Arudha Lagna Calculator

Substance and image: why a house needs an arudha

A house in the birth chart stands for something real: the first for the body and the self, the second for wealth, the tenth for work. The tradition draws a line between that reality and its appearance. The arudha of a house is the sign where the matter of that house is perceived, where it shows up in the eyes of other people and in tangible circumstance. The image usually offered is a mirror: the house is the face, and the pada is what the glass returns.

For the first house that distinction is easy to feel. The lagna, its lord and its occupants speak about temperament, health and inner disposition. The arudha lagna speaks about status, the impression a person makes, the role that others assign them. Two people with the same rising sign can carry very different public images, and the AL is the point Jaimini practice turns to when it asks about that image. It is a reference point for reading, not a description of character.

The counting rule, one step at a time

Every pada is found the same way. Start at the house in question and note its sign. Find the lord of that sign and see which sign the lord occupies. Count how many signs it is from the house to the lord, counting inclusively, so that the house itself is one and the next sign is two. Then start from the lord and count that same number again. The sign you land on is the pada of the house.

Put more compactly: the pada lies as far beyond the lord as the lord lies beyond the house. A lord placed in the fourth from its house throws the pada into the fourth from the lord, which is the seventh from the house. A lord in the second throws it into the third. The count always runs forward through the zodiac, Aries to Taurus to Gemini, whatever the direction of the sign.

The table repeats this for all twelve houses in order. The pada of the first house is the AL, the pada of the seventh is the A7 or Dara pada, and the pada of the twelfth is the Upapada, which has its own page. The others are numbered A2 to A11, with traditional names for several of them.

The two exceptions that move a pada

Brihat Parasara Hora Sastra adds a correction that changes many results. An arudha is not allowed to fall in the house it belongs to, nor in the seventh sign from that house. If the plain count lands in either place, the pada is moved to the tenth sign counted from where it landed.

In practice there are two common ways to trigger it. When a lord sits in its own house, the distance is one and the second count also ends on the house, so the pada moves to the tenth from the house. When a lord sits in the seventh from its house, counting seven again comes full circle back to the house, so once more the pada moves to the tenth from it. A lord placed in the fourth or the tenth from its house sends the plain count to the seventh, and the tenth from that seventh is the fourth from the house.

Some writers treat these exceptions differently, and a calculator that applies none of them will disagree with this one for any house whose lord sits in the house itself or in its seventh. This engine applies both, following Parashara.

Scorpio, Aquarius and the question of which lord

Ten signs have one lord each. Scorpio is held by Mars and Ketu together, and Aquarius by Saturn and Rahu, and for a house in either sign the counting rule first needs a choice: which of the two lords to count to. The classical texts give criteria for judging the stronger lord, such as conjunctions, dignity and degrees, and both texts and software apply them in different orders.

This engine follows one simple convention. When one of the two lords occupies the sign itself, it counts from the other. When both or neither occupy it, the texts call for a strength comparison between the two lords, the step where methods vary most. This is a convention, not the only classical reading, and it is the most frequent reason two arudha calculators give different padas for the same birth.

The example chart shows how much rides on the choice. Its lagna is Scorpio, and Mars sits in Scorpio. Counting from Ketu, in Capricorn, gives the AL as Pisces. Counting from Mars instead gives a distance of one, the exception applies, and the AL becomes Leo, the tenth from Scorpio. Pisces and Leo are both defensible answers, each correct under its own convention, which is why the source line states the one this page uses.

Reading the table of twelve padas

Each row names a pada, the sign it falls in, and that sign's whole-sign house counted from the lagna. Besides the AL, several padas carry names of their own: the A2 is the Dhanarudha, the image of wealth; the A4 the Matri pada; the A5 the Mantra pada; the A6 the Roga pada; the A7 the Dara pada; the A8 the Mrityu pada; the A9 the Bhagya pada; the A10 the Karma pada; the A11 the Labha pada; and the twelfth, the UL, the Upapada. The A3, the Bhratri pada, is often just called the third pada.

Jaimini practice reads the padas mainly in relation to each other and to the AL, for instance noting which houses from the AL the other padas fall in, or which planets occupy and aspect the AL. Two padas can share a sign, and in the example several do. None of this is a verdict; a pada marks where a theme of the chart is looked for.

The 1961 chart, pada by pada

The example is drawn for 13 December 1961 at 05:30 in Channarayapatna, India, with the Lahiri ayanamsa. Scorpio rises at 11°23′. Mars at 27°54′, the Sun at 27°25′, Mercury at 25°34′ and Venus at 16°33′ all stand in Scorpio; Jupiter at 13°07′, Saturn at 4°17′ and Ketu at 27°41′ in Capricorn; the Moon at 3°18′ of Aquarius; Rahu at 27°41′ of Cancer.

For the AL, Mars is in the lagna, so the engine counts to Ketu. Capricorn is the third from Scorpio, and the third from Capricorn is Pisces: the AL is Pisces, the fifth house. For the A7, the seventh house is Taurus and its lord Venus sits in Scorpio, the seventh from Taurus. Seven more signs from Scorpio return to Taurus itself, so the exception moves the pada to the tenth from Taurus, which is Aquarius, the fourth house.

The full set reads: AL Pisces (5th), A2 Aquarius (4th), A3 Libra (12th), A4 Sagittarius (2nd), A5 Scorpio (1st), A6 Gemini (8th), A7 Aquarius (4th), A8 Aries (6th), A9 Virgo (11th), A10 Scorpio (1st), A11 Capricorn (3rd) and UL Sagittarius (2nd). Scorpio holds two padas, and so do Aquarius and Sagittarius, a consequence of four lords crowding into one sign.

When a pada is sensitive to the inputs

A pada depends on two things: which sign each house occupies, and where each lord sits. The first is fixed by the lagna, so a birth time that moves the rising sign into its neighbour renumbers every house and changes most of the padas at once. If the lagna degree in the result is within a degree or two of a sign boundary, treat the whole table as provisional until the time is checked.

Lords near the edge of a sign are the other weak point. A lord that crosses into the next sign moves its pada two signs, because the distance changes on both legs of the count. The ayanamsa can matter here too, since a shift of a degree is enough to carry a lord across a boundary. Where a result surprises you, look first at the lagna degree and at the lord's degree before looking at the interpretation.

How do I calculate my arudha lagna?

Find the sign of your lagna and where its lord sits. Count the signs from the lagna to the lord, then count the same number again from the lord. If you land on the lagna or the seventh from it, move to the tenth from that sign. Entering your birth details above does all of this, including the choice of lord for Scorpio and Aquarius.

Why does my arudha lagna differ between websites?

Most often the chart has a Scorpio or Aquarius house and the sites pick different lords, or one site skips the exceptions that move a pada. A different birth time or ayanamsa can also move the lagna or a lord across a sign. Compare the lagna sign and the lord's position on both sites before comparing their padas.

What is the difference between lagna and arudha lagna?

The lagna is the sign rising at birth and stands for the person themself, their body and nature. The arudha lagna is derived from it by counting through its lord, and Jaimini practice reads it for how that person is seen: standing, reputation and outward circumstance. One is the substance, the other the image.

Can the arudha lagna fall in the same sign as the lagna?

Not under the rule this calculator follows. If the count would place the AL in the first house or the seventh, the pada is shifted to the tenth from that landing sign. A calculator that ignores the exceptions can show the AL in the lagna itself, which is one quick way to spot that it uses a different method.

What are the twelve arudha padas called?

They run from the AL for the first house to the Upapada for the twelfth. In between are the Dhanarudha (A2), the third pada (A3), the Matri pada (A4), Mantra pada (A5), Roga pada (A6), Dara pada (A7), Mrityu pada (A8), Bhagya pada (A9), Karma pada (A10) and Labha pada (A11).

Does the arudha lagna need an exact birth time?

Yes. The padas are counted from houses, and the houses start from the rising sign, which changes roughly every two hours. A time accurate to the nearest quarter of an hour is usually enough unless the lagna sits near the edge of its sign, in which case even a small error can move every pada.