Chaturthamsa (D4): your chart of home, land and fortune
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Enter your birth details to put every planet in one of the four quarters of its sign and draw the D4 alongside your birth chart. Below: the rule with a worked example, how an astrologer reads the chart for home, land and fortune, and where its usefulness for property decisions ends.
How the chaturthamsa is worked out
The D4 divides every sign into four quarters of 7°30′. The first quarter is assigned the sign itself, the second the fourth sign from it, the third the seventh and the fourth the tenth. In Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra this is the rule for the chaturthamsa, and it is the only one the calculator uses. Since the four signs reached this way are angles (kendras) from one another, they always share the quality of the sign being divided: the quarters of Mesh fall in Mesh, Kark, Tula and Makar, all movable signs.
The calculator asks for the date and time of birth with the UTC offset; a city, or coordinates for anywhere else, adds the lagna. It computes the sidereal positions (Lahiri ayanamsa), shows the D4 and the birth chart side by side in your choice of North or South Indian style, and tabulates each planet with its birth-chart degree, the quarter it is in and its D4 sign. Rahu and Ketu use the mean nodes, with a note if the true nodes would differ.
A worked example
Take a Moon at 3°10′ in Kark. That is inside the first 7°30′, so it is the first quarter and the D4 sign is Kark itself. The other rows below follow the same steps: find the quarter, then count on by three signs for each quarter after the first.
| Sample planet | Birth-chart position | Quarter | D4 sign |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moon | 3°10′ Kark | 1st of 4 | Kark |
| Venus | 18°45′ Tula | 3rd of 4 | Mesh |
| Mars | 27°05′ Makar | 4th of 4 | Tula |
| Saturn | 9°20′ Vrishabh | 2nd of 4 | Singh |
The full pattern for every sign:
| Birth-chart sign | Quality | Quarters 1 to 4 fall in |
|---|---|---|
| Mesh | movable | Mesh, Kark, Tula, Makar |
| Vrishabh | fixed | Vrishabh, Singh, Vrishchik, Kumbh |
| Mithun | dual | Mithun, Kanya, Dhanu, Meen |
| Kark | movable | Kark, Tula, Makar, Mesh |
| Singh | fixed | Singh, Vrishchik, Kumbh, Vrishabh |
| Kanya | dual | Kanya, Dhanu, Meen, Mithun |
| Tula | movable | Tula, Makar, Mesh, Kark |
| Vrishchik | fixed | Vrishchik, Kumbh, Vrishabh, Singh |
| Dhanu | dual | Dhanu, Meen, Mithun, Kanya |
| Makar | movable | Makar, Mesh, Kark, Tula |
| Kumbh | fixed | Kumbh, Vrishabh, Singh, Vrishchik |
| Meen | dual | Meen, Mithun, Kanya, Dhanu |
Home, land and fortune in the D4
Parashara’s own word for what the chaturthamsa shows is fortune (bhagya). Over time, practitioners have tied it closely to the fourth house: the home you live in, land and buildings, vehicles, and the settled comfort that fixed assets bring. In a consultation it is usually opened when a client asks about property, moving or a family home.
The reading normally begins in the birth chart. The astrologer looks at the fourth house, its lord and the planets aspecting it, then at the natural significators: Mars for land and buildings, Venus for vehicles and comforts, and the Moon for the feeling of home. The D4 is then used to see whether that picture holds: is the fourth lord strong or weak in the D4, which planets occupy the fourth house counted from the D4 lagna, and is the D4 lagna lord well placed? A planet that looks favourable for property in the birth chart but lands in its debilitation sign in the D4 is read with more reserve.
Timing comes from the dashas and transits, not from the D4. Many astrologers note when a period begins of a planet that is strong in both the birth chart and the D4 and connected with the fourth house, and treat it as where an astrologer starts looking for property questions. That is a talking point, not a forecast.
Using the D4 around a property decision
Clients sometimes want a chart to approve or reject a particular flat or plot. The D4 cannot do that: it describes you, not the building. The practical decision rests on the title, the structure, the price and your finances, and those need a lawyer, a surveyor or engineer, and a financial adviser. Where astrology does come in, choosing a date for a griha pravesh or a registration is muhurta work, a separate technique that starts from your birth star and the sky on the chosen day rather than from the D4.
Questions to ask your astrologer about your D4 chart
- What does my fourth house in the birth chart show before you turn to the chaturthamsa?
- Is my fourth lord stronger or weaker in the D4, and why?
- Which upcoming dasha periods connect to the fourth house in both charts?
- Is my birth time close enough to a D4 lagna change that the houses could shift?
- Are you reading the D4 for property specifically, or for fortune more broadly?
If you are paying for a detailed reading on a property question, our guide to astrologer consultation fees helps you judge what is reasonable.
Frequently asked questions
What does chaturthamsa mean?
It means a fourth part. Each sign is cut into four segments of 7°30′, and each segment is given a sign under the Parashari rule. The chart made from those signs is the D4, one of the sixteen divisional charts of the Parashari system.
Will the D4 tell me when I will buy a house?
Not by itself. Astrologers who discuss property timing look first at the dashas and transits affecting the fourth house of the birth chart and its lord, and use the D4 to judge how well supported that area is. Whether and when to buy depends on your finances, the market and professional advice, not on a chart.
My D4 has malefics in the fourth house. Is that a problem?
It is one factor among many. An astrologer will ask whose sign those planets occupy, whether they are strong, how the fourth house of the birth chart looks and which dasha you are in. A single placement in a divisional chart is never a verdict on your home life.
How exact must my birth time be for the D4 lagna?
The rising degree spends about half an hour in each chaturthamsa on average, so a time accurate to within a few minutes is usually enough. The result tells you when the D4 lagna changes within eight minutes of the time you entered, and shows the clock window over which it stays the same.
Why do the four parts of a sign always land in signs of the same kind?
Because the count goes sign, fourth, seventh, tenth, and those four are the angles from each other. Angles from a movable sign are all movable, from a fixed sign all fixed, and from a dual sign all dual, so a planet's D4 sign always shares its birth-chart sign's quality.
Do you save the birth details I use here?
We cannot: they never leave your screen. The chaturthamsa positions are calculated by the page itself on your computer or phone, nothing is posted to Astro Meet, nothing is written to browser storage, and the link you see stays unchanged.