toilets, stairs and heavy loads. Traditional houses left it as a courtyard; in a flat, a clear central space serves the same purpose.
- MarmaA sensitive point of the mandala, where its main lines cross. The texts ask that pillars, walls and heavy loads not fall on the marmas.
- BhumiThe plot itself, judged before anything is built: its shape (a square, or a rectangle up to about 1 : 2), its slope (lower to the north and east), its soil and its surroundings.
- Vithi shoolaA road that runs straight into a plot. Vastu avoids it; roads on the north and east are preferred.
- Dwara vedhaSomething directly in front of the main door, such as another building's corner, a pole or a tree. The main door should be free of it; it is also the largest door of the house and opens inward.
- AyadiSix checks on a building's measurements: Aya (income), Vyaya (expense), Yoni, Nakshatra, Vara and Amsha. Aya should exceed Vyaya and the yoni should be odd. The formulas differ between texts.
Palmistry
- Dominant handThe hand you write with. It shows what a person has made of their life; the other hand shows inborn tendencies. A reader looks at both and leans on the dominant one.
- Earth, air, fire and water handsThe modern way of sorting hands by palm and fingers: earth, a square palm with short fingers; air, a square palm with long fingers; fire, a long palm with short fingers; water, a long palm with long fingers. Cheiro used seven types instead.
- Anguli (fingers)The fingers, each belonging to a graha: the index to Jupiter, the middle to Saturn, the ring to the Sun and the little finger to Mercury. The thumb is read on its own: its top shows will, its middle logic and its base love and vitality.
- PhalangesThe three sections of each finger: the top, with the nail, for the mental world, the middle for the practical and the base for the material. The longest shows where that finger's energy goes.
- Parvata (mount)A fleshy pad of the palm, named for a graha: Jupiter under the index finger, Saturn under the middle, the Sun under the ring, Mercury under the little finger, Venus at the base of the thumb, the Moon on the outer edge, and two of Mars. Full and firm gives the graha's qualities; flat shows them lacking, overdeveloped in excess.
- Plain of Mars and the quadrangleThe plain of Mars is the centre of the palm, between the two Mars mounts. The quadrangle is the space between the head and heart lines: wide shows a broad mind, narrow caution.
- Life lineThe line that curves round the mount of Venus. It shows vitality and the way life is lived, never how long: a short life line does not mean a short life.
- Head lineThe line across the middle of the palm. It shows thinking: a straight one is practical, a sloping one imaginative.
- Heart lineThe line across the top of the palm, under the fingers. It shows feelings and relationships.
- Fate lineThe line running up the middle of the palm towards Saturn's finger. It shows career and direction; many people have a faint one or none at all.
- Matsya (fish sign)A mark shaped like a fish. Indian tradition prizes it with the padma (lotus), shankha (conch), chakra (wheel) and dhvaja (flag) as signs of good fortune and virtue. Like every sign, it is read with the line and mount it sits on, never alone.
Samudrika Shastra
- Samudrika ShastraThe old Indian study of lakshanas, the marks and features of the whole body. Varahamihira places it in the Samhita branch of Jyotish. It is a tradition of signs, not medicine and not a test of character or worth.
- LakshanaA mark or feature the texts read: build, proportion, lustre, face, voice, gait, limbs, feet or a mole.
- Hasta SamudrikaThe hand as one part of Samudrika. The palmistry subject teaches the hand; a reader who reads both reads the body first, then the hand.
- Brihat SamhitaVarahamihira's 6th-century work, the main source of Samudrika, with chapters on the marks of men, the five great men and women. Editions number the chapters differently.
- KalapurushaThe person of time, on whose body Jyotish places the twelve signs, from Aries at the head to Pisces at the feet.
- AngulaThe breadth of a person's own finger, the unit for their height. Brihat Samhita gives 108 angulas as tall, 96 as medium and 84 as short.
- TalaThe length of the face, from hairline to chin, used by image-making texts such as Manasara to measure a figure. A living adult is about nine to ten talas tall.
- Chhaya (lustre)The lustre or presence a person gives off, of five kinds named after the five elements. It is a reader's impression and never skin colour.
- SaraIn Charaka Samhita, the tissue or quality best developed in a person, of eight kinds from skin to mind (sattva). It belongs to a physician's examination; a Samudrika reader only names it.
- Lalata rekha (forehead lines)The lines across the forehead, which the texts count and link to fortune. They deepen with age and expression, and lifespan is never read from them.
- 32 marks of a great manA Buddhist list of the marks of a great man, among them the urna between the brows, the ushnisha on the crown, 40 teeth and a voice like Brahma's.
- UrnaA tuft of hair between the brows, one of the Buddhist 32 marks of a great man.
- UshnishaThe rounded crown of Buddha images, one of the Buddhist 32 marks. The Hindu texts praise a head shaped like a parasol (chhatra).
- BimbaA red fruit to which the texts liken praised lips.
- Svara (voice)The voice. The texts praise one that is deep and resonant like a rain cloud or a drum. A voice changes with age, illness and shyness, so a reader quotes the texts and reads no fortune from it.
- Gati (gait)The way a person walks. The texts praise a gait like an elephant's, a bull's, a lion's or a swan's. Gait changes with health, age and disability, so it is never used to judge anyone.
- Kambu-grivaA neck like a conch with three soft lines, as the texts and poets describe gods and heroes.
- AjanubahuLong arms that reach the knees, the arms poets give Rama. A heroic ideal, never a measure of a person.
- Pada rekha (signs on the soles)The lotus, wheel, fish and conch on the soles, the same signs the texts look for on the palms, as in the footprints of Vishnu and the Buddha in art.
- Tila (mole)A mole. The texts give a result for a mole on each part of the body, learned as history. A mole that grows or changes is shown to a doctor, never read.
- Pitaka (eruption)An eruption on the skin. Brihat Samhita gives eruptions a chapter of their own, studied as history and never as a health sign.
- Lanchhana (birthmark)A birthmark, read in old books in the same spirit as touch omens. Studied as history.
- AngavidyaThe old practice of reading omens from the part of the body a person touched while asking a question. Brihat Samhita gives it a chapter and the Jain Angavijja a whole book. Studied as history.
- Pancha MahapurushaFive great types of person in Brihat Samhita, each tied to a graha: Ruchaka, Bhadra, Hamsa, Malavya and Shasha. They are ideal portraits; no person is a type.
- RuchakaThe great type tied to Mars. In Jyotish, Ruchaka yoga is Mars in its own or exaltation sign in a kendra from the Lagna.
- BhadraThe great type tied to Mercury. In Jyotish, Bhadra yoga is Mercury in its own or exaltation sign in a kendra from the Lagna.
- HamsaThe great type tied to Jupiter. In Jyotish, Hamsa yoga is Jupiter in its own or exaltation sign in a kendra from the Lagna.
- MalavyaThe great type tied to Venus. In Jyotish, Malavya yoga is Venus in its own or exaltation sign in a kendra from the Lagna.
- ShashaThe great type tied to Saturn. In Jyotish, Shasha yoga is Saturn in its own or exaltation sign in a kendra from the Lagna.
- DrekkanaA third of a sign, 10°. Brihat Jataka divides the body into three by the rising drekkana; a reader never checks a chart against anyone's marks.
- Stri lakshanaThe marks of women listed in Brihat Samhita and the Garuda Purana, beside those of men. Taught as history; no one is chosen or rejected for marriage by their body.
- PhysiognomyReading character from the face, as in Greek, Chinese and European traditions. People agree on first impressions from faces, but those impressions do not reliably match character.
- Purna phala (full reading)A full reading, from the whole to the parts: the first look, head and face, body, the hand for a palm reader, voice and gait, and a summary of three or four points.
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