Pillar article
Whole-Sign Houses from the Sidereal Lagna
Houses here are whole signs counted from the sidereal lagna. Jyothish SI sets that lagna with the Lahiri ayanamsa, then takes the rising sign as house 1 and each following sign as the next house. A planet at the end of a sign is still in that sign's house. It does not leak into the next bhava.
Why the sign and the house share a name
If Kanya rises, Kanya is the 1st, Tula the 2nd, Vrishchika the 3rd, and so on to Simha as the 12th. Mercury in Kanya is in the 1st even if it is late in the sign. Mars in Makara is in the 5th, because Makara is fifth from Kanya. That is the whole-sign rule. Unequal house systems slice signs by degree and can put a graha in a different house from its sign. Those systems exist. They are not the count these pages use when they say 'Ketu in the 5th in Makara.' If you mix a degree-house printout with a sign-house sentence, you will invent yogas. Pick one count and stay with it.
The lagna degree still matters
Whole sign does not throw away the degree. The degree decides the nakshatra, the pada, and how far a graha has traveled, which Jaimini uses for the atmakaraka. It also decides whether the lagna is early or late in the sign, which changes the navamsa rising. What the degree does not do, in this method, is move a graha into the next house while it remains in the same rashi. Birth time errors of a few minutes can change the lagna sign itself near a boundary. That is a real sensitivity. It is a different problem from cusp-house arguments.
Lords are lords of signs
The 10th lord is the lord of the 10th sign, not the lord of a degree-cusp that might fall in the previous sign. For Simha lagna the 10th sign is Vrishabha and the 10th lord is Venus, full stop. Remedies, yogas, and dasha promises on these pages use that lord. If your software prints a different 10th lord, it is using another house system or another ayanamsa. Lahiri whole sign will not match it, and the mismatch is not a second opinion about your life. It is a second definition of 'house.'
Frequently asked questions
Can a planet in one sign occupy two houses?
Not in whole-sign reckoning. The sign is the house. Degree-based systems can split a sign. Say which system you are reading before you name a yoga.
Does the ascendant degree get ignored?
No. It fixes the nakshatra of the lagna and the navamsa. It does not, by itself, push a graha into the next whole-sign house.
What if the birth time is uncertain by twenty minutes?
Near the end of a sign, twenty minutes can change the lagna and every lord. Away from the boundary, the sign often holds. The city offset and daylight saving belong in that check.
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D1, D9, D10, dashas, yogas, and transits, the same calculations referenced in this article.