Which divisional charts are actually used in practice?

Most readings use D1, D9 and D10, adding others for specific questions — D7 for children, D4 for property, D24 for education. All sixteen are computed here so the less common ones are available when a question calls for them.

Why do divisional charts differ between websites?

Two reasons. Different ayanamsa settings shift every longitude, which matters more the finer the division. And some calculators use lower-precision planetary positions that are adequate for D1 but not for D30 or D60.

Divisional charts — the shodashvarga

A varga chart subdivides each sign and rebuilds the whole horoscope from those subdivisions. The classical set is sixteen — the shodashvarga — each read for a particular department of life. All sixteen are computed here from the same birth moment.

The sixteen, and what each is read for

D1 rashi — the life as lived. D2 hora — wealth. D3 drekkana — siblings, courage. D4 chaturthamsha — property and home. D7 saptamsha — children. D9 navamsha — marriage, inner strength. D10 dashamsha — career and status. D12 dwadashamsha — parents. D16 shodashamsha — vehicles, comforts. D20 vimshamsha — spiritual practice. D24 chaturvimshamsha — education. D27 bhamsha — strengths and weaknesses. D30 trimshamsha — misfortune. D40 khavedamsha — maternal legacy. D45 akshavedamsha — paternal legacy. D60 shashtiamsha — the totality, and the finest division Parashara describes.

How a varga is built

Each division takes the planet's longitude within its sign, splits that 30-degree span into equal parts, and maps the part the planet falls in to a sign by a rule specific to that varga. The mapping rules differ — the hora divides by two but assigns only to Cancer and Leo, the drekkana by three in trines — so a varga is not simply a rescaling of the rashi chart.

Why the high divisions expose weak ephemerides

A D60 division spans exactly half a degree. The Moon covers that in about an hour; a birth time uncertain by two minutes can already place it in a neighbouring shashtiamsha. Any error in the underlying planetary longitude is multiplied by sixty. This is the practical reason to care which ephemeris a calculator uses: at D1 almost anything agrees, at D60 only genuinely accurate positions do.

Questions

Which divisional charts are actually used in practice?: Most readings use D1, D9 and D10, adding others for specific questions — D7 for children, D4 for property, D24 for education. All sixteen are computed here so the less common ones are available when a question calls for them.
Why do divisional charts differ between websites?: Two reasons. Different ayanamsa settings shift every longitude, which matters more the finer the division. And some calculators use lower-precision planetary positions that are adequate for D1 but not for D30 or D60.

Cast this on a real chart

Enter a birth date, time and place and every calculation described here is available on the chart page.

Open the calculator

Navamsha — the D9 chart — The navamsha divides each sign into nine parts of 3°20'. What D9 shows about marriage, inner strength and whether a promising placement actually delivers.
The kundali (birth chart) — A janam kundali is a map of the sky at a birth moment. How the rashi chart is built, why birth time matters to the minute, and how sidereal positions are computed.
Ayanamsa — the sidereal offset — Lahiri, Raman, Krishnamurti and the rest. What the ayanamsa is, why it grows about a degree every 72 years, and how much your chart changes if you switch.