What is Chakras (Charts) in Vedic Astrology

Chakras (Charts) in Vedic Astrology

A “chart” (Sanskrit name: chakra) is prepared with the information of rasis occupied by all planets. For preparing any chart, we need to first determine the rasis occupied by all planets, upagrahas, lagna and special lagnas. In the visual
representation of a chart, there are 12 boxes (are some other visual areas) with each representing a rasi. All planets, upagrahas and lagnas are written in the boxes corresponding to the rasis they occupy.
There are 3 popular ways of drawing charts in India: (1) South Indian style chart ruled by Jupiter, (2) North Indian style diamond chart ruled by Venus and (3) East Indian style Sun chart ruled by Sun. In this book, all the charts will be given in
formats (1) and (2).
Out of the three chart formats, (1) and (3) are rasi-based and (2) is bhava-based. In rasi-based chart drawing formats, a rasi is always at a fixed position. Ar is always in one particular position and Ta is in another position and so on. Planets, lagna etc are placed in the box (or the visual area) representing the rasi occupied by it. In bhavabased chart drawing formats, a bhava (house) is always at a fixed position. Lagna (denoted by “Asc” for ascendant) is always in a particular visual area of the chart and the 2nd, 3rd etc houses are in fixed positions.
Example 1: Let us take Lord Sree Rama’s rasi chart. The rasis occupied by planets and lagna are given below.

Ar – Sun; Ta – Mercury; Ge – Ketu; Cn – Ascendant (lagna), Moon & Jupiter; Li – Saturn; Sg – Rahu; Cp – Mars; Pi – Venus.

Part 1: Chart Analysis 9
Figure 1: Indian Chart Styles

Rasi chart for the above data is drawn in South Indian, North Indian and East Indian formats in Figure 1. In the south Indian chart, notice the boxes containing Ar, Ta, Ge etc. In this format, these rasis will always be in the same positions. The same holds for the east Indian format. The north Indian format is different. Note the box containing “Asc” (ascendant – lagna). The same box will show the house containing 10 Vedic Astrology: An Integrated Approach lagna in all north Indian format charts. It may be Ar in one chart, Ta in another and Ge in yet another. The number corresponding to the rasi (1 for Ar, 2 for Ta, 3 for Ge and so on) is shown in the box. For example, the box with “Asc” has 4 in it and it shows Cn. So the 1st house is in Cn. Please note the order in which houses are visually arranged in this chart. The same pattern will be used in all charts.

NOTE: Some people draw the east Indian format charts with an enclosing rectangle.

By P.V.R. Narasimha Rao