D40 Khavedamsa Chart: Forty Parts of 0°45′ in Every Sign

The D40 divides each sign into 40 slivers of 0°45′, three-quarters of a degree each, and gives every sliver a sign. For all its forty columns it is one of the easiest charts in the Parashari set to look up, because the twelve signs collapse into just two patterns: one shared by the six odd signs, the other by the six even ones. This page builds both patterns from the rule, counts what is in them, and shows where the chart breaks at each sign boundary.

D40 Chart in Astrology: Khavedamsha and Chatvarimshamsha

Two names are in use for the same chart. Chatvarimshat is the Sanskrit for forty, so the chatvarimshamsha (chatvarimsamsa) is plainly the chart of fortieths. Khavedamsha, also spelt khavedamsa, is the name the site’s table of the sixteen uses. The D40 is the 14th chart in that Parashari list, and the shodashvarga hub sets it beside the others.

The list gives the D40 the heading “auspicious and inauspicious effects”. The page reports that heading and attaches nothing to it: no D40 sign or part below is read as good or bad, and no other field of life is assigned to the chart here.

Odd Signs Count From Aries, Even Signs From Libra

Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra starts the first part of an odd sign (Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius and Aquarius) at Aries, and the first part of an even sign (Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn and Pisces) at Libra. Every later part moves on one sign. The start is fixed: it does not depend on which odd sign or which even sign the graha is in, only on which of the two kinds it is. That is the whole reason Aries, Leo and every other odd sign carry exactly the same forty D40 signs in the same order, and the six even signs likewise. The even pattern is the odd pattern moved on six signs, so at any given degree an odd sign and an even sign land on a pair of opposite signs.

The Lookup: Twelve Rows for Forty Parts

Find the degree in the right-hand column, then read across to the odd-sign or even-sign column.

Three Rounds of the Zodiac and Four Signs Over

Forty is three twelves and four more. Inside any one sign the count therefore goes round the whole zodiac three times and then takes four further steps, so four signs appear four times in a row and the other eight appear three times. Which four depends only on the starting point. An odd row, starting at Aries, gives the extra part to Aries, Taurus, Gemini and Cancer; an even row, starting at Libra, gives it to Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius and Capricorn. Over the whole twelve-by-forty table those eight signs fill 42 cells each, and Leo, Virgo, Aquarius and Pisces, which never take an extra part, fill 36 each.

Own-Sign Parts: Four for Aries, Gemini, Scorpio and Capricorn

A sign gets itself back in the D40 once on every round of the count, at parts twelve apart, which is 9° of the sign. Most signs do this three times. A sign that is also one of its own row’s four extra signs does it a 4th time, and only Aries, Gemini, Scorpio and Capricorn are in that position. In full:

• Aries (odd): parts 1, 13, 25 and 37, at 0°00′–0°45′, 9°00′–9°45′, 18°00′–18°45′ and 27°00′–27°45′
• Taurus (even): parts 8, 20 and 32, at 5°15′–6°00′, 14°15′–15°00′ and 23°15′–24°00′
• Gemini (odd): parts 3, 15, 27 and 39, at 1°30′–2°15′, 10°30′–11°15′, 19°30′–20°15′ and 28°30′–29°15′
• Cancer (even): parts 10, 22 and 34, at 6°45′–7°30′, 15°45′–16°30′ and 24°45′–25°30′
• Leo (odd): parts 5, 17 and 29, at 3°00′–3°45′, 12°00′–12°45′ and 21°00′–21°45′
• Virgo (even): parts 12, 24 and 36, at 8°15′–9°00′, 17°15′–18°00′ and 26°15′–27°00′
• Libra (odd): parts 7, 19 and 31, at 4°30′–5°15′, 13°30′–14°15′ and 22°30′–23°15′
• Scorpio (even): parts 2, 14, 26 and 38, at 0°45′–1°30′, 9°45′–10°30′, 18°45′–19°30′ and 27°45′–28°30′
• Sagittarius (odd): parts 9, 21 and 33, at 6°00′–6°45′, 15°00′–15°45′ and 24°00′–24°45′
• Capricorn (even): parts 4, 16, 28 and 40, at 2°15′–3°00′, 11°15′–12°00′, 20°15′–21°00′ and 29°15′–30°00′
• Aquarius (odd): parts 11, 23 and 35, at 7°30′–8°15′, 16°30′–17°15′ and 25°30′–26°15′
• Pisces (even): parts 6, 18 and 30, at 3°45′–4°30′, 12°45′–13°30′ and 21°45′–22°30′

The rashi–navamsa agreement known as vargottama uses a single 3°20′ arc per sign; in the D40 the agreement is broken into these short pieces.

Not One Chain: A Jump at Every Sign Boundary

In the navamsa (D9) the first part of each sign takes the sign just after the last part of the sign before, so the whole zodiac is one unbroken count. The D40 does not join up anywhere. Every odd sign ends on Cancer, and the even sign after it starts at Libra, the 4th sign from Cancer. Every even sign ends on Capricorn, and the odd sign after it starts at Aries, again the 4th from it. All twelve boundaries are the same jump: two signs are skipped each time a degree crosses from one sign into the next.

How Much the Birth Time Matters

Of the sixteen charts, only the D45 and the D60 have smaller parts than the D40. The lagna, the degree on the eastern horizon, passes through all forty of a sign’s parts each time it crosses that sign, so its D40 sign changes far more often than its rashi or navamsa sign. A birth time that is a little off can leave the lagna in the next part or the one after, and at the end of a sign the step is the jump to the 4th sign. A D40 lagna is therefore only as dependable as the birth time behind it. The D40 signs of the grahas are far less exposed to the same error, since no graha covers ground in the zodiac at anything like the lagna’s pace. The D60 page sets out the same problem for the finest chart of all.

Two Worked Examples

Dividing a degree by 0°45′ is the same as multiplying it by four and dividing by three. Drop the fraction, and the whole number is how many signs to count on from Aries (odd sign) or Libra (even sign); whole rounds of twelve can be thrown away.

• A graha at 26°30′ of Aquarius, an odd sign. Four-thirds of 26.50 is 35.33, so 35 signs are counted and the graha is in part 36. Taking out two rounds of twelve leaves 11, and 11 signs on from Aries is Pisces, the D40 sign.
• A graha at 8°20′ of Cancer, an even sign. Four-thirds of 8.33 is 11.11, so 11 signs are counted and the graha is in part 12. That is less than one round of twelve, and 11 signs on from Libra is Virgo, the D40 sign.

Both results agree with the lookup table and with the site’s varga function. A free kundli prints the lagna’s sign and degree, and the Kundli report prints the degree of every graha, which is the input this arithmetic needs.

What This Page Does Not Do

It reads no D40 placement as favourable or unfavourable, ties the chart to no family line or relative, and names no period in which anything happens. It gives no figure for how long the lagna stays in a part and no procedure for correcting a birth time. It covers the Parashari rule the site computes and no other scheme for the fortieth division. Everything on it is the construction of the chart; the reading of one is left to the person who studies the whole horoscope.