The Rashi chart is the chart most people mean when they say “my kundali”. The word rashi means sign, and the chart is called D1 because each sign is divided into one part, which is to say it is not divided at all. A planet at 12 degrees of Taurus is simply in Taurus. Every other divisional chart in this section starts from exactly this information and then cuts the sign into smaller pieces.
On this page you will find how the D1 is cast, what it is read for, why the tradition treats it as the foundation, and where it sits in the scheme of sixteen vargas.
What the Rashi chart is read for
The Rashi chart is read for the whole of a life: the body and temperament (the Lagna and its lord), the mind (the Moon), the sense of purpose (the Sun), the way a person works and spends (the second, sixth, tenth and eleventh houses), relationships, home, learning, children, and the long arcs of difficulty and recovery. Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra treats it as the first of the sixteen vargas and as the chart against which all the others are judged. The twelve houses of the D1 each carry a set of meanings, which the site sets out in its guides to planets in the houses and to the house lords.
None of the finer charts can say anything the D1 does not at least hint at. A varga is a magnifying glass over one theme, and a glass is only useful when you already know what you are looking at.
How the chart is cast
Three facts are needed: the date, the exact time and the place of birth. The place gives the latitude and longitude, and with the time it fixes the position of the ascendant, the degree of the zodiac rising on the eastern horizon. The same moment gives the longitude of each planet.
Jyotish uses the sidereal zodiac, which is measured against the fixed stars and not against the seasons. The difference between the two is called the ayanamsa, and it is currently about 24 degrees. The site’s tools use the Lahiri ayanamsa, also called Chitrapaksha, and the mean position of Rahu. Other ayanamsas, such as Raman and Krishnamurti, are in use among practising astrologers, and near a sign boundary they can put a planet in a different sign. The method page says plainly where this is an open disagreement.
Each of the twelve signs spans 30 degrees, counted from 0 degrees of Aries. The sign of a planet in D1 is found by dividing its longitude by 30 and ignoring the remainder. Longitude 100 degrees, for example, is 3 times 30 plus 10, so the planet is 10 degrees into the fourth sign, Cancer. Aries is sign 1, Taurus 2, and so on to Pisces, 12.
Houses and the Lagna
In the Parashari system, the sign that holds the ascendant is the first house (the Lagna, or tanu bhava), the next sign is the second house, and so on, one sign per house. This is the whole-sign house system. Some teachers, especially in the Krishnamurti and Western traditions, use unequal houses cut from the degree of the ascendant, but for the Parashari vargas the whole-sign method is the one the rules assume.
Every divisional chart works the same way. It has its own Lagna, found by passing the ascendant’s degree through the same division rule as the planets, and its own houses counted from that Lagna. The page on the ascendant calculator shows how the rising sign is found, and the guides to each ascendant describe the twelve in turn.
The D1 within the sixteen vargas
Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra lists sixteen charts in what is called the Shodashavarga scheme. In order they are D1, D2, D3, D4, D7, D9, D10, D12, D16, D20, D24, D27, D30, D40, D45 and D60. The text also gives smaller sets for smaller jobs, called the Shadvarga (six charts), Saptavarga (seven) and Dashavarga (ten). The D1 appears in every set.
In the weighting commonly quoted for the Vimshopaka Bala, a score for how well a planet is placed across the vargas out of 20, the D1 carries the largest single share in the Shadvarga and a large one in the Shodashavarga. Teachers differ about how far such scores should be trusted, and the weighting is a convention, but it shows how the tradition sees the D1: the first among equals.
Vargottama and the link to the D9
A planet that falls in the same sign in the D1 and in a divisional chart is called vargottama, which means “best of the vargas”. The term is used most for the Navamsa (D9), where it is most widely applied. A vargottama planet is said to be steadied, because both charts agree on its sign. Vargottama in other vargas is also noticed by some practitioners, and the divisional charts calculator marks every planet that holds its sign in the varga you select.
The Rashi chart and the Navamsa are the pair most astrologers read side by side. The page on the Navamsa (D9) explains what the second chart adds.
How much weight teachers give it
Almost all schools give the D1 the greatest weight. Even teachers who lean heavily on the D9 or D10 begin with the Rashi chart, because the house a planet rules, the aspects it receives and the yogas it forms are all read in D1 first. The Parashari texts, the Jaimini method and the nakshatra-based predictive systems all take the D1 as their base.
The usual order of reading is simple: the D1 for the main promise, the relevant varga for detail on one theme, and the running dasha for the timing. A divisional chart that contradicts a very strong D1 is generally read as modifying it, not overturning it. This is tradition and practice, not a measured result, and a thoughtful practitioner holds it loosely.
Reading your own D1
If you want to see the Rashi chart next to any varga, the divisional charts calculator draws both, in North or South Indian style. To keep a paper copy, the printable kundali lays out the D1 and the planetary table. For the theory behind combinations in the chart, see the library of yogas.
The usual caution applies. A chart describes tendencies and themes. It does not fix events, and nothing in it replaces advice from a doctor, a lawyer or a counsellor where you need one.
Frequently asked questions
↳ Is the D1 chart the same as the birth chart?
Yes. D1 is the Rashi chart, which is the birth chart with each planet in its own sign. It is called D1 to sit in the same series as D9, D10 and the rest, where the number tells you how many parts each sign is cut into.
↳ Why is the D1 called the Rashi chart?
Rashi means sign. The chart shows each planet and the ascendant in the sign of the zodiac they occupied at birth, before any finer division is applied.
↳ Do I need the D1 if I only want to read the Navamsa?
You do. The Navamsa is worked from the sign and degree of each planet in the D1, and the tradition reads the two together. Reading the D9 alone loses the base it refines.
↳ How accurate does my birth time need to be for the D1?
The Lagna changes about every two hours, so a few minutes rarely matters for the D1 itself unless the ascendant is near a sign boundary. The finer vargas are far more sensitive, which is why the D1 is the steadiest chart to read from an uncertain birth time.
↳ Which ayanamsa does the site use for the D1?
Lahiri, also called Chitrapaksha, with the mean node. A chart cast with another ayanamsa can differ for a planet near the end of a sign.