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In short
The 4th lord in the 6th house moves the ruler of home, mother, land and vehicles into the dusthana of enemies, disputes, debt and illness. BPHS Ch. 24 Sl. 42 is critical, beginning with a lack of happiness from the mother; the reverse verse begins the same way. The Bhrigu Sutras also read it as weakening property and vehicles, though for Leo rising the 4th lord is the yogakaraka and is exalted here.
What the placement means
The 4th house lord rules home, mother, lands, buildings, vehicles and contentment. In the 6th house it sits in the house of enemies, rivals, disputes, debts and illness, and of the maternal uncle and step-mother in BPHS. The lord of comfort is placed in the house of conflict.
The 6th is a dusthana and the 3rd counted from the 4th. Both ways of counting point to effort and friction rather than rest, and both BPHS and the Bhrigu Sutras read the placement critically for the 4th house's own matters.
The two houses involved
The 4th house (Sukha Bhava) is conveyances, relatives, mother, happiness, treasure, lands and buildings in BPHS Ch. 11 Sl. 5.
The 6th house (Ari Bhava) is the maternal uncle, doubts about death, enemies, ulcers and the step-mother in Ch. 11 Sl. 7. The house pages develop both.
What BPHS says about the 4th lord in the 6th
BPHS Ch. 24 Sl. 42 is critical. In summary, it says the native will lack happiness from the mother, will be quick to anger, will be devious (the translation's words are "a thief and a conjurer"), will act independently and will be in poor health. bphs-alt.txt has the same text. This page reports it as the text's statement about a type, and not as a prediction about anyone's mother, character or health; nothing here is medical advice.
The verse opens with the 4th's most personal signification, the mother, placed in the house of enmity, and the rest follows the 6th's themes of conflict and illness. "Independent in action" is the one neutral item; it reads like the 6th's self-reliance. Ch. 24 Sl. 145-148 still scales the verse by strength and reads both lordships.
The Bhrigu Sutras in the corpus agree on direction for the 4th house's possessions: a 4th lord with malefics, or "placed in a bad house (3, 6, 8 or 12)", gives a low type of conveyance, no land of one's own, and residence in other people's houses. BPHS Ch. 15 Sl. 10-14 adds that a malefic related to the 4th or its lord brings losses concerning vehicles. Ch. 15 Sl. 6-7 read the mother's happiness and longevity from the 4th lord's strength and position, and the 6th is not one of the positions they name.
The Saravali and Advanced Predictive Astrology in the corpus give no separate verse for this placement.
Set beside the reverse verse
The reverse, the 6th lord in the 4th (Ch. 24 Sl. 64), also opens with "devoid of maternal happiness", and then lists intelligence, tale-bearing, jealousy and ill will, ending with "very rich". The two verses agree on the mother from both directions, which is the clearest common point in the 4th-6th pair. Sl. 64 adds wealth; Sl. 42 adds independence. Both are reported as the text's claims only.
Why the engine's Vipareeta rule does not apply
This app's yoga detector reports Vipareeta Raja Yoga (Harsha, Sarala, Vimala) when the lord of the 6th, 8th or 12th sits in one of those houses. No 4th lord ever owns the 6th, 8th or 12th as its second sign (the table shows the second houses are the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th or 11th), so this placement never triggers that rule by itself. BPHS Ch. 39 Sl. 19 has its own version of the idea, a Raja Yoga when debilitated planets occupy the 6th, 8th and 3rd while a strong Lagna lord aspects the Lagna; the engine does not test it.
Which planet it is, Ascendant by Ascendant
The engine's lordship arithmetic and its sign-only dignity for the 4th lord in the 6th sign:
| Ascendant | 4th lord | Other house it rules | 6th house sign | Sign-only dignity there |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aries | Moon | none | Virgo | Friendly sign |
| Taurus | Sun | none | Libra | Debilitated |
| Gemini | Mercury | 1st (Gemini) | Scorpio | Neutral |
| Cancer | Venus | 11th (Taurus) | Sagittarius | Neutral |
| Leo | Mars | 9th (Aries) | Capricorn | Exalted |
| Virgo | Jupiter | 7th (Pisces) | Aquarius | Neutral |
| Libra | Saturn | 5th (Aquarius) | Pisces | Neutral |
| Scorpio | Saturn | 3rd (Capricorn) | Aries | Debilitated |
| Sagittarius | Jupiter | 1st (Sagittarius) | Taurus | Enemy sign |
| Capricorn | Mars | 11th (Scorpio) | Gemini | Enemy sign |
| Aquarius | Venus | 9th (Libra) | Cancer | Enemy sign |
| Pisces | Mercury | 7th (Virgo) | Leo | Friendly sign |
Leo rising is the striking row: Mars, lord of the 4th and 9th and the yogakaraka for Leo, is exalted in Capricorn in the 6th. Two rows give debilitation: Taurus rising (the Sun in Libra) and Scorpio rising (Saturn, lord of the 3rd and 4th, in Aries). Three are enemy signs (Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius), two friendly (Aries, Pisces) and four neutral.
For Sagittarius and Gemini rising the 4th lord is also the Lagna lord, so Ch. 24 Sl. 6 (the Lagna lord in the 6th, conditional on malefic contact and no benefic aspect) applies to the same planet. For Sagittarius rising that planet, Jupiter, is also in an enemy's sign. For Libra and Aquarius rising the 4th lord is the yogakaraka too (Saturn, Venus), here in neutral and enemy signs respectively.
The other lordships carried into the 6th each have a Ch. 24 verse of their own, which Sl. 145-148 says to read beside Sl. 42. Summarised: for Leo and Aquarius rising the 4th lord also owns the 9th, and Sl. 102 (the 9th lord in the 6th) speaks of meagre prosperity and trouble from enemies; for Libra it owns the 5th, and Sl. 54 speaks of difficulty over children; for Virgo and Pisces it owns the 7th, and Sl. 78 speaks of friction in marriage; for Cancer and Capricorn it owns the 11th, and Sl. 126 speaks of illness, living abroad and enemies; for Scorpio it owns the 3rd, and Sl. 30 speaks of hostility with siblings but affluence. These are the text's statements, summarised without application to anyone; their common thread is that the 6th colours whatever lordship enters it.
Strength changes the reading
Dignity, combustion and company scale Sl. 42, and company also decides the Bhrigu Sutras' malefic clause. Aspects on the 6th come from the 12th by the seventh-house aspect, Jupiter from the 2nd and 10th, Mars from the 3rd and 11th, and Saturn from the 4th and 9th. The 6th lord's condition matters too, since the 4th lord is its guest.
Worked example: Taurus rising, the Sun debilitated in Libra
The engine's deterministic search returned: 28 October 1985, 20:21 IST, New Delhi, Ascendant Taurus 27.47. Re-enter it in the birth chart calculator.
- Taurus rising makes Leo the 4th, so the Sun is the 4th lord. It owns no other sign.
- The Sun is in Libra at 11.48 degrees, Swati pada 2: the 6th house. The engine marks it Debilitated.
- Ketu is in Libra too, at 15.58. The Moon, in Aries in the 12th, aspects the 6th by the seventh-house aspect.
- Venus, which owns Libra and so is the 6th lord (and the Lagna lord), is debilitated in Virgo in the 5th, with Mars.
This chart is the weak end of Sl. 145-148: a debilitated 4th lord in a dusthana, joined by Ketu, whose sign lord is also debilitated. The Bhrigu Sutras' clause applies by house. The Moon's aspect is the only benefic-type influence, and the Moon at Aries 10.21 is about 179 degrees from the Sun, close to full, which BPHS Ch. 34 Sl. 8-10 counts as benefic. The engine does not report a Vipareeta yoga here, as explained above; it does report a Mars-Mercury Parivartana and a Dharma-Karmadhipati Yoga for Saturn, which owns both the 9th and 10th for Taurus rising, neither of which involves the 4th lord. The text's rules are laid out; no statement about any person is made.
How often the placement occurs
Of 3,000 sampled birth moments 1985-2060, the engine found the 4th lord in the 6th house in 265, or 8.8%. That describes sampled moments, not people.
Neighbouring placements
The reverse case is the 6th lord in the 4th house. The adjacent placements are the 4th lord in the 5th and the 4th lord in the 7th; the other dusthana cases are the 8th and the 12th. For the worked example's planet see the Sun in the 6th house. The Lagna calculator gives your rising sign.
Questions about the 4th lord in the 6th house
- What does BPHS say about the 4th lord in the 6th house?
- Ch. 24 Sl. 42 is critical: a lack of happiness from the mother, a quick temper, a devious streak, independence and poor health. This page reports it as the text's statement only.
- Does it mean a difficult relationship with my mother?
- Both Sl. 42 and its reverse, Sl. 64, open with that clause. They are classical rules about positions; this app does not forecast family relationships.
- Is it a Vipareeta Raja Yoga?
- No. The engine's rule needs a lord of the 6th, 8th or 12th, and no Ascendant's 4th lord owns one of those.
- Which Ascendant gives the strongest planet here?
- Leo rising, where Mars, the yogakaraka, is exalted in Capricorn. Taurus and Scorpio rising give debilitated 4th lords.
- How common is it?
- 265 of 3,000 sampled birth moments 1985-2060 (8.8%) in the engine's sample.
Birth Chart (Kundli)
All nine grahas by sign, degree and nakshatra, with houses when the birth time is known and the place resolves to coordinates.
This one has its own page
This one runs on its own page, built for it, where the full result is laid out properly. No account is needed there either.