Jyotish Term
Whole-Sign House System
Short answer. 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.
Whole-sign is the oldest house system in classical astrology, predating the Placidus and Koch systems by more than a millennium. It is the system used in the original Sanskrit texts — Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, Phaladeepika, Jataka Parijata — and is the system used by Zavora. The rule is simple: the rashi containing the Ascendant degree IS the first house, the next rashi (counted clockwise in North Indian style, counter-clockwise in South Indian style) IS the second house, and so on through all twelve. Unlike Placidus, there is no partial cusp where one house ends mid-sign; every house contains exactly one full 30° sign. This produces a clean, computationally stable chart structure that does not break at high latitudes — a known failure mode of Placidus. The trade-off is reduced sensitivity to the angles (Midheaven, IC) as house cusps; in Vedic practice, these angles are read separately as bhavachalit chart adjustments where needed.
Related terms
- Bhava — 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.
- 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.
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