AstrologgerA kundli divides the sky into twelve bhavas, counted from the sign rising at your birth. Each house governs one department of life, and a planet sitting in a house is read as energising that department in the style of the sign it occupies. Every house below has its own page with the significations, the karaka planet, and what a strong and an afflicted placement each read as.
| House | Name | Natural sign | Karaka | Governs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Tanu Bhava | Aries | Sun | Self and identity, Physical body and vitality, Personality and temperament |
| 2nd | Dhana Bhava | Taurus | Jupiter, Venus | Accumulated wealth and savings, Speech and the voice, Immediate family |
| 3rd | Sahaja Bhava | Gemini | Mars | Courage and initiative, Younger siblings, Communication and writing |
| 4th | Sukha Bhava | Cancer | Moon | Home and property, Mother, Inner peace and contentment |
| 5th | Putra Bhava | Leo | Jupiter | Children, Creativity and self-expression, Romance |
| 6th | Ari Bhava | Virgo | Mars, Saturn | Health and illness, Debt, Adversaries and competition |
| 7th | Yuvati Bhava | Libra | Venus | Marriage and the spouse, Business partnership, Open dealings with others |
| 8th | Randhra Bhava | Scorpio | Saturn | Longevity, Sudden events and upheaval, Inheritance and others’ money |
| 9th | Dharma Bhava | Sagittarius | Jupiter, Sun | Fortune and grace, Father and the guru, Higher learning and philosophy |
| 10th | Karma Bhava | Capricorn | Saturn, Sun | Career and profession, Public standing and reputation, Authority |
| 11th | Labha Bhava | Aquarius | Jupiter | Income and gains, Ambitions and desires fulfilled, Friends and networks |
| 12th | Vyaya Bhava | Pisces | Saturn, Ketu | Expenditure and loss, Foreign lands and distance, Solitude and withdrawal |
Classical texts read the twelve houses in overlapping groups rather than one at a time. These four matter most, and a house can belong to more than one.
Kendra (angular) — Houses 1, 4, 7 and 10 — the structural pillars of a chart, where a planet shows its nature most openly.
Trikona (trine) — Houses 1, 5 and 9 — the houses of fortune and past merit, treated as the most auspicious.
Dusthana (difficult) — Houses 6, 8 and 12 — difficulty, debt and loss, where a planet works through friction.
Upachaya (growing) — Houses 3, 6, 10 and 11 — read as improving with effort, which is why malefics here are considered useful.
Every house has a lord — the planet ruling the sign that falls on it, called the bhavesh. Which planet lords which house is not fixed: it shifts with your ascendant, because the signs rotate around the twelve houses as the Lagna changes. The table above gives each house its natural sign, which is the sign it would carry for an Aries ascendant; for any other Lagna, count forward from your own rising sign.
The lord matters as much as the house, and often more. A house with no planet in it is still read in full through where its lord sits and how strong it is — which is why an empty house is never an inactive one. Classical Raja yogas are built largely from relationships between the lords of the Kendra and Trikona houses rather than from planets sitting in those houses at all.
This is the question people arrive most worried about, and the honest answer is dull: nine grahas spread across twelve houses means at least three houses are empty in every chart, and usually more. An empty house is the normal case. It carries no defect, and it is read through its sign and its lord exactly as an occupied house is.
Each house page below answers the empty-house question for that house specifically, because the reading does differ — an empty sixth is generally welcome, while an empty seventh is frequently and wrongly read as a statement about marriage.
Four steps, in this order. Find the Lagna first — it sets which sign falls on the first house, and every other house follows from it. Then note the sign on each house, counting forward from the Lagna. Then place the planets: a graha’s house shows the department of life it energises, its sign shows the style. Finally, for each house you care about, find its lord and see where that lord sits — this is the step most beginners skip, and it is the one that carries the empty houses.
The free kundli does the first three steps for you and reports each planet’s house, its Bhava Chalit house and its exact degree. The Bhava Chalit distinction matters here: a planet can sit in one rashi house and a different chalit house, and lineages differ on which to read for a given question.
Tanu (Lagna), Dhana, Sahaja, Sukha, Putra, Ari, Yuvati, Randhra, Dharma, Karma, Labha and Vyaya. Each governs one area of life, and all twelve are counted from the ascendant.
Start with the Lagna — it sets which sign falls on the first house. Then read the sign on each house and the planets occupying it. A planet’s house shows the area of life it energises; its sign shows the style it acts with.
The tradition treats the Trikona houses (1, 5 and 9) as the most auspicious, with the ninth the strongest of them. The Kendra houses (1, 4, 7, 10) are the most structurally important. The first house is the only one in both groups.
The full method is in how to read your kundli. For the yogas houses form, see Raj yoga in kundli; for the afflictions they carry, Manglik dosha, Kaal Sarp dosha, Sade Sati and Pitra dosh. The role houses play in marriage is covered under kundali matching, and the nakshatra layer under nakshatras.
To see which signs and planets fall on these houses in your own chart, generate your free kundli.