[:en]Recently I have started to study Jyotish. I knew, of course, that I would learn many new elements and that perspectives on certain topics might be different but I had not expected that the first surprise would be such a a simple thing as the to find the ascendant!
Most of us western astrologers are used to the wheel chart. It represents the cosmic sphere, has the AC on the left and ideally shows the positions of the planets as we would look at the sky. Only that it is not accurate anymore due to precession of the equinoxes, so that the stars’ position in the sky are correct but they zodiacal constellations do not agree (anymore) with the signs and that the tropical zodiac is a fixed one. I will not discuss the matter of the tropical and sideral zodiac here.
I also knew that the Indians use square charts, just as the western astrologers did until not too much time ago. These western square charts usually have an inner square for the birth data and then another square that is positioned on one of its corners which represent the angular houses. The second square is within a third square, and shows the other houses, just as in the image below. In these charts, the AC is always on the left on the corner of the inner square, while the signs and eventually the degrees of the house are shown along the lines of the house divisions. In the example below, I use WSH, so each house cusp has 0° of a sign, but we could as well use quadrant houses, the chart would not look different, only the house indications would change.
Greek charts are different. They are composed of one big square that is divided into 4 small squares above, other 4 small squares below and two on each side. The AC is always on the left. In some very ancient Greek charts, the AC can be found on top of the chart, where later tradition has the MC.
In the image below we can see the usual shape of a Greek chart.
My friend and collegue Ashwin Balaji introduced my to the South Indian chart. I had assumed that I would read it just in the same way as a western square chart. But this was not the case.
In the western charts, the AC is always in a fixed positions while the signs on the house cusps change. So while the AC is always on the left corner, it can by in any sign, just as the houses.
The South Indian chart, is, at first glace, rather similar to the Greek chart, but there are no indications of the signs in the somewhat sudoku-like looking inner squares of the chart.
This is because, there is no fixed position for the AC, but only for the signs. It follows, that the inner squares (called Rasi) always show the same signs and the AC can therefore be in any of these Rasi. Once we know, where Aries is, we know where all the other signs are and can read the chart. Just as in western astrology, Aries is considered to be the first sign. In the teaching tool below we can see that Aries always occupies the second rasi from the left.
So if we have the AC in Aquarius, the 11th sign, it will be placed in the 11th Rasi, as we can see in the image of the Rasi chart above the teaching tool. As a consequence, the corners of this square chart do not represent the angles (AC-DC, MC-IC) as in the medieval chart, but the common signs: left corner (12) is Pisces, right corner (3) is Gemini, right corner below is Virgo and left corner below is Sagittarius. This fixed system makes is very easily to draw a chart by hand indeed!
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