The 7th House (Yuvati Bhava) in Vedic Astrology

The 7th house is called Yuvati Bhava, the house of the young woman, which in a text written for male readers means the wife. It is the sign directly opposite the Ascendant: Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (BPHS) calls it "the descendant". Everything the tradition says about marriage starts here, but the same house also carries trade, travel and, less comfortably, death. This page sets out what the classical texts say about it, chapter by chapter, and how this app computes it. To follow along, open the birth chart calculator and find the seventh sign counted from your Ascendant.

What Yuvati Bhava signifies

BPHS gives the list in one line. Ch. 11 Sl. 8: "Wife, travel, trade, loss of sight, death etc. be known from Yuvati Bhava." Five items, and only one of them is marriage. Death is the Maraka role, taken up in its own section below.

Saravali, in its chapter on signs and houses (Ch. 3), names the seventh "Stri and Kama": the wife, and desire. BPHS Ch. 29 gives the Arudha of this house the name Dar Pad, from Dara, spouse. The modern commentary printed with the Bhrigu Sutras widens the list to a "partner in life (wife or husband)", a partner in business, legal bonds, conjugal life, influence in foreign countries, and again "danger to life".

How the texts classify the 7th house

• Kendra (angle). BPHS Ch. 7 Sl. 33-36: "The Kendras are specially known, as Lagn (the ascendent), Bandhu Bhava, Yuvati Bhava (the descendant) and Karm Bhava (mid-heaven)." That is the 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th.
• It is not a trine, not a Dusthana and not an Upachaya. The trines are the 5th and 9th; the evil houses are the 6th, 8th and 12th.
• Marak Bhava. Ch. 44 names the 2nd and 7th as the two houses related to death.

Being an angle has a specific consequence in Parashara's system of lordship. Ch. 34 Sl. 2-7 says: "Benefics, owning Kendras, will not give benefic effects, while malefics, owning Kendras, will not remain inauspicious." The lord of an angle is neutralised: a natural benefic ruling your 7th loses some of its helpfulness, and a natural malefic ruling it loses some of its harm. The same passage adds that while the 5th and 9th are "specially for wealth", "Yuvati and Karm Bhava are specially for happiness". Among the angles the effect rises in order, so the 7th counts for more than the 4th and less than the 10th.

The same chapter has one warning that involves the 7th directly. The lord of the 8th house is called inauspicious, and "if the Lord of Randhr Bhava simultaneously owns Sahaj, Yuvati, or Labh Bhava, he will prove specifically harmful". By sign arithmetic only one pair of adjacent signs shares a ruler, Capricorn and Aquarius, so the 7th and 8th have the same lord only for Cancer rising, and the planet is Saturn.

BPHS Ch. 32 gives each house a fixed significator, and for the 7th it is Venus. Ch. 18 refers to him simply as "the Karaka".

BPHS Chapter 18: the judgement of Yuvati Bhava

Chapter 18 has 42 slokas. About a third describe the quality of a marriage, a third give ages at marriage, and the rest are verses this page names without repeating. As with the other house chapters, the lasting value is the method: which things the text checks, and in what order.

The opening rule (Sl. 1-2)

Sl. 1: if the 7th lord is in his own sign or in exaltation, "one will derive full happiness through his wife (and marriage)". Sl. 2: if the 7th lord is in the 6th, 8th or 12th, the spouse "will be sickly", and the verse immediately adds its own exception: this "does not apply to own Bhava, or exaltation placement". So dignity is tested first and overrides house position. A 7th lord in a Dusthana but in its own or exaltation sign is not read under Sl. 2.

Strength and company of the 7th lord (Sl. 4-5, 14-18)

• Sl. 4-5: a strong 7th lord joined or aspected by a benefic makes the native "wealthy, honourable, happy and fortunate". Note that the result is about the native's whole life, not only the marriage. The reverse (7th lord in fall, combust or in an enemy's sign) is read as trouble through the spouse.
• Sl. 14-15: a spouse "endowed with virtues" who extends the family, when the 7th lord is exalted and the 7th house holds a strong Ascendant lord and a benefic.
• Sl. 16: difficulty for the spouse if the 7th house or its lord is joined by a malefic, "especially" if house or lord lacks strength.
• Sl. 17: the severe reading requires two things together, a 7th lord "devoid of strength" and placed in the 6th, 8th or 12th, or a 7th lord in fall.
• Sl. 18: lack of marital happiness when the Moon is in the 7th, the 7th lord is in the 12th, and Venus "the Karaka" is weak. Three conditions, all required.

Read together, these verses test four things: the 7th lord's dignity, the 7th lord's house, what joins or aspects the lord and the house, and the strength of Venus. No verse in this group rests on a single factor. Sl. 3 is the one exception and the one most often quoted alone: Venus in the 7th makes the native "exceedingly libidinous", and Venus joined to a malefic in any house is read as loss of the spouse. Saravali reads Venus in the 7th quite differently, as shown further down.

More than one marriage (Sl. 6, 19-21)

Several verses count wives. Sl. 6 gives "many wives" when the 7th lord is in a sign of Saturn or Venus and aspected by a benefic, or is exalted. Sl. 19-21 give two, three or many for particular combinations. An exalted 7th lord is "full happiness" in Sl. 1 and plural marriage in Sl. 6; in the society the text describes these were not contradictory. Sl. 6 cannot be carried over as a statement about remarriage or infidelity, and the app does not use it.

Ages at marriage (Sl. 22-34)

Thirteen verses give ages. The earliest is Sl. 22: marriage "at the age of 5, or 9". Others give 7 or 11, 10 or 16, 12 or 19, 13, 15 and 18. Only four verses reach adult ages: 22 or 27 (Sl. 30), 23 or 26 (Sl. 31), 25 or 33 (Sl. 32), and 27 or 30 when Venus is in the Ascendant and the 7th lord is in the 7th (Sl. 34). The ages themselves show what these verses are: a record of marriage customs at the time of writing. Each needs two or three placements at once, and the text gives no rule for charts that fit none of them. This app does not compute an age of marriage from them.

Which planet rules your 7th house

This app counts houses whole-sign from the Ascendant: the rising sign is the 1st house and the seventh sign from it, always the opposite sign, is the 7th. The lord of that sign is your 7th lord. The table is the plain sign-lordship arithmetic the engine uses. If you do not know your rising sign, the Lagna calculator finds it. It needs a birth time, and an unknown birth time leaves every house on this page undetermined.

The last column matters because BPHS Ch. 24 says a planet that rules two houses gives the results of both. Three patterns stand out. For Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces the 7th lord is a natural benefic that owns two angles, the case Ch. 34 singles out when it says benefics owning Kendras do not give benefic effects. For Aries and Libra one planet rules both Maraka houses, the 2nd and 7th. And for Cancer the 7th lord is also the 8th lord, the combination Ch. 34 calls specifically harmful by lordship.

The 7th lord in each of the twelve houses

BPHS Ch. 24 Sl. 73-84 gives one verse for the 7th lord in each house. The table paraphrases each. They are character sketches addressed to a man about his wife; where a verse makes a claim about conduct or health it is reported as the text's wording.

The pattern matches Ch. 18. The three Dusthana placements, the 6th, 8th and 12th, are the three rows that cost marital happiness or money, which is Ch. 18 Sl. 2 and Sl. 17 again. The 7th lord in the 7th is the plainly good row for marriage, in line with Sl. 1. The 2nd and 11th are the two money houses, and in both the verse says wealth comes through the spouse. The best row of all, the 5th, does not mention marriage: the angle lord in a trine is described through virtue, delight and wealth.

Other house lords placed in the 7th

The trine and upper-angle lords do best here: the 5th, 9th and 10th lords in the 7th are the three rows the text reads as unmixed happiness, and the 9th lord row is the origin of the common saying that fortune rises after marriage. The three Dusthana lords, the 6th, 8th and 12th, are the three that disturb the marriage. Sl. 91 is also the only verse in the chapter that speaks of the trade side of the house: the 8th lord with a malefic in the 7th is a "downfall in his business". The Ascendant lord's row is covered on the page for the 1st house.

Planets in the 7th house

Saravali Ch. 30 gives one verse per planet in each house, and the Bhrigu Sutras give a longer passage with conditions. On the 7th the two agree about the Moon, Mercury and Jupiter and disagree in tone about Venus.

Three points come out of the comparison. First, Venus. BPHS Ch. 18 Sl. 3 and the Bhrigu Sutras stress appetite; Saravali gives a wholly good verse, and the commentary to the Bhrigu Sutras notes that "Saravali however does not consider" the roving reading. Second, the Sun, Mars and Saturn all read harshly in Saravali, with no condition attached. Third, the Bhrigu Sutras attach the condition Saravali omits: nearly every passage turns on the planet's sign, its company and the strength of the 7th lord. Each planet has its own page: Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rahu and Ketu in the 7th.

Mars in the 7th and Mangal Dosha

Mars in the 7th is the placement people fear most, and the sources are not unanimous about it. Saravali Ch. 30 Sl. 32 and Ch. 34 Sl. 50-51 are flat: Mars in the 7th makes one "go devoid of wife". The Bhrigu Sutras are harsh too, but the commentator closes with a different view: "there will be no evil effects if Mars be in his sign or in his sign of exaltation", and the effects are much reduced if Jupiter aspects Mars and the 7th. He also points out that Mars in the 7th in his own or exaltation sign forms Ruchaka Yoga, because the 7th is an angle. Mars in Vedic astrology covers the planet in full.

The app's Mangal Dosha calculator uses one definition: Mars in the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 7th, 8th or 12th house from the Ascendant. It grades the 7th and 8th as "Moderate" and the other four as "Mild". It reports the placement and its grade; it does not apply cancellation rules and it does not turn the flag into a statement about your marriage. Mangal Dosha: what it is and is not explains the limits of the idea.

How this app decides favourable or testing

The app's planet-in-house reading applies one test to every planet: the placement is favourable when the planet is exalted, in its Moolatrikona, in its own sign or in a friendly sign, and is not in the 6th, 8th or 12th. The 7th is not a Dusthana, so a planet there is judged on dignity alone. Jupiter in the 7th in a friendly sign shows the favourable line, "a wise, well-regarded partnership"; in an enemy's sign it shows "real strain in partnership under affliction". For Mars the favourable line is "a stable, committed partnership when Mars is strongly placed", which is the Bhrigu commentator's position, not Saravali's.

Saravali Chapter 34 on the 7th

Saravali Ch. 34 Sl. 45-46 gives the simplest rule in any of the texts. If Jupiter, the Moon, Venus or Mercury occupy the 7th, or aspect it, or their divisions fall in it, the spouse corresponds to those planets and signs. If the 7th holds malefics or falls in malefics' divisions, the spouse is adversely affected. The verse then adds a method the BPHS chapter lacks: "These results can be deduced from the Ascendant and the Moon, the stronger of them having more significance." So Saravali judges the 7th from the Moon as well as from the Ascendant.

The 7th as an angle: yogas and strength

• Panchamahapurusha. Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus or Saturn in its own or exaltation sign in an angle from the Ascendant forms one of the five great yogas. The 7th qualifies. The app's yoga calculator checks this, and its 7th-house strings mention it: Venus there is "capable of forming Malavya Yoga" and Saturn "Sasa Yoga".
• Angle and trine lords. BPHS Ch. 34 says a lord of an angle and a lord of a trine who exchange signs, join, or fully aspect each other cause a yoga. The 7th lord is an angle lord, so its conjunction with your 5th or 9th lord counts. The engine tests angle-lord and trine-lord links of this kind.
• Yoga Karakas. BPHS Ch. 32 says planets in mutual angles in own, exalted or friendly signs become Yoga Karakas, and adds a limit: planets merely sitting in the 1st, 4th or 7th without such dignity "do not become such Yog Karakas". Occupying the 7th is not enough on its own.

A planet's strength in the 7th can be checked in the Shad Bala calculator, and What a yoga in your chart means explains how to weigh a yoga once one is found.

The 7th as a Maraka house

The "death" in Ch. 11 Sl. 8 is explained in BPHS Ch. 44. The 3rd and 8th are the two houses of longevity. The 12th house from any house stands for its loss, so the 12th from the 8th, which is the 7th, and the 12th from the 3rd, which is the 2nd, are the Marak Bhavas. Sl. 3 adds that of the two "Dhan Bhava is a powerful Marak Bhava", and lists who counts as a Maraka: the lords of the 2nd and 7th, malefics in those houses, and malefics joined to those lords.

Two things keep this in proportion. The chapter says the periods of these planets bring death "depending on whether he is a long life, medium life, or short life person"; a Maraka period does not bring an end by itself, it is the kind of period in which the text expects an end to fall when the lifespan is otherwise complete. And everyone has a 7th lord. Every chart passes through several Maraka periods, most of them in youth and middle age. The antardasha chapters (Ch. 52-58) repeatedly describe such a sub-period as "physical distress". The app does not compute longevity and does not label any period as dangerous to life.

The 7th house beyond the birth chart

• Navamsa (D9). The ninth division is the chart BPHS Ch. 7 assigns to the spouse ("spouse from Navamsa"), and Ch. 18 uses it: Sl. 31 and 32 place planets "in Navamsa", and Sl. 19-21 test the Navamsa of the 7th. The Navamsa calculator computes it; the Navamsa as the second chart explains how to read it.
• Dar Pad. The Arudha of the 7th. BPHS Ch. 29 reads it against the Arudha of the Ascendant: if Lagn Pad and Dar Pad are in mutual angles or trines "there will be amity between the couple", and if Dar Pad falls in the 6th, 8th or 12th from Lagn Pad the native is poor. The Bhava Padas calculator shows it as "Dar Pada", and the Arudha Lagna calculator gives the other half of the pair.
• Upa Pad. BPHS Ch. 30 Sl. 1-6: an Upa Pad joined or aspected by a benefic gives "full happiness from progeny and spouse". The engine derives it as the Arudha of the 12th for an odd rising sign and of the 2nd for an even one, the resolution the translator's note gives for a disputed verse. Only Sl. 1-6 are implemented; the rest of that chapter is spouse-affliction material the app leaves out.
• Stri Karaka. Among the movable significators of BPHS Ch. 32 the last named is the Stri Karak, the significator of the wife. The app's Char Karakas calculator uses the seven-planet scheme, which ends at Gnati Karaka, so it does not assign a spouse significator. The fixed one remains Venus.
• Argala. Ch. 31 says an unobstructed benefic Argala on the 7th gives "abundant wealth and marital happiness". The Argala calculator works this out house by house.

Matching two charts is a separate method. The Kundli matching calculator and the compatibility feature compare two people; the 7th house describes one person's chart. A favourable 7th says nothing about a particular partner, and a good match score does not change your 7th.

Timing: when the 7th house becomes active

A house becomes an event through a dasha. BPHS Ch. 48 gives a one-line result for the Mahadasha of each house lord, and Sl. 5-8 give the 7th lord a hard one: "distress to wife and the possibility of the death of the native". That is the Maraka doctrine of Ch. 44 restated as a dasha rule. Sl. 18-20 extend it: the periods of planets associated with the lords of the 2nd and 7th, or placed in those houses, are listed among the unfavourable ones. What a Mahadasha is covers the mechanics.

The app uses this verse, and softens its wording deliberately. When it explains why your current Mahadasha reads as it does, it finds the houses the dasha lord rules from your Ascendant and attaches a theme to each. For the 7th the theme reads "strain in partnership and marriage - historically a house needing extra care in this Dasha". It keeps the direction of the verse and drops the mention of death. The theme of the other house that planet rules is shown beside it, so Jupiter for Gemini rising shows the 7th and the 10th together. The period is then graded from the lord's own condition: good if the planet is exalted, in Moolatrikona or in its own sign; challenging if it is debilitated, in an enemy's sign, or in the 6th, 8th or 12th; neutral otherwise. That grading follows Ch. 18 Sl. 1-2 closely. Your dates are in the Vimshottari dasha calculator.

Notice what the classical timing rule does not say. Ch. 48 does not name the 7th lord's dasha as the time of marriage; the only marriage timing in BPHS for this house is the list of ages in Ch. 18. The common practice of expecting marriage in the dasha of the 7th lord or of Venus is not stated in those two chapters, and this page does not assert it. For the sub-period levels see Antardasha and Pratyantardasha. The Venus Mahadasha matters to this house for a different reason: Venus is its fixed significator in every chart.

Transits

The app's transit reading counts from your natal Moon, following the classical Gochara method. Under the rule the engine applies, a natural benefic (Jupiter, Mercury or Venus) passing through the 7th sign from your Moon is read as favourable. For Saturn, Mars and the other malefics the engine's source gives no rule for the 7th from the Moon, so those transits are reported as neutral. The Gochar calculator shows today's positions, and the timing feature sets them beside your dasha.

How to read the 7th house in your own chart

1. 1.Find the sign. Open your chart in the birth chart calculator; the 7th is the sign opposite the Ascendant.
2. 2.Find its lord from the table above and note the other house it rules.
3. 3.Check the lord's dignity first. Own sign or exaltation is Ch. 18 Sl. 1, and it overrides house position. Fall, combustion or an enemy's sign is Sl. 4-5 and Sl. 17.
4. 4.Then its house. The 6th, 8th or 12th is the difficult reading of Sl. 2. Read its row in the Ch. 24 table.
5. 5.See what joins or aspects the lord and the house. A benefic is Sl. 4-5; a malefic is Sl. 16.
6. 6.Note any planet in the 7th and its dignity. An own-sign or exalted planet there may form a Panchamahapurusha Yoga.
7. 7.Check Venus, the fixed significator: his sign, his house and his company. Sl. 18 requires a weak Venus before it denies marital happiness.
8. 8.Repeat the check from the Moon, as Saravali Ch. 34 Sl. 46 instructs; the Moon sign calculator gives the starting sign. Then look at the Navamsa.
9. 9.Look up when the 7th lord's Mahadasha or Antardasha falls, and read it with the grade the app gives the planet.

The Kundali feature does these steps on one screen, and the AI chat can explain how they combine for your chart. How positions are calculated, and what the app does not claim, is on the methodology page; the books are listed under sources.

Common misreadings

• "The 7th house is only about marriage." BPHS Ch. 11 Sl. 8 lists wife, travel, trade, loss of sight and death. For a reader who is not married and does not plan to be, the house still describes dealings with others, trade and travel.
• "An empty 7th house means no marriage." No verse in Ch. 18 says so. The chapter opens with the 7th lord, not with occupants, and most of its rules never mention a planet in the house.
• "A malefic in the 7th ruins the marriage." Saravali's verses read that way. BPHS Ch. 18 Sl. 16 adds "especially, if Yuvati Bhava, or its Lord is bereft of strength", and the Bhrigu commentator exempts Mars in his own or exaltation sign. A malefic as 7th lord is, by Ch. 34, less harmful for owning an angle.
• "The 7th lord in the 6th, 8th or 12th denies a happy marriage." Sl. 2 exempts a lord in its own or exaltation sign, and Sl. 17 requires the lord to be weak as well.
• "The dasha of the 7th lord is dangerous." Ch. 48 does call it a Maraka period. Ch. 44 ties any such outcome to the lifespan already indicated, and every person lives through several of these periods.
• "The age of marriage can be read from the chart." The ages in Ch. 18 Sl. 22-34 start at five. They are single-combination verses from a society of child marriage, and the app does not use them.

Frequently asked questions

What does the 7th house represent in Vedic astrology?

BPHS Ch. 11 Sl. 8 assigns it wife, travel, trade, loss of sight and death. Saravali calls it Stri and Kama, spouse and desire. It is one of the four angles of the chart, the sign opposite the Ascendant, and one of the two Maraka houses.

Which planet is the significator of the 7th house?

Venus. BPHS Ch. 32 Sl. 31-34 lists the fixed significators of the houses in order and the 7th is Sukr; Ch. 18 Sl. 18 calls him "the Karaka". There is also a movable Stri Karak in the eight-planet scheme of Ch. 32, which this app's Char Karakas calculator does not assign because it follows the seven-planet scheme.

How do I find my 7th house lord?

Find your Ascendant with the Lagna calculator, take the opposite sign, and take the ruler of that sign. The table on this page lists all twelve. You need a reliable birth time, because the Ascendant changes sign roughly every two hours.

My 7th house is empty. What does that mean?

Only that no planet sits in that sign. The classical method does not depend on occupants: BPHS Ch. 18 judges the house first from its lord's dignity and placement, then from aspects and from Venus. An empty 7th is read through those.

Is Mars in the 7th house Mangal Dosha?

In this app, yes: Mars in the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 7th, 8th or 12th from the Ascendant is flagged, and the 7th is graded "Moderate". The sources differ on what it means. Saravali is severe; the commentary to the Bhrigu Sutras says there are no evil effects when Mars is in his own or exaltation sign. See the Mangal Dosha calculator.

What happens in the Mahadasha of the 7th lord?

BPHS Ch. 48 Sl. 5-8 gives distress to the spouse and treats the period as a Maraka one. This app shows the theme as strain in partnership and marriage needing extra care, together with the theme of the other house the planet rules, and grades the period by the planet's dignity and house. It does not state anything about lifespan.

Does this app predict when I will marry, or how the marriage will go?

No. The classical ages of marriage begin at five and belong to another society; the verses on the number of marriages and the death of a spouse are single-combination rules. The app shows the 7th house, its lord, the planets in it, the Navamsa, the Dar Pada and the relevant dasha dates, and leaves the decisions to you.