Jyotish Term
Bhava — भाव
Short answer. Bhava is the Vedic term for a house in the birth chart — one of twelve life-domain divisions. Each bhava governs a specific set of life themes: the 1st rules self, the 7th rules marriage, the 10th rules career, and so on.
The twelve bhavas are: 1st (lagna / self, body, vitality), 2nd (wealth, speech, family), 3rd (siblings, courage, short journeys), 4th (mother, home, emotional foundation), 5th (children, intellect, romance), 6th (enemies, disease, debt), 7th (marriage, partnerships), 8th (longevity, transformation, hidden matters), 9th (father, dharma, fortune), 10th (career, status, public life), 11th (gains, friends, elder siblings), 12th (loss, foreign lands, liberation). In Vedic astrology, the placement of a planet in a specific bhava determines which life domain it influences; the lord of a bhava (the planet ruling its sign) carries the bhava's significations into whichever house the lord itself occupies. The classical house system used is the whole-sign system: each house occupies exactly one full rashi, with no partial cusps. This is distinct from the Placidus or Koch systems used in Western astrology.
Related terms
- Whole-Sign House System — The whole-sign house system is the classical Vedic method for dividing a chart into houses: whichever rashi the Ascendant falls in becomes the entire first house, the next rashi the entire second house, and so on. Each house occupies exactly one full sign — no partial cusps.
- Lagna — Lagna, also called the Ascendant, is the sign rising on the eastern horizon at the moment of birth. It defines the first house of the chart and is the foundation of how all other planets are read.
- Rashi — Rashi is the Vedic term for a zodiac sign — one of twelve 30° divisions of the sidereal zodiac. Each rashi has a ruling planet, an element, and a quality that shapes how planets in that sign behave.
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