Lagna and Special Ascendants in Vedic

Astrology
Lagna otherwise called as the Ascendant is the rising Sign at the
time of birth. This is considered as the moment at which the soul
comes in contact with its new life on the earth. Also called as
Udaya Lagna, this is considered as the first house of the
horoscope. Lagna is the indication of the main pupose of a
persons life and also thegeneral characteristics of the individual.
If the Lagna and the Lagna lord a re quite strong in the horoscope,
many useful and powerful Yogas are formed.

Apart from the main Ascendant there are some other

ascendants called Vishesha Lagna or the special ones. In case of
Vishesha Lagnas the Sun is assumed to move at a fixed speed,
irrespective of the birth place of the native. Here are some of the
important special ascendants.

Bhava Lagna
In this Lagna each Bhava or the house is considered to last for 5
Ghatikas which is roughly 2 hours. Time elapsed from the Sun rise
to the birth of the native is recorded in Ghatis and Vighatis ( 60
Vighatis = 1 Ghati) and then divided by 5. Th quotient is then
converted into Rashis and Amshas and added to Suns longitude.
The resultant is the Bhava Lagna.

Hora Lagna
Is an important entity especially when calculating and predicting
the life span of the individual. Here the Sun travels one house at
the rate of 1 Hora for each house which equals to 2 and 1/2
Ghatis. Similar to Bhava Lagna the time elapsed after the sun
rise to the time of birth of the native is taken in Ghatis and
Vighatis and is divided by 2 1/2 and the quotient is converted to
Rasi and Amsas which is later added to Suns longitude to arrive
at Hora Lagna. This Lagna is also important when assessing the
wealth and property of the native.

Ghati Lagna
Ghatis and Vighatis elapsed after the Sun rise till the time of birth
are noted and then converted into Rasis and Amshas. One Ghati is
is treated as one Rashi. Vighatis are divided by 2 to arrive at the
degrees. The resulting number will be then added to the Suns
longitude at sunrise to derive the Ghati Lagna.

Arudha-Lagna
Arudha literally means the mounted one. One can consider this
equivalent to a mirror image of an object. If the ascendant is an
object and the mirror is the lord of the Rashi of the Ascendant
(lord of the Ascendant) then the house or Bhava which is at as
much distance as the Lord of the Ascendant from the ascendant
house, in the direction of regular counting is Arudha Lagna. This is
also called as Arudha Pada, Lagnarudha, Lagna pada or Pada
lagna.

Some people opine that Arudha Lagna indicates others

perception or what others feel about the individual. Some
astrologers feel that Arudha ascendant is much more than that.

Upa Pada Lagna

Arudha of the 12th house (Gauna Bhava) from the Lagna is called
the Upa Pada ascendant. According to Sage Jaimini when
counting for odd Rashis the count should be regular while for the
even Rashis these should be reversed. There are again many
opinions and arguments related to arriving at the Upa Pada Lagna.